Fails the Bechdel test
BlackBerry
2023. Directed by Matt Johnson, written by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff and Matt Johnson.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
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 1 out of 3.
The film
A company that toppled global giants before succumbing to the ruthlessly competitive forces of Silicon Valley. This is not a conventional tale of modern business failure by fraud and greed. The rise and fall of BlackBerry reveals the dangerous speed at which innovators race along the information superhighway.
- Released
- 13 Nov 2023
- Genres
- Biography, Comedy, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 78 / 100
- Awards
- 28 wins & 31 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Jim 265 lines, man
- Mike 244 lines, man
- Doug 175 lines, man
- Charles Purdy 32 lines, man
- John Woodman 32 lines, man
- Paul 24 lines, man
- Dara Frankel 23 lines, woman
- Scott 17 lines, man
- Austin 15 lines, man
- Casey Cowell 14 lines
Full cast, 37 people
- Jay Baruchel as Mike
- Glenn Howerton as Jim
- Matt Johnson as Doug
- Saul Rubinek as John Woodman
- Cary Elwes as Carl Yankowski
- Rich Sommer as Paul Stanos
- Michael Ironside as Charles Purdy
- Martin Donovan as Rick Brock
- Michelle Giroux as Dara Frankel
- SungWon Cho as Ritchie
- Mark Critch as Gary Bettman
- Kelly Van der Burg as Jasmine
- Gregory Ambrose Calderone as Young Businessman #1
- Laura Cilevitz as Shelly
- James Elliot Miniou as Callaghan Drummond
- Fuad Musayev as Derek
- Ethan Eng as Ethan
- Michael Scott as Michael
- Steve Hamelin as Steve
- Pranay Noel as Pranay
- Ben Petrie as Allan
- Jinny Wong as Bank Manager
- Lauren Howe as Bell Assistant
- Stephanie Moran as Peggy
- Maher El Hares as RIM 2 Engineer
- Conor Casey as Justin Fabian
- Lyndon Casey as Don McMurtry
- Dillon Casey as Mark Guibert
- Eric Osborne as Austin
- Derek Groulx as Security Derek
- Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll as Jack Manishen
- Elena Juatco as Dawn
- Al Bernstein as Building Manager
- Malakai Fox as Kai
- David Christo as Pilot
- Sean Jones as Small SEC Investor
- Evan Buliung as Stan Sigman (voice)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 150
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 | 0 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 31 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 23 |
| 13 to 16 | 3 | 27 |
| 17 to 20 | 0 | 19 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 70 |
| 25 to 28 | 0 | 29 |
| 29 to 32 | 0 | 8 |
| 33 to 36 | 6 | 79 |
| 37 to 40 | 0 | 22 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 16 |
| 45 to 48 | 4 | 66 |
| 49 to 52 | 1 | 49 |
| 53 to 56 | 0 | 51 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 22 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 13 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 6 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 1 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 1 |
| 77 to 80 | 0 | 0 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 15 |
| 85 to 88 | 0 | 5 |
| 89 to 92 | 0 | 4 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 26 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 23 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 24 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 22 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 25 |
| 113 to 116 | 7 | 34 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 46 |
| 121 to 124 | 4 | 48 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 51 |
| 129 to 132 | 6 | 17 |
| 133 to 136 | 6 | 20 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 22 |
| 141 to 144 | 0 | 8 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 0 |
| 149 to 150 | 0 | 0 |
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, 4 are women's.
37 lines from women, 923 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
7 women and 26 men in the cast. 5 women and 32 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 79 of 1,037.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 324 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 3% of the words (291), men 97% (8,696). Women have 4% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
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
0
Two men
82
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Matt Johnson (man)
- Written by
- Matt Johnson (man), Matthew Miller (man)
- Produced by
- Niv Fichman (man), Kevin Krikst (man), Fraser Ash (man), Matthew Miller (man)
- Shot by
- Jared Raab (man)
- Edited by
- Curt Lobb (man)
- Music by
- Jay McCarrol (man)
- Production design by
- Adam Belanger (man)
- Cast by
- Sara Kay (woman), Jenny Lewis (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 15 men, 5 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 10 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 7 men, 5 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
4 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men, 3 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 1 men, 3 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Men: 52 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Men
SungWon Cho 32, Matt Johnson 37, Jay Baruchel 40, Rich Sommer 45, Glenn Howerton 46, Cary Elwes 60, Martin Donovan 65, Michael Ironside 73, Saul Rubinek 74
Exhibit G: the money
It made 52% of what it cost.
- Budget
- $5 million
- Box office
- $2.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 150 scenes and 1,037 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
