Fails the Bechdel test
Bridge of Spies
2015. Directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen and Joel Coen.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
10 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
In 1957, lawyer James B. Donovan is recruited from his prestigious law firm to defend accused Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. It's an unenviable task in many respects. Donovan hasn't practiced criminal law since he was a prosecutor at the Nuremburg trials after World War II. Also, the strong anti-Communist mood at the time makes him a target from who think Abel should just be executed. Abel is convicted but Donovan convinces the judge to sentence him to prison, rather than execute him, as they may at some point in the future want to swap him for an American spy the Soviets might have in custody. Just such a scenario comes into play when in 1960 U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is shot down over Soviet territory and taken prisoner. Donovan is again recruited to act as the intermediary and negotiate swapping Able for the American requiring him to travel to East Berlin crossing the newly built Berlin Wall.
- Released
- 16 Oct 2015
- Genres
- Drama, History, Thriller
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 81 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 30 wins & 106 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Donovan 320 lines, man
- Abel 66 lines, man
- Hoffman 53 lines, man
- Schischkin 36 lines, man
- Vogel 33 lines, man
- Judge Byers 25 lines, man
- Mary 24 lines, woman
- Powers 21 lines, man
- Dulles 20 lines, man
- Man 17 lines, man
Full cast, 69 people
- Tom Hanks as James B. Donovan
- Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel
- Amy Ryan as Mary Donovan
- Alan Alda as Thomas Watters Jr.
- Sebastian Koch as Wolfgang Vogel
- Austin Stowell as Francis Gary Powers
- Billy Magnussen as Doug Forrester
- Michael Simon Hall as Reporter
- Edward James Hyland as Chief Justice Earl Warren
- Stephen Kunken as William Tompkins
- Mike Houston as Man in Courtroom
- James Lorinz as Gentleman on Subway #2
- Michael Power as NYPD
- Joe Starr as Courthouse Reporter #1
- Merab Ninidze as Soviet Main Interrogator
- Greg Nutcher as NYPD Lieutenant James
- Scott Shepherd as Hoffman
- Jesse Plemons as Joe Murphy
- Domenick Lombardozzi as Agent Blasco
- Eve Hewson as Carol Donovan
- Noah Schnapp as Roger Donovan
- Jillian Lebling as Peggy Donovan
- Michael Gaston as Agent Williams
- Peter McRobbie as Allen Dulles
- Joshua Harto as Bates
- Mark Zak as Soviet Judge - Powers' Trial
- John Ohkuma as FBI Agent
- Burghart Klaußner as Harald Ott
- Mikhail Gorevoy as Ivan Schischkin
- Max Mauff as Ott's Secretary
- Victor Verhaeghe as Agent Gamber
- Mark Fichera as FBI Agent #1
- Brian Hutchison as FBI Agent #2
- Dakin Matthews as Judge Byers
- Joel Brady as Police Officer - Brooklyn Courthouse
- John Rue as Lynn Goodnough
- Michael Pemberton as Lie Detector Test Administrator
- Jon Curry as Agent Somner
- Wes McGee as U2 Pilot
- Jim C. Ferris as Bailiff
- Haley Rawson as Teacher
- Ashlie Atkinson as Classroom Teacher
- Steven Boyer as Marty
- John Henry Cox as Partner at Watters Law Firm
- Daniela Schulz as Family #1 at Berlin Wall Construction
- Nadja Bobyleva as Katje
- Joe Forbrich as Pinker
- Patricia Squire as Older Lady on Subway
- Henny Russell as Receptionist
- Nolan Lyons as Classroom Boy #1
- Hayley Feinstein as Classroom Girl #1
- Victoria Leigh as Classroom Girl #2
- Jon Donahue as Agent Faye
- Victor Schefé as Soviet Translator
- Joachim Paul Assböck as East German Officer (uncredited)
- Rainer Reiners as Cab Driver (uncredited)
- Hamilton Clancy as Courthouse Reporter
- Tracy Howe as Angry NYPD Cop
- Michael Wren Gucciardo as Courtroom Reporter (uncredited)
- Rafael Gareisen as East German Youth
- Peter Conboy as Neighbor (uncredited)
- Ron Komora as Justice Lafayette Black (uncredited)
- Michael Schenk as Cousin Drews
- Sawyer Barth as Classroom Boy #2
- Will Rogers as Frederic Pryor
- Leonard Zimmerman as Sharp Elbowed Reporter (uncredited)
- Frederik Klaus as Citizen West-Berlin (uncredited)
- David L. Price as Vopo Officer
- Nils Malten as East German Guard (Donovan)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, 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 4
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 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 to 2 | 0 | 15 |
| 3 to 3 | 15 | 123 |
| 4 to 4 | 27 | 619 |
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, 5 are women's.
42 lines from women, 759 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
10 women and 57 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 41 of 847.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 217 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 (362), men 97% (10,183). Women have 5% 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
3
Two men
31
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 15 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 29% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Steven Spielberg (man)
- Written by
- Joel Coen (man), Ethan Coen (man), Matt Charman (man)
- Produced by
- Steven Spielberg (man), Marc Platt (man), Kristie Macosko Krieger (woman)
- Shot by
- Janusz Kamiński (man)
- Edited by
- Michael Kahn (man)
- Music by
- Thomas Newman (man)
- Production design by
- Adam Stockhausen (man)
- Costumes by
- Kasia Walicka Maimone (woman)
- Cast by
- Ellen Lewis (woman), Fritz Fleischhacker (man), Lucky Englander (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
13 women, 17 men, 17 not listed
-
Art
7 women, 16 men, 23 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
10 women, 6 men, 29 not listed
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 3 men, 31 not listed
-
Sound
4 women, 18 men, 5 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 8 men, 17 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 9 men, 14 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 8 men, 14 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 47 on average. Men: 50 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Amy Ryan 47
Men
Austin Stowell 30, Billy Magnussen 30, Stephen Kunken 44, Sebastian Koch 53, Mark Rylance 55, Tom Hanks 59, Alan Alda 79
Exhibit G: the money
It made 4.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $40 million
- Box office
- $165 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 4 scenes and 847 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
