Fails the Bechdel test
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1978. Directed by Philip Kaufman, written by W.D. Richter and Jack Finney.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 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
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
The first remake of the paranoid infiltration classic moves the setting for the invasion from a small town to the city of San Francisco and starts as Matthew Bennell notices that several of his friends are complaining that their close relatives are in some way different. When questioned later they themselves seem changed as they deny everything or make lame excuses. As the invaders increase in number they become more open and Bennell, who has by now witnessed an attempted "replacement" realises that he and his friends must escape or suffer the same fate. But who can he trust to help him and who has already been snatched?
- Released
- 22 Dec 1978
- Genres
- Horror, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 75 / 100
- Awards
- 3 wins & 11 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Matthew 248 lines, man
- Elizabeth 158 lines, woman
- Bellicec 120 lines, man
- Nancy 69 lines, woman
- Kibner 63 lines, man
- Geoffrey 31 lines, man
- Katherine 14 lines, woman
- Boccardo 13 lines, man
- Detective 12 lines, man
- Mr. Teng 8 lines, man
Full cast, 31 people
- Donald Sutherland as Matthew Bennell
- Brooke Adams as Elizabeth Driscoll
- Leonard Nimoy as Dr. David Kibner
- Jeff Goldblum as Jack Bellicec
- Veronica Cartwright as Nancy Bellicec
- Art Hindle as Dr. Geoffrey Howell
- Lelia Goldoni as Katherine Hendley
- Kevin McCarthy as Running Man (Cameo)
- Don Siegel as Taxi Driver
- Tom Luddy as Ted Hendley
- Stan Ritchie as Stan
- David Fisher as Mr. Gianni
- Tom Dahlgren as Detective
- Garry Goodrow as Dr. Boccardo
- Jerry Walter as Restaurant Owner
- Maurice Argent as Chef
- Sam Conti as Street Barker
- Wood Moy as Mr. Tong
- R. Wong as Mrs. Tong
- Rose Kaufman as Outraged Woman
- Joe Bellan as Harry
- Sam Hiona as Policeman #1
- Lee McVeigh as Policeman #2
- Al Nalbandian as Rodent Man
- Lee Mines as School Teacher
- Robert Duvall as Priest on Swing (uncredited)
- Michael Chapman as Health Dept. Floor Cleaner (uncredited)
- Philip Kaufman as City Official on Phone (uncredited) (voice)
- Al Perez as PG&E Man (uncredited)
- Jeff Scheftel as Pod Person at Party (uncredited)
- Kevin Harris as Dr. of pods (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 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 88
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 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 3 | 5 |
| 7 to 8 | 5 | 24 |
| 9 to 10 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 to 12 | 2 | 0 |
| 13 to 14 | 1 | 1 |
| 15 to 16 | 4 | 6 |
| 17 to 18 | 8 | 12 |
| 19 to 20 | 18 | 19 |
| 21 to 22 | 6 | 6 |
| 23 to 24 | 4 | 33 |
| 25 to 26 | 7 | 4 |
| 27 to 28 | 6 | 3 |
| 29 to 30 | 27 | 63 |
| 31 to 32 | 7 | 10 |
| 33 to 34 | 6 | 9 |
| 35 to 36 | 4 | 3 |
| 37 to 38 | 4 | 1 |
| 39 to 40 | 11 | 48 |
| 41 to 42 | 5 | 8 |
| 43 to 44 | 3 | 4 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 0 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 1 |
| 49 to 50 | 2 | 25 |
| 51 to 52 | 1 | 7 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 6 |
| 55 to 56 | 9 | 55 |
| 57 to 58 | 23 | 33 |
| 59 to 60 | 4 | 2 |
| 61 to 62 | 11 | 6 |
| 63 to 64 | 11 | 19 |
| 65 to 66 | 11 | 27 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 0 |
| 69 to 70 | 2 | 4 |
| 71 to 72 | 4 | 6 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 9 |
| 75 to 76 | 1 | 1 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 0 |
| 79 to 80 | 1 | 2 |
| 81 to 82 | 29 | 56 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 to 86 | 6 | 6 |
| 87 to 88 | 7 | 6 |
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, 32 are women's.
254 lines from women, 531 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 24 men in the cast. 7 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 4 of 842.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 54 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 36% of the words (4,350), men 64% (7,706). Women have 32% 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
12
Two men
70
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Philip Kaufman (man)
- Written by
- W.D. Richter (man)
- From the novel by
- Jack Finney (man)
- Produced by
- Robert H. Solo (man)
- Shot by
- Michael Chapman (man)
- Edited by
- Douglas Stewart (man)
- Music by
- Denny Zeitlin (man)
- Production design by
- Charles Rosen (man)
- Costumes by
- Agnes Anne Rogers (woman), Aggie Guerard Rodgers (woman)
- Cast by
- Mary Goldberg (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Costume & Make-Up
4 women, 3 men
-
Sound
1 women, 4 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 1 men
-
Writing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 33 on average. Men: 44 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Brooke Adams 29, Veronica Cartwright 29, Lelia Goldoni 42
Men
Jeff Goldblum 26, Art Hindle 30, Tom Luddy 35, Donald Sutherland 43, Leonard Nimoy 47, Kevin McCarthy 64, Don Siegel 66
Exhibit G: the money
It made 7.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $3.5 million
- Box office
- $24.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 88 scenes and 842 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
