Fails the Bechdel test
Cool Runnings
1993. Directed by Jon Turteltaub, written by Lynn Siefert and Michael Ritchie and Tommy Swerdlow.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
2 women characters. 2 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
Four Jamaicans form their country's first ever bobsled team to compete in the upcoming 1988 Winter Olympics. They enlist the help of a disgraced former Olympic gold medal winner to reluctantly coach them. However, when they reach Calgary, they're treated as outsiders by the other teams, who fear they'll only succeed in embarrassing the sport.
- Released
- 01 Oct 1993
- Genres
- Adventure, Comedy, Family
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7 / 10
- Metascore
- 60 / 100
- Awards
- 2 wins & 2 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Irv 145 lines, man
- Derice 121 lines, man
- Sanka 105 lines, man
- Junior 66 lines, man
- Yul 55 lines, man
- Jim Mckay 19 lines
- Coolidge 17 lines, man
- Bevil 14 lines, man
- Joy 14 lines, woman
- Roger 10 lines, man
Full cast, 37 people
- Leon as Derice Bannock
- Doug E. Doug as Sanka Coffie
- Rawle D. Lewis as Junior Bevil
- Malik Yoba as Yul Brenner
- John Candy as Irv
- Raymond J. Barry as Kurt Hemphill
- Peter Outerbridge as Josef Grool
- Paul Cœur as Roger
- Larry Gilman as Larry
- Charles Hyatt as Whitby Bevil, Sr.
- Winston Stona as Coolidge
- Bertina Macauley as Joy Bannock
- Pauline Stone Myrie as Momma Coffie
- Kristoffer Cooper as Winston
- Bill Dow as Registration Official
- Jay Brazeau as Kroychzech
- Campbell Lane as Shindler
- Matthew Walker as German Official
- Christopher Gaze as British Official
- Jack Goth as Gremmer
- David Lovgren as Swiss Captain
- Kerwin Kerr as Boy #1
- Deamion Robinson as Boy #2
- Beverly Brown as Lady #1
- Cyrene Tomlinson as Lady #2
- Oliver Hunter as Joseph
- Fitz Weir as Uncle Ferte
- Teddy Price as Drunk
- Charles Harvey as Cop #1
- Clive Anderson as Cop #2
- Michael London as Heckler
- Lloyd Roache as Push Cart Darby Starter
- Cheryl Kroeker as Hotel Clerk
- Karyn J. Scott as Line Dancer
- Craig Lehto as Bobsled Starter
- Al Trautwig as Al Trautwig
- John Morgan as John Morgan
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 11% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 148
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 | 4 | 7 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 9 to 12 | 3 | 6 |
| 13 to 16 | 2 | 1 |
| 17 to 20 | 1 | 15 |
| 21 to 24 | 2 | 14 |
| 25 to 28 | 0 | 51 |
| 29 to 32 | 0 | 31 |
| 33 to 36 | 2 | 18 |
| 37 to 40 | 1 | 18 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 19 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 5 |
| 49 to 52 | 0 | 21 |
| 53 to 56 | 0 | 4 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 11 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 23 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 23 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 11 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 77 |
| 77 to 80 | 3 | 3 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 13 |
| 85 to 88 | 0 | 41 |
| 89 to 92 | 0 | 34 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 1 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 6 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 2 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 18 |
| 109 to 112 | 1 | 5 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 17 |
| 117 to 120 | 3 | 21 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 2 |
| 125 to 128 | 1 | 17 |
| 129 to 132 | 2 | 8 |
| 133 to 136 | 1 | 19 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 11 |
| 141 to 144 | 0 | 1 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 2 |
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.
26 lines from women, 584 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
2 women and 21 men in the cast. 2 women and 18 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 684.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 227 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 (221), men 97% (6,376). 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
1
Two men
56
Exhibit E: behind the camera
6 of the 14 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 29% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Jon Turteltaub (man)
- Written by
- Lynn Siefert (woman), Tommy Swerdlow (man), Michael Goldberg (man)
- Story by
- Lynn Siefert (woman), Michael Ritchie (man)
- Produced by
- Dawn Steel (woman)
- Shot by
- Phedon Papamichael (man)
- Edited by
- Bruce Green (man)
- Music by
- Hans Zimmer (man)
- Production design by
- Stephen Marsh (man)
- Costumes by
- Grania Preston (woman)
- Cast by
- Chemin Sylvia Bernard (woman), Jaki Brown (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
1 women, 13 men, 9 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
2 women, 3 men
-
Sound
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Men: 36 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Men
Rawle D. Lewis 19, Doug E. Doug 23, Malik Yoba 26, Peter Outerbridge 27, Leon 31, John Candy 42, Raymond J. Barry 54, Charles Hyatt 62
Exhibit G: the money
It made 11.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $14 million
- Box office
- $155 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 148 scenes and 684 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
