Fails the Bechdel test
2001: A Space Odyssey
1968. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
0 / 3
Fails
-
No
1. At least two women
Fewer than two women characters. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 0 out of 3.
The film
"2001" is a story of evolution. Sometime in the distant past, someone or something nudged evolution by placing a monolith on Earth (presumably elsewhere throughout the universe as well). Evolution then enabled humankind to reach the moon's surface, where yet another monolith is found, one that signals the monolith placers that humankind has evolved that far. Now mankind, assisted by artificial intelligence (such as HAL), must dare to encounter the monolith placers. If successful, the next step in evolution--whatever it is--will be achieved.
- Released
- 12 May 1968
- Genres
- Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- G
- IMDb
- 8.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 84 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 18 wins & 14 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Bowman 82 lines, man
- Floyd 79 lines, man
- Poole 69 lines, man
- Hal 65 lines, man
- Pilot 19 lines
- Narrator 14 lines
- Child 13 lines
- Smyslov 13 lines, man
- Elena 12 lines, woman
- Michaels 10 lines, man
Full cast, 62 people
- Keir Dullea as Dr. David Bowman
- Gary Lockwood as Dr. Frank Poole
- William Sylvester as Dr. Heywood Floyd
- Douglas Rain as HAL 9000 (voice)
- Daniel Richter as Moonwatcher
- Leonard Rossiter as Dr. Andrei Smyslov
- Margaret Tyzack as Elena
- Robert Beatty as Dr. Ralph Halvorsen
- Sean Sullivan as Dr. Roy Michaels
- Frank W. Miller as Mission Controller (voice)
- Bill Weston as Astronaut
- Ed Bishop as Aries-1B Lunar Shuttle Captain
- Glenn Beck as Astronaut
- Alan Gifford as Poole's Father
- Ann Gillis as Poole's Mother
- Edwina Carroll as Aries-1B Stewardess
- Penny Brahms as Stewardess
- Heather Downham as Stewardess
- Mike Lovell as Astronaut
- John Ashley as Ape
- Jimmy Bell as Ape
- David Charkham as Ape
- Keith Denny as Ape
- Jonathan Daw as Ape
- Péter Delmár as Ape
- Terry Duggan as Ape Attacked by Leopard
- David Fleetwood as Ape
- Danny Grover as Ape
- Brian Hawley as Ape
- David Hines as Ape
- Anthony Jackson as Ape
- John Jordan as Ape
- Scott MacKee as Ape
- Laurence Marchant as Ape
- Darryl Paes as Ape
- Joe Refalo as Ape
- Andy Wallace as Ape
- Bob Wilyman as Ape
- Richard Woods as Ape Killed by Moon-Watcher
- Maggie London as Hostess in Elevator (uncredited)
- Chela Matthison as Receptionist (uncredited)
- Judy Keirn as Voice Print Identification Girl (uncredited)
- Vivian Kubrick as Floyd's Daughter (uncredited)
- Kenneth Kendall as BBC-12 Announcer (uncredited)
- Kevin Scott as Miller (uncredited)
- Martin Amor as Interviewer (uncredited)
- S. Newton Anderson as Young Man (uncredited)
- Sheraton Blount as (uncredited)
- Ann Bormann as (uncredited)
- Julie Croft as (uncredited)
- Penny Francis as (uncredited)
- Marcella Markham as (uncredited)
- Irena Marr as Russian Scientist (uncredited)
- Krystyna Marr as Russian Scientist (uncredited)
- Kim Neil as (uncredited)
- Jane Pearl as (uncredited)
- Penny Pearl as (uncredited)
- Burnell Tucker as TMA-1 Site Photographer (uncredited)
- John Swindells as TMA-1 Site Technician #1 (uncredited)
- John Clifford as TMA-1 Site Technician #2 (uncredited)
- Stanley Kubrick as Astronaut Breathing (voice) (uncredited)
- Harry Fielder as Moonwalker (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 15% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 14
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 to 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 to 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 to 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 to 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 to 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 11 | 0 | 0 |
| 12 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 13 | 3 | 15 |
| 14 to 14 | 22 | 330 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 7 are women's.
25 lines from women, 345 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
15 women and 25 men in the cast. 3 women and 10 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 15 of 436.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 156 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 9% of the words (421), men 91% (4,347). Women have 7% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
0
Two men
10
Exhibit E: behind the camera
None of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 3% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Stanley Kubrick (man)
- Written by
- Stanley Kubrick (man), Arthur C. Clarke (man)
- Produced by
- Stanley Kubrick (man), Victor Lyndon (gender not listed)
- Shot by
- Geoffrey Unsworth (man)
- Edited by
- Ray Lovejoy (man)
- Production design by
- Ernest Archer (man), Harry Lange (man), Anthony Masters (man)
- Cast by
- James Liggat (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Art
0 women, 6 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 36 on average. Men: 40 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Margaret Tyzack 36
Men
Daniel Richter 28, Keir Dullea 31, Gary Lockwood 31, Douglas Rain 40, Leonard Rossiter 41, William Sylvester 46, Sean Sullivan 46, Robert Beatty 58
Exhibit G: the money
It made 6.0 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $12 million
- Box office
- $71.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 14 scenes and 436 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
