Fails the Bechdel test
Broken Arrow
1996. Directed by John Woo, written by Graham Yost.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
2 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 0 out of 3.
The film
Hale lives in the shadow of a mentor whose arrogance is his only religion. When the sky turns into a trap; Deakins drops the mask and the bombs to hold the world hostage for a payday. Hale survives the fall but carries the weight of his own naivety as he wanders the desert. He meets a ranger who knows the land better than he knows his own cockpit. The pilot leans into his desperation; lying and fighting to claw back the power he let slip away. Every move he makes to stop the clock only winds it tighter. He realizes too late that he is playing a game where the rules change as fast as the terrain.
- Released
- 09 Feb 1996
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 61 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 3 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Hale 196 lines, man
- Deakins 141 lines, man
- Terry 110 lines, woman
- Wilkins 39 lines, man
- Baird 26 lines, man
- Giles 26 lines, man
- Hale And Terry 26 lines
- Pritchett 19 lines, man
- Kelly 18 lines, man
- The Helicopter 16 lines
Full cast, 37 people
- John Travolta as Vic Deakins
- Christian Slater as Riley Hale
- Samantha Mathis as Terry Carmichael
- Delroy Lindo as Colonel Max Wilkins
- Frank Whaley as Giles Prentice
- Bob Gunton as Pritchett
- Howie Long as Kelly
- Jack Thompson as Chairman, Joint Chief of Staff
- Kurtwood Smith as Secretary of Defense Baird
- Vondie Curtis-Hall as Lt. Colonel Sam Rhodes
- Daniel von Bargen as Air Force General Creely
- Vyto Ruginis as Johnson
- Ousaun Elam as Lt. Thomas
- Shaun Toub as Max
- Casey Biggs as Novacek
- Jeffrey Stephan as Shepherd
- Joey Box as Frakes
- Jon W. Kishi as Daly
- Myke Schwartz as Brandt
- Jim Palmer as Lt. Reed
- Vince Deadrick Sr. as Jim
- Charlie Brewer as McKeller
- Gary Epper as Miller
- Mario Roberts as Carl
- J.N. Roberts as Moss
- Bruce Holman as Chairman Aid
- Carmen Argenziano as General Boone
- James MacDonald as Park Ranger Baker
- French Stewart as I.R. Crewman
- Jim Moyle as Pentagon Assistant
- Chris Mulkey as Major Hunt
- Henry Murph as Captain Johnson
- Tom Waddell as Capt. Wright
- Rosemary Schoppman as Wanda
- Raymond Cruz as Air Force Staff Officer at Casualty Briefing (uncredited)
- Tom Demille as Bombardier Engineer (uncredited)
- Scott Perry as Congressman (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 21% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 188
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 | 32 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 11 |
| 9 to 12 | 1 | 14 |
| 13 to 16 | 0 | 14 |
| 17 to 20 | 0 | 6 |
| 21 to 24 | 5 | 4 |
| 25 to 28 | 0 | 17 |
| 29 to 32 | 2 | 4 |
| 33 to 36 | 1 | 1 |
| 37 to 40 | 0 | 3 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 2 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 19 |
| 49 to 52 | 12 | 24 |
| 53 to 56 | 8 | 30 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 3 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 7 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 9 |
| 69 to 72 | 13 | 46 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 14 |
| 77 to 80 | 12 | 41 |
| 81 to 84 | 6 | 25 |
| 85 to 88 | 5 | 6 |
| 89 to 92 | 1 | 8 |
| 93 to 96 | 1 | 4 |
| 97 to 100 | 4 | 32 |
| 101 to 104 | 5 | 8 |
| 105 to 108 | 1 | 5 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 2 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 5 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 5 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 4 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 5 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 2 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 12 |
| 137 to 140 | 14 | 24 |
| 141 to 144 | 1 | 5 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 19 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 21 |
| 153 to 156 | 2 | 2 |
| 157 to 160 | 3 | 11 |
| 161 to 164 | 3 | 18 |
| 165 to 168 | 8 | 16 |
| 169 to 172 | 0 | 1 |
| 173 to 176 | 0 | 13 |
| 177 to 180 | 1 | 11 |
| 181 to 184 | 0 | 2 |
| 185 to 188 | 3 | 26 |
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, 16 are women's.
112 lines from women, 593 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
2 women and 35 men in the cast. 3 women and 45 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 57 of 892.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 56 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 14% of the words (1,451), men 86% (8,572). Women have 16% 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
71
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 24% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- John Woo (man)
- Written by
- Graham Yost (man)
- Produced by
- Bill Badalato (man), Terence Chang (man), Mark Gordon (man)
- Shot by
- Peter Levy (man)
- Edited by
- Joe Hutshing (man), John Wright (man), Steve Mirkovich (man)
- Music by
- Hans Zimmer (man)
- Production design by
- Holger Gross (man)
- Costumes by
- Mary Malin (woman)
- Cast by
- Donna Isaacson (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
5 women, 17 men, 17 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 15 men, 6 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 9 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 8 men, 5 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
7 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 8 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 4 men, 3 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 5 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 25 on average. Men: 42 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Samantha Mathis 25
Men
Christian Slater 26, Frank Whaley 32, Howie Long 36, Vondie Curtis-Hall 39, John Travolta 41, Delroy Lindo 43, Bob Gunton 50, Kurtwood Smith 52, Jack Thompson 55
Exhibit G: the money
It made 3.0 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $50 million
- Box office
- $150 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 188 scenes and 892 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
