Fails the Bechdel test
Ad Astra
2019. Directed by James Gray, written by James Gray and Ethan Gross.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
26 women characters. 13 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos.
- Released
- 20 Sep 2019
- Genres
- Adventure, Drama, Mystery
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 6.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 80 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 11 wins & 75 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Roy Mcbride 176 lines, man
- Francesca Desanctis 41 lines
- Colonel Lipset 23 lines
- Dr. Pedrosa 21 lines, man
- H. Clifford Mcbride 20 lines, man
- Donald Scobee 18 lines, man
- Willy Levant 15 lines, man
- Franklin Yoshida 14 lines, man
- Alan Tanner 11 lines, man
- Lieutenant General Sharpe 11 lines
Full cast, 55 people
- Brad Pitt as Roy McBride
- Tommy Lee Jones as H. Clifford McBride
- Liv Tyler as Eve
- Ruth Negga as Helen Lantos
- Donald Sutherland as Thomas Pruitt
- Kimberly Elise as Lorraine Deavers
- Loren Dean as Donald Stanford
- Donnie Keshawarz as Captain Lawrence Tanner
- Sean Blakemore as Willie Levant
- Bobby Nish as Franklin Yoshida
- LisaGay Hamilton as Adjutant General Vogel
- John Finn as Brigadier General Stroud
- John Ortiz as Lieutenant General Rivas
- Freda Foh Shen as Captain Lu
- Kayla Adams as Female Flight Attendant
- Ravi Kapoor as Arjun Dhariwal
- Elisa Perry as Woman in White Pants/Shirt
- Daniel Sauli as Sal
- Kimmy Shields as Sergeant Romano
- Kunal Dudheker as Technician One
- Greg Bryk as Chip Garnes
- Alyson Reed as Janice Collins
- Sasha Compère as Female Team Member
- Justin Dray as Male Team Member
- Alexandria Rousset as Woman on Screen
- Natasha Lyonne as Tanya Pincus
- Zoro Saro Manuel Daghlian as SPACECOM Employee
- Jacob Sandler as Young Roy
- Elizabeth Willaman as Cepheus (voice)
- Robert J. Yowell as Lunar Base Technician (uncredited)
- Nicholas Walker as Lunar Medic (uncredited)
- Amanda Tudesco as Grace (uncredited)
- Brynn Route as Shunga Hologram (uncredited)
- Valeri Ross as Moon TV Guest #1 (uncredited)
- Rochelle Rose as BBC News Reporter (uncredited)
- Eloy Perez as Lt. Nash (uncredited)
- Melvin Payne Jr. as Russian Astronaut (uncredited)
- Jean-Pierre Mouzon as American Astronaut (uncredited)
- Noelle Messier as Capt. Devries (uncredited)
- Anne McDaniels as Shunga Hologram (uncredited)
- Kento Matsunami as Hip Japanese Traveler (uncredited)
- Mallory Low as Spacecom Employee (uncredited)
- Sheila M. Lockhart as Drug Addict (uncredited)
- Donna Lee as Hip Japanese Traveler (uncredited)
- Halszka Kuza as Dancer (uncredited)
- Bayani Ison as Asian Male Host (uncredited)
- Danny Hamouie as Rory Flynn (uncredited)
- Georgia James Gray as Evelyn McBride (uncredited)
- Eleanor Goodall as Ship Med Tech (uncredited)
- Luis Richard Gomez as Jim (uncredited)
- Eliza Gerontakis as The Singing Face (uncredited)
- Vivian Fleming-Alvarez as Mars Officer Daniels (uncredited)
- Lawrence Dex as Robert (uncredited)
- Bayardo De Murguia as Hector Bustamante (uncredited)
- Rodney Damon Collins as Mechanic (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 29% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 151
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 | 10 | 4 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 14 |
| 9 to 12 | 7 | 10 |
| 13 to 16 | 3 | 27 |
| 17 to 20 | 2 | 6 |
| 21 to 24 | 1 | 12 |
| 25 to 28 | 1 | 27 |
| 29 to 32 | 0 | 12 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 9 |
| 37 to 40 | 0 | 7 |
| 41 to 44 | 1 | 7 |
| 45 to 48 | 3 | 17 |
| 49 to 52 | 0 | 2 |
| 53 to 56 | 1 | 9 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 19 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 0 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 2 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 8 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 12 |
| 77 to 80 | 0 | 1 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 3 |
| 85 to 88 | 2 | 14 |
| 89 to 92 | 4 | 25 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 0 |
| 97 to 100 | 2 | 1 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 7 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 18 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 21 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 0 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 2 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 0 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 0 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 1 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 3 |
| 137 to 140 | 1 | 6 |
| 141 to 144 | 0 | 13 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 7 |
| 149 to 151 | 0 | 0 |
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, 10 are women's.
38 lines from women, 326 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
26 women and 28 men in the cast. 13 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 514.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 93 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 11% of the words (708), men 89% (5,642). Women have 10% 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
1
Two men
36
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 17 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- James Gray (man)
- Written by
- James Gray (man), Ethan Gross (man)
- Produced by
- James Gray (man), Brad Pitt (man), Dede Gardner (woman), Rodrigo Teixeira (man), Jeremy Kleiner (man), Anthony Katagas (man) and 1 more
- Shot by
- Hoyte van Hoytema (man)
- Edited by
- John Axelrad (man), Lee Haugen (gender not listed)
- Music by
- Max Richter (man)
- Production design by
- Kevin Thompson (man)
- Costumes by
- Albert Wolsky (man)
- Cast by
- Douglas Aibel (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Visual Effects
6 women, 12 men, 57 not listed
-
Art
13 women, 9 men, 15 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 19 men, 7 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 11 men, 17 not listed
-
Sound
3 women, 18 men, 7 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
10 women, 2 men, 15 not listed
-
Camera
4 women, 9 men, 6 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 4 men, 8 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 44 on average. Men: 61 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Ruth Negga 38, Liv Tyler 42, Kimberly Elise 52
Men
Loren Dean 50, Donnie Keshawarz 50, Sean Blakemore 52, Brad Pitt 55, Tommy Lee Jones 73, Donald Sutherland 84
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $87.5 million
- Box office
- $127 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 151 scenes and 514 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
