Passes the Bechdel test
Army of Darkness
1992. Directed by Sam Raimi, written by Sam Raimi and Ivan Raimi.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
12 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 89. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.
The film
Whisked off across time and space right after the supernatural events of Evil Dead II (1987), a battle-scarred Ash finds himself trapped in the distant Middle Ages, circa 1300 AD. Forced to battle the same ancient adversary he first confronted in The Evil Dead (1981), he quickly realises he is neck-deep in trouble: not just a couple of stray demons, but an entire army of darkness is thirsting for his soul. With no way back home, the guy with the chainsaw and a 12-gauge double-barrelled shotgun must blast his way through history to defeat the curse of the Necronomicon and save two worlds from total destruction.
- Released
- 19 Feb 1993
- Genres
- Comedy, Horror
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 59 / 100
- Awards
- 12 wins & 6 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Ash 131 lines, man
- Arthur 23 lines, man
- Wiseman John 19 lines, man
- Evil Ash 13 lines, man
- Sheila 13 lines, woman
- Henry 6 lines, man
- Warrior #9 4 lines, man
- Gold Tooth 3 lines, man
- Good Ash 3 lines, man
- Possessed Woman 3 lines, woman
Full cast, 47 people
- Bruce Campbell as Ash
- Embeth Davidtz as Sheila
- Marcus Gilbert as Arthur
- Ian Abercrombie as Wiseman
- Richard Grove as Duke Henry
- Michael Earl Reid as Gold Tooth
- Timothy Patrick Quill as Blacksmith
- Bridget Fonda as Linda
- Patricia Tallman as Possessed Witch
- Ted Raimi as Cowardly Warrior / Second Supportive Villager / S-Mart Clerk
- Deke Anderson as Tiny Ash #1
- Bruce Thomas as Tiny Ash #2
- Sara Shearer as Old Woman
- Shiva Gordon as Pit Deadite #1
- Billy Bryan as Pit Deadite #2
- Nadine Grycan as Winged Deadite
- Bill Moseley as Deadite Captain
- Micheal Kenney as Henry's Man
- Andy Bale as Lieutenant #1
- Robert Brent Lappin as Lieutenant #2
- Brad Bradbury as Chief Archer
- Sol Abrams as Fake Shemp
- Lorraine Axeman as Fake Shemp
- Josh Becker as Fake Shemp
- Sheri Burke as Fake Shemp
- Don Campbell as Fake Shemp
- Charlie Campbell as Fake Shemp
- Harley Cokeliss as Fake Shemp
- Ken Jepson as Fake Shemp
- William Lustig as Fake Shemp
- David O'Malley as Fake Shemp
- David Pollison as Fake Shemp
- Ivan Raimi as Fake Shemp
- Bernard Rose as Fake Shemp
- Bill Vincent as Fake Shemp
- Chris Webster as Fake Shemp
- Ron Zwang as Fake Shemp
- Angela Featherstone as Girl in S-Mart (uncredited)
- Patricia Anne Isgate-Hayward as Peasant Woman (uncredited)
- Bridget Hoffman as Sword Fighter (uncredited)
- Lisa Michelle Axelrod as Wench (uncredited)
- J Michael Briggs as Horseback Warrior (uncredited)
- Eric Clarke as Deadite (uncredited)
- Courtney Pakiz as Deadite (uncredited)
- Sam Raimi as Knight in Sweatshirt and Sneakers (uncredited)
- Jerry Rector as Tiny Ash #3 (uncredited)
- Monique Yates Jr. as Graveyard Wench (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 12% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 89
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 | 2 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 3 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 13 |
| 13 to 14 | 7 | 9 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 9 |
| 17 to 18 | 5 | 10 |
| 19 to 20 | 3 | 3 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 2 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 11 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 2 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 3 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 5 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 21 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 1 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 16 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 1 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 5 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 2 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 2 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 1 |
| 59 to 60 | 3 | 35 |
| 61 to 62 | 2 | 6 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 11 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 1 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 11 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 1 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 8 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 4 |
| 75 to 76 | 0 | 4 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 4 |
| 79 to 80 | 1 | 6 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 5 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 4 |
| 85 to 86 | 0 | 2 |
| 87 to 88 | 0 | 6 |
| 89 to 89 | 0 | 3 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scene
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
POSSESSED WOMAN: The Evil lives. Slay me and ten will rise to take my place. All will die. ALL WILL - CHOP! POSSESSED WOMAN'S HEAD: ---DIE!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 8 are women's.
21 lines from women, 235 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
12 women and 32 men in the cast. 4 women and 27 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 25 of 290.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 103 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 11% of the words (396), men 89% (3,312). Women have 8% 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
1
Two men
22
Exhibit F: behind the camera
None of the 9 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 20% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Sam Raimi (man)
- Written by
- Sam Raimi (man), Ivan Raimi (man)
- Produced by
- Robert Tapert (man)
- Shot by
- Bill Pope (man)
- Edited by
- Bob Murawski (man), Sam Raimi (man)
- Music by
- Joseph LoDuca (man)
- Production design by
- Anton Tremblay (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
4 women, 26 men, 6 not listed
-
Sound
3 women, 12 men, 10 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 1 men, 9 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 6 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
2 women, 5 men, 4 not listed
-
Production
1 women, 3 men, 7 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 4 men, 4 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 30 on average. Men: 37 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Embeth Davidtz 27, Bridget Fonda 28, Patricia Tallman 35
Men
Ted Raimi 26, Bruce Campbell 34, Marcus Gilbert 34, Timothy Patrick Quill 34, Richard Grove 37, Ian Abercrombie 58
Exhibit H: the money
It made 2.0 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $11 million
- Box office
- $21.5 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 89 scenes and 290 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
