Fails the Bechdel test

Death Note

Name: Death Note
Released: 2017

2017. Directed by Adam Wingard, written by Charley Parlapanides and Vlas Parlapanides and Jeremy Slater.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

0 / 3

Fails

No 1. At least two women
Fewer than two women characters.
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

Light Turner, a bright student, stumbles across a mystical notebook that has the power to kill any person whose name he writes in it. Light decides to launch a secret crusade to rid the streets of criminals. Soon, the student-turned-vigilante finds himself pursued by a famous detective known only by the alias L.

Released: 25 Aug 2017
Genres: Crime, Drama, Fantasy
Rated: TV-MA
IMDb: 4.5 / 10
Metascore: 43 / 100
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Luke 274 lines, man
Capt. Murray 113 lines, man
Sophia 67 lines, woman
L 64 lines, man
Brett 46 lines, man
Dt. Goemmans 29 lines
Sarah 24 lines, man
Dalton 14 lines, man
Newscaster 13 lines
Dt. Washington 12 lines

Full cast, 65 people

Nat Wolff as Light Turner
LaKeith Stanfield as L
Margaret Qualley as Mia Sutton
Shea Whigham as James Turner
Willem Dafoe as Ryuk (voice)
Jason Liles as Ryuk
Paul Nakauchi as Watari
Jack Ettlinger as Kenny Doyle
Matthew Kevin Anderson as Agent Young
Chris Britton as Peltz
Timothy Lambert as Dr. Norman Ludlam
Kwesi Ameyaw as Undercover Agent #1
Justin Stone as Undercover Agent #2
Christian Sloan as Agent Franks
Artin John as Anthony Skomal
Tony Ali as Taliban Leader
Anousha Alamian as Taliban Soldier
David S. Jung as Dictator
Jess McLeod as Teenage Girl
Michelle Choi-Lee as Mom
Sofy Chen as Daughter
Keanu Lam as Freshman Kid
Jesse Stretch as James Brode
Masi Oka as Detective Sasaki
Maxwell Barton as Jock
Paul McGillion as Principal
Anup Sehdev as Restaurant Worker
Cole Vigue as Ride Operator
Fraser Corbett as Waiter
Shayan Moallef as Young Couple (Male)
Kate Dion-Richard as Young Couple (Female)
Jackie Blackmore as Teacher in Charge
Evelyn Chew as Teacher
DaeYoung Danny Kim as Busboy
Michael Shamus Wiles as Captain
Beau Han Bridge as Brandon
Chris Webb as Military Contractor #1
Rhys Williams as Military Contractor #2
Natalie Moon as British News Anchor
Shanel Pratap as News Anchor #3
Bowen Zhang as Chinese News Anchor
Sonia Beeksma as American News Anchor
William B. Davis as Radio Host
Kyle Donaldson as Male Reporter
Dawn Chubai as Female Reporter
Alessandro Miro as Douchebag Bro #1
Albert Nicholas as Douchebag Bro #2
Wyatt Cameron as Kenny's Cronie
Cameron Forbes as FBI Director Pearl
Howie Lai as FBI Assistant
Matthew Mandzij as NYPD Officer
Artur Stofel as German Newscaster
Arlina Rodríguez as Mexican Newscaster
Eileen Pedde as New Teacher
Barbara Beall as Assistant (uncredited)
Lia Lam as Nightclub Girl (uncredited)
Olena Medwid as Russian News Anchor (uncredited)
Ash Lee as Officer (uncredited)
Michelle Kim McCoy as Night Club Girl #2 (uncredited)
Colin Corrigan as Cop (uncredited)
Sarah Ziolkowski as Passerby (uncredited)
Scott Seol as Prisoner (uncredited)
Jesse Irving as Homecoming King (uncredited)
Addison Gosselin as Brodie's Daughter (uncredited)
Juanpaolo Mercado as Top Hat Guy (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 18% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 227

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 5	0	1
6 to 10	7	20
11 to 15	0	3
16 to 20	7	26
21 to 25	13	19
26 to 30	1	16
31 to 35	0	11
36 to 40	5	8
41 to 45	0	2
46 to 50	0	49
51 to 55	5	11
56 to 60	3	17
61 to 65	0	16
66 to 70	3	5
71 to 75	1	1
76 to 80	1	21
81 to 85	0	21
86 to 90	0	15
91 to 95	4	25
96 to 100	6	28
101 to 105	0	24
106 to 110	0	17
111 to 115	0	8
116 to 120	0	2
121 to 125	3	6
126 to 130	2	17
131 to 135	7	12
136 to 140	3	12
141 to 145	3	31
146 to 150	0	1
151 to 155	0	1
156 to 160	0	0
161 to 165	0	20
166 to 170	0	15
171 to 175	0	15
176 to 180	0	11
181 to 185	0	7
186 to 190	3	12
191 to 195	1	11
196 to 200	0	9
201 to 205	5	6
206 to 210	2	5
211 to 215	0	15
216 to 220	0	9
221 to 225	0	8
226 to 227	1	4

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, 13 are women's.

86 lines from women, 593 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

14 women and 37 men in the cast. 3 women and 5 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 9 of 825. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 101 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 8% of the words (591), men 92% (6,462). Women have 13% 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

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

4 of the 18 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 34% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Adam Wingard (man)
Written by: Jeremy Slater (man), Vlas Parlapanides (man), Charley Parlapanides (man)
Produced by: Masi Oka (man), Roy Lee (man), Dan Lin (man), Jason Hoffs (man), Ted Sarandos (man)
Shot by: David Tattersall (man)
Edited by: Louis F. Cioffi (man)
Music by: Leopold Ross (man), Atticus Ross (man)
Production design by: Tom Hammock (man)
Costumes by: Emma Potter (woman)
Cast by: Laray Mayfield (woman), Jennifer Page (woman), Julie Schubert (woman)