Passes the Bechdel test

Aliens

Name: Aliens
Released: 1986

1986. Directed by James Cameron, written by James Cameron and David Giler and Walter Hill.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
8 women characters. 7 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 19 scenes out of 192.
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

57 years after Ellen Ripley had a close encounter with the terrifying alien creature from the first movie, she is called upon to help a group of highly trained colonial marines fight off against the sinister extraterrestrials. But this time, the aliens have taken over a space colony on the moon LV-426. When the colonial marines are called upon to search the deserted space colony, they later find out that they are up against more than what they bargained for. It's either fight or die as the space marines battle against the aliens.

Released: 18 Jul 1986
Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rated: R
IMDb: 8.4 / 10
Metascore: 84 / 100
Awards: Won 2 Oscars. 21 wins & 29 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Ripley 224 lines, woman
Hicks 76 lines, man
Hudson 73 lines, man
Burke 60 lines, man
Gorman 56 lines, man
Newt 51 lines, woman
Bishop 32 lines, man
Vasquez 29 lines, woman
Apone 27 lines, man
Van Leuwen 11 lines, man

Full cast, 27 people

Sigourney Weaver as Ripley
Carrie Henn as Newt
Michael Biehn as Corporal Hicks
Paul Reiser as Burke
Lance Henriksen as Bishop
Bill Paxton as Private Hudson
William Hope as Lieutenant Gorman
Jenette Goldstein as Private Vasquez
Al Matthews as Sergeant Apone
Mark Rolston as Private Drake
Ricco Ross as Private Frost
Colette Hiller as Corporal Ferro
Daniel Kash as Private Spunkmeyer
Cynthia Dale Scott as Corporal Dietrich
Tip Tipping as Private Crowe
Trevor Steedman as Private Wierzbowski
Paul Maxwell as Van Leuwen
Valerie Colgan as ECA Rep
Alan Polonsky as Insurance Man
Alibe Parsons as Med Tech
Blain Fairman as Doctor
Barbara Coles as Cocooned Woman
Carl Toop as Alien Warrior
John Lees as Power Loader Operator
Eddie Powell as Alien Warrior (uncredited)
Chris Webb as Alien Warrior (uncredited)
Alec Gillis as Alien (uncredited)

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 192

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	22	10
5 to 8	14	14
9 to 12	4	3
13 to 16	6	0
17 to 20	1	2
21 to 24	12	14
25 to 28	0	0
29 to 32	17	48
33 to 36	0	1
37 to 40	3	11
41 to 44	1	0
45 to 48	6	3
49 to 52	5	11
53 to 56	0	5
57 to 60	1	4
61 to 64	1	9
65 to 68	2	5
69 to 72	15	17
73 to 76	19	9
77 to 80	4	4
81 to 84	4	5
85 to 88	5	14
89 to 92	1	9
93 to 96	4	14
97 to 100	0	1
101 to 104	2	5
105 to 108	18	21
109 to 112	7	4
113 to 116	9	10
117 to 120	25	4
121 to 124	14	15
125 to 128	12	19
129 to 132	7	11
133 to 136	6	8
137 to 140	8	2
141 to 144	11	13
145 to 148	10	13
149 to 152	3	6
153 to 156	12	4
157 to 160	9	1
161 to 164	10	8
165 to 168	1	1
169 to 172	2	0
173 to 176	0	0
177 to 180	4	0
181 to 184	4	4
185 to 188	2	0
189 to 192	6	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.

MED-TECH: Why don't I open the viewport? Watch your eyes. MED-TECH: And how are we today? RIPLEY: Terrible. MED-TECH: Just terrible? That's better than yesterday at least.

MED-TECH: Code Blue! 415. Code Blue! 4-1-5! RIPLEY: No...noooo!

MED-TECH: Bad dreams again? Do you want something to help you sleep? RIPLEY: No.. I've slept enough. RIPLEY: We made it, Jones. We made it.

RIPLEY: Then somebody's gotten to it... doctored the recorder. Who had access to it? ECA REP: Would you just listen to yourself for one minute.

ECA REP: No. It's a rock. No indigenous life larger than a simple virus. RIPLEY: I told you, it wasn't indigenous. There was an alien spacecraft there. A derelict ship. We homed on its beacon... ECA REP: To be perfectly frank, we've surveyed over three hundred worlds and no one's ever reported a creature which, using your words... ...'gestate… RIPLEY: Look, I can see where this is going. But I'm telling you those things exist. Back on that planetoid is an alien ship and on that ship are th…

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 48 are women's.

329 lines from women, 363 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

8 women and 19 men in the cast. 7 women and 15 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 4 of 727. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 11 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 43% of the words (2,763), men 57% (3,683). Women have 48% 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

5 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 10% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: James Cameron (man)
Written by: James Cameron (man)
Story by: David Giler (man), Walter Hill (man), James Cameron (man)
Produced by: Gale Anne Hurd (woman)
Shot by: Adrian Biddle (man)
Edited by: Ray Lovejoy (man)
Music by: James Horner (man)
Production design by: Peter Lamont (man)
Costumes by: Emma Porteous (woman)
Cast by: Mary Selway (woman), Mike Fenton (man), Judy Taylor (woman), Jane Feinberg (woman)