Fails the Bechdel test

Escape from L.A.

Name: Escape from L.A.
Released: 1996

1996. Directed by John Carpenter, written by John Carpenter and Nick Castle and Debra Hill.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
8 women characters. 7 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

The year is 2013 and Snake Plissken is back but this time it's L.A., which through the agency of earthquakes has become an island of the damned. But something has gone wrong in this new moral order, because the President's daughter has absconded to L.A. with a detonation device, and Snake is commandeered to retrieve it. But just below the surface there is a coiled Snake ready to strike.

Released: 09 Aug 1996
Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rated: R
IMDb: 5.7 / 10
Metascore: 54 / 100
Awards: 3 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Plissken 131 lines, man
Malloy 60 lines, man
Cuervo Jones 43 lines, man
Taslima 32 lines, woman
Hershe 23 lines, man
Pipeline 23 lines, man
Utopia 23 lines, woman
Spinal 21 lines, man
Pendejo Bob 19 lines, man
Brazen 14 lines, woman

Full cast, 30 people

Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken
Stacy Keach as Malloy
Steve Buscemi as Eddie
A. J. Langer as Utopia
Cliff Robertson as President
Bruce Campbell as Surgeon General of Beverly Hills
Pam Grier as Hershe Las Palamas
Peter Fonda as Pipeline
Georges Corraface as Cuervo Jones
Robert Carradine as Skinhead
Michelle Forbes as Brazen
Valeria Golino as Taslima
Peter Jason as Duty Sergeant
Leland Orser as Test Tube
Jeff Imada as Saigon Shadow
Al Leong as Hershe Gang Member
James Lew as Hershe Gang Member
Breckin Meyer as Surfer
Ina Romeo as Hooker
Jordan Baker as Police Anchor
Caroleen Feeney as Woman on Freeway
Paul Bartel as Congressman
Shelly Desai as Cloaked Figure
Julien Cesario as Mescalito (uncredited)
Thomas Rosales Jr. as Gang Member (uncredited)
John Koyama as Hershe Gang Member (uncredited)
Leo Lee as Hershe Gang Member (uncredited)
Stuart Quan as Hershe Gang Member (uncredited)
Wyatt Russell as Orphan Boy (uncredited)
Jamie Lee Curtis as Female Narrator (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, 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 139

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 3	4	0
4 to 6	7	0
7 to 9	0	3
10 to 12	2	1
13 to 15	7	1
16 to 18	5	6
19 to 21	8	32
22 to 24	4	7
25 to 27	0	7
28 to 30	0	11
31 to 33	0	7
34 to 36	0	2
37 to 39	0	0
40 to 42	0	3
43 to 45	0	0
46 to 48	1	2
49 to 51	0	0
52 to 54	0	6
55 to 57	0	6
58 to 60	3	10
61 to 63	0	9
64 to 66	0	0
67 to 69	12	10
70 to 72	3	3
73 to 75	5	19
76 to 78	12	6
79 to 81	0	5
82 to 84	6	17
85 to 87	0	0
88 to 90	1	14
91 to 93	1	2
94 to 96	7	12
97 to 99	1	10
100 to 102	0	26
103 to 105	2	8
106 to 108	0	45
109 to 111	0	9
112 to 114	0	6
115 to 117	0	7
118 to 120	0	4
121 to 123	1	6
124 to 126	2	8
127 to 129	1	17
130 to 132	0	0
133 to 135	0	1
136 to 138	0	0
139 to 139	0	0

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, 21 are women's.

95 lines from women, 348 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

8 women and 22 men in the cast. 7 women and 8 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 476. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 88 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 28% of the words (1,336), men 72% (3,464). Women have 21% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 19% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: John Carpenter (man)
Written by: John Carpenter (man), Debra Hill (woman), Kurt Russell (man)
Produced by: Debra Hill (woman), Kurt Russell (man)
Shot by: Gary B. Kibbe (man)
Edited by: Edward A. Warschilka (man)
Music by: John Carpenter (man), Shirley Walker (woman)
Production design by: Lawrence G. Paull (man)
Costumes by: Robin Michel Bush (gender not listed)
Cast by: Carrie Frazier (woman)

The crew, department by department

Other crew

12 women, 61 men, 12 not listed
Art

2 women, 8 men, 4 not listed
Costume & Make-Up

1 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
Writing

1 women, 4 men
Directing

0 women, 3 men
Production

2 women, 1 men
Camera

0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
Sound

1 women, 1 men

Women
Men
Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Women: 35 on average. Men: 49 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

A. J. Langer 22, Pam Grier 47

Men

Steve Buscemi 38, Bruce Campbell 38, Robert Carradine 42, Georges Corraface 43, Kurt Russell 45, Stacy Keach 55, Peter Fonda 56, Cliff Robertson 72

Exhibit G: the money

It made 85% of what it cost.

Budget: $50 million
Box office: $42.3 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 139 scenes and 476 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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