Thelma & Louise // Set It Off
In films Thelma & Louise and Set It Off, there is a common role with a common function. This role is a white male cop. The role is important in each film, both to help drive the action and to expand audience appeal with the male gaze theory. Men would presumably have a more difficult time relating to either film without some occurrence of gender or racial familiarity, and that is where the similarities begin for each of the role. In helping push forward the plot, the white male cop in each movie knows about the women in pursuit and knows their criminal histories. The women in each movie cannot escape this, and it contributes to the inability to escape for the sets of female fugitives - yet still motivates them further to try and break away. They represent the society the women are eluding, including the typical male authority. Ultimately, while showing compassion for the fugitives, the white male cop is still working toward fishing the women back to the society that they are trying to rebel against.
Though there is a very similar role in these two films, the landscape among them is quite different. The landscape in Thelma & Louise helps promote the freedom they are pursuing - the rural presence emphasizes open space and everything that comes with it. That includes a general path with less obstruction and a better opportunity to exercise their freedom. They get a vehicle with the top down, the wind across their face - a completely ideal road journey with the setting to ensure adrenaline. However in Set It Off, the landscape and setting hinders their freedom and mobility. Taking place in an urban environment rather than the rurality in Thelma & Louise, the women in Set It Off are more confined and cramped simply due to their location. There is physical noise throughout their surroundings, and their rebellion via banks and vehicles relies on that business, it depends on having people around to a certain degree. This restraint forces a different adrenaline rush than the women in Thelma & Louise receive from their landscape, and helps the movie take to different directions.