Passes the Bechdel test
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
2004. Directed by Danny Leiner, written by Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 9 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 153. -
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.
The film
Harold Lee and Kumar Patel are two stoners who end up getting the munchies. What they crave the most after seeing a TV advertisement, is a trip to White Castle. So from here, follows a journey for the burgers they require. On their way they will encounter many obstacles including a raccoon, a racist officer, and a horny Neil Patrick Harris.
- Released
- 30 Jul 2004
- Genres
- Adventure, Comedy
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7 / 10
- Metascore
- 64 / 100
- Awards
- 3 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Kumar 345 lines, man
- Harold 304 lines, man
- Officer Palumbo 16 lines, man
- Cole 15 lines, man
- Neil 15 lines, man
- Hippie Asshole 14 lines, man
- Billy 13 lines, man
- Freak Show 13 lines, man
- Goldstein 13 lines, man
- Liane 13 lines, woman
Full cast, 41 people
- John Cho as Harold Lee
- Kal Penn as Kumar Patel
- Paula Garcés as Maria
- Neil Patrick Harris as Neil Patrick Harris
- David Krumholtz as Seth Goldstein
- Eddie Kaye Thomas as Rosenberg
- Christopher Meloni as Freakshow
- Malin Akerman as Liane
- Ryan Reynolds as Male Nurse
- Fred Willard as Dr. Willoughby
- Kate Kelton as Christy
- Brooke D'Orsay as Clarissa
- Siu Ta as Cindy Kim
- Steve Braun as Cole
- Bobby Lee as Kenneth Park
- Dov Tiefenbach as Hippie Student
- Anthony Anderson as Burger Shack Employee
- Gary Anthony Williams as Tarik
- Rob Tinkler as J.D.
- Ethan Embry as Billy Carver
- Boyd Banks as E.R. Patient
- Dan Bochart as Extreme Sports Punk #1
- Mike Sheer as 'I'm So High' Kid
- Christopher Thompson as 'Don't You Wanna Be Cool' Kid
- Angelo Tsarouchas as Mean Tollbooth Guy
- Albert Howell as Security Guard
- Errol Sitahal as Dr. Patel
- Shaun Majumder as Saikat Patel
- Rick Sood as Indian Cashier
- Sandy Jobin-Bevans as Officer Palumbo
- Brad Borbridge as Officer Martone
- Frank Spadone as Officer Reilly
- Jordan Prentice as Giant Bag of Weed
- Gary Archibald as Nathaniel Brooks
- John Boylan as Officer Brucks
- Dan Warry-Smith as White Castle Teenager
- Thea Andrews as Female Anchor
- Jamie Kennedy as Creepy Guy (uncredited)
- Jon Hurwitz as Tony (uncredited)
- Hayden Schlossberg as Hayden (uncredited)
- Frank Meschkuleit as Raccoon (puppeteer)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 153
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 | 0 | 12 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 23 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 3 |
| 13 to 16 | 5 | 8 |
| 17 to 20 | 1 | 14 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 15 |
| 25 to 28 | 0 | 37 |
| 29 to 32 | 0 | 16 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 19 |
| 37 to 40 | 0 | 20 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 7 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 31 |
| 49 to 52 | 8 | 44 |
| 53 to 56 | 10 | 17 |
| 57 to 60 | 7 | 9 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 21 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 40 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 24 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 54 |
| 77 to 80 | 13 | 49 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 12 |
| 85 to 88 | 0 | 81 |
| 89 to 92 | 1 | 48 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 4 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 0 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 28 |
| 105 to 108 | 3 | 28 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 27 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 10 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 0 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 2 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 3 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 4 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 19 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 17 |
| 141 to 144 | 1 | 46 |
| 145 to 148 | 4 | 3 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 33 |
| 153 to 153 | 1 | 17 |
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.
CHRISTY: We're just gonna eat before this gets cold. What do you say we meet you back in our room in twenty minutes? CLARISSA: We're in room 109.
CHRISTY: Oh great. Now I think I have to go. CLARISSA: Ahhhhh! CHRISTY: Hey Clarissa. Do you wanna play battle shits? CLARISSA: Oh my God. We haven't played that since back in camp!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 6 are women's.
54 lines from women, 845 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
6 women and 32 men in the cast. 9 women and 22 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 42 of 931.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 181 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 6% of the words (820), men 94% (12,017).
Exhibit E: 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
6
Two men
87
Exhibit F: behind the camera
4 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 25% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Danny Leiner (man)
- Written by
- Jon Hurwitz (man), Hayden Schlossberg (man)
- Produced by
- Nathan Kahane (man), Greg Shapiro (man)
- Shot by
- Bruce Douglas Johnson (man)
- Edited by
- Jeff Betancourt (man)
- Music by
- David Kitay (man)
- Production design by
- Steve Rosenzweig (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Alex Kavanagh (woman)
- Cast by
- Cassandra Kulukundis (woman), Robin D. Cook (woman), Nicole Hilliard-Forde (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
3 women, 9 men, 2 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 7 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 3 men
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men
-
Art
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 28 on average. Men: 35 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Malin Akerman 26, Paula Garcés 30
Men
Eddie Kaye Thomas 23, David Krumholtz 26, Kal Penn 27, Ryan Reynolds 27, Neil Patrick Harris 31, John Cho 32, Christopher Meloni 43, Fred Willard 70
Exhibit H: the money
It made 2.7 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $9 million
- Box office
- $23.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 153 scenes and 931 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
