YEAR: 1991
DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott
PINBALL MODEL(S): The machine inside the home is a non-commercial Fireball model (1976, Bally). The cafe machine is more difficult to identify, but I believe it is a Meteor model (1979, Stern).
GAME LOCATION(S): residence, cafe
NOTES: Since the earliest days of narrative cinema, filmmakers have been toying with various ways by which shots can connect two (or more) separate locations. Cinema language taps into the functional essence of the telephone, and its particular identity as a bellwether of modernity, as an effective and readily familiar method in bridging these gaps of distance (Tucker's 1913 A Traffic in Souls is an early example of this). But a cleverly designed mise-en-scene will sometimes also feature additional visual cues to establish a linkage between filmic spaces. In the case of this scene from Thelma and Louise, pinball machines are present at both locations in which the phone conversation is taking place, thereby providing such a link in the mind of the viewer; even if only on a subconscious level.
Pinball itself—with its nature as a game of counterforce and barely-controllable action—can be read as a metaphorical reflection of the conflict in which the titular heroines are engaged; while both the game and the film conclude in a similar "over the edge" death motif.
