Fails the Bechdel test
Mandy
2018. Directed by Panos Cosmatos, written by Panos Cosmatos and Aaron Stewart-Ahn and Casper Kelly.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 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
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
Taking place in 1983, Red is a lumberjack who lives in a secluded cabin in the woods. His artist girlfriend Mandy spends her days reading fantasy paperbacks. Then one day, she catches the eye of a crazed cult leader, who conjures a group of motorcycle-riding demons to kidnap her. Red, armed with a crossbow and custom Axe, stops at nothing to get her back, leaving a bloody, brutal pile of bodies in his wake.
- Released
- 14 Sep 2018
- Genres
- Action, Fantasy, Horror
- Rated
- Not Rated
- IMDb
- 6.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 83 / 100
- Awards
- 13 wins & 43 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Sand 65 lines, man
- Red Miller 60 lines, man
- Mandy 55 lines, woman
- Caruthers 34 lines, man
- Mother Marlene 34 lines, woman
- Swan 21 lines, man
- The Chemist 14 lines, man
- Sheriff Barrel 9 lines, man
- Twin Lewis 5 lines, man
- Sister Lucy 4 lines, woman
Full cast, 17 people
- Nicolas Cage as Red Miller
- Andrea Riseborough as Mandy Bloom
- Linus Roache as Jeremiah Sand
- Ned Dennehy as Brother Swan
- Olwen Fouéré as Mother Marlene
- Richard Brake as The Chemist
- Bill Duke as Caruthers
- Line Pillet as Sister Lucy
- Clément Baronnet as Brother Klopek
- Alexis Julemont as Brother Hanker
- Ivailo Dimitrov as Skratch
- Hayley Saywell as Sis
- Stephan Fraser as Brother Lewis
- Kalin Kerin as Scabs
- Tamás Hagyuó as Fuck Pig
- Paul Painter as Announcer / Cheddar Goblin (voice)
- Zeva DuVall as Cheddar Goblin Girl (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 83
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 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 10 | 12 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 to 16 | 3 | 12 |
| 17 to 18 | 9 | 8 |
| 19 to 20 | 8 | 6 |
| 21 to 22 | 33 | 0 |
| 23 to 24 | 8 | 36 |
| 25 to 26 | 3 | 3 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 3 |
| 31 to 32 | 10 | 0 |
| 33 to 34 | 7 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 6 | 20 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 2 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 14 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 9 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 2 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 0 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 0 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 0 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 0 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 3 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 14 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 36 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 7 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 4 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 0 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 0 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 14 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 0 |
| 75 to 76 | 0 | 0 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 3 |
| 79 to 80 | 0 | 0 |
| 81 to 82 | 1 | 11 |
| 83 to 83 | 0 | 0 |
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, 31 are women's.
98 lines from women, 219 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 10 men in the cast. 4 women and 10 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 323.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 110 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 29% of the words (866), men 71% (2,149). Women have 31% 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
3
Two men
13
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 18 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 21% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Panos Cosmatos (man)
- Written by
- Panos Cosmatos (man), Aaron Stewart-Ahn (man), Casper Kelly (man)
- Story by
- Panos Cosmatos (man)
- Produced by
- Tony Malzone (man), Daniel Noah (man), Josh C. Waller (man), Elijah Wood (man), Nate Bolotin (gender not listed), Adrian Politowski (man)
- Shot by
- Benjamin Loeb (man)
- Edited by
- Brett W. Bachman (man)
- Music by
- Jóhann Jóhannsson (man)
- Production design by
- Hubert Pouille (man)
- Cast by
- Lara Manwaring (woman), Sebastiàn Moradiellos (man), Mustapha Souaidi (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
4 women, 12 men, 7 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 4 men, 10 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 8 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 8 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 1 men, 6 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 0 men, 6 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 50 on average. Men: 58 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Andrea Riseborough 36, Olwen Fouéré 64
Men
Ned Dennehy 52, Richard Brake 53, Nicolas Cage 54, Linus Roache 54, Bill Duke 75
Exhibit G: the money
It made 28% of what it cost.
- Budget
- $6 million
- Box office
- $1.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 83 scenes and 323 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
