Fails the Bechdel test
Phone Booth
2003. Directed by Joel Schumacher, written by Larry Cohen.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
15 women characters. 2 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
Stu Shepard is a fast talking and wise cracking New York City publicist who gets out of trouble and lies with his clever charm, connections, and charisma. Stu's greatest lie is to his wife Kelly, who he is cheating on with his girlfriend, Pam. Upon answering a call in a phone booth in belief it is Pam, Stu is on the line with a dangerous yet intelligent psychopath with a sniper rifle. When realizing it is not a joke, Stu is placed in a powerful mind game of wits and corruption. The New York City Police eventually arrive thereafter and demand Stu comes out of the phone booth- but how can he when if he hangs up or leaves the booth he will die?
- Released
- 04 Apr 2003
- Genres
- Crime, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 56 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 8 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Stu 412 lines, man
- Voice 283 lines, man
- Ramey 77 lines, man
- Leon 33 lines, man
- Kelly 31 lines, woman
- Mavis' Voice 31 lines
- Felicia 29 lines, woman
- Mario 17 lines, man
- Sergeant 16 lines
- Medic 7 lines, man
Full cast, 54 people
- Colin Farrell as Stu Shepard
- Kiefer Sutherland as The Caller
- Forest Whitaker as Captain Ramey
- Radha Mitchell as Kelly Shepard
- Katie Holmes as Pamela McFadden
- Paula Jai Parker as Felicia
- Arian Ash as Corky
- Tia Texada as Asia
- John Enos III as Leon
- Richard T. Jones as Sergeant Cole
- Keith Nobbs as Adam
- Dell Yount as Pizza Guy
- James MacDonald as Negotiator
- Josh Pais as Mario
- Yorgo Constantine as ESU Commander
- Colin Patrick Lynch as ESU Technician
- Troy Gilbert as ESU Sniper
- Seth William Meier as Officer McDuff
- Svetlana Efremova as Erica
- Billy Erb as Lars
- Domenick Lombardozzi as Wyatt
- Maile Flanagan as Lana
- Tom Reynolds as Richard
- Julio Oscar Mechoso as Hispanic Medic
- Karara Muhoro as Nigerian Vendor
- Zidu Chen as Korean Husband
- Shu Lan Tuan as Korean Wife
- Dean Cochran as Reporter #1
- Amy Kowallis as Reporter #2
- Tory Kittles as Reporter #3
- Bruce Roberts as Reporter #4
- Tyree Michael Simpson as Doorman
- Dean Tarrolly as Newscaster
- Mary Randle as Dispatcher
- Paul Fontana as Dispatcher
- Steve Alterman as (voice)
- Kimberly Bailey as (voice)
- Jason Broad as (voice)
- Lanei Chapman as (voice)
- Django Craig as (voice)
- Judith Durand as (voice)
- Greg Finley as (voice)
- Ramón Franco as (voice)
- Anneliese Goldman as (voice)
- Rick Gonzales as (voice)
- Tracy Metro as (voice)
- Jason Pace as (voice)
- Juan Pope as (voice)
- Nicole Prescott as (voice)
- Cheryl Tyre Smith as (voice)
- John Vargas as (voice)
- Tanya Vidal as (voice)
- Billy 'Sly' Williams as (voice)
- Ruth Zalduondo as (voice)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 9% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 4
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 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 to 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 to 3 | 59 | 788 |
| 4 to 4 | 2 | 45 |
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, 7 are women's.
61 lines from women, 833 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
15 women and 31 men in the cast. 2 women and 8 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 981.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 184 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 6% of the words (602), men 94% (10,288). Women have 7% 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
31
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 10 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 12% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Joel Schumacher (man)
- Written by
- Larry Cohen (man)
- Produced by
- David Zucker (man), Gil Netter (man)
- Shot by
- Matthew Libatique (man)
- Edited by
- Mark Stevens (man)
- Music by
- Harry Gregson-Williams (man)
- Production design by
- Andrew Laws (man)
- Costumes by
- Daniel Orlandi (man)
- Cast by
- Mali Finn (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Lighting
0 women, 14 men, 40 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 13 men, 32 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 15 men, 32 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 22 men, 15 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 10 men, 26 not listed
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 4 men, 24 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 11 men, 16 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 5 men, 8 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 28 on average. Men: 35 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Katie Holmes 24, Arian Ash 24, Radha Mitchell 29, Tia Texada 31, Paula Jai Parker 33
Men
Colin Farrell 26, Richard T. Jones 30, Kiefer Sutherland 36, John Enos III 40, Forest Whitaker 41
Exhibit G: the money
It made 7.5 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $13 million
- Box office
- $97.8 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 4 scenes and 981 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
