Passes the Bechdel test

Annihilation

Name: Annihilation
Released: 2018

2018. Directed by Alex Garland, written by Alex Garland and Jeff VanderMeer.

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 18 scenes out of 122.
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

A biologist's husband disappears. She puts her name forward for an expedition into an environmental disaster zone, but does not find what she's expecting. The expedition team is made up of the biologist, an anthropologist, a psychologist, a surveyor, and a linguist.

Released: 23 Feb 2018
Genres: Adventure, Drama, Horror
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.8 / 10
Metascore: 79 / 100
Awards: 17 wins & 63 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Lena 263 lines, woman
Dr Ventress 134 lines, woman
Thorensen 86 lines, woman
Kane 70 lines, man
Radek 57 lines, woman
Sheppard 45 lines, woman
Daniel 23 lines, man
Peyton 10 lines, man
Woman 7 lines, woman
Spec Ops Soldier 6 lines, man

Full cast, 19 people

Natalie Portman as Lena
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dr Ventress
Gina Rodriguez as Anya Thorensen
Tessa Thompson as Josie Radek
Tuva Novotny as Cass Sheppard
Oscar Isaac as Kane
Benedict Wong as Lomax
Sonoya Mizuno as Humanoid / Katie (Med Student)
David Gyasi as Daniel
John Schwab as Paramedic
Sammy Hayman as Mayer
Josh Danford as Shelley
Kristen McGarrity as Lena Double
Kumud Pant as Scientist
Honey Holmes as Scientist (uncredited)
Hiten Patel as Scientist (uncredited)
Kola Bokinni as Peyton (uncredited)
Cosmo Jarvis as Special Ops Soldier (uncredited)
Matthew Simpson as Special Ops Soldier (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 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 122

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	0
4 to 6	10	0
7 to 9	9	10
10 to 12	3	0
13 to 15	16	17
16 to 18	0	0
19 to 21	49	0
22 to 24	5	4
25 to 27	2	0
28 to 30	7	1
31 to 33	26	2
34 to 36	29	0
37 to 39	37	0
40 to 42	0	0
43 to 45	45	16
46 to 48	47	0
49 to 51	26	0
52 to 54	23	0
55 to 57	0	11
58 to 60	7	1
61 to 63	13	12
64 to 66	55	7
67 to 69	36	0
70 to 72	13	0
73 to 75	4	0
76 to 78	3	0
79 to 81	24	0
82 to 84	8	0
85 to 87	2	0
88 to 90	11	13
91 to 93	58	0
94 to 96	0	0
97 to 99	0	0
100 to 102	0	5
103 to 105	0	9
106 to 108	0	0
109 to 111	2	10
112 to 114	15	0
115 to 117	4	1
118 to 120	2	0
121 to 122	1	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.

THORENSEN: God damn it. THORENSEN: Now I know why we all got amnesia. Why would you want to remember this shit-hole? LENA: I’d like to remember it. RADEK: Sure. It’s beautiful.

THORENSEN: Think this place might show up on the maps? SHEPPARD: Doubt it. SHEPPARD: I think it’s just a fishing hut. LENA: ... These are extremely strange flowers.

LENA: To look at them you wouldn’t say they’re the same species. LENA: But they’re all growing from the same branch structure. So not just the same species. The same plant. RADEK: They’re like snowflakes. Each one is different. I’ve never seen anything like it. LENA: It seems stuck in a continuous mutation. Some kind of morphogenesis error.

LENA: So what do you see in there? RADEK: Hey, check this out. RADEK: We could use these. Be much quicker way of getting across the swamp. RADEK: Shall we see if they still float?

LENA: RADEK! THORENSEN: What the Hell happened? LENA: A gator took her! We’ve got to - RADEK: Help! HELP ME!

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 83 are women's.

592 lines from women, 121 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

7 women and 11 men in the cast. 5 women and 7 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 25 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 86% of the words (5,413), men 14% (902). Women have 83% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 40% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Alex Garland (man)
Written by: Alex Garland (man)
From the novel by: Jeff VanderMeer (man)
Produced by: Andrew Macdonald (man), Allon Reich (man), Eli Bush (man), Scott Rudin (man)
Shot by: Rob Hardy (man)
Edited by: Barney Pilling (man)
Music by: Ben Salisbury (man), Geoff Barrow (man)
Production design by: Mark Digby (man)
Costumes by: Sammy Sheldon (woman)
Cast by: Francine Maisler (woman), Nina Gold (woman)