Passes the Bechdel test

Atomic Blonde

Name: Atomic Blonde
Released: 2017

2017. Directed by David Leitch, written by Kurt Johnstad and Antony Johnston and Sam Hart.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
5 women characters. 3 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 131.
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

The crown jewel of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, Agent Lorraine Broughton (Theron) is equal parts spycraft, sensuality and savagery, willing to deploy any of her skills to stay alive on her impossible mission. Sent alone into Berlin to deliver a priceless dossier out of the destabilized city, she partners with embedded station chief David Percival (James McAvoy) to navigate her way through the deadliest game of spies.

Released: 28 Jul 2017
Genres: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.7 / 10
Metascore: 63 / 100
Awards: 17 wins & 22 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Broughton 311 lines, woman
Perceval 196 lines, man
Gray 47 lines, man
Lasalle 43 lines, woman
Spyglass 34 lines, man
Bremovych 30 lines, man
Merkel 29 lines, man
Kurzfeld 27 lines, man
C 19 lines
First Chief Inspector 12 lines

Full cast, 26 people

Charlize Theron as Lorraine Broughton
James McAvoy as David Percival
Eddie Marsan as Spyglass
John Goodman as Emmett Kurzfeld
Toby Jones as Eric Gray
James Faulkner as Chief "C"
Roland Møller as Aleksander Bremovych
Sofia Boutella as Delphine Lasalle
Bill Skarsgård as Merkel
Sam Hargrave as James Gasciogne
Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as Yuri Bakhtin
Til Schweiger as Watchmaker
Barbara Sukowa as Coroner
Attila Árpa as East German Guard #1
Martin Angerbauer as East German Guard #2
Lili Gesler as Helena
Sara Natasa Szonda as Audrey
Declan Hannigan as Driver
Balázs Lengyel as Gentleman
Daniel Hargrave as Sniper
Greg Rementer as Spotter
Daniel Bernhardt as Soldier
Cale Schultz as Boris
Attila Hasznosi as Protester in Berlin (uncredited)
Balázs Veres as Berlin Protester (uncredited)
Ronald Reagan as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 131

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	6
4 to 6	0	0
7 to 9	4	7
10 to 12	11	21
13 to 15	1	24
16 to 18	1	5
19 to 21	7	8
22 to 24	14	20
25 to 27	3	2
28 to 30	11	30
31 to 33	15	19
34 to 36	5	4
37 to 39	0	0
40 to 42	33	11
43 to 45	20	0
46 to 48	16	27
49 to 51	15	2
52 to 54	26	0
55 to 57	3	3
58 to 60	2	4
61 to 63	0	1
64 to 66	11	14
67 to 69	16	18
70 to 72	11	9
73 to 75	1	8
76 to 78	25	35
79 to 81	0	1
82 to 84	7	5
85 to 87	13	10
88 to 90	8	11
91 to 93	19	0
94 to 96	13	24
97 to 99	12	2
100 to 102	16	19
103 to 105	0	0
106 to 108	4	12
109 to 111	8	4
112 to 114	0	3
115 to 117	0	3
118 to 120	1	3
121 to 123	0	1
124 to 126	0	1
127 to 129	8	10
130 to 131	5	5

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.

LASALLE: I wasn’t certain you would show. BROUGHTON: How could I resist your invitation? LASALLE: You are finished with your work? BROUGHTON: I may be here for a while.

LASALLE: Ma cherie. This is how you like it? BROUGHTON: Oh yes.

BROUGHTON: I -- LASALLE: ... was with me. LASALLE: There are plenty of my friends who will confirm this.

BROUGHTON: You didn’t have to do that. LASALLE: When I didn’t hear from you, I got worried. LASALLE: I fear you are in danger. BROUGHTON: We’re all in danger here. You should pack and run back to Paris.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 48 are women's.

365 lines from women, 392 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

5 women and 21 men in the cast. 3 women and 11 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 9 of 797. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 32 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 41% of the words (2,831), men 59% (4,020). Women have 48% 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

6 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 26% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: David Leitch (man)
Written by: Kurt Johnstad (man)
Produced by: Charlize Theron (woman), A.J. Dix (gender not listed), Eric Gitter (man), Peter Schwerin (man), Beth Kono (woman), Kelly McCormick (woman)
Shot by: Jonathan Sela (man)
Edited by: Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir (woman)
Music by: Tyler Bates (man)
Production design by: David Scheunemann (man)
Costumes by: Cindy Evans (woman)
Cast by: Marisol Roncali (woman), Luise Eigner (gender not listed)