Passes the Bechdel test

American Psycho

Name: American Psycho
Released: 2000

2000. Directed by Mary Harron, written by Bret Easton Ellis and Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
20 women characters. 13 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 58.
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

It's the late 1980s. Twenty-seven year old Wall Streeter Patrick Bateman travels among a closed network of the proverbial beautiful people, that closed network in only they able to allow others like themselves in in a feeling of superiority. Patrick has a routinized morning regimen to maintain his appearance of attractiveness and fitness. He, like those in his network, are vain, narcissistic, egomaniacal and competitive, always having to one up everyone else in that presentation of oneself, but he, unlike the others, realizes that, for himself, all of these are masks to hide what is truly underneath, someone/something inhuman in nature. In other words, he is comprised of a shell resembling a human that contains only greed and disgust, greed in wanting what others may have, and disgust for those who do not meet his expectations and for himself in not being the first or the best. That disgust ends up manifesting itself in wanting to rid the world of those people, he not seeing them as people but only of those characteristics he wants to rid.

Released: 14 Apr 2000
Genres: Crime, Drama, Horror
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.6 / 10
Metascore: 64 / 100
Awards: 7 wins & 11 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Bateman 480 lines, man
Kimball 96 lines, man
Jean 60 lines, woman
Price 53 lines, man
Courtney 45 lines, woman
Evelyn 30 lines, woman
Van Patten 25 lines, man
Elizabeth 24 lines, woman
Owen 22 lines, man
Carruthers 19 lines, man

Full cast, 45 people

Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman
Justin Theroux as Timothy Bryce
Josh Lucas as Craig McDermott
Bill Sage as David Van Patten
Chloë Sevigny as Jean
Reese Witherspoon as Evelyn Williams
Samantha Mathis as Courtney Rawlinson
Matt Ross as Luis Carruthers
Jared Leto as Paul Allen
Willem Dafoe as Donald Kimball
Cara Seymour as Christie
Guinevere Turner as Elizabeth
Stephen Bogaert as Harold Carnes
Monika Meier as Daisy
Reg E. Cathey as Homeless Man
Blair Williams as Waiter #1
Marie Dame as Victoria
Kelley Harron as Bargirl
Patricia Gage as Mrs. Wolfe
Krista Sutton as Sabrina
Landy Cannon as Man at Pierce & Pierce
Park Bench as Stash
Catherine Black as Vanden
Margaret Ma as Dry Cleaner Woman
Peter Tufford Kennedy as Hamilton
Mark Pawson as Humphrey Rhineback
Jessica Lau as Facialist
Lilette Wiens as Maitre Dí
Glen Marc Silot as Waiter
Charlotte Hunter as Libby
Kiki Buttignol as Caron
Joyce R. Korbin as Woman at ATM
Reuben Thompson as Waiter #2
Bryan Renfro as Night Watchman
Ross Gibby as Man Outside Store
Christina McKay as Young Woman
Alan McCullough as Man in Stall
Anthony Lemke as Marcus Halberstram
Connie Chen as Gwendolyn Ichiban
Brett Alexander Davidson as Bartender (uncredited)
Peter Loung as Dancer (uncredited)
Joseph Oliveira as Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
Leanne Poirier Greenfield as Party Girl (uncredited)
Somaya Reece as Bar Girl (uncredited)
Kate Steen as Pierce & Pierce Girl (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 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 58

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 2	0	26
3 to 4	0	5
5 to 6	1	20
7 to 8	0	8
9 to 10	22	21
11 to 12	12	21
13 to 14	10	20
15 to 16	17	18
17 to 18	16	15
19 to 20	0	71
21 to 22	0	32
23 to 24	0	17
25 to 26	0	7
27 to 28	6	126
29 to 30	4	11
31 to 32	3	49
33 to 34	9	19
35 to 36	16	42
37 to 38	10	19
39 to 40	23	47
41 to 42	32	27
43 to 44	13	15
45 to 46	1	1
47 to 48	0	1
49 to 50	0	1
51 to 52	8	41
53 to 54	8	11
55 to 56	0	46
57 to 58	0	2

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.

CHRISTIE: No. SABRINA: No, not really.

CARON: Gorbachev's not downstairs. DAISY: Are you Iying?

ELIZABETH: You look really familiar. Did you you go to Dalton? ELIZABETH: I think I met you at Au Bar, didn't I ? With Spicey? ELIZABETH: Well, maybe not with Spicey but it was definitely at Au Bar. ELIZABETH: You know, Au Bar?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 22 are women's.

211 lines from women, 739 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

20 women and 20 men in the cast. 13 women and 9 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 51 of 961. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 133 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 19% of the words (1,865), men 81% (7,986). Women have 22% 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, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Mary Harron (woman)
Written by: Guinevere Turner (woman), Mary Harron (woman)
From the novel by: Bret Easton Ellis (man)
Produced by: Christian Halsey Solomon (man), Edward R. Pressman (man), Chris Hanley (man)
Shot by: Andrzej Sekula (man)
Edited by: Andrew Marcus (man)
Music by: John Cale (man)
Production design by: Gideon Ponte (man)
Costumes by: Isis Mussenden (woman)
Cast by: Kerry Barden (man), Suzanne Smith Crowley (woman), Billy Hopkins (man)