Fails the Bechdel test
Overlord
2018. Directed by Julius Avery, written by Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
0 / 3
Fails
-
No
1. At least two women
Fewer than two women characters. -
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 0 out of 3.
The film
On the eve of D-Day, the 5th of June, 1944, several American paratroopers are dropped behind enemy lines to carry out a mission crucial to the invasion's success: destroy a radio tower built in a little castle of an old French town that the Third Reich uses for communication between Berlin and Normandy beaches' bunkers. Due to the intense enemy fire, the planes are shot down and most soldiers die in the landing or are killed by the Nazis' night patrols after they land. However, a private named Ed Boyce survives to find Corporal Ford, a last-minute incorporation from Italy and a veteran expert in bombs and explosives, rogue sniper Tibbet, war photographer Chase, and finally private Dawson. Ford becomes leader of the group and they try to get the town with the tower in order to complete the mission. In the forest close to the town they meet Chloe, a villager who assists the soldiers in her home with her elderly aunt and little brother Paul. But the mission gets complicated when, by accident, Boyce ends up inside the Nazi radio tower, only to find horrible secret experiments. With D-Day approaching, Boyce and the others begin to realize there is more going on in this Nazi-occupied village than a simple military operation.
- Released
- 09 Nov 2018
- Genres
- Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 60 / 100
- Awards
- 2 wins & 7 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Ford 212 lines, man
- Boyce 202 lines, man
- Chloe 66 lines, woman
- Tibbet 31 lines, man
- Jumpmaster Rensin 25 lines, man
- Bruel 24 lines, man
- Wafner 24 lines, man
- Pfc. Chase 13 lines, man
- Rosenfeld 13 lines, man
- Grunauer 12 lines, man
Full cast, 34 people
- Jovan Adepo as Boyce
- Wyatt Russell as Ford
- Pilou Asbæk as Wafner
- Mathilde Ollivier as Chloe
- John Magaro as Tibbet
- Iain De Caestecker as Chase
- Jacob Anderson as Dawson
- Dominic Applewhite as Rosenfeld
- Gianny Taufer as Paul
- Joseph Quinn as Grunauer
- Bokeem Woodbine as Rensin
- Erich Redman as Dr. Schmidt
- Mark McKenna as Murphy
- Patrick Brammall as American Officer
- Hayley Carmichael as Mrs. Lesner
- Marc Rissmann as Scherzer
- Meg Foster as Chloe's Aunt
- Sarah Finigan as French Mother
- Gunther Wurger as German Officer
- Bart Lambert as Navigator
- Michael Epp as German Soldier
- Tom Mothersdale as German Soldier
- Ross Tomlinson as Young Man
- Alison Thea-Skot as Re-Animated Woman
- Ben Tavassoli as Nez
- Shubham Saraf as Hays
- Andy Wareham as Richt
- Nick Roeten as The Mistake
- Adam Collins as GI Paratrooper (uncredited)
- Shawn Dixon as Dead German Soldier #1 (uncredited)
- Jorge Leon as US Soldier (uncredited)
- Gunter Würger as German Officer (uncredited)
- Chris Wilkinson as Lab Technician (uncredited)
- Hélène Cardona as German Party Guest (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 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 104
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 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 4 to 6 | 0 | 42 |
| 7 to 9 | 0 | 22 |
| 10 to 12 | 0 | 15 |
| 13 to 15 | 0 | 3 |
| 16 to 18 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 to 21 | 0 | 31 |
| 22 to 24 | 15 | 37 |
| 25 to 27 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 to 30 | 0 | 13 |
| 31 to 33 | 0 | 25 |
| 34 to 36 | 0 | 2 |
| 37 to 39 | 0 | 5 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 1 |
| 43 to 45 | 0 | 6 |
| 46 to 48 | 5 | 36 |
| 49 to 51 | 8 | 31 |
| 52 to 54 | 20 | 59 |
| 55 to 57 | 0 | 4 |
| 58 to 60 | 0 | 0 |
| 61 to 63 | 4 | 10 |
| 64 to 66 | 2 | 34 |
| 67 to 69 | 0 | 0 |
| 70 to 72 | 1 | 4 |
| 73 to 75 | 2 | 68 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 19 |
| 79 to 81 | 0 | 14 |
| 82 to 84 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 to 87 | 1 | 5 |
| 88 to 90 | 2 | 3 |
| 91 to 93 | 4 | 56 |
| 94 to 96 | 0 | 0 |
| 97 to 99 | 0 | 0 |
| 100 to 102 | 0 | 0 |
| 103 to 104 | 2 | 16 |
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, 10 are women's.
66 lines from women, 565 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
6 women and 28 men in the cast. 1 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 146 of 659.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 145 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 11% of the words (538), men 89% (4,285). Women have 10% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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
55
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 28% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Julius Avery (man)
- Written by
- Billy Ray (man), Mark L. Smith (man)
- Story by
- Billy Ray (man)
- Produced by
- J.J. Abrams (man), Lindsey Weber (woman)
- Shot by
- Fabian Wagner (man), Laurie Rose (man)
- Edited by
- Matt Evans (man)
- Music by
- Jed Kurzel (man)
- Production design by
- Jon Henson (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Anna B. Sheppard (woman)
- Cast by
- Theo Park (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Art
4 women, 10 men, 20 not listed
-
Other crew
3 women, 12 men, 13 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 5 men, 12 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 12 men, 10 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
12 women, 2 men, 8 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 13 men, 3 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men, 7 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 24 on average. Men: 30 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Mathilde Ollivier 24
Men
Dominic Applewhite 23, Joseph Quinn 24, Jacob Anderson 28, Jovan Adepo 30, Iain De Caestecker 30, Wyatt Russell 32, John Magaro 35, Pilou Asbæk 36
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $38 million
- Box office
- $41.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 104 scenes and 659 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
