Fails the Bechdel test
Ex Machina
2015. Directed by Alex Garland, written by Alex Garland.
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 1 out of 3.
The film
Caleb, a 26 year old programmer at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl.
- Released
- 24 Apr 2015
- Genres
- Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.7 / 10
- Metascore
- 78 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 74 wins & 163 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Caleb 319 lines, man
- Nathan 251 lines, man
- Ava 159 lines, woman
- Jay 17 lines, man
- Automated Voice 12 lines
- Ex Machina 1 lines
- What - 1 lines
Full cast, 12 people
- Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb
- Alicia Vikander as Ava
- Oscar Isaac as Nathan
- Sonoya Mizuno as Kyoko
- Corey Johnson as Jay
- Claire Selby as Lily
- Symara A. Templeman as Jasmine
- Gana Bayarsaikhan as Jade
- Tiffany Pisani as Katya
- Elina Alminas as Amber
- Chelsea Li as Office Girl (uncredited)
- Dan Pappaspanos as Office Worker (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 142
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 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 to 6 | 0 | 26 |
| 7 to 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 to 12 | 0 | 5 |
| 13 to 15 | 0 | 3 |
| 16 to 18 | 0 | 23 |
| 19 to 21 | 0 | 7 |
| 22 to 24 | 29 | 61 |
| 25 to 27 | 0 | 31 |
| 28 to 30 | 0 | 3 |
| 31 to 33 | 0 | 18 |
| 34 to 36 | 36 | 51 |
| 37 to 39 | 0 | 36 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 45 | 0 | 0 |
| 46 to 48 | 0 | 1 |
| 49 to 51 | 0 | 0 |
| 52 to 54 | 34 | 57 |
| 55 to 57 | 0 | 12 |
| 58 to 60 | 0 | 3 |
| 61 to 63 | 5 | 36 |
| 64 to 66 | 8 | 6 |
| 67 to 69 | 0 | 13 |
| 70 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 75 | 0 | 24 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 0 |
| 79 to 81 | 29 | 28 |
| 82 to 84 | 2 | 28 |
| 85 to 87 | 0 | 2 |
| 88 to 90 | 0 | 0 |
| 91 to 93 | 0 | 0 |
| 94 to 96 | 0 | 0 |
| 97 to 99 | 0 | 0 |
| 100 to 102 | 0 | 5 |
| 103 to 105 | 0 | 0 |
| 106 to 108 | 11 | 8 |
| 109 to 111 | 0 | 45 |
| 112 to 114 | 3 | 32 |
| 115 to 117 | 1 | 15 |
| 118 to 120 | 0 | 0 |
| 121 to 123 | 1 | 4 |
| 124 to 126 | 0 | 0 |
| 127 to 129 | 0 | 2 |
| 130 to 132 | 0 | 1 |
| 133 to 135 | 0 | 1 |
| 136 to 138 | 0 | 0 |
| 139 to 141 | 0 | 0 |
| 142 to 142 | 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.
159 lines from women, 587 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
8 women and 4 men in the cast. 1 women and 3 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 106 of 760.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 105 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 15% of the words (1,062), men 85% (5,893). Women have 21% 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
0
Two men
24
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 28% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Alex Garland (man)
- Written by
- Alex Garland (man)
- Produced by
- Allon Reich (man), Andrew Macdonald (man)
- Shot by
- Rob Hardy (man)
- Edited by
- Mark Day (man)
- Music by
- Geoff Barrow (man), Ben Salisbury (man)
- Production design by
- Mark Digby (man)
- Costumes by
- Sammy Sheldon (woman)
- Cast by
- Francine Maisler (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
5 women, 9 men, 40 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 9 men, 41 not listed
-
Art
3 women, 8 men, 17 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 19 men, 6 not listed
-
Production
7 women, 5 men, 12 not listed
-
Camera
2 women, 3 men, 8 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 2 men, 8 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 2 men, 7 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 25 on average. Men: 40 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Tiffany Pisani 23, Elina Alminas 24, Alicia Vikander 26, Sonoya Mizuno 28
Men
Domhnall Gleeson 31, Oscar Isaac 35, Corey Johnson 53
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $15 million
- Box office
- $36.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 142 scenes and 760 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
