clip (Emerson 1). When Thelma and Louise see the helicopter a look of sheer terror fills their faces. They seem lost, frightened, and delusional all at one time. The police cars that fill the vast space behind them make the two realize that their time has run out. The view of all the officers approaching in their patrol cars is also a panning technique (Emerson 1). By using panning here, the viewer gets a better idea of how many men there actually are and that Thelma and Louise are, in fact, surrounded. Thelma and Louise long for their freedom in more ways than one. When they first reach the edge of the Grand Canyon and slam on the breaks they look out over the hood of the car at the vast emptiness before them. The cannon is beautiful and treacherously deep. The bright blue sky only adds to this perfection. A panning shot views the top of the canyon but mostly the beautiful blue sky with its perfectly pristine clouds. The sky represents that which they long for…it represents all that they want and need. It represents their freedom. As the two stars finally agree on the ultimate freedom, the 1966 Thunderbird speeds towards the edge of the Grand Canyon with increasing speed and unending determination. Dust and dirt is thrown into the air as the shot is filmed from behind the car in a fixed position. As the car leaves the edge of the cliff the shot quickly jumps to a large view of the side of the car from far off. This panning of the camera allows us to see all the action of the actual flying of the car off the cliff. This panning shot allows us to see the vast expansion and inevitable impending death of the two friends (Emerson 3). The camera moves from the point where the car leaps off the cliff, in a horizontal motion on a fixed axis, to the point where the car begins to drop down. At this point the scene is frozen and slowly it dissolves into a pearly white screen and then back into a montage of the girls adventu...
