Passes the Bechdel test
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
1991. Directed by Peter Hewitt, written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
9 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 62. -
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 1 out of 3.
The film
The world of our distant future is a veritable utopia, thanks to the lyrics of two simple-minded 20th-century rock-and-rollers, Bill S. Preston, Esq., and Ted "Theodore" Logan. However, a would-be conqueror threatens to throw history off-track by sending "most non-non-heinous" evil robot Bill and Teds back to kill their good counterparts. Finding themselves dead, the boys must outwit the Grim Reaper and traverse Heaven and Hell to return to the land of the living, rescue their "babes," and have a "most triumphant" concert at the all-important Battle of the Bands.
- Released
- 19 Jul 1991
- Genres
- Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 6.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 61 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 1 nomination total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Bill 196 lines, man
- Ted 146 lines, man
- Evil Bill 52 lines, man
- Teo 38 lines
- Evil Ted 33 lines, man
- De Nomolos 22 lines, man
- Bill/Ted 16 lines, man
- Evil Teo 16 lines, man
- Grimreaper 15 lines
- Oats 14 lines, man
Full cast, 48 people
- Keanu Reeves as Ted
- Alex Winter as Bill / Granny Preston
- William Sadler as Grim Reaper
- Joss Ackland as De Nomolos
- Pam Grier as Ms. Wardroe
- George Carlin as Rufus
- Amy Stoch as Missy
- Jim Martin as Sir James Martin
- Hal Landon Jr. as Captain Logan
- Annette Azcuy as Elizabeth
- Sarah Trigger as Joanna
- Chelcie Ross as Colonel Oats
- Taj Mahal as Gatekeeper
- Robert Noble as Bach
- Hal Landon Sr. as Thomas Edison
- Eleni Kelakos as Ria Paschelle
- Roy Brocksmith as Deputy James
- J. Patrick McNamara as Mr. Preston
- Dana Stevens as 1st Seance Member
- Valerie Spencer as 2nd Seance Member
- Kathryn Miller as 3rd Seance Member
- Carol Rosenthal as 4th Seance Member
- Chris Matheson as "Ugly" Seance Member
- Ed Solomon as "Stupid" Seance Member
- Anthony G. Schmidt as Dark Figure
- Brendan Ryan as Young Ted
- William Thorne as Young Bill
- Ed Gale as Station
- Arturo Gil as Station
- Tom Allard as Big Station
- Terry Finn as Heavenly Greeter
- John Ehrin as Albert Einstein
- Don Forney as Benjamin Franklin
- Michael Chambers as Good Robot Bill
- Bruno Falcon as Good Robot Ted
- Ed Cambridge as George Washington Carver
- Tad Horino as Confucius
- Peter Hewitt as The Smoker
- Les Claypool as Primus
- Tim Alexander as Primus
- Larry LaLonde as Primus
- Tanya Newbould as Kate Axelrod
- Frank Welker as The Devil/Station/Evil Easter Bunny (voice) (uncredited)
- Tony Cox as Station (uncredited)
- Tery Lockett as Futuristic Student (uncredited)
- Michael Mills as Nigel in Heaven (uncredited)
- Dennis Ott as Bit Part (uncredited)
- Tom Stern as Trenchcoat Man in Heaven (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 17% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 62
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 | 6 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 35 |
| 5 to 6 | 6 | 22 |
| 7 to 8 | 1 | 23 |
| 9 to 10 | 1 | 10 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 9 |
| 13 to 14 | 5 | 7 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 31 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 9 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 44 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 8 |
| 23 to 24 | 2 | 25 |
| 25 to 26 | 3 | 2 |
| 27 to 28 | 8 | 105 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 19 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 13 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 53 |
| 35 to 36 | 1 | 16 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 4 |
| 39 to 40 | 4 | 11 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 5 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 13 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 5 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 4 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 12 |
| 51 to 52 | 1 | 12 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 5 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 12 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 11 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 2 |
| 61 to 62 | 6 | 65 |
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.
ELIZABETH: They just seem so different. JOANNA: So cold. MISSY: You know ••• I had a strange experience with them myself--
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 6 are women's.
38 lines from women, 598 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
9 women and 33 men in the cast. 5 women and 51 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 58 of 767.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 142 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 8% of the words (488), men 92% (5,982). Women have 6% 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
91
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Peter Hewitt (man)
- Written by
- Chris Matheson (man), Ed Solomon (man)
- Produced by
- Scott Kroopf (man)
- Shot by
- Oliver Wood (man)
- Edited by
- David Finfer (man)
- Music by
- David Newman (man)
- Production design by
- David L. Snyder (man)
- Costumes by
- Marie France (woman)
- Cast by
- Karen Rea (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
4 women, 7 men, 2 not listed
-
Production
2 women, 10 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 4 men
-
Writing
0 women, 4 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 0 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 37 on average. Men: 41 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Amy Stoch 32, Pam Grier 42
Men
Keanu Reeves 26, Alex Winter 26, Jim Martin 29, William Sadler 41, Hal Landon Jr. 50, George Carlin 54, Joss Ackland 63
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $20 million
- Box office
- $38 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 62 scenes and 767 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
