Passes the Bechdel test
Labyrinth
1986. Directed by Jim Henson, written by Dennis Lee and Jim Henson and Terry Jones.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
9 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 95. -
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
Sarah is forced by her father and her stepmother to babysit her baby stepbrother, Toby, while they are out. He does not stop crying and she wishes that he would be taken away. Out of the blue, he stops crying and when she looks for him in his crib, she learns that her wish was granted, and the Goblin King Jareth has taken him to his castle in the Goblin City in the middle of a labyrinth. Sarah repents and asks Jareth to give him back, but Jareth tells her that she has to rescue him before midnight. Soon she teams up with some allies. Will they rescue Toby in time?
- Released
- 27 Jun 1986
- Genres
- Adventure, Family, Fantasy
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 50 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award. 4 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Sarah 256 lines, woman
- Hoggle 117 lines, man
- Jareth 48 lines, man
- Didymus 33 lines, man
- Ludo 29 lines, man
- Zakar 18 lines
- Wise One 15 lines
- Hat 13 lines, man
- Junk Woman 10 lines, woman
- Knocker 2 8 lines, man
Full cast, 88 people
- David Bowie as Jareth
- Jennifer Connelly as Sarah
- Toby Froud as Toby
- Shelley Thompson as Stepmother
- Christopher Malcolm as Father
- Brian Henson as Hoggle / Goblin (voice)
- David Shaughnessy as Didymus / The Hat
- Ron Mueck as Ludo / Firey 2 / Goblin (voice)
- Timothy Bateson as The Worm / Goblin (voice)
- Denise Bryer as The Junk Lady (voice)
- Dave Goelz as Didymus / The Hat / The Four Guards / Left Door Knocker / Firey 3 (voice)
- Karen Prell as The Worm / The Junk Lady / Firey 2
- David Alan Barclay as Didymus / Firey 1
- Frank Oz as The Wiseman
- Michael Hordern as The Wiseman (voice)
- Steve Whitmire as The Four Guards / Firey 4 / Ambrosius (voice)
- Kevin Clash as The Four Guards / Firey 1 / Ambrosius (voice)
- Natalie Finland as Fairy
- Shari Weiser as Hoggle
- Rob Mills as Ludo / Firey 3
- Anthony Asbury as The Four Guards / Right Door Knocker / Firey 5
- Anthony Jackson as The Four Guards / Goblin (voice)
- Douglas Blackwell as The Four Guards / Goblin (voice)
- David Healy as Right Door Knocker (voice)
- Robert Beatty as Left Door Knocker (voice)
- Toby Philpott as Firey 1
- Ian Thom as Firey 2
- Charles Augins as Firey 2 (voice)
- Sherry Amott as Firey 3
- Danny John-Jules as Firey 3 / Firey 4 (voice)
- Cheryl Henson as Firey 4
- Kaefan Shaw as Firey 4
- Alistair Fullarton as Firey 5
- Rollie Krewson as Firey 5
- Richard Bodkin as Firey 5 (voice)
- Percy Edwards as Ambrosius (voice)
- Michael Attwell as Goblin (voice)
- Sean Barrett as Goblin (voice)
- John Bluthal as Goblin (voice)
- Peter Marinker as Goblin (voice)
- Kerry Shale as Goblin (voice)
- Marc Antona as Goblin Corps
- Kenny Baker as Goblin Corps
- Danny Blackner as Goblin Corps
- Peter Burroughs as Goblin Corps
- Toby Denver Clark as Goblin Corps
- Tessa Crockett as Goblin Corps
- Warwick Davis as Goblin Corps
- Malcolm Dixon as Goblin Corps
- Anthony Georghiou as Goblin Corps
- Paul Grant as Goblin Corps
- John Key as Goblin Corps
- Andrew Herd as Goblin Corps
- Richard Jones as Goblin Corps
- Jack Purvis as Goblin Corps
- Mark Lisle as Goblin Corps
- Peter Mandell as Goblin Corps
- Linda Spriggs as Goblin Corps
- Katie Purvis as Goblin Corps
- Nicholas Read as Goblin Corps
- Albert Wilkinson as Goblin Corps
- Penny Stead as Goblin Corps
- Michael Henbury Ballan as Goblin Corps
- Elfrida Ashworth as Ballroom Dancer
- Margaret Foyer as Ballroom Dancer
- Elizabeth A. Gilbert as Ballroom Dancer
- Louise Gold as Ballroom Dancer
- Moira Grant as Ballroom Dancer
- San Lee as Ballroom Dancer
- Janis Mackintosh as Ballroom Dancer
- Penny Marsden as Ballroom Dancer
- Kim Mendez as Ballroom Dancer
- Wendy Millward as Ballroom Dancer
- Leonie Palette as Ballroom Dancer
- Caroline Pope as Ballroom Dancer
- Sharon White as Ballroom Dancer
- John Aron as Ballroom Dancer
- Terry Dane as Ballroom Dancer
- Derek Hartley as Ballroom Dancer
- Douglas Howes as Ballroom Dancer
- Christopher Preston as Ballroom Dancer
- Peter Salmon as Ballroom Dancer
- Peter Sim as Ballroom Dancer
- Graeme Sneddon as Ballroom Dancer
- Graham Tudor-Phillips as Ballroom Dancer
- David Turner as Ballroom Dancer
- Barrie J. Wilkinson as Ballroom Dancer
- Jim Henson as Goblins (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 12% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 95
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 | 8 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 9 | 2 |
| 9 to 10 | 7 | 2 |
| 11 to 12 | 5 | 0 |
| 13 to 14 | 11 | 0 |
| 15 to 16 | 3 | 2 |
| 17 to 18 | 6 | 0 |
| 19 to 20 | 16 | 0 |
| 21 to 22 | 28 | 30 |
| 23 to 24 | 4 | 5 |
| 25 to 26 | 3 | 2 |
| 27 to 28 | 6 | 8 |
| 29 to 30 | 10 | 13 |
| 31 to 32 | 14 | 15 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 9 |
| 35 to 36 | 3 | 1 |
| 37 to 38 | 2 | 3 |
| 39 to 40 | 13 | 8 |
| 41 to 42 | 5 | 4 |
| 43 to 44 | 20 | 36 |
| 45 to 46 | 1 | 7 |
| 47 to 48 | 2 | 1 |
| 49 to 50 | 5 | 20 |
| 51 to 52 | 8 | 8 |
| 53 to 54 | 15 | 33 |
| 55 to 56 | 12 | 10 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 1 |
| 59 to 60 | 2 | 4 |
| 61 to 62 | 4 | 0 |
| 63 to 64 | 2 | 0 |
| 65 to 66 | 3 | 0 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 1 |
| 69 to 70 | 11 | 2 |
| 71 to 72 | 4 | 6 |
| 73 to 74 | 1 | 7 |
| 75 to 76 | 1 | 1 |
| 77 to 78 | 2 | 2 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 0 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 2 |
| 83 to 84 | 3 | 2 |
| 85 to 86 | 10 | 7 |
| 87 to 88 | 15 | 13 |
| 89 to 90 | 1 | 2 |
| 91 to 92 | 1 | 0 |
| 93 to 94 | 3 | 0 |
| 95 to 95 | 0 | 0 |
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.
OLD SARAH: Best to stay in here where it's safe. Don't know what might happen to you out there. SARAH: Help! Somebody help me!
JUNK WOMAN: Wait, Dearie! Look at this! SARAH: Keep it!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 51 are women's.
279 lines from women, 269 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
9 women and 43 men in the cast. 4 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 23 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 48% of the words (2,239), men 52% (2,404). Women have 51% 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
4
Two men
24
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 10 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 11% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Jim Henson (man)
- Written by
- Terry Jones (man), Elaine May (woman)
- Story by
- Jim Henson (man), Dennis Lee (man)
- Produced by
- Eric Rattray (gender not listed)
- Shot by
- Alex Thomson (man)
- Edited by
- John Grover (man)
- Music by
- Trevor Jones (man)
- Production design by
- Elliot Scott (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
1 women, 3 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 3 men
-
Art
0 women, 2 men
-
Sound
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 33 on average. Men: 31 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Jennifer Connelly 15, Shelley Thompson 27, Denise Bryer 58
Men
Toby Froud 2, Brian Henson 22, Ron Mueck 28, David Shaughnessy 29, David Bowie 39, Christopher Malcolm 39, Timothy Bateson 60
Exhibit H: the money
It made 51% of what it cost.
- Budget
- $25 million
- Box office
- $12.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 95 scenes and 621 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
