Thelma & Louise: The Road to the Grand Canyon

The trip turns at a roadhouse bar. A waitress brings the friends drinks paid for by Harlan, a regular, and later, in the parking lot, Louise fatally shoots him in a fit of rage as he shouts after them. She tells Thelma she is going to flee to Mexico. The bar is meant to be somewhere in the Midwest, but it was filmed in southern Los Angeles County: then called the Silver Bullet, it is now Cowboy Country, on South Street in Long Beach.

Location precision: The film never places the bar; it was shot at a real Long Beach venue, and the pin marks that building.

Visitor guidance: Cowboy Country is at 3321 South Street, Long Beach; check its opening times before you go.

On the run, the friends give a lift to J.D., a handsome young drifter heading out west. At a motel, Jimmy turns up in person with Louise's savings, and J.D. talks his way into Thelma's room. By morning he has stolen the money and fled, and a guilt-ridden Thelma takes charge, robbing a convenience store with tactics she learned from him. The motel is not in open country at all: it was filmed at the Vagabond Inn on South Figueroa Street, just south of Downtown Los Angeles.

Location precision: The film places the motel somewhere on the road west; it was shot at a Los Angeles motel, and the pin marks that building.

Visitor guidance: The Vagabond Inn is at 3101 South Figueroa Street, near the University of Southern California campus.

The hunt for the women is led by Arkansas State Police investigator Hal Slocumb, who in a few brief phone calls voices his concerns but cannot talk Louise into surrendering. In the film Louise phones the FBI from this general store, which really stands in Bedrock, Colorado. Built in 1882 on solid rock, which gave the town its name, it first served the ranchers of Paradox Valley and later the uranium miners of the 20th century.

Location precision: The film does not name the store's town; the pin marks the real general store in Bedrock, Colorado, where the scene was shot.

Visitor guidance: The store is at 9812 Colorado Highway 90 in Bedrock.

Heading west, the friends are pulled over for speeding by a New Mexico state trooper. Thelma holds him at gunpoint and locks him in the trunk of his own police car. Later they shoot at a trucker's fuel tanker, which explodes, when he refuses to apologise for his obscene gestures. None of it happens in New Mexico: the desert scenes were shot in eastern Utah, among the sandstone of the La Sal Mountains, Arches and Canyonlands. Arches, north of Moab, holds more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches.

Location precision: These scenes stand in for New Mexico and were shot at several Utah sites; the pin marks Arches National Park, one of them.

Visitor guidance: Arches National Park lies about 4 miles north of Moab.

When the FBI locates the women, they lead their pursuers on a high-speed chase. The chase was filmed at Cisco, Utah, a ghost town in Grand County. Cisco began in the 1880s as a saloon and water-refilling station on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, oil and natural gas were found nearby in 1924, and its economy crashed when Interstate 70 was built and bypassed the town.

Location precision: The chase is set near the Grand Canyon; it was shot in Cisco, Utah, and the pin marks the town.

Cornered only 100 yards from the edge of the Grand Canyon, with Hal pursuing on foot and waving at them to stop, the friends refuse to give up. Thelma proposes that they "keep going", and Louise steps on the gas. The Grand Canyon is a stand-in: the scenes were filmed in Utah, just south of Dead Horse Point State Park, above the Colorado River. The park's name comes from a legend of horses dying in a natural corral used by 19th-century cowboys.

Location precision: The scene is set at the Grand Canyon; sources place the filming at or just south of Dead Horse Point State Park, and the pin marks the park.

Visitor guidance: The park has several overlooks and a visitor center; its cliffs are unfenced, and gas, food and medical care are over 30 miles away in Moab.