Fails the Bechdel test

Beasts of No Nation

Name: Beasts of No Nation
Released: 2015

2015. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, written by Cary Joji Fukunaga and Uzodinma Iweala.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

0 / 3

Fails

No 1. At least two women
Fewer than two women characters.
No 2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other.
No 3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 0 out of 3.

The film

Follows the journey of a young boy, Agu, who is forced to join a group of soldiers in a fictional West African country. While Agu fears his commander and many of the men around him, his fledgling childhood has been brutally shattered by the war raging through his country, and he is at first torn between conflicting revulsion and fascination Depicts the mechanics of war and does not shy away from explicit, visceral detail, and paints a complex, difficult picture of Agu as a child soldier.

Released: 16 Oct 2015
Genres: Drama, War
Rated: TV-MA
IMDb: 7.7 / 10
Metascore: 79 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award. 31 wins & 59 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Commandant 207 lines, man
Agu 156 lines, man
Two-I-C 41 lines, man
Father 39 lines, man
Preacher 19 lines, man
Goodblood 17 lines, man
Deputy 12 lines
Mother 11 lines, woman
Hope 10 lines, man
Big Brother 9 lines, man

Full cast, 21 people

Abraham Attah as Agu
Idris Elba as Commandant
Emmanuel Nii Adom Quaye as Strika
Opeyemi Fagbohungbe as Sergeant Gaz
Emmanuel Affadzi as Dike
Richard Pepple as Father Friday
Ama K. Abebrese as Mother
Kobina Amissah-Sam as Father
John Arthur as Angry Bush Taxi Driver
Kurt Egyiawan as 2nd I-C
Jude Akuwudike as Supreme Commander Dada Goodblood
Ricky Adelayitor as Village Constable
Ernest Abbeyquaye as Paramount Chief
Nana Mensah as Young Girl
Andrew Adote as Ecomod 2nd Lieutenant
Francis Weddey as Big Brother
Fred Nii Amugi as Pastor
Grace Nortey as Old Witch Woman
Emmary Brown as Grandfather
Nataliah Andoh as BBC Host
David Dontoh as Linguist

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 159

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 4	0	8
5 to 8	3	14
9 to 12	0	3
13 to 16	0	6
17 to 20	3	18
21 to 24	1	12
25 to 28	10	45
29 to 32	2	21
33 to 36	0	0
37 to 40	0	1
41 to 44	0	44
45 to 48	0	3
49 to 52	0	19
53 to 56	0	7
57 to 60	0	10
61 to 64	0	4
65 to 68	0	3
69 to 72	0	6
73 to 76	0	3
77 to 80	0	10
81 to 84	0	53
85 to 88	0	18
89 to 92	0	27
93 to 96	0	27
97 to 100	0	5
101 to 104	0	2
105 to 108	0	4
109 to 112	2	21
113 to 116	0	10
117 to 120	0	11
121 to 124	0	42
125 to 128	10	13
129 to 132	6	19
133 to 136	0	21
137 to 140	0	38
141 to 144	0	4
145 to 148	0	3
149 to 152	0	1
153 to 156	0	5
157 to 159	0	8

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 6 are women's.

37 lines from women, 569 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

4 women and 16 men in the cast. 3 women and 15 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 19 of 648. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 269 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 6% of the words (445), men 94% (7,008).

Exhibit D: 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 E: behind the camera

5 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 41% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Cary Joji Fukunaga (man)
Written by: Cary Joji Fukunaga (man)
From the novel by: Uzodinma Iweala (man)
Produced by: Riva Marker (woman), Daniela Taplin Lundberg (woman), Idris Elba (man), Daniel Crown (man), Cary Joji Fukunaga (man), Amy Kaufman (woman)
Shot by: Cary Joji Fukunaga (man)
Edited by: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen (man), Pete Beaudreau (man)
Music by: Dan Romer (man)
Production design by: Inbal Weinberg (woman)
Costumes by: Jenny Eagan (woman)