Passes the Bechdel test

Kalifornia

Name: Kalifornia
Released: 1993

1993. Directed by Dominic Sena, written by Stephen Levy and Tim Metcalfe.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
8 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 6 scenes out of 207.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

Brian Kessler, a journalist researching serial killers, sets out with his photographer girlfriend Carrie on a cross-country tour of the sites of the killings. Sharing the ride and their expenses are Early Grayce--a paroled white-trash criminal--and his girlfriend Adele. As the trip progresses, Early appears more and more unstable, and Brian and Carrie fear that they have a real-life killer in the back seat of their car.

Released: 03 Sep 1993
Genres: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.7 / 10
Metascore: 49 / 100
Awards: 4 wins & 4 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Early 207 lines, man
Brian 164 lines, man
Carrie 131 lines, woman
Adele 112 lines, woman
Parole Officer 17 lines, man
Attendant 10 lines, man
Carol 8 lines, woman
Newscaster 8 lines
Waitress 8 lines, woman
Diebold 7 lines, man

Full cast, 28 people

Brad Pitt as Early Grayce
David Duchovny as Brian Kessler
Juliette Lewis as Adele Corners
Michelle Forbes as Carrie Laughlin
Sierra Pecheur as Mrs. Musgrave
John Dullaghan as Mr. Musgrave
Kathy Larson as Teenage Girl
David Milford as Driver
Judson Vaughn as Parole Officer
John Zarchen as Peter
David Rose as Eric
Loanne Bishop as Female Officer
Ron Kuhlman as Male Officer
Patricia Sill as Carol
Bill Crabb as Middle Aged Farmer
Brett Rice as Police Officer
James Michael McDougal as John Diebold
Marisa Raper as Little Girl
Tommy Chappelle as Old Man
Mary Ann Hagan as Waitress
Jerry G. White as Gas Station Attendant
Sarah Sullivan as Bar Waitress
Eric Stenson as Young Cracker
Mars Callahan as Walter Livesy
Patricia Hunte as Newscaster
David Feigenbaum as Young Biker
Tom Hand as College Student
Shelby Hofer as Waitress

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 207

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 5	1	1
6 to 10	5	9
11 to 15	13	5
16 to 20	9	24
21 to 25	16	28
26 to 30	6	18
31 to 35	16	14
36 to 40	15	11
41 to 45	6	6
46 to 50	11	24
51 to 55	4	1
56 to 60	3	12
61 to 65	2	4
66 to 70	7	8
71 to 75	11	9
76 to 80	8	10
81 to 85	2	11
86 to 90	7	0
91 to 95	0	0
96 to 100	0	0
101 to 105	1	7
106 to 110	35	25
111 to 115	20	34
116 to 120	5	8
121 to 125	4	6
126 to 130	9	10
131 to 135	2	4
136 to 140	3	26
141 to 145	3	7
146 to 150	5	34
151 to 155	1	4
156 to 160	10	14
161 to 165	4	7
166 to 170	8	7
171 to 175	3	6
176 to 180	6	8
181 to 185	5	9
186 to 190	6	13
191 to 195	0	1
196 to 200	0	2
201 to 205	0	2
206 to 207	0	9

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.

ADELE: Hi, I'm Adele. CARRIE: Carrie. ADELE: I like your hair. CARRIE: ...Pardon?

ADELE: Are you takin' the pictures? CARRIE: ...Yeah. ADELE: Is it hard to learn? CARRIE: Not really.

ADELE: Guess I don't know the first thing about cameras. CARRIE: Well, the first thing... is you need film. Preferably black and white. ADELE: You wouldn't have any color film, would ya? CARRIE: ...Yeah, sure.

ADELE: Me neither. How 'bout you Carrie? CARRIE: No. ADELE: ...Well, least we got each other. That's somethin'.

ADELE: ...Hey you're good. Thought you said you never played before? CARRIE: I haven't... I'm a fast learner.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 38 are women's.

272 lines from women, 438 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

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

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 731. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 22 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 (2,441), men 64% (4,402). Women have 38% 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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

1 of the 12 people in these jobs is a woman. Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Dominic Sena (man)
Written by: Tim Metcalfe (man), Stephen Levy (gender not listed)
Produced by: Sigurjón Sighvatsson (man), Steve Golin (man), Aristides McGarry (gender not listed)
Shot by: Bojan Bazelli (man)
Edited by: Martin Hunter (man)
Music by: Carter Burwell (man)
Production design by: Michael White (man)
Costumes by: Kelle Kutsugeras (gender not listed)
Cast by: Carol Lewis (woman)