Passes the Bechdel test

All the Old Knives

Name: All the Old Knives
Released: 2022

2022. Directed by Janus Metz, written by Olen Steinhauer.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
7 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 5 scenes out of 128.
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, though someone marked that rating as dubious.

The film

CIA agent Henry is tasked by his supervisor Vick to close an eight-year-old hijacking case that ended in tragedy. Vick has recently learned that there is a suspected mole who helped give the perpetrators information to impede the rescue attempt of the passengers. Being cleared by Vick, Henry is sent to interview his former colleague and lover Celia, a possible suspect due to her abrupt departure from the CIA the day after the hijacking. Celia, now married and retired, meets Henry in a California restaurant after he reaches out to her and asks her to dinner. Through multiple perspectives, timelines, and interviews, Henry, Vick, and Celia hope to find out what actually happened that day.

Released: 08 Apr 2022
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.2 / 10
Metascore: 62 / 100
Awards: 1 win total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Henry 272 lines, man
Celia 263 lines, woman
Bill 62 lines, man
Vick 49 lines, man
Leila 16 lines, woman
Suleiman 16 lines, man
Ilyas 15 lines, man
Waitress 14 lines, woman
Mohammed 13 lines, man
Treble 13 lines, man

Full cast, 33 people

Chris Pine as Henry Pelham
Thandiwe Newton as Celia Harrison
Jonathan Pryce as Bill Compton
Laurence Fishburne as Vick Wallinger
Corey Johnson as Karl Stein
Jonjo O'Neill as Ernst Pul
Ahd Kamel as Leila Maloof
David Dawson as Owen Lassiter
Nasser Memarzia as Mohammed Dudayev
Orli Shuka as Ilyas Shishani
Gala Gordon as Waitress
Michael Shaeffer as Treble
David Bedella as Drew Favreau
Alexander Devrient as Qamar Ayad
Derek Siow as Gene Wilcox
Anna Jones as Anna Jones
Abdul Alshareef as Suleiman Abdulwahed
Joshua Lacey as Freddy
Karina Wiedman as Tahar
Faton Gerbeshi as Beslan Abdulayev
Cali Gayle as Ginny Favreau
Oscar Coleman as Evan Favreau
Moe Idris as Omar Samatar Ali
Abdi-Fatah Ali as Yasir
Goksin Erdemli as Turkish Alliance Stewardess
Kasia Madera as News Reporter #1
Dar Dash as Bartender
David Appleton as Restaurant Guest
Barbara Appleton as Restaurant Guest
Todd Kramer as News Reporter #2
Angela Yeoh as News Reporter #3
Colin Stinton as Moscow Station Chief
Adrian Tauss as News Reporter #4

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 128

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 3	0	4
4 to 6	0	5
7 to 9	1	22
10 to 12	0	12
13 to 15	0	13
16 to 18	0	2
19 to 21	7	16
22 to 24	11	10
25 to 27	12	22
28 to 30	8	7
31 to 33	14	15
34 to 36	23	17
37 to 39	4	2
40 to 42	9	5
43 to 45	7	5
46 to 48	15	12
49 to 51	11	20
52 to 54	0	11
55 to 57	13	37
58 to 60	15	13
61 to 63	11	11
64 to 66	3	13
67 to 69	1	7
70 to 72	9	22
73 to 75	15	23
76 to 78	6	4
79 to 81	5	19
82 to 84	8	17
85 to 87	0	5
88 to 90	18	16
91 to 93	2	3
94 to 96	6	17
97 to 99	12	13
100 to 102	2	0
103 to 105	6	2
106 to 108	10	10
109 to 111	11	14
112 to 114	12	7
115 to 117	2	24
118 to 120	1	4
121 to 123	4	16
124 to 126	1	1
127 to 128	5	4

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.

LEILA: “Source TRIPWIRE: Expect within next 72 hours an airline-related event on flight heading to Austria or Germany. LEILA: Departure port uncertain -- Damascus, Beirut, Istanbul possibilities. Group: Da’irat Al- Salihoon, though primary actors likely recruits fro… CELIA: Al-Da’irat -- didn’t they split from Al-Shabaab a couple years ago?

CELIA: That’s smart. LEILA: It’s inhuman.

GINNY: Mommy! CELIA: Thanks, Bill. I’ll call you back, okay?

LEILA: Ask them! Don’t go on hearsay! LEILA: Ask them if it’s true! CELIA: What’s going on? LEILA: Follow up with Headquarters! Now!

LEILA: They posted a video from inside the plane. CELIA: When they were all killed...I didn’t know what to do.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 37 are women's.

300 lines from women, 502 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

7 women and 19 men in the cast. 5 women and 20 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 11 of 830. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 52 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 36% of the words (2,860), men 64% (5,090). Women have 37% 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

4 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 37% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Janus Metz (man)
Written by: Olen Steinhauer (man)
From the novel by: Olen Steinhauer (man)
Produced by: Matt Jackson (man), Paula Mae Schwartz (gender not listed), Steve Schwartz (man), Nick Wechsler (man)
Shot by: Charlotte Bruus Christensen (woman)
Edited by: Mark Eckersley (man)
Music by: Jon Ekstrand (man), Rebekka Karijord (woman)
Production design by: Marcus Rowland (man)
Costumes by: Stephanie Collie (woman)
Cast by: Jina Jay (woman)