Fails the Bechdel test
Pi
1998. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, written by Darren Aronofsky and Sean Gullette and Eric Watson.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 5 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 2 out of 3.
The film
In NYC's Chinatown, recluse math genius Max (Sean Gullette) believes "everything can be understood in terms of numbers," and he looks for a pattern in the system as he suffers headaches, plays Go with former teacher Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis), and fools around with an advanced computer system he's built in his apartment. Both a Wall Street company and a Hasidic sect take an interest in his work, but he's distracted by blackout attacks, hallucinations, and paranoid delusions..
- Released
- 10 Jul 1998
- Genres
- Drama, Horror, Mystery
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 72 / 100
- Awards
- 8 wins & 12 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Max 256 lines, man
- Lenny Meyer 67 lines, man
- Sol 52 lines, man
- Marcy Dawson 43 lines, woman
- Devi 32 lines, woman
- Farrouhk 20 lines, man
- Rav Cohen 14 lines, man
- Jenna 10 lines, woman
- Mrs. Ovadia 6 lines, woman
- Jenny Robeson 3 lines, woman
Full cast, 29 people
- Sean Gullette as Maximillian Cohen
- Mark Margolis as Sol Robeson
- Ben Shenkman as Lenny Meyer
- Pamela Hart as Marcy Dawson
- Stephen Pearlman as Rabbi Cohen
- Samia Shoaib as Devi
- Ajay Naidu as Farroukh
- Kristyn Mae-Anne Lao as Jenna
- Espher Lao Nieves as Jenna's Mom
- Joanne Gordon as Mrs. Ovadia
- Lauren Fox as Jenny Robeson
- Stanley B. Herman as Moustacheless Man
- Clint Mansell as Photographer
- Tom Tumminello as Ephraim
- Henri Falconi as Kaballah Scholar
- Isaac Fried as Kaballah Scholar
- Ari Handel as Kaballah Scholar
- Oren Sarch as Kaballah Scholar
- Lloyd J. Schwartz as Kaballah Scholar
- Richard Lifschutz as Kaballah Scholar
- David Strahlberg as Kaballah Scholar
- Peter Cheyenne as Brad
- David Tawil as Jake
- J.C. Islander as Man Presenting Suitcase
- Abraham Aronofsky as Man Delivering Suitcase
- Ray Seiden as Transit Cop
- Scott Franklin as Transit Cop (voice)
- Chris Johnson as Limo Driver
- Sal Monte as King Neptune
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 61
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 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 to 6 | 6 | 4 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 3 |
| 9 to 10 | 12 | 14 |
| 11 to 12 | 3 | 32 |
| 13 to 14 | 3 | 13 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 2 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 31 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 22 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 5 |
| 23 to 24 | 6 | 4 |
| 25 to 26 | 5 | 4 |
| 27 to 28 | 7 | 15 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 22 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 29 |
| 33 to 34 | 11 | 9 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 2 |
| 37 to 38 | 2 | 16 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 2 |
| 41 to 42 | 7 | 17 |
| 43 to 44 | 12 | 34 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 5 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 31 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 8 |
| 51 to 52 | 2 | 3 |
| 53 to 54 | 9 | 41 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 34 |
| 57 to 58 | 3 | 5 |
| 59 to 60 | 7 | 6 |
| 61 to 61 | 4 | 2 |
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, 19 are women's.
99 lines from women, 418 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
6 women and 23 men in the cast. 5 women and 5 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 522.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 72 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 20% of the words (1,189), men 80% (4,765). Women have 19% 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
24
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 11 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 19% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Darren Aronofsky (man)
- Written by
- Darren Aronofsky (man)
- Story by
- Darren Aronofsky (man), Eric Watson (man), Sean Gullette (man)
- Produced by
- Eric Watson (man)
- Shot by
- Matthew Libatique (man)
- Edited by
- Oren Sarch (man)
- Music by
- Clint Mansell (man)
- Production design by
- Matthew Maraffi (man)
- Cast by
- Denise Fitzgerald (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
1 women, 5 men, 6 not listed
-
Camera
2 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 4 men, 4 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 4 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 28 on average. Men: 41 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Samia Shoaib 28
Men
Ajay Naidu 26, Ben Shenkman 29, Sean Gullette 30, Mark Margolis 58, Stephen Pearlman 63
Exhibit G: the money
It made 53.7 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $60,000
- Box office
- $3.2 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 61 scenes and 522 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
