Does it pass? bechdel.io

Passes the Bechdel test

Mission: Impossible III

2006. Directed by J.J. Abrams, written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and J.J. Abrams.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    15 women characters. 10 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 1 scene out of 203.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.

Poster for Mission: Impossible III

The film

A man named Owen Davian kills an IMF agent that was sent undercover by the legendary Ethan Hunt, who has retired from combat missions. Hunt now has a fiancé, Julia, who believes that he works for the traffic department when he really trains younger IMF agents to go into combat. He is assigned to his last mission. His mission, should he choose to accept it is to capture Davian, who is selling a toxic weapon called the rabbits foot. But Davian is reckless, cruel, and deadly. He promises Hunt that he will find Julia, hurt her, and Ethan will be too dead to help her. The mission is no more different to others, its dangerous, smart, and impossible; but now it's personal.

Released
05 May 2006
Genres
Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rated
PG-13
IMDb
6.9 / 10
Metascore
66 / 100
Awards
7 wins & 14 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Ethan 239 lines, man
  2. Luther 69 lines, man
  3. Julia 55 lines, woman
  4. Musgrave 40 lines, man
  5. Davian 39 lines, man
  6. Declan 37 lines, man
  7. Brassel 35 lines, man
  8. Benji 28 lines, man
  9. Zhen 28 lines, woman
  10. Lindsey 19 lines, woman
Full cast, 54 people
  • Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman as Owen Davian
  • Ving Rhames as Luther
  • Billy Crudup as Musgrave
  • Michelle Monaghan as Julia
  • Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Declan
  • Keri Russell as Lindsey Farris
  • Maggie Q as Zhen
  • Simon Pegg as Benji
  • Eddie Marsan as Brownway
  • Laurence Fishburne as Theodore Brassel
  • Bahar Soomekh as Davian's Translator
  • Jeff Chase as Davian's Bodyguard
  • Michael Berry Jr. as Julia's Kidnapper
  • Carla Gallo as Beth
  • Bellamy Young as Rachael
  • Paul Keeley as Ken
  • Jane Daly as Julia's Mother
  • Greg Grunberg as Kevin
  • Sabra Williams as Annie
  • Rose Rollins as Ellie
  • Sasha Alexander as Melissa
  • Tracy Middendorf as Ashley
  • Aaron Paul as Rick
  • Kathryn Fiore as Party Goer
  • Colleen Crozier as Party Goer
  • Sean O'Bryan as Party Goer
  • Bruce French as Minister
  • Ellen Bry as Lindsey's Mother
  • Patrick Pankhurst as Lindsey's Father
  • Tony Guma as Jim
  • James Shanklin as Hospital Chaplain
  • Anne Betancourt as Nurse Sally
  • Antonietta De Lorenzo as Roadblock Driver
  • Andrea Sartoretti as Roadblock Driver
  • Antonio Del Prete as Vatican Video Room Guard
  • Francesco De Vito as Greeting Priest
  • Giorgio Marchesi as Vatican Gate Guard
  • Niccolò Senni as Vatican Gate Guard
  • Paolo Bonacelli as Monsignore
  • David Waters as IMF Officer
  • Michael G. Kehoe as Hospital Employee
  • Timothy Omundson as IMF Agent
  • José Zúñiga as IMF Agent Pete
  • William Francis McGuire as IMF Head of Security
  • Michelle Arthur as Airline Worker
  • Barney Cheng as Janitor
  • George Cheung as Shanghai Game Player (uncredited)
  • Brandon Molale as Torturer (uncredited)
  • Simon Rhee as Chinese Guard at Hengshan Lu Building (uncredited)
  • Marcus Young as Chinese Guard (uncredited)
  • Jerry Trimble as Davian's Thug (uncredited)
  • Alex Kurtzman as Party Guest (uncredited)
  • Roberto Orci as Party Guest (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 203

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 51929
6 to 1007
11 to 15327
16 to 20714
21 to 25212
26 to 3003
31 to 3501
36 to 4000
41 to 4538
46 to 5048
51 to 5547
56 to 60320
61 to 65124
66 to 70845
71 to 75010
76 to 8006
81 to 8506
86 to 9002
91 to 9525
96 to 100510
101 to 105323
106 to 11035
111 to 11504
116 to 12003
121 to 12513
126 to 130029
131 to 13529
136 to 14027
141 to 14531
146 to 150012
151 to 15505
156 to 16004
161 to 16502
166 to 170627
171 to 17515
176 to 180310
181 to 185111
186 to 190014
191 to 195261
196 to 2002029
201 to 2031037

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.
ELLIE: -- you mean like snowboarding where you’re dropped from a...? JULIA: -- helicopter, yeah-- MELISSA: -- it’s how they met, she doesn't know the-- tell her the story-- this was two years ago. JULIA: What, it w-- you say that like it’s a good story-- there’s no story--
JULIA: Well that’s true... MELISSA: Julia saves up all year for this exotic heliboarding trip-- so she goes and she gets on the chopper in that takes off from... that lake, wha… JULIA: I dunno, Lake... Wonky?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 18 are women's.

118 lines from women, 545 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

15 women and 36 men in the cast. 10 women and 24 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 21 of 691. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 59 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 14% of the words (1,091), men 86% (6,763). Women have 18% 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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

5 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 29% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
J.J. Abrams (man)
Written by
Roberto Orci (man), J.J. Abrams (man), Alex Kurtzman (man)
Produced by
Tom Cruise (man), Paula Wagner (woman), Zhao Haicheng (man)
Shot by
Dan Mindel (man)
Edited by
Maryann Brandon (woman), Mary Jo Markey (woman)
Music by
Michael Giacchino (man)
Production design by
Scott Chambliss (man)
Costumes by
Colleen Atwood (woman)
Cast by
April Webster (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Other crew

    13 women, 23 men, 24 not listed

  • Production

    8 women, 18 men, 20 not listed

  • Art

    5 women, 21 men, 9 not listed

  • Directing

    5 women, 14 men, 14 not listed

  • Camera

    1 women, 17 men, 9 not listed

  • Sound

    4 women, 15 men, 8 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    7 women, 1 men, 11 not listed

  • Visual Effects

    3 women, 3 men, 4 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 29 on average. Men: 38 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Maggie Q 26, Michelle Monaghan 30, Keri Russell 30

Men

Jonathan Rhys Meyers 28, Simon Pegg 36, Billy Crudup 37, Eddie Marsan 37, Philip Seymour Hoffman 38, Tom Cruise 43, Ving Rhames 46

Exhibit H: the money

It made 2.7 times what it cost.

Budget
$150 million
Box office
$398 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 203 scenes and 691 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

Related films

Back to the whole shelf