Fails the Bechdel test
Office Space
1999. Directed by Mike Judge, written by Mike Judge.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
No
2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
In the Initech office, the insecure Peter Gibbons hates his job and the obnoxious Division VP Bill Lumbergh who has just hired two efficiency consultants to downsize the company. His best friends are two software engineers Michael Bolton and Samir Nagheenanajar, that also hate Initech, and his intrusive next door neighbor Lawrence. He believes his girlfriend Anne is cheating on him but she convinces Peter to visit the hypnotherapist Dr. Swanson. Peter tells how miserable his life is and Dr. Swanson hypnotizes him and he goes into a state of ecstasy. However, Dr. Swanson dies immediately after giving the hypnotic suggestion to Peter. Peter, in his new state, starts to date the waitress Joanna and changes his attitude which results in his being promoted by the consultants. When he discovers that Michael and Samir will be downsized, they decide to plant a virus in the banking system to embezzle fraction of cents on each financial operation into Peter's account. However Michael commits a mistake in the software on the decimal place and they siphon off over $300 thousand. The desperate trio tries to fix the problem, return the money and avoid going to prison.
- Released
- 19 Feb 1999
- Genres
- Comedy
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 68 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 2 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Peter 227 lines, man
- Michael 90 lines, man
- Joanna 70 lines, woman
- Samir 56 lines, man
- Bill 44 lines, man
- Bob Slydell 34 lines, man
- Milton 31 lines, man
- Tom 30 lines, man
- Lawrence 28 lines, man
- Bob Porter 21 lines, man
Full cast, 33 people
- Ron Livingston as Peter
- Jennifer Aniston as Joanna
- David Herman as Michael Bolton
- Ajay Naidu as Samir
- Diedrich Bader as Lawrence
- Stephen Root as Milton
- Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh
- Richard Riehle as Tom Smykowski
- Ali Wentworth as Anne
- Joe Bays as Dom Portwood
- John C. McGinley as Bob Slydell
- Paul Willson as Bob Porter
- Kinna McInroe as Nina
- Todd Duffey as Chotchkie's Waiter
- Greg Pitts as Drew
- Michael McShane as Dr. Swanson
- Linda Wakeman as Laura Smykowski
- Jennifer Jane Emerson as Female Temp
- Kyle Scott Jackson as Rob Newhouse
- Orlando Jones as Steve
- Barbara George-Reiss as Lumbergh's Secretary
- Tom Schuster as Construction Foreman
- Rupert Reyes as Mexican Waiter
- Jackie Belvin as Swanson's Patient #1
- Gabriel Folse as Swanson's Patient #2
- Jesse De Luna as Cop at Fire
- Mike Judge as Chotchkie's Manager
- Justin Possenti as Spectator
- Jack Betts as Judge
- Charissa Allen as Jogger (uncredited)
- Josh Bond as Initech Security Guard (uncredited)
- R.C. Keene as Rush Hour Driver (uncredited)
- K. Todd Lytle as Rush Hour Driver (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
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, 13 are women's.
87 lines from women, 607 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
7 women and 23 men in the cast. 3 women and 16 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 715.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 131 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 9% of the words (795), men 91% (8,022). Women have 13% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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
0
Two men
23
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 36% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Mike Judge (man)
- Written by
- Mike Judge (man)
- Produced by
- Michael Rotenberg (man), Daniel Rappaport (man)
- Shot by
- Tim Suhrstedt (man)
- Edited by
- David Rennie (man)
- Music by
- John Frizzell (man)
- Production design by
- Edward T. McAvoy (man)
- Costumes by
- Melinda Eshelman (woman)
- Cast by
- Nancy Klopper (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
3 women, 6 men, 6 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 1 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 0 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
2 women, 3 men
-
Directing
2 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 32 on average. Men: 37 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Jennifer Aniston 30, Ali Wentworth 34
Men
Ajay Naidu 27, Ron Livingston 31, David Herman 31, Diedrich Bader 32, Gary Cole 42, Stephen Root 47, Richard Riehle 50
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $10 million
- Box office
- $12.8 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 715 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
