Passes the Bechdel test

28 Weeks Later

Name: 28 Weeks Later
Released: 2007

2007. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, written by Rowan Joffe and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and Enrique López Lavigne.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
14 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 172.
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

Almost six months after the unstoppable Rage Virus decimated London in 28 Days Later (2002), the U.S. Army has restored peace and repopulated the quarantined city. However, the deadly epidemic reawakens when an unsuspecting carrier of the highly transmissible pathogen enters the dead capital with the first wave of returning refugees. This time, the horrible virus is more dangerous than ever. Has the next nightmare begun?

Released: 11 May 2007
Genres: Horror, Sci-Fi
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.8 / 10
Metascore: 78 / 100
Awards: 3 wins & 16 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Doyle 83 lines, man
Scarlet 54 lines, woman
Don 51 lines, man
Andy 44 lines, man
Tammy 43 lines, woman
Flynn 29 lines, man
General Stone 23 lines, man
Soldier 18 lines, man
Alice 16 lines, woman
Boy 8 lines, man

Full cast, 45 people

Imogen Poots as Tammy Harris
Mackintosh Muggleton as Andy Harris
Rose Byrne as Scarlet
Jeremy Renner as Sergeant Doyle
Robert Carlyle as Donald Harris
Harold Perrineau as Flynn
Catherine McCormack as Alice
Idris Elba as General Stone
Amanda Walker as Sally
Shahid Ahmed as Jacob
Garfield Morgan as Geoff
Emily Beecham as Karen
Jordan El-Balawi as Boy in Cottage
Meghan Popiel as DLR Soldier
Stewart Alexander as Military Officer
Philip Bulcock as Senior Medical Officer
Chris Ryman as Rooftop Sniper
Tristan Tait as Soldier
William Meredith as Medical Officer
Matt Reeves as Bunker Soldier
Thomas Garvey as Bunker Major
Tom Bodell as Medical Centre Lobby Soldier
Andrew Byron as Carpark Soldier
Sarah Finigan as Carpark Civilian
Roderic Culver as Carpark Civilian
Maeve Malley-Ryan as Carpark Civilian
Ed Coleman as Carpark Civilian
Karen Meagher as Carpark Civilian
Amanda Lawrence as Carpark Civilian
Drew Rhys-Williams as Carpark Civilian
Raymond Waring as Sam
Kish Sharma as Depot Man
Jane Thorne as Depot Woman
Dean Alexandrou as Infected Person (uncredited)
Gareth Clarke as Infected Person (uncredited)
Debbie Kurup as Infected Person (uncredited)
Selina Lo as Infected Person (uncredited)
João Costa Menezes as Infected Person (uncredited)
Jude Poyer as Infected Person (uncredited)
Katie Borland as Infected (uncredited)
Pip Henderson as Infected (uncredited)
Jason Curle as Infected Person (uncredited)
Simon Delaney as Car Park Civilian
Didier Dell Benjamin as Civilian (uncredited)
Neg Dupree as Infected Zombie (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 172

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	19	35
5 to 8	6	4
9 to 12	2	1
13 to 16	3	3
17 to 20	0	2
21 to 24	0	9
25 to 28	5	17
29 to 32	12	7
33 to 36	0	0
37 to 40	10	15
41 to 44	4	7
45 to 48	2	5
49 to 52	1	0
53 to 56	0	0
57 to 60	0	2
61 to 64	1	2
65 to 68	0	10
69 to 72	16	15
73 to 76	3	4
77 to 80	1	5
81 to 84	6	6
85 to 88	9	16
89 to 92	0	12
93 to 96	9	18
97 to 100	1	13
101 to 104	1	10
105 to 108	0	10
109 to 112	0	0
113 to 116	1	1
117 to 120	0	0
121 to 124	0	0
125 to 128	0	0
129 to 132	0	0
133 to 136	0	0
137 to 140	6	15
141 to 144	0	9
145 to 148	4	9
149 to 152	0	4
153 to 156	2	10
157 to 160	4	14
161 to 164	1	0
165 to 168	1	3
169 to 172	0	0

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.

SCARLET: It wasn’t actually me who lifted the quarantine, but... TAMMY: But it is true what they’re saying. The virus is dead. SCARLET: It’s very rare that viruses simply die. They’re like us - they try to stay alive. They sometimes become dormant, or mutate. But in this case… SCARLET: It destroyed its host faster than it could spread.

SCARLET: I apologise for these precautions. It’s standard protocol when dealing with survivors... SCARLET: ... though we haven’t had to do it for a while. In fact, the last survivor we came across was more than three months ago. SCARLET: Can you tell me anything about how you have managed to keep yourself alive for all this time? SCARLET: Do you know of any other survivors? Or have you come into direct contact with the infected?

SCARLET: This virus wiped out an entire nation. They’re not in a mood to take chances. TAMMY: So what do we do? I’m not going to sit around and wait to get ‘exterminated’. We’ve got to get out of here.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 31 are women's.

130 lines from women, 293 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

14 women and 25 men in the cast. 5 women and 11 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 428. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 21 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 32% of the words (1,099), men 68% (2,311). Women have 31% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (man)
Written by: Rowan Joffé (man), Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (man), Jesús Olmo (man), Enrique López Lavigne (man)
Produced by: Bernard Bellew (man), Allon Reich (man), Andrew Macdonald (man), Enrique López Lavigne (man)
Shot by: Enrique Chediak (man)
Edited by: Chris Gill (man)
Music by: John Murphy (man)
Production design by: Mark Tildesley (man)
Costumes by: Jane Petrie (woman)
Cast by: Shaheen Baig (woman)