Every Ridley Scott Movie Ranked Worst To Best

4. Thelma & Louise (1991)

Stories don't have to be set on giant canvases and cost tens of millions of dollars to feel epic: they can instead focus on epic human journeys of exploration and liberation, which is precisely the space that Thelma & Louise owns.

The film's story is so perfect and so familiar that it almost feels like a nostalgic rip-off: two women forced to flee on a road trip to their own discovery after murdering an attempted rapist before they valiantly end their lives on their own terms. It's uplifting and invigorating, despite the grim downturn of the end, and it is rightly considered a feminist cultural icon.

Like most of his most successful works, Thelma & Louise works precisely because Ridley Scott gets out of the way of it: he doesn't insist on his aesthetic presence in the background, and instead allows the script and the performances to sell. Watching it back now, it still feels unexpected next to his grander works, but it is testament to his ability to shift between genres and ideas slickly and smoothly.