Fails the Bechdel test
Brick
2006. Directed by Rian Johnson, written by Rian Johnson.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 3 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
The lonely teenager Brendan finds his former girlfriend Emily dead in the entrance of a tunnel of sewage and recalls her phone call two days ago, when she said to him that she was in trouble. Brendan, who still loved Emily, met bad elements of his high-school trying to contact her, and when he succeeded, she told him that she was OK. He hides her body in the tunnel and decides to investigate the meaning and connection of four words, including "brick" and "pin", that Emily told him to find who killed her. Using the support of his nerd friend Brain, he successively meets the small time drug dealers Kara, Dode, Brad Bramish, Laura and Tugger, to reach the teenager powerful drug dealer The Pin. Slowly, Brendan unravels the motives why Emily was killed and plots a revenge.
- Released
- 14 Apr 2006
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Mystery
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 72 / 100
- Awards
- 11 wins & 23 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Brendan 395 lines, man
- The Brain 109 lines, man
- Laura 82 lines, woman
- Pin 79 lines, man
- Tugger 50 lines, man
- Dode 33 lines, man
- Kara 31 lines, woman
- Emily 22 lines, woman
- Trueman 19 lines, man
- Brad 18 lines, man
Full cast, 19 people
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Brendan Frye
- Nora Zehetner as Laura Dannon
- Matt O'Leary as The Brain
- Noah Fleiss as Tugger
- Lukas Haas as The Pin
- Meagan Good as Kara
- Emilie de Ravin as Emily Kostich
- Noah Segan as Dode
- Brian J. White as Brad Bramish
- Richard Roundtree as Assistant V.P. Trueman
- Jonathan Cauff as Biff
- Reedy Gibbs as Pin's Mom
- Lucas Babin as Big Stoner
- Ari Welkom as Tangles
- Tracy Bitterolf as Straggler
- Cody Lightning as The Lug
- McJoel Hamilton as The Pin's Driver (uncredited)
- Lauren Johnson as Woman Sweeping Backstage (uncredited)
- Dylan Lujano as Student (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 124
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 | 0 |
| 4 to 6 | 10 | 42 |
| 7 to 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 to 12 | 13 | 13 |
| 13 to 15 | 11 | 9 |
| 16 to 18 | 0 | 12 |
| 19 to 21 | 17 | 14 |
| 22 to 24 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 to 27 | 0 | 28 |
| 28 to 30 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 to 33 | 11 | 19 |
| 34 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 39 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 45 | 1 | 31 |
| 46 to 48 | 0 | 28 |
| 49 to 51 | 7 | 9 |
| 52 to 54 | 8 | 32 |
| 55 to 57 | 0 | 44 |
| 58 to 60 | 0 | 10 |
| 61 to 63 | 0 | 2 |
| 64 to 66 | 0 | 0 |
| 67 to 69 | 7 | 45 |
| 70 to 72 | 6 | 7 |
| 73 to 75 | 8 | 14 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 5 |
| 79 to 81 | 0 | 21 |
| 82 to 84 | 0 | 51 |
| 85 to 87 | 0 | 0 |
| 88 to 90 | 0 | 8 |
| 91 to 93 | 1 | 41 |
| 94 to 96 | 5 | 37 |
| 97 to 99 | 0 | 23 |
| 100 to 102 | 0 | 30 |
| 103 to 105 | 6 | 23 |
| 106 to 108 | 11 | 15 |
| 109 to 111 | 0 | 19 |
| 112 to 114 | 0 | 0 |
| 115 to 117 | 0 | 39 |
| 118 to 120 | 0 | 12 |
| 121 to 123 | 19 | 20 |
| 124 to 124 | 2 | 11 |
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, 17 are women's.
143 lines from women, 714 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
4 women and 12 men in the cast. 3 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 4 of 871.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 139 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 17% of the words (1,475), men 83% (7,407).
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
38
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Rian Johnson (man)
- Written by
- Rian Johnson (man)
- Produced by
- Ram Bergman (man), Mark G. Mathis (man)
- Shot by
- Steve Yedlin (man)
- Edited by
- Rian Johnson (man)
- Music by
- Nathan Johnson (man)
- Production design by
- Jodie Lynn Tillen (woman)
- Costumes by
- Michele Posch (woman)
- Cast by
- Shannon Makhanian (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
3 women, 3 men, 5 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 3 men, 5 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 24 on average. Men: 30 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Meagan Good 24, Emilie de Ravin 24, Nora Zehetner 25
Men
Matt O'Leary 18, Noah Fleiss 21, Noah Segan 22, Joseph Gordon-Levitt 25, Lukas Haas 29, Brian J. White 30, Richard Roundtree 63
Exhibit G: the money
It made 8.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $475,000
- Box office
- $3.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 124 scenes and 871 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
