Passes the Bechdel test

Air Force One

Name: Air Force One
Released: 1997

1997. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, written by Andrew W. Marlowe.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
9 women characters. 3 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 5 scenes out of 345.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.

The film

High-altitude thriller in which the presidential aircraft, Air Force One, is hijacked by Russian communist radicals (Gary Oldman) demanding the release of the Kazakhstani leader (Jürgen Prochnow). With the First Lady (Wendy Crewson) and her family trapped on board, the hijackers threaten to kill one hostage every half-hour until their demands are met. What they don't know is that the president (Harrison Ford) himself is hiding in the hold and formulating a plan to save his family.

Released: 25 Jul 1997
Genres: Action, Crime, Drama
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.6 / 10
Metascore: 62 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. 7 wins & 13 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Marshall 184 lines, man
Korshunov 109 lines, man
Rose 65 lines, woman
Alice 42 lines, woman
Gibbs 42 lines, man
V.P. Chandler 40 lines
Shepherd 37 lines, man
Col. Carlton 33 lines, man
Major Caldwell 23 lines, man
General Northwood 18 lines, man

Full cast, 77 people

Harrison Ford as James Marshall
Gary Oldman as Ivan Korshunov
Glenn Close as Kathryn Bennett
Wendy Crewson as Grace Marshall
Liesel Matthews as Alice Marshall
Paul Guilfoyle as Lloyd Shepherd
Xander Berkeley as Agent Gibbs
William H. Macy as Major Caldwell
Dean Stockwell as Walter Dean
Tom Everett as Jack Doherty
Jürgen Prochnow as Alexander Radek
Donna Bullock as Melanie Mitchel
Michael Ray Miller as Colonel Axelrod
Carl Weintraub as Lieutenant Colonel Ingraham
Elester Latham as AFO Navigator
Elya Baskin as Andrei Kolchak
Levan Uchaneishvili as Sergei Lenski
David Vadim as Igor Nevsky
Andrew Divoff as Boris Bazylev
Ilia Volok as Vladimir Krasin
Chris Howell as Major Perkins
Spencer Garrett as Thomas Lee
Bill Smitrovich as General Northwood
Philip Baker Hall as Attorney General Ward
Albert Owens as Football Colonel
Willard E. Pugh as White House Commanding Officer
Michael Monks as Assistant Press Secretary
Alan Woolf as Russian President Petrov
Messiri Freeman as Future Postmaster General
Thomas Crawford as Steward Mike
Fenton Lawless as Steward Joey
Dan Shor as Notre Dame Aide
David Gianopoulos as Agent Johnson
Glenn Morshower as Agent Walters
Richard Doyle as AFO Back-up Pilot
Don McManus as F-15 Leader Colonel Carlton
Duke Miglin as F-15 Halo 2 Fighter Pilot
Pasha D. Lychnikoff as Prison Guard
Oleg Taktarov as Prison Guard
Mario Roberts as Secret Service Agent
Keith Woulard as Secret Service Agent
J. Mark Donaldson as Secret Service Agent
Bruce Holman as Secret Service Agent
Brian Libby as Chief Mechanic
Diana Bellamy as Switchboard Operator
Thom Barry as Ramstein SOF Watch Officer
Harry Hutchinson as Ramstein Airbase Controller
E.E. Bell as Reporter
Mark Thompson as Reporter
Marciarose Shestack as Reporter
Ren Hanami as Reporter
Suzanne Michaels as CNN Anchor
Boris Lee Krutonog as MiG Leader
Alex Veadov as MiG Pilot
Allan Kolman as Kazak Soldier
Daniel W. Barringer as USAF Jump Master
Mark Knutson as Russian Jump Master
Jim Harley as Willis
Aleks Shaklin as Government Offical
Igor N. Lobotsky as Russian Official
Koko Kiledjian as Russian Speaker
Gordon Michaels as USAF Radio Specialist
Robert Peters as USAF Radio Specialist
Kristian Sorensen as USAF Radio Specialist
Stuart Nixon as USAF Security
Marty Rosen as CIA Director
Lee Faranda as Russian Bad Guy
Mike Hambrick as CNN Reporter
Catherine T. Yang as Foreign TV Reporter
David MacIsaac as MC-130 Pilot
J. Scott Shonka as Pararescue Jumper
Paul Sklar as Pararescue Jumper
David Permenter as Winch Recovery Master
David O'Donnell as Young Airman
Timothy Carhart as Agent at Checkpoint (uncredited)
Titus Welliver as Officer in Situation Room (uncredited)
Janet Dey as White House Situation Room Staffer (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 8 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 13% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 345

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 8	0	14
9 to 16	0	58
17 to 24	42	24
25 to 32	0	11
33 to 40	0	19
41 to 48	1	10
49 to 56	2	13
57 to 64	0	2
65 to 72	0	0
73 to 80	0	4
81 to 88	3	22
89 to 96	4	28
97 to 104	0	11
105 to 112	0	17
113 to 120	12	16
121 to 128	7	26
129 to 136	0	12
137 to 144	0	9
145 to 152	0	7
153 to 160	4	14
161 to 168	2	9
169 to 176	0	10
177 to 184	5	15
185 to 192	0	28
193 to 200	2	24
201 to 208	0	24
209 to 216	1	24
217 to 224	0	3
225 to 232	0	4
233 to 240	6	43
241 to 248	7	24
249 to 256	4	11
257 to 264	2	20
265 to 272	0	12
273 to 280	2	10
281 to 288	0	20
289 to 296	2	7
297 to 304	0	18
305 to 312	1	8
313 to 320	5	8
321 to 328	1	8
329 to 336	0	7
337 to 344	0	4
345 to 345	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.

ALICE: Sure. ROSE: May I speak to you for a moment?

ROSE: Come on, Alice. ALICE: I'm scared.

ALICE: No, thank you. The gunfire did that. ROSE: Leave my daughter alone.

ALICE: Yeah. Do you know what the word "asshole" means. ROSE: Alice!

ALICE: Mom? ROSE: Yes dear? ALICE: I'm sorry I was so mean to you earlier. ROSE: I know, sweetie. I know. You're being very brave.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 15 are women's.

115 lines from women, 658 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

9 women and 53 men in the cast. 3 women and 40 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 93 of 890. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 92 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 13% of the words (936), men 87% (6,032). Women have 15% 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

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 23% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen (man)
Written by: Andrew W. Marlowe (man)
Produced by: Armyan Bernstein (man), Gail Katz (woman), Wolfgang Petersen (man), Jonathan Shestack (man)
Shot by: Michael Ballhaus (man)
Edited by: Richard Francis-Bruce (man)
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith (man)
Production design by: William Sandell (man)
Cast by: Janet Hirshenson (woman), Jane Jenkins (woman)