Passes the Bechdel test

Maggie's Plan

Name: Maggie's Plan
Released: 2015

2015. Directed by Rebecca Miller, written by Rebecca Miller and Karen Rinaldi.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
8 women characters. 7 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 12 scenes out of 115.
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

Maggie's plan to have a baby on her own is derailed when she falls in love with John, a married man, destroying his volatile marriage to the brilliant and impossible Georgette. But one daughter and three years later, Maggie is out of love and in a quandary: what do you do when you suspect your man and his ex wife are actually perfect for each other?

Released: 27 Apr 2016
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.2 / 10
Metascore: 76 / 100
Awards: 1 win & 9 nominations
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Maggie 361 lines, woman
John 288 lines, man
Georgette 154 lines, woman
Tony 67 lines, man
Felicia 36 lines, woman
Guy 33 lines, man
Justine 30 lines, woman
Lily 21 lines, woman
Paul 19 lines, man
Al Bentwaithe 6 lines, man

Full cast, 21 people

Greta Gerwig as Maggie Hardin
Ethan Hawke as John Harding
Julianne Moore as Georgette Nørgaard
Bill Hader as Tony
Maya Rudolph as Felicia
Travis Fimmel as Guy Childers
Mina Sundwall as Justine Harding
Jackson Frazer as Paul Harding
Ida Rohatyn as Lily Harding
Wallace Shawn as Kliegler
Alex Morf as Al Bentwaithe
Sue Jean Kim as Komiko
Monte Greene as Max
Fredi Walker-Browne as Beverly
George Ashiotis as Blind Man
Brendan Titley as Shakespearean Actor
Stephen Lin as Shakespearean Actor's Lover
Angela Trento as Debbie Waserman
Kathleen Hanna as Québécois Female Singer
Tommy Buck as Québécois Female Singer
Leetopher Scott as Restaurant Waiter (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 115

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	19	15
4 to 6	11	13
7 to 9	14	11
10 to 12	35	32
13 to 15	33	30
16 to 18	21	21
19 to 21	5	5
22 to 24	13	13
25 to 27	19	11
28 to 30	0	0
31 to 33	13	13
34 to 36	4	3
37 to 39	22	5
40 to 42	22	11
43 to 45	23	18
46 to 48	16	15
49 to 51	21	0
52 to 54	1	1
55 to 57	19	3
58 to 60	42	11
61 to 63	3	4
64 to 66	8	8
67 to 69	5	8
70 to 72	11	0
73 to 75	19	31
76 to 78	5	1
79 to 81	14	4
82 to 84	18	20
85 to 87	9	11
88 to 90	25	25
91 to 93	21	37
94 to 96	19	16
97 to 99	39	4
100 to 102	0	0
103 to 105	0	0
106 to 108	38	4
109 to 111	14	14
112 to 114	0	0
115 to 115	9	6

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.

GEORGETTE: One moment. GEORGETTE: Okay. JUSTINE: I don’t get why you say the same thing in the concluding paragraph as you do in the opening paragraph. GEORGETTE: You’re repeating your thesis but in a more developed form.

GEORGETTE: Ha-ha. JUSTINE: Way to go Mom. GEORGETTE: Salad?

MAGGIE: How high does your temperature have to be? FELICIA: I think just slightly elevated.

FELICIA: You just hate her cause she’s a performance artist. MAGGIE: Wait! Hold on. Wait!

MAGGIE: I’m coming! FELICIA: Maggie have you done it yet?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 59 are women's.

610 lines from women, 424 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

8 women and 8 men in the cast. 7 women and 6 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 12 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 61% of the words (5,990), men 39% (3,777). Women have 59% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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

8 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 38% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Rebecca Miller (woman)
Written by: Rebecca Miller (woman)
Story by: Karen Rinaldi (gender not listed)
Produced by: Rachael Horovitz (woman), Damon Cardasis (man), Rebecca Miller (woman)
Shot by: Sam Levy (man)
Edited by: Sabine Hoffman (woman)
Music by: Michael Rohatyn (man)
Production design by: Alexandra Schaller (woman)
Costumes by: Malgosia Turzanska (woman)
Cast by: Cindy Tolan (woman)