Passes the Bechdel test

Jaws 2

Name: Jaws 2
Released: 1978

1978. Directed by Jeannot Szwarc, written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb and Howard Sackler.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
10 women characters. 8 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 12 scenes out of 76.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.

The film

Four years after the traumatic episodes at Amity Island that was terrorized by a 25-foot-long great white shark devouring beachgoers until it was destroyed, Amity Island is at peace and opened a hotel at the Holiday Inn. Days after the opening, beachgoers start to disappear, along with a beached, half-eaten killer whale. Brody becomes concerned about these incidents and fears that another Great White Shark is on the loose.

Released: 16 Jun 1978
Genres: Adventure, Horror, Thriller
Rated: PG
IMDb: 5.8 / 10
Metascore: 51 / 100
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Brody 262 lines, man
Mike 84 lines, man
Ellen 80 lines, woman
Andy 74 lines, man
Hendricks 59 lines, man
Jackie 51 lines, woman
Vaughn 49 lines, man
Sean 43 lines, man
Doug 42 lines, man
Brooke 34 lines, woman

Full cast, 27 people

Roy Scheider as Police Chief Martin Brody
Lorraine Gary as Ellen Brody
Murray Hamilton as Mayor Larry Vaughn
Joseph Mascolo as Len Peterson
Jeffrey Kramer as Hendricks
Collin Wilcox Paxton as Dr. Lureen Elkins
Ann Dusenberry as Tina Wilcox
Mark Gruner as Mike Brody
Barry Coe as Tom Andrews
Susan French as Old Lady
Gary Springer as Andy Nicholas
Donna Wilkes as Jackie Peters
Gary Dubin as Eddie Marchand
John Dukakis as Paul 'Polo' Loman
G. Thomas Dunlop as Timmy Weldon
Keith Gordon as Doug Fetterman
David Elliott as Larry Vaughn Jr.
Marc Gilpin as Sean Brody
Billy Van Zandt as Bob
Martha Swatek as Marge
Gigi Vorgan as Brooke
Christine Freeman as Water Skier
April Gilpin as Renee
Kathy Wilson as Mrs. Bryant
Fritzi Jane Courtney as Mrs. Taft (uncredited)
Cindy Grover as Lucy
Ben Marley as Patrick

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 8% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 76

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	12	39
7 to 8	10	26
9 to 10	5	25
11 to 12	7	19
13 to 14	6	8
15 to 16	3	29
17 to 18	17	0
19 to 20	0	0
21 to 22	5	8
23 to 24	6	20
25 to 26	4	16
27 to 28	43	50
29 to 30	0	26
31 to 32	0	5
33 to 34	0	21
35 to 36	3	6
37 to 38	21	54
39 to 40	2	12
41 to 42	0	12
43 to 44	0	37
45 to 46	14	13
47 to 48	14	19
49 to 50	0	10
51 to 52	0	1
53 to 54	19	30
55 to 56	1	7
57 to 58	8	1
59 to 60	15	43
61 to 62	12	34
63 to 64	11	22
65 to 66	4	22
67 to 68	9	26
69 to 70	3	11
71 to 72	9	24
73 to 74	0	18
75 to 76	16	60

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.

LUCY: Anyone got a spare mooring line? Mine's shot. TINA: I've got one...

JACKIE: Is that me? BROOKE: That's you. JACKIE: I've never been supercargo.

TERRY: Did you ever see a dolphin? DIANE: Sure. They like to play. We may see some today. TERRY: Great! TERRY: Whoops, almost lost one. Can't play with the dolphins without skis...

TERRY: Faster! Faster! TERRY: Porpoise! Look! A dolphin! DIANE: Terry! You okay? TERRY: Help! Help!

BROOKE: Oh, sure, they would be. JACKIE: What's the lighthouse?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

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

279 lines from women, 754 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

10 women and 14 men in the cast. 8 women and 12 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 1,126. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 64 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 22% of the words (1,673), men 78% (5,796). 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

119

Exhibit F: behind the camera

None of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 5% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc (man)
Written by: Carl Gottlieb (man), Howard Sackler (man), Peter Benchley (man)
Produced by: David Brown (man), Richard D. Zanuck (man)
Shot by: Michael C. Butler (man)
Edited by: Steve Potter (gender not listed), Arthur Schmidt (man), Neil Travis (man)
Music by: John Williams (man)
Production design by: Joe Alves (man)
Costumes by: Bill Jobe (gender not listed)