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Fails the Bechdel test

Buried

2010. Directed by Rodrigo Cortés, written by Chris Sparling.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    6 women characters. 5 of them speak.
  2. No 2. Who talk to each other
    Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other.
  3. 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.

Poster for Buried

The film

Waking groggy in pitch darkness, Paul Conroy, an American truck driver working in Iraq in 2006, slowly realizes he is trapped inside a wooden coffin, buried alive. With his cigarette lighter, he can see the trap he is in, and he quickly realizes that there's not enough air for him to live long. He finds within the coffin a working cellphone, which allows him contact with the outside world. But the outside world proves not to be very helpful at finding a man buried in a box in the middle of the Iraqi desert. Paul must rely on his best resource--himself.

Released
15 Oct 2010
Genres
Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Rated
R
IMDb
6.9 / 10
Metascore
65 / 100
Awards
16 wins & 33 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Paul 397 lines, man
  2. Dan 125 lines, man
  3. Jabir 66 lines, man
  4. Alan Davenport 32 lines, man
  5. Rebecca 30 lines, woman
  6. Female 911 Operator 21 lines
  7. Donna 18 lines, woman
  8. Linda 16 lines, woman
  9. Maryanne 13 lines, woman
  10. Crt Operator 6 lines, woman
Full cast, 20 people
  • Ryan Reynolds as Paul Conroy
  • José Luis García Pérez as Jabir (voice)
  • Robert Paterson as Dan Brenner (voice)
  • Stephen Tobolowsky as Alan Davenport (voice)
  • Samantha Mathis as Linda Conroy (voice)
  • Ivana Miño as Pamela Lutti (voice)
  • Warner Loughlin as Maryanne Conroy / Donna Mitchell / Rebecca Browning (voice)
  • Erik Palladino as Special Agent Harris (voice)
  • Kali Rocha as 911 Operator (voice)
  • Chris William Martin as State Department Rep. (voice)
  • Cade Dundish as Shane Conroy (voice)
  • Mary Birdsong as 411 Female Operator (voice)
  • Kirk Baily as 411 Male Operator (voice)
  • Anne Lockhart as CRT Operator (voice)
  • Robert Clotworthy as CRT Spokesman (voice)
  • Michalla Petersen as Nursing Home Nurse (voice)
  • Juan Hidalgo as Kidnapper (voice)
  • Abdelilah Ben Massou as Kidnapper (voice)
  • Joe Guarneri as Additional Voice (voice)
  • Heath Centazzo as Additional Voice (voice)

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
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 100
2 to 2797
3 to 361273
4 to 417253

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, 12 are women's.

85 lines from women, 623 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

6 women and 9 men in the cast. 5 women and 5 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 55 of 744. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 201 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 10% of the words (616), men 90% (5,696). Women have 12% 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

Exhibit E: behind the camera

None of the 7 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 0% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Rodrigo Cortés (man)
Written by
Chris Sparling (man)
Produced by
Adrián Guerra (man), Peter Safran (man)
Shot by
Eduard Grau (man)
Edited by
Rodrigo Cortés (man)
Music by
Víctor Reyes (man)

The crew, department by department

  • Production

    0 women, 6 men, 3 not listed

  • Sound

    0 women, 5 men, 2 not listed

  • Art

    0 women, 0 men, 2 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    0 women, 0 men, 2 not listed

  • Other crew

    0 women, 0 men, 2 not listed

  • Directing

    0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed

  • Camera

    0 women, 1 men

  • Editing

    0 women, 1 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Women: 39 on average. Men: 41 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Kali Rocha 38, Samantha Mathis 40

Men

Ryan Reynolds 33, Chris William Martin 35, José Luis García Pérez 38, Erik Palladino 42, Stephen Tobolowsky 59

Exhibit G: the money

It made 9.6 times what it cost.

Budget
$2 million
Box office
$19.2 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 4 scenes and 744 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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