Passes the Bechdel test
28 Days Later
2003. Directed by Danny Boyle, written by Alex Garland.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 8 scenes out of 178. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
A group of animal rights activists breaks into a lab and releases chimpanzees from their cages to rescue them, despite warnings from a scientist that the chimpanzees are contagious. As a result of the animal rights activists' actions, a virus that the chimpanzees contained spreads rapidly across Great Britain and infects numerous people. Jim, who fell into a coma following a bicycle accident shortly before the virus was released, emerges from his coma and finds that London is deserted. He realizes that he is not alone, as within the city there are those that have been infected and those that have not. Jim manages to find more survivors and they head out to Manchester, where a group of British military personnel offer protection of any survivors from the infected. However, Jim and his colleagues have no idea what they're in for.
- Released
- 27 Jun 2003
- Genres
- Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 73 / 100
- Awards
- 10 wins & 32 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Selena 134 lines, woman
- Jim 133 lines, man
- Frank 79 lines, man
- Henry 48 lines, man
- Hannah 40 lines, woman
- Mitchell 29 lines, man
- Mark 20 lines, man
- Farrell 17 lines, man
- Jones 17 lines, man
- Scientist 15 lines, man
Full cast, 37 people
- Cillian Murphy as Jim
- Naomie Harris as Selena
- Brendan Gleeson as Frank
- Megan Burns as Hannah
- Christopher Eccleston as Major Henry West
- Noah Huntley as Mark
- Luke Mably as Private Clifton
- Stuart McQuarrie as Seargent Farrell
- Ricci Harnett as Corporal Mitchell
- Leo Bill as Private Jones
- Junior Laniyan as Private Bell
- Ray Panthaki as Private Bedford
- Sanjay Rambaruth as Private Davis
- Marvin Campbell as Private Mailer
- Christopher Dunne as Jim's Father
- Emma Hitching as Jim's Mother
- Alex Palmer as Activist
- Bindu De Stoppani as Activist
- Jukka Hiltunen as Activist
- David Schneider as Scientist
- Alexander Delamere as Mr. Bridges
- Kim McGarrity as Mr. Bridges' Daughter
- Toby Sedgwick as Infected Priest
- Justin Hackney as Infected Kid
- Adrian Christopher as Featured Infected
- Richard Dwyer as Featured Infected
- Nick Ewans as Featured Infected
- Terry John as Featured Infected
- Paul Kasey as Featured Infected
- Sebastian Knapp as Featured Infected
- Nicholas James Lewis as Featured Infected
- Jenni Lush as Featured Infected
- Tristan Matthiae as Featured Infected
- Jeffrey Rann as Featured Infected
- Joelle Simpson as Featured Infected
- Al Stokes as Featured Infected
- Steen Young as Featured Infected
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 178
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 4 | 0 | 15 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 1 |
| 13 to 16 | 0 | 6 |
| 17 to 20 | 2 | 2 |
| 21 to 24 | 5 | 19 |
| 25 to 28 | 2 | 4 |
| 29 to 32 | 11 | 15 |
| 33 to 36 | 19 | 13 |
| 37 to 40 | 3 | 3 |
| 41 to 44 | 9 | 16 |
| 45 to 48 | 11 | 20 |
| 49 to 52 | 11 | 21 |
| 53 to 56 | 1 | 5 |
| 57 to 60 | 3 | 13 |
| 61 to 64 | 7 | 2 |
| 65 to 68 | 7 | 7 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 2 |
| 73 to 76 | 3 | 4 |
| 77 to 80 | 4 | 3 |
| 81 to 84 | 1 | 1 |
| 85 to 88 | 4 | 8 |
| 89 to 92 | 6 | 7 |
| 93 to 96 | 6 | 17 |
| 97 to 100 | 2 | 5 |
| 101 to 104 | 1 | 2 |
| 105 to 108 | 5 | 8 |
| 109 to 112 | 12 | 9 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 13 |
| 117 to 120 | 2 | 12 |
| 121 to 124 | 4 | 51 |
| 125 to 128 | 2 | 13 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 16 |
| 133 to 136 | 10 | 6 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 1 |
| 141 to 144 | 0 | 5 |
| 145 to 148 | 11 | 11 |
| 149 to 152 | 1 | 3 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 0 |
| 157 to 160 | 0 | 3 |
| 161 to 164 | 1 | 3 |
| 165 to 168 | 8 | 7 |
| 169 to 172 | 2 | 1 |
| 173 to 176 | 0 | 2 |
| 177 to 178 | 1 | 1 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
SELENA: Shall we? HANNAH: Middle cupboard. HANNAH: Top cupboard.
SELENA: Come on! HANNAH: Almost there!
SELENA: This place hasn't been looted. It's a gold mine. HANNAH: But we don't know what's in there. SELENA: Food and drink is what's in there. And we need it.
SELENA: Ugh. If I never see chocolate again, it'll be too soon. SELENA: Not counting Terry's Chocolate Orange, of course. HANNAH: Or Yorkies. SELENA: Or Yorkies, obviously.
SELENA: You're not eating. HANNAH: I don't want to eat.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 32 are women's.
177 lines from women, 377 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
6 women and 27 men in the cast. 2 women and 12 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 45 of 581.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 44 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 27% of the words (1,237), men 73% (3,409). Women have 32% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: 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
11
Two men
46
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 9 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Danny Boyle (man)
- Written by
- Alex Garland (man)
- Produced by
- Andrew Macdonald (man)
- Shot by
- Anthony Dod Mantle (man)
- Edited by
- Chris Gill (man)
- Music by
- John Murphy (man)
- Production design by
- Mark Tildesley (man)
- Costumes by
- Rachael Fleming (woman)
- Cast by
- Gail Stevens (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Costume & Make-Up
5 women, 4 men, 12 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 8 men, 6 not listed
-
Sound
4 women, 4 men, 5 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 0 men, 5 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 0 men, 3 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 21 on average. Men: 32 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Megan Burns 16, Naomie Harris 26
Men
Leo Bill 22, Cillian Murphy 26, Luke Mably 26, Noah Huntley 28, Ricci Harnett 29, Christopher Eccleston 38, Stuart McQuarrie 39, Brendan Gleeson 47
Exhibit H: the money
It made 10.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $8 million
- Box office
- $82.8 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 178 scenes and 581 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
