Fails the Bechdel test
Iron Man
2008. Directed by Jon Favreau, written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
22 women characters. 4 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
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.
The film
Tony Stark. Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. Son of legendary inventor and weapons contractor Howard Stark. When Tony Stark is assigned to give a weapons presentation to an Iraqi unit led by Lt. Col. James Rhodes, he's given a ride on enemy lines. That ride ends badly when Stark's Humvee that he's riding in is attacked by enemy combatants. He survives - barely - with a chest full of shrapnel and a car battery attached to his heart. In order to survive he comes up with a way to miniaturize the battery and figures out that the battery can power something else. Thus Iron Man is born. He uses the primitive device to escape from the cave in Iraq. Once back home, he then begins work on perfecting the Iron Man suit. But the man who was put in charge of Stark Industries has plans of his own to take over Tony's technology for other matters.
- Released
- 02 May 2008
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.9 / 10
- Metascore
- 79 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 25 wins & 73 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Tony 308 lines, man
- Pepper 125 lines, woman
- Obadiah 76 lines, man
- Rhodey 69 lines, man
- Yinsen 55 lines, man
- Jarvis 37 lines, man
- Raza 23 lines, man
- Coulson 18 lines, man
- Christine 16 lines, woman
- Major Allen 16 lines, man
Full cast, 65 people
- Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark
- Terrence Howard as Rhodey
- Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane
- Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts
- Leslie Bibb as Christine Everhart
- Shaun Toub as Yinsen
- Faran Tahir as Raza
- Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson
- Bill Smitrovich as General Gabriel
- Sayed Badreya as Abu Bakaar
- Paul Bettany as Jarvis (voice)
- Jon Favreau as Hogan
- Peter Billingsley as William Ginter Riva
- Tim Guinee as Major Allen
- Will Lyman as Award Ceremony Narrator (voice)
- Tom Morello as Guard
- Marco Khan as Guard
- Dastan Khalili as Guard
- Ido Mor as Guard
- Kevin Foster as Jimmy
- Garret Noël as Pratt
- Eileen Weisinger as Ramirez
- Ahmed Ahmed as Ahmed
- Fahim Fazli as Omar
- Gerard Sanders as Howard Stark
- Tim Rigby as Viper 1
- Russell Richardson as Viper 2
- Nazanin Boniadi as Amira Ahmed
- Thomas Craig Plumer as Colonel Craig
- Robert Berkman as Dealer at Craps Table
- Stacy Stas Hurst as Woman at Craps Table
- Lauren Scyphers as Woman at Craps Table
- Frank Nyi as Engineer
- Marvin Jordan as Air Force Officer
- Jim Cramer as Jim Cramer
- Donna Evans as Woman In SUV
- Reid Harper as Kid in SUV
- Summer Kylie Remington as Kid in SUV
- Ava Rose Williams as Kid in SUV
- Vladimir Kubr as Kid in SUV
- Callie Croughwell as Kid in SUV
- Javan Tahir as Gulmira Kid
- Sahar Bibiyan as Gulmira Mom
- Patrick O'Connell as Reporter
- Adam Harrington as Reporter
- Meera Simhan as Reporter
- Ben Newmark as Reporter
- Ricki Lander as Flight Attendant
- Jeannine Kaspar as Flight Attendant
- Sarah Cahill as Flight Attendant
- Stan Lee as Stan Lee
- Justin Rex as Air Force Lieutenant
- Zorianna Kit as Zorianna Kit
- Lana Kinnear as Stan's Girl
- Nicole Lindeblad as Stan's Girl
- Masha Lund as Stan's Girl
- Gabrielle Tuite as Stan's Girl
- Tim Griffin as CAOC Analyst
- Joshua Harto as CAOC Analyst
- Micah A. Hauptman as CAOC Analyst
- James Bethea as CAOC Analyst
- Mike Cochrane as Gulmira Villager (uncredited)
- Flavia Manes Rossi as Reporter (uncredited)
- Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (uncredited)
- Kristin J. Hooper as Reporter (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 9% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 98
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 | 1 | 15 |
| 4 to 6 | 14 | 51 |
| 7 to 9 | 15 | 12 |
| 10 to 12 | 1 | 12 |
| 13 to 15 | 0 | 20 |
| 16 to 18 | 0 | 29 |
| 19 to 21 | 2 | 51 |
| 22 to 24 | 4 | 41 |
| 25 to 27 | 0 | 16 |
| 28 to 30 | 0 | 4 |
| 31 to 33 | 0 | 3 |
| 34 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 39 | 3 | 9 |
| 40 to 42 | 6 | 33 |
| 43 to 45 | 1 | 21 |
| 46 to 48 | 34 | 65 |
| 49 to 51 | 0 | 27 |
| 52 to 54 | 5 | 40 |
| 55 to 57 | 11 | 25 |
| 58 to 60 | 2 | 3 |
| 61 to 63 | 0 | 3 |
| 64 to 66 | 0 | 54 |
| 67 to 69 | 0 | 18 |
| 70 to 72 | 14 | 36 |
| 73 to 75 | 9 | 12 |
| 76 to 78 | 2 | 22 |
| 79 to 81 | 3 | 8 |
| 82 to 84 | 8 | 13 |
| 85 to 87 | 2 | 8 |
| 88 to 90 | 2 | 4 |
| 91 to 93 | 2 | 0 |
| 94 to 96 | 4 | 10 |
| 97 to 98 | 0 | 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, 18 are women's.
145 lines from women, 671 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
22 women and 43 men in the cast. 4 women and 24 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 6 of 896.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 115 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 14% of the words (1,249), men 86% (7,657). Women have 18% 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
1
Two men
71
Exhibit E: behind the camera
4 of the 15 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 13% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Jon Favreau (man)
- Written by
- Mark Fergus (man), Hawk Ostby (man), Art Marcum (man), Matt Holloway (man)
- Produced by
- Avi Arad (man), Kevin Feige (man)
- Shot by
- Matthew Libatique (man)
- Edited by
- Dan Lebental (man)
- Music by
- Ramin Djawadi (man)
- Production design by
- J. Michael Riva (man)
- Costumes by
- Rebecca Gregg (woman), Laura Jean Shannon (woman)
- Cast by
- Sarah Halley Finn (woman), Randi Hiller (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
9 women, 91 men, 19 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 13 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 10 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 6 men, 4 not listed
-
Visual Effects
2 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 8 men
-
Directing
2 women, 5 men
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 35 on average. Men: 48 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Leslie Bibb 34, Gwyneth Paltrow 35
Men
Terrence Howard 39, Robert Downey Jr. 43, Shaun Toub 45, Faran Tahir 45, Clark Gregg 46, Sayed Badreya 50, Jeff Bridges 58, Bill Smitrovich 60
Exhibit G: the money
It made 4.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $140 million
- Box office
- $585 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 98 scenes and 896 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
