Fails the Bechdel test
Misery
1990. Directed by Rob Reiner, written by Stephen King and William Goldman.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 5 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
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Best-selling novelist Paul Sheldon is on his way home from his Colorado hideaway after completing his latest book, when he crashes his car in a freak blizzard. Paul is critically injured, but is rescued by former nurse Annie Wilkes, Paul's "number one fan", who takes Paul back to her remote house in the mountains (without bothering to tell anybody). Unfortunately for Paul, Annie is also a headcase. When she discovers that Paul has killed off the heroine in her favorite novels, her reaction leaves Paul shattered (literally)...
- Released
- 30 Nov 1990
- Genres
- Drama, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.8 / 10
- Metascore
- 75 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 7 wins & 10 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Annie 235 lines, woman
- Paul 176 lines, man
- Buster 67 lines, man
- Sindell 24 lines, woman
- Virginia 21 lines, woman
- Pete 6 lines, man
- Libby 4 lines, man
- Older Cop 3 lines
- Annie. Close Up 1 lines, woman
- Buster And His Wife Virginia 1 lines, woman
Full cast, 15 people
- Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes
- James Caan as Paul Sheldon
- Richard Farnsworth as Buster
- Lauren Bacall as Marcia Sindell
- Frances Sternhagen as Virginia
- Graham Jarvis as Libby
- Jerry Potter as Pete
- Thomas Brunelle as Anchorman
- June Christopher as Anchorwoman
- Julie Payne as Reporter #1
- Archie Hahn as Reporter #2
- Gregory Snegoff as Reporter #3
- Wendy Bowers as Waitress
- Rob Reiner as Helicopter Pilot (uncredited)
- J.T. Walsh as State Trooper Sherman Douglas (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, 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 2
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 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 to 2 | 284 | 255 |
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, 53 are women's.
284 lines from women, 255 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
6 women and 9 men in the cast. 5 women and 6 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 549.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 14 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 63% of the words (4,963), men 37% (2,869). Women have 53% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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
4
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 12 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Rob Reiner (man)
- Written by
- William Goldman (man)
- From the novel by
- Stephen King (man)
- Produced by
- Andrew Scheinman (man), Rob Reiner (man)
- Shot by
- Barry Sonnenfeld (man)
- Edited by
- Robert Leighton (man)
- Music by
- Marc Shaiman (man)
- Production design by
- Norman Garwood (man)
- Costumes by
- Gloria Gresham (woman)
- Cast by
- Janet Hirshenson (woman), Jane Jenkins (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 10 men, 6 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 10 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 7 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 6 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 6 men, 2 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 4 men
-
Editing
1 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 53 on average. Men: 60 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Kathy Bates 42, Julie Payne 44, Frances Sternhagen 60, Lauren Bacall 66
Men
James Caan 50, Graham Jarvis 60, Richard Farnsworth 70
Exhibit G: the money
It made 3.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $20 million
- Box office
- $61.3 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 2 scenes and 549 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
