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Passes the Bechdel test

Nerve

2016. Directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, written by Jessica Sharzer and Jeanne Ryan.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    8 women characters. 4 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 20 scenes out of 95.
  3. 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.

Poster for Nerve

The film

'Nerve' is about an online dare game, in which people give participants anonymous dares for money. The participants compete with each other to win the grand prize as the dares get tougher. Things get worse when the tasks get increasingly dangerous and lives are at stake.

Released
27 Jul 2016
Genres
Adventure, Crime, Drama
Rated
PG-13
IMDb
6.5 / 10
Metascore
58 / 100
Awards
6 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Vee 317 lines, woman
  2. Ian 159 lines, man
  3. Sydney 92 lines, woman
  4. Tommy 91 lines, man
  5. Nancy 65 lines, woman
  6. Ty 37 lines, man
  7. Emoticon 30 lines
  8. Jen 25 lines, woman
  9. Nerve 21 lines
  10. Wes 18 lines, man
Full cast, 24 people
  • Emma Roberts as Vee Delmonico
  • Dave Franco as Ian
  • Emily Meade as Sydney Sloane
  • Miles Heizer as Tommy Mancuso
  • Juliette Lewis as Nancy Delmonico
  • Kimiko Glenn as Liv Kurosawa
  • mgk as Ty
  • Marc John Jefferies as Wes
  • Samira Wiley as Azhar
  • Brian Marc as J.P.
  • Ed Squires as Chuck
  • Deema Aitken as Robbie
  • Michael Drayer as Officer McMillan
  • Josh Ostrovsky as Dirt Beard
  • Eric D'Alessandro as Hype Boi
  • Rightor Doyle as Bergdorf Salesman
  • Arielle Vandenberg as Bergdorf Sales Lady
  • Jonny Beauchamp as Gatekeeper
  • Wesley Volcy as Taxi Cab Driver
  • Damond McFarland as Derrick
  • Kim Ramirez as Senior Sales Woman
  • Albert Sidoine as Clarence
  • Casey Neistat as Himself
  • Hailey Benton Gates as Elevator Lady

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 13% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 95

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 250
3 to 4210
5 to 663
7 to 8278
9 to 1000
11 to 1276
13 to 141712
15 to 16119
17 to 182328
19 to 201214
21 to 2210
23 to 2420
25 to 2644
27 to 281118
29 to 301716
31 to 321313
33 to 342840
35 to 36172
37 to 382913
39 to 403818
41 to 4283
43 to 44914
45 to 461214
47 to 48108
49 to 50106
51 to 521912
53 to 5463
55 to 561411
57 to 583015
59 to 6081
61 to 6253
63 to 6490
65 to 6600
67 to 6800
69 to 7000
71 to 7201
73 to 7446
75 to 761612
77 to 787720
79 to 8000
81 to 8211
83 to 8460
85 to 8640
87 to 8810
89 to 90190
91 to 9200
93 to 9480
95 to 9561

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.
SYDNEY: Oh, I’m not having kids. Maybe I’ll adopt when I’m forty -- VEE: Sydney, stop.
NANCY: Sorry. I had to call in a sub and then my car broke down and I had to wait for triple A. So what was this stunt you pulled? SYDNEY: It was my stunt, Nancy. NANCY: Surprise, surprise.
NANCY: Sydney acts out to get attention -- VEE: Mom, stop -- SYDNEY: We get it, Nancy. Vee: good. Sydney: bad. I asked Vee to film me and I didn’t tell her what I was gonna do. Just suspend me. Leave her out o…
NANCY: You know what Sydney has that you don’t? A trust fund. She can afford to screw up. You can’t. And by the way, you’re grounded. VEE: But it’s the last Falcons game of the season and I’m covering it -- NANCY: No, you’re not. You’ll be doing laundry tonight. NANCY: Maybe I should go to NYU. Let you change bedpans for a while.
NANCY: ‘Cause eleven years of that has made one thing clear. There are two kinds of people: doctors and nurses. Doctors make orders and nurses foll… VEE: That’s why I’m going to medical school.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 63 are women's.

571 lines from women, 335 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

8 women and 12 men in the cast. 4 women and 5 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 2 of 1,045. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 17 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

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

Words spoken

Women speak 66% of the words (5,680), men 34% (2,905). Women have 63% 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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 34% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Henry Joost (man), Ariel Schulman (man)
Written by
Jessica Sharzer (woman)
From the novel by
Jeanne Ryan (gender not listed)
Produced by
Anthony Katagas (man), Allison Shearmur (woman)
Shot by
Michael Simmonds (man)
Edited by
Madeleine Gavin (woman), Jeff McEvoy (man)
Music by
Rob Simonsen (man)
Production design by
Chris Trujillo (man)
Costumes by
Melissa Vargas (woman)
Cast by
John Papsidera (man)

The crew, department by department

  • Other crew

    6 women, 14 men, 3 not listed

  • Sound

    7 women, 12 men, 1 not listed

  • Art

    2 women, 5 men, 4 not listed

  • Production

    3 women, 4 men, 3 not listed

  • Camera

    0 women, 5 men

  • Costume & Make-Up

    3 women, 0 men, 2 not listed

  • Visual Effects

    0 women, 1 men, 4 not listed

  • Directing

    1 women, 3 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 30 on average. Men: 27 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Emma Roberts 25, Emily Meade 27, Kimiko Glenn 27, Samira Wiley 29, Juliette Lewis 43

Men

Miles Heizer 22, mgk 26, Marc John Jefferies 26, Brian Marc 30, Dave Franco 31

Exhibit H: the money

It made 4.5 times what it cost.

Budget
$19 million
Box office
$85.2 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 95 scenes and 1,045 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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