Fails the Bechdel test
Hostage
2005. Directed by Florent-Emilio Siri, written by Robert Crais and Doug Richardson.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 6 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
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
Jeff Talley, a former LAPD hostage negotiator, has moved himself away from his failed career outside of Los Angeles, and away from his wife and daughter when three perpetrators move in on an unsuspecting family. But the family's father has a secret which might compromise his kin, and one of the criminals is about to jump over the edge. Jeff Talley has to get everybody to survive the night......if he can.
- Released
- 11 Mar 2005
- Genres
- Action, Crime, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 44 / 100
- Awards
- 4 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Talley 265 lines, man
- Dennis 140 lines, man
- Jennifer 54 lines, woman
- Kevin 51 lines, man
- Mars 44 lines, man
- Thomas 43 lines, man
- Howell 42 lines, man
- Walter 28 lines, man
- The Watchman 22 lines, man
- Louise 21 lines, woman
Full cast, 20 people
- Bruce Willis as Jeff Talley
- Ben Foster as Mars Krupcheck
- Jonathan Tucker as Dennis Kelly
- Jimmy Bennett as Tommy Smith
- Michelle Horn as Jennifer Smith
- Marshall Allman as Kevin Kelly
- Kevin Pollak as Walter Smith
- Rumer Willis as Amanda Talley
- Robert Knepper as Wil Bechler
- Kim Coates as The Watchman
- Glenn Morshower as Lt. Leifitz
- Serena Scott Thomas as Jane Talley
- Marjean Holden as Carol Flores
- Kathryn Joosten as Louise
- Art LaFleur as Bill Jorgenson
- Sven-Ole Thorsen
- Peter Weireter as Ventura County Sheriff Sniper (uncredited)
- Tina Lifford as Laura Shoemaker
- Ransford Doherty as Mike Anders
- Michael D. Roberts as Ridley
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 11% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 156
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 | 34 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 17 |
| 9 to 12 | 1 | 9 |
| 13 to 16 | 2 | 17 |
| 17 to 20 | 1 | 5 |
| 21 to 24 | 13 | 8 |
| 25 to 28 | 12 | 57 |
| 29 to 32 | 7 | 26 |
| 33 to 36 | 2 | 23 |
| 37 to 40 | 8 | 20 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 17 |
| 45 to 48 | 5 | 31 |
| 49 to 52 | 4 | 15 |
| 53 to 56 | 8 | 18 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 7 |
| 61 to 64 | 0 | 9 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 2 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 4 |
| 73 to 76 | 5 | 28 |
| 77 to 80 | 5 | 26 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 6 |
| 85 to 88 | 2 | 21 |
| 89 to 92 | 4 | 15 |
| 93 to 96 | 2 | 48 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 38 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 13 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 4 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 35 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 43 |
| 117 to 120 | 5 | 28 |
| 121 to 124 | 6 | 7 |
| 125 to 128 | 0 | 9 |
| 129 to 132 | 5 | 13 |
| 133 to 136 | 3 | 4 |
| 137 to 140 | 3 | 9 |
| 141 to 144 | 0 | 1 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 8 |
| 149 to 152 | 1 | 23 |
| 153 to 156 | 1 | 37 |
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.
105 lines from women, 735 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
6 women and 14 men in the cast. 6 women and 10 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 62 of 945.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 189 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 9% of the words (701), men 91% (6,923). 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
2
Two men
62
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 15 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 11% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Florent-Emilio Siri (man)
- Written by
- Doug Richardson (man)
- From the novel by
- Robert Crais (man)
- Produced by
- Mark Gordon (man), Arnold Rifkin (man), Bob Yari (man), Bruce Willis (man)
- Shot by
- Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci (man)
- Edited by
- Olivier Gajan (man), Richard Byard (gender not listed)
- Music by
- Alexandre Desplat (man)
- Production design by
- Larry Fulton (man)
- Costumes by
- Elisabetta Beraldo (woman)
- Cast by
- Scot Boland (man), Victoria Burrows (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
3 women, 18 men, 11 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 16 men, 12 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 7 men, 7 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 13 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 9 men, 5 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 2 men, 6 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 2 men, 5 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 5 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 17 on average. Men: 33 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Rumer Willis 16, Michelle Horn 18
Men
Jimmy Bennett 9, Marshall Allman 20, Jonathan Tucker 22, Ben Foster 24, Robert Knepper 45, Kevin Pollak 47, Kim Coates 47, Bruce Willis 49
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $52 million
- Box office
- $77.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 156 scenes and 945 lines of dialogue. How the test works
