Passes the Bechdel test

In the Loop

Name: In the Loop
Released: 2009

2009. Directed by Armando Iannucci, written by Jesse Armstrong and Simon Blackwell and Armando Iannucci.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
12 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 7 scenes out of 124.
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

The US President and UK Prime Minister fancy a war. But not everyone agrees that war is a good thing. The US General Miller doesn't think so and neither does the British Secretary of State for International Development, Simon Foster. But, after Simon accidentally backs military action on TV, he suddenly has a lot of friends in Washington, DC. If Simon can get in with the right DC people, if his entourage of one can sleep with the right intern, and if they can both stop the Prime Minister's chief spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker rigging the vote at the UN, they can halt the war. If they don't... well, they can always sack their Director of Communications Judy, whom they never liked anyway and who's back home dealing with voters with blocked drains and a man who's angry about a collapsing wall.

Released: 04 Sep 2009
Genres: Comedy
Rated: Not Rated
IMDb: 7.4 / 10
Metascore: 83 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 16 wins & 43 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Simon 209 lines, man
Toby 188 lines, man
Malcolm 168 lines, man
Karen 113 lines, woman
Judy 87 lines, woman
Linton 63 lines, man
Liza 57 lines, woman
Suzy 51 lines, woman
General Miller 50 lines, man
Jamie 41 lines, man

Full cast, 31 people

Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker
Tom Hollander as Simon Foster
Gina McKee as Judy Molloy
James Gandolfini as Lt Gen. George Miller
Chris Addison as Toby Wright
Anna Chlumsky as Liza Weld
Paul Higgins as Jamie McDonald
Mimi Kennedy as Karen Clarke
Alex Macqueen as Sir Jonathan Tutt
Olivia Poulet as Suzy
David Rasche as Linton Barwick
James Smith as Michael Rodgers
Zach Woods as Chad
Enzo Cilenti as Bob Adriano
Johnny Pemberton as A.J. Brown
Steve Coogan as Paul Michaelson
Joanna Scanlan as Roz
Harry Hadden-Paton as Civil Servant
Samantha Harrington as Malcolm's Secretary
Lucinda Raikes as Reporter
James Doherty as Reporter
Reid Sasser as Airport Security Official
Chipo Chung as Annabelle Hsin
Del Pentecost as White House Tourist
Joanna Brookes as Mrs McDiarmid
Rita May as Mrs Michaelson
Eve Matheson as New Minister
Will Smith as New Advisor
Janelle Schmidt as Club Dancer (uncredited)
Natasha Sattler as Club Dancer (uncredited)
John Snowden as Government Minister

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 124

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	8
4 to 6	5	14
7 to 9	22	29
10 to 12	14	41
13 to 15	15	20
16 to 18	20	27
19 to 21	7	11
22 to 24	5	0
25 to 27	7	9
28 to 30	3	26
31 to 33	11	42
34 to 36	20	20
37 to 39	2	9
40 to 42	0	7
43 to 45	7	13
46 to 48	13	18
49 to 51	1	5
52 to 54	0	20
55 to 57	7	11
58 to 60	0	3
61 to 63	21	34
64 to 66	5	16
67 to 69	1	14
70 to 72	2	4
73 to 75	4	28
76 to 78	3	13
79 to 81	16	35
82 to 84	8	18
85 to 87	25	21
88 to 90	7	44
91 to 93	29	33
94 to 96	3	16
97 to 99	1	13
100 to 102	9	60
103 to 105	13	30
106 to 108	3	36
109 to 111	0	20
112 to 114	0	28
115 to 117	2	11
118 to 120	9	39
121 to 123	1	1
124 to 124	2	5

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.

JUDY: Thanks. SUZY: Is that all fine? JUDY: That's all fine. Thanks for that. SUZY: Thanks.

KAREN: Whichever committee they don't want me to be a member of, I want to be a member of that. It's a confused Groucho Marx. LIZA: Okay. Right.

KAREN: My teeth hurt. I think the veneers are chipped. Do they look chipped? LIZA: Well, I think that one, that one's always been there, right? I'm not sure. Have you got any painkillers? KAREN: Oh, don't look at my teeth.

LIZA: Hi. Hi. JUDY: What are you doing? You look like you're practicing baby massage.

KAREN: Where are at you at with the committees? LIZA: I got it down to two. The Aims and Policy Alignment Committee. Here - put some down your front - you don't want it to go down your... And th… KAREN: Well, it's not the first one. I set that one up. Does that really sound dull to you? I thought that was a good name. LIZA: Right, no, it is a good name.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 27 are women's.

323 lines from women, 852 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

12 women and 17 men in the cast. 5 women and 16 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 11 of 1,204. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 60 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 23% of the words (3,421), men 77% (11,601). Women have 27% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

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

Two men

103

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Armando Iannucci (man)
Written by: Jesse Armstrong (man), Simon Blackwell (man), Armando Iannucci (man), Tony Roche (man)
Produced by: Adam Tandy (man), Kevin Loader (man)
Shot by: Jamie Cairney (man)
Edited by: Billy Sneddon (man), Anthony Boys (man)
Music by: Adem Ilhan (man)
Production design by: Cristina Casali (woman)
Cast by: Sarah Crowe (gender not listed), Meredith Tucker (woman)