Passes the Bechdel test

Arrival

Name: Arrival
Released: 2016

2016. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, written by Eric Heisserer and Ted Chiang.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
22 women characters. 4 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 5 scenes out of 116.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

Linguistics professor Louise Banks leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touchdown in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind.

Released: 11 Nov 2016
Genres: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 7.9 / 10
Metascore: 81 / 100
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. 73 wins & 276 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Louise 299 lines, woman
Colonel Weber 131 lines, man
Ian 86 lines, man
Tan 59 lines
Agent Halpern 43 lines, man
Hannah 36 lines, woman
Dr. Kettler 20 lines, man
Captain Marks 17 lines, man
Australian Scientist 8 lines, man
General Shang 8 lines, man

Full cast, 72 people

Amy Adams as Louise Banks
Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly
Forest Whitaker as Colonel Weber
Michael Stuhlbarg as Agent Halpern
Mark O'Brien as Captain Marks
Tzi Ma as General Shang
Abigail Pniowsky as 8-Year-Old Hannah
Julia Scarlett Dan as 12-Year-Old Hannah
Jadyn Malone as 6-Year-Old Hannah
Frank Schorpion as Dr. Kettler
Lucas Chartier-Dessert as Private Lasky
Christian Jadah as Private Combs
Lucy Van Oldenbarneveld as CNAC Anchor
Andrew Shaver as Environmental Tech
Pat Kiely as Environmental Tech
Sonia Vigneault as Dr. J. Bydwell
Mark Camacho as Richard Riley
Sabrina Reeves as Press Secretary
Julian Casey as Australian Scientist
Tony Robinow as British Scientist
Larry Day as CIA Officer Dan Ryder
Matthew Willson as Preacher
Ruth Chiang as Chinese Scientist
Russell Yuen as Chinese Scientist
Sergiy Marchenko as Russian Officer
Anana Rydvald as Swedish Scientist
Bineyam Girma as Sudan Representative
Abdelghafour Elaaziz as African Representative
Abdul Ayoola as Sierra Leone Representative
Alex M. Yeuh as Japanese Minister
Daniel Esteban as Venezuelan Representative
Albert Kwan as Chinese Man
Brittany Teo as Student with Smartphone
Joe Cobden as Cryptographer
Lorne Brass as Cryptographer
Genevieve Sirois as Cryptographer
Victor Andres Trelles Turgeon as Science Team Member
Michael Nangreaves as Science Team Member
Reda Guerinik as Communications Operator
Adrien Benn as Communications Operator
Sasha Samar as Communications Operator
Kathleen Stavert as Communications Operator
Kattia Thony as Nurse
Leisa Reid as Nurse
Brent Skagford as Lieutenant
Gurdeep Ahluwalia as Soldier
Shawn Campbell as TV Anchor
Brian Dunstan as TV Anchor
Dan Duran as TV Anchor
Lori Graham as TV Anchor
Orla Johannes as TV Anchor
John Sanford Moore as TV Anchor
Sangita Patel as TV Anchor
Hal Roberts as TV Anchor
Camille Ross as TV Anchor
Ola Sturik as TV Anchor
Tammie Sutherland as TV Anchor
Max Walker as TV Anchor
Marc-André Goulet as Motion Capture Heptapod
Paul-Antoine Taillefer as Motion Capture Heptapod
Martin Jr Pelletier as Motion Capture Heptapod
Carmela Nozza Guizzo as 4-Year-Old Hannah (uncredited)
Robert D. Morais as Master Sergeant Douglas (uncredited)
Mustafa Haidari as Foreign Correspondent (uncredited)
Philippe Hartmann as Halpern's Deputy Director (uncredited)
Laurean Adrian Parau as US Army Major (uncredited)
Nathaly Thibault as Gala Guest (uncredited)
Leslie Baker as Middle Aged Woman (uncredited)
Dave Campbell as Soldier (uncredited)
Alexander Da Mota as Venezuelan Military (uncredited)
Akul Dang as Pakistani Scientist (uncredited)
Frank Fiola as Soldier (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 13% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 116

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	2	0
4 to 6	6	0
7 to 9	6	0
10 to 12	0	0
13 to 15	10	0
16 to 18	2	0
19 to 21	4	0
22 to 24	0	0
25 to 27	21	24
28 to 30	8	13
31 to 33	3	10
34 to 36	3	20
37 to 39	3	9
40 to 42	16	18
43 to 45	0	7
46 to 48	7	6
49 to 51	8	9
52 to 54	0	0
55 to 57	7	15
58 to 60	16	19
61 to 63	16	18
64 to 66	18	11
67 to 69	9	6
70 to 72	15	13
73 to 75	10	10
76 to 78	1	1
79 to 81	11	12
82 to 84	13	12
85 to 87	17	18
88 to 90	5	9
91 to 93	22	8
94 to 96	12	24
97 to 99	0	3
100 to 102	14	5
103 to 105	20	7
106 to 108	14	18
109 to 111	13	4
112 to 114	5	5
115 to 116	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.

LOUISE: I remember moments in the middle. HANNAH: Stick ‘em up!

LOUISE: Good morning, everyone. LOUISE: Where is everyone? LOUISE: Well, let’s get started. Today we're talking about Portuguese, and why it sounds so different from the other Romance languages. LOUISE: The story of Portuguese begins with the Kingdom of Galicia, in the middle ages, where the language was seen aS an expression of art. The way…

LOUISE: A non-zero-sum game! HANNAH: That’s it! Yes! Thank you, Mom.

HANNAH: Mommy ? LOUISE: Yes, lLittle—-nose? HANNAH: Why is my name Hannah? LOUISE: Don’t you like it?

LOUISE: I’m about to make a choice, too. One that I will have to live with forever. LOUISE: In some ways this choice saves the world, but I’m not thinking about that, Hannah. I never am. HANNAH: Stick ‘em up! HANNAH: When do I get to live my own life?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 51 are women's.

343 lines from women, 335 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

22 women and 41 men in the cast. 4 women and 16 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 781. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 16 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 45% of the words (3,129), men 55% (3,825). Women have 51% 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

3 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 28% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve (man)
Written by: Eric Heisserer (man)
Produced by: Dan Levine (man), Shawn Levy (man), Karen Lunder (woman), Aaron Ryder (man), David Linde (man), Dan Cohen (man)
Shot by: Bradford Young (man)
Edited by: Joe Walker (man)
Music by: Jóhann Jóhannsson (man)
Production design by: Patrice Vermette (man)
Costumes by: Renée April (woman)
Cast by: Francine Maisler (woman)