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Passes the Bechdel test

Death Proof

2007. Directed by Quentin Tarantino, written by Quentin Tarantino.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    22 women characters. 51 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 5 scenes out of 26.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

Poster for Death Proof

The film

In Austin, Texas, the girlfriends Julia, Arlene and Shanna meet in a bar to drink, smoke and make out with their boyfriends before traveling alone to Lake LBJ to spend the weekend together. They meet the former Hollywood stuntman Mike, who takes Pam out in his "death-proof" stunt car. Fourteen months later, Mike turns up in Lebanon, Tennessee and chase Abernathy, Zoë and Kim, but these girls are tough and decide to pay-back the attack.

Released
31 May 2007
Genres
Drama, Thriller
Rated
R
IMDb
7 / 10
Awards
8 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Arlene 43 lines, woman
  2. Pam 37 lines, woman
  3. Jungle Julia 36 lines, woman
  4. Abernathy 31 lines, woman
  5. Kim 28 lines, woman
  6. Lee 25 lines, woman
  7. Stuntman Mike 23 lines, man
  8. Zoe 13 lines, woman
  9. Shanna 7 lines, woman
  10. Peg 4 lines, woman
Full cast, 35 people
  • Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike
  • Zoë Bell as Zoë Bell
  • Rosario Dawson as Abernathy
  • Vanessa Ferlito as Arlene
  • Sydney Tamiia Poitier as Jungle Julia
  • Tracie Thoms as Kim
  • Rose McGowan as Pam
  • Jordan Ladd as Shanna
  • Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Lee
  • Quentin Tarantino as Warren
  • Marcy Harriell as Marcy
  • Eli Roth as Dov
  • Omar Doom as Nate
  • Michael Bacall as Omar
  • Monica Staggs as Lanna Frank
  • Jonathan Loughran as Jasper
  • Marta Mendoza as Punky Bruiser
  • Tim Murphy as Tim the Bartender
  • Melissa Arcaro as Venus Envy
  • Michael Parks as Earl McGraw
  • James Parks as Edgar McGraw
  • Marley Shelton as Dr. Dakota Block (McGraw)
  • Nicky Katt as Counter Guy
  • Electra Avellan as Babysitter Twin #1
  • Elise Avellan as Babysitter Twin #2
  • Helen Kim as Peg
  • Tina Rodriguez as Juana
  • Kelley Robins Hicks as Laquanda
  • Eurlyne Epper as Lanna Frank Friend #1
  • Jamie L. Dunno as Lanna Frank Friend #2
  • Chris King as Extra (uncredited)
  • Julitta Pourciau as Female Business Class Passenger (uncredited)
  • Amanda Rivas as Nurse (uncredited)
  • Gary Teague as Businessman (uncredited)
  • Tommy Nix as Bar Patron (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 26

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 230
3 to 300
4 to 400
5 to 5260
6 to 600
7 to 700
8 to 8230
9 to 93510
10 to 1010
11 to 116632
12 to 1257
13 to 1310
14 to 1401
15 to 1500
16 to 16180
17 to 1700
18 to 1810
19 to 1910
20 to 2070
21 to 2191
22 to 2200
23 to 2300
24 to 24521
25 to 25223
26 to 2660

The evidence

  • Straight from the script
  • Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
JUNGLE JULIA: I'm comin’ down! ARLENE: Hold on, I gotta come up! I gotta take the world’ 8 biggest fuckin’ piss! JUNGLE JULIA: ; i. . “We can’t be late!
JUNGLE JULIA: Who’s holding? _ SHANNA: if you’ re not, then nobodye:... Sones on 3 fe ARLENE: "We were kinda hoping you-were.. | 2.4. _ SHANNA . ous Yeah, how are you not holding? | JUNGLE JULIA. . < Jesus Christ, Shanna, it’s not my … SHANNA: Okay, ' mean ‘girl © in a: high school movie, are you ‘through being angry? Pe JUNGLE | JULIA tr m not” angry.. —
JUNGLE JULIA: i. Where’ are you? “es _ Well come over ‘already, we’ re. : waiting for you. . a a | fs No,. we're not coming ‘over “there. You come over he… JUNGLE JULIA: Well not yet, but they’re on their way. So you ‘get 6n your way, too, Okay, hurry.:up’ ARLENE OO: T'm going. eut to have a smoke.”
ARLENE: You got two jobs,.to kiss good and make sure. my hair. don't get: wet. SHANNA: Another. big ass: Long Island Ice Tea. PETE: Bombay Shapphire® and tonic, no -ice.
ARLENE: She just made‘'me feel like an idiot for asking her about “her stupid ‘SXSW. ' It's just that time of year where - that’ s° Mall’ “anybody a… SHANNA: Look Julia's: always given. ‘herself | complete permission to be a bitch, ARLENE: ‘Nigga’ please, she’ s nota star! . At the most, you could consider her, a. local celebrity. Fuckin’ - Superhead ‘is more famous than her. A… ARLENE / SHANNA: Thank you Grace. .

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 83 are women's.

276 lines from women, 55 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

22 women and 11 men in the cast. 51 women and 22 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 5 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

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

Words spoken

Women speak 84% of the words (7,636), men 16% (1,476). Women have 83% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 2 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Quentin Tarantino (man)
Written by
Quentin Tarantino (man)
Produced by
Erica Steinberg (woman), Elizabeth Avellan (woman), Robert Rodriguez (man), Quentin Tarantino (man)
Shot by
Quentin Tarantino (man)
Edited by
Sally Menke (woman)
Production design by
Steve Joyner (man)
Costumes by
Nina Proctor (gender not listed)
Cast by
Mary Vernieu (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Other crew

    7 women, 17 men, 18 not listed

  • Production

    10 women, 7 men, 12 not listed

  • Sound

    2 women, 17 men, 6 not listed

  • Art

    1 women, 4 men, 15 not listed

  • Camera

    1 women, 7 men, 11 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    2 women, 4 men, 9 not listed

  • Lighting

    0 women, 2 men, 12 not listed

  • Editing

    4 women, 0 men, 8 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 30 on average. Men: 50 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Mary Elizabeth Winstead 22, Zoë Bell 28, Rosario Dawson 28, Vanessa Ferlito 29, Tracie Thoms 31, Jordan Ladd 32, Sydney Tamiia Poitier 33, Rose McGowan 33

Men

Quentin Tarantino 44, Kurt Russell 56

Exhibit H: the money

It made 1.2 times what it cost.

Budget
$25 million
Box office
$31.1 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 26 scenes and 356 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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