Fails the Bechdel test

Moon

Name: Moon
Released: 2009

2009. Directed by Duncan Jones, written by Duncan Jones and Nathan Parker.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

2 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
3 women characters. 2 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

Sam Bell has a three year contract to work for Lunar Industries. For the contract's entire duration, he is the sole employee based at their lunar station. His primary job responsibility is to harvest and periodically rocket back to Earth supplies of helium-3, the current clean and abundant fuel used on Earth. There is no direct communication link available between the lunar station and Earth, so his only direct real-time interaction is with GERTY, the intelligent computer whose function is to attend to his day to day needs. With such little human contact and all of it indirect, he feels that three years is far too long to be so isolated; he knows he is beginning to hallucinate as the end of his three years approaches. All he wants is to return to Earth to be with his wife Tess and their infant daughter Eve, who was born just prior to his leaving for this job. With two weeks to go, he gets into an accident at one of the mechanical harvesters and is rendered unconscious. Injured, he awakens back at the station in the infirmary, he assumes assisted by GERTY. GERTY tells him that a rescue team named Eliza will come to the station to clean up the aftermath of the accident. After his recuperation, he takes an unauthorized trip back to the broken harvester, where he makes an unexpected discovery. Because of his find, he begins to doubt his sanity, then his true identity, then the company and GERTY's willingness to do what is best for him. Because of his resulting beliefs, his sole mission becomes how to get back to Earth on his own.

Released: 10 Jul 2009
Genres: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.8 / 10
Metascore: 67 / 100
Awards: Won 1 BAFTA Award. 28 wins & 37 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Sam 1 144 lines, man
Sam 2 139 lines, man
Gerty 99 lines, man
Sam 85 lines, man
Overmeyers 18 lines, man
Thompson 16 lines, man
Tess 11 lines, woman
Eve 5 lines, woman
Eve Bell 5 lines
Girl 4 lines, woman

Full cast, 10 people

Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell
Kevin Spacey as GERTY (voice)
Dominique McElligott as Tess Bell
Rosie Shaw as Little Eve
Adrienne Shaw as Nanny
Kaya Scodelario as Eve
Benedict Wong as Thompson
Matt Berry as Overmeyers
Malcolm Stewart as Technician
Robin Chalk as Sam Bell Clone

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 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 163

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 4	0	0
5 to 8	0	6
9 to 12	0	5
13 to 16	0	9
17 to 20	0	3
21 to 24	0	0
25 to 28	0	2
29 to 32	0	35
33 to 36	0	11
37 to 40	9	7
41 to 44	0	7
45 to 48	0	8
49 to 52	0	12
53 to 56	0	6
57 to 60	0	7
61 to 64	0	5
65 to 68	0	10
69 to 72	1	9
73 to 76	0	1
77 to 80	0	21
81 to 84	0	12
85 to 88	0	44
89 to 92	0	44
93 to 96	0	14
97 to 100	0	54
101 to 104	0	24
105 to 108	0	0
109 to 112	0	11
113 to 116	0	19
117 to 120	4	34
121 to 124	3	21
125 to 128	0	0
129 to 132	0	19
133 to 136	1	7
137 to 140	0	19
141 to 144	0	12
145 to 148	1	7
149 to 152	0	0
153 to 156	0	1
157 to 160	0	4
161 to 163	1	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, 4 are women's.

20 lines from women, 510 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

3 women and 6 men in the cast. 2 women and 12 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 79 of 541. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 254 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 4% of the words (258), men 96% (5,621).

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

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

3 of the 18 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 20% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Duncan Jones (man)
Written by: Nathan Parker (man)
Story by: Duncan Jones (man)
Produced by: Stuart Fenegan (man), Trudie Styler (woman), Nicky Bentham (woman), Mark Foligno (man), Alex Francis (man), Steve Milne (gender not listed) and 2 more
Shot by: Gary Shaw (man)
Edited by: Nicolas Gaster (man)
Music by: Clint Mansell (man)
Production design by: Tony Noble (gender not listed)
Costumes by: Jane Petrie (woman)
Cast by: Manuel Puro (man), Jeremy Zimmermann (man)