Passes the Bechdel test

Panic Room

Name: Panic Room
Released: 2002

2002. Directed by David Fincher, written by David Koepp.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
4 women characters. 3 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 17 scenes out of 169.
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.

The film

Recently divorced Meg Altman and her daughter Sarah have bought a new home in New York. On their tour around the mansion, they come across the panic room. A room so secure, that no one can get in. When three burglars break in, Meg makes a move to the panic room. But all her troubles don't stop there. The criminals know where she is, and what they require the most in the house is in that very room.

Released: 29 Mar 2002
Genres: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.8 / 10
Metascore: 65 / 100
Awards: 1 win & 9 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Meg 133 lines, woman
Burnham 119 lines, man
Sarah 82 lines, woman
Raoul 67 lines, man
Junior 57 lines, man
Evan 27 lines, man
Lydia 20 lines, woman
Cop 1 12 lines, man
Cop 2 4 lines, man
Harris 3 lines

Full cast, 17 people

Jodie Foster as Meg Altman
Kristen Stewart as Sarah Altman
Forest Whitaker as Burnham
Dwight Yoakam as Raoul
Jared Leto as Junior
Patrick Bauchau as Stephen Altman
Ann Magnuson as Lydia Lynch
Ian Buchanan as Evan Kurlander
Andrew Kevin Walker as Sleepy Neighbor
Paul Schulze as Officer Keeney
Mel Rodriguez as Officer Morales
Richard Conant as SWAT Cop
Paul Simon as SWAT Cop
Victor Thrash as SWAT Cop
Ken Turner as SWAT Cop
Nicole Kidman as Stephen's Girlfriend on the Phone (voice) (uncredited)
Ty Copeman as Truck Driver (uncredited

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 169

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	20	13
9 to 12	27	14
13 to 16	9	0
17 to 20	2	0
21 to 24	0	0
25 to 28	0	49
29 to 32	0	0
33 to 36	0	1
37 to 40	0	2
41 to 44	1	0
45 to 48	2	0
49 to 52	2	1
53 to 56	5	1
57 to 60	0	0
61 to 64	21	1
65 to 68	30	20
69 to 72	1	0
73 to 76	12	0
77 to 80	2	5
81 to 84	0	10
85 to 88	1	4
89 to 92	10	9
93 to 96	10	4
97 to 100	3	2
101 to 104	5	4
105 to 108	3	0
109 to 112	0	1
113 to 116	5	0
117 to 120	1	0
121 to 124	25	5
125 to 128	7	18
129 to 132	0	27
133 to 136	1	5
137 to 140	0	1
141 to 144	2	0
145 to 148	5	24
149 to 152	0	17
153 to 156	18	31
157 to 160	2	1
161 to 164	2	2
165 to 168	0	15
169 to 169	1	0

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.

LYDIA: -- seventeen feet wide, fifty-five feet deep, forty-two hundred square feet, four floors with a rentable basement apartment, so five altoget… MEG: Could you slow down a little? Or we could wait for the car... LYDIA: No cars. Feet are faster. MEG: How many more do we have after this?

MEG: Something's weird. LYDIA: What? MEG: I don't know, doesn't that corner seem funny to you?

MEG: I said open the door. SARAH: My room. Definitely my room.

SARAH: Too many stairs. MEG: Got us in here, didn't I? SARAH: Shoulda got an apartment. MEG: Well, I know that now.

MEG: The phone works. Hey, I hooked up the phone. SARAH: The crowd goes wild. MEG: 478... SARAH: Meg finishes dialing. It rings, someone answers.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 45 are women's.

235 lines from women, 287 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

4 women and 10 men in the cast. 3 women and 7 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 52 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 36% of the words (1,672), men 64% (2,924). Women have 45% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 20% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: David Fincher (man)
Written by: David Koepp (man)
Produced by: Gavin Polone (man), David Koepp (man), Ceán Chaffin (woman), Judy Hofflund (woman)
Shot by: Conrad W. Hall (man), Darius Khondji (man)
Edited by: James Haygood (man), Angus Wall (man)
Music by: Howard Shore (man)
Production design by: Arthur Max (man)
Cast by: Laray Mayfield (woman)