Passes the Bechdel test
Murder on the Orient Express
2017. Directed by Kenneth Branagh, written by Michael Green and Agatha Christie.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
12 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 4 scenes out of 156. -
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, though someone marked that rating as dubious.
The film
Hercule Poirot, the best detective in the world, decides to travel on the Orient Express. The train accidentally gets stopped because of a small avalanche. Little did he know that a murder was planned and that a person on this train was capable of committing such crime.
- Released
- 10 Nov 2017
- Genres
- Comedy, Crime, Drama
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 6.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 52 / 100
- Awards
- 2 wins & 31 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Poirot 452 lines, man
- Bouc 117 lines, man
- Hubbard 47 lines, woman
- Mary Debenham 44 lines, woman
- Michel 38 lines, man
- Doctor Arbuthnot 35 lines, man
- Macqueen 33 lines, man
- Ratchett 33 lines, man
- Masterman 30 lines, man
- Princess Dragomiroff 23 lines, woman
Full cast, 53 people
- Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot
- Tom Bateman as Bouc
- Michelle Pfeiffer as Caroline Hubbard
- Johnny Depp as Edward Ratchett
- Josh Gad as Hector MacQueen
- Willem Dafoe as Gerhard Hardman
- Judi Dench as Princess Dragomiroff
- Derek Jacobi as Edward Henry Masterman
- Leslie Odom Jr. as Dr. Arbuthnot
- Daisy Ridley as Miss Mary Debenham
- Penélope Cruz as Pilar Estravados
- Olivia Colman as Hildegarde Schmidt
- Lucy Boynton as Countess Elena Andrenyi
- Marwan Kenzari as Pierre Michel
- Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Biniamino Marquez
- Sergei Polunin as Count Rudolph Andrenyi
- Paapa Essiedu as Young Policeman
- Yassine Zeroual as Young Boy
- Asan N'Jie as Hotel Waiter
- Michael Rouse as British Police Chief Inspector
- Elliot Levey as Rabbi
- David Annen as Priest
- Joseph Long as Imam
- Andy Apollo as Armed Policeman
- Hadley Fraser as British Military Escort
- Ziad Abaza as Arab Shipmate
- Nari Blair-Mangat as Waiter
- Luke Brady as Waiter
- Miltos Yerolemou as Old Turk Baker
- Kathryn Wilder as Prostitute
- Gerard Horan as Aynesworth
- Richard Clifford as Maître d'
- Sid Sagar as Sleeping Car Attendant
- Adam Garcia as Italian Fan
- Harry Lister Smith as Stockman
- Darryl Clark as Salon Barman
- Anoushka Lucas as Pianist
- Matthew Hawksley as Waiter
- Crispin Letts as Head Waiter
- Yasmin Harrison as Dining Car Sous Chef
- Kate Tydman as Chef
- Pip Jordan as Kitchen Car Sous Chef
- Chris Porter as Station Master
- Jack Riddiford as Police Captain
- Joshua Lacey as Track Foreman
- Phil Dunster as Colonel John Armstrong
- Miranda Raison as Sonia Armstrong
- Ansu Kabia as Police Captain (Newsreel)
- Hayat Kamille as Susanne
- Rami Nasr as McQueen's Father
- Todd Boyce as Judge
- Irfan Shamji as Yugoslavian Police Officer
- Tom Hanson as British Military Officer
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 156
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 | 1 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 16 | 0 | 18 |
| 17 to 20 | 6 | 19 |
| 21 to 24 | 1 | 48 |
| 25 to 28 | 1 | 4 |
| 29 to 32 | 0 | 2 |
| 33 to 36 | 5 | 2 |
| 37 to 40 | 3 | 0 |
| 41 to 44 | 0 | 7 |
| 45 to 48 | 4 | 19 |
| 49 to 52 | 0 | 0 |
| 53 to 56 | 8 | 21 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 40 |
| 61 to 64 | 4 | 7 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 1 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 7 |
| 77 to 80 | 5 | 12 |
| 81 to 84 | 0 | 45 |
| 85 to 88 | 4 | 71 |
| 89 to 92 | 0 | 32 |
| 93 to 96 | 23 | 85 |
| 97 to 100 | 26 | 57 |
| 101 to 104 | 30 | 26 |
| 105 to 108 | 1 | 22 |
| 109 to 112 | 0 | 7 |
| 113 to 116 | 3 | 1 |
| 117 to 120 | 2 | 63 |
| 121 to 124 | 5 | 10 |
| 125 to 128 | 12 | 40 |
| 129 to 132 | 8 | 40 |
| 133 to 136 | 2 | 7 |
| 137 to 140 | 3 | 57 |
| 141 to 144 | 1 | 5 |
| 145 to 148 | 1 | 13 |
| 149 to 152 | 8 | 14 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 7 |
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.
MARY DEBENHAM: My needs are well met, thank you. GRETA: No, thank you. I do not drink.
SCHMIDT: I brushed Dalia this morning. PRINCESS DRAGOMIROFF: You tortured her with a comb but you did not brush her. Order me the fish. SCHMIDT: Exchange grouper for sole, escarole for the potato and oil for butter on the whole.
MARY DEBENHAM: Good god. A murder, here? HUBBARD: I told you someone was rooting about my cabin! No one would listen!
SCHMIDT: Fifteen years. PRINCESS DRAGOMIROFF: Fifteen years. PRINCESS DRAGOMIROFF: I noticed you take three.
COUNTESS ANDRENYI: Mother, don’t! HUBBARD: I already died with Daisy. COUNTESS ANDRENYI: No! --
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 17 are women's.
166 lines from women, 810 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
12 women and 40 men in the cast. 5 women and 18 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 41 of 1,027.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 93 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 18% of the words (3,168), men 82% (14,803). Women have 17% 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
8
Two men
83
Exhibit F: behind the camera
4 of the 16 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 24% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Kenneth Branagh (man)
- Written by
- Michael Green (man)
- From the novel by
- Agatha Christie (woman)
- Produced by
- Judy Hofflund (woman), Ridley Scott (man), Kenneth Branagh (man), Aditya Sood (man), Michael Schaefer (man), Mark Gordon (man) and 1 more
- Shot by
- Haris Zambarloukos (man)
- Edited by
- Mick Audsley (man)
- Music by
- Patrick Doyle (man)
- Production design by
- Jim Clay (man)
- Costumes by
- Alexandra Byrne (woman)
- Cast by
- Lucy Bevan (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
4 women, 33 men, 17 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
9 women, 1 men, 14 not listed
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 3 men, 14 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 8 men, 5 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 10 men
-
Sound
0 women, 9 men, 6 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 5 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men, 7 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 55 on average. Men: 50 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Daisy Ridley 25, Michelle Pfeiffer 59, Judi Dench 82
Men
Tom Bateman 28, Josh Gad 36, Leslie Odom Jr. 36, Johnny Depp 54, Kenneth Branagh 56, Willem Dafoe 62, Derek Jacobi 79
Exhibit H: the money
It made 6.4 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $55 million
- Box office
- $353 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 156 scenes and 1,027 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
