Fails the Bechdel test
Planet of the Apes
1968. Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, written by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling and Pierre Boulle.
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 1 out of 3.
The film
Taylor and two other astronauts come out of deep hibernation to find that their ship has crashed. Escaping with little more than clothes they find that they have landed on a planet where men are pre-lingual and uncivilized while apes have learned speech and technology. Taylor is captured and taken to the city of the apes after damaging his throat so that he is silent and cannot communicate with the apes.
- Released
- 03 Apr 1968
- Genres
- Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- G
- IMDb
- 8 / 10
- Metascore
- 79 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 6 wins & 5 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Taylor 192 lines, man
- Zira 122 lines, woman
- Zaius 84 lines, man
- Cornelius 71 lines, man
- Landon 29 lines, man
- Lucius 28 lines, man
- Julius 27 lines, man
- President 26 lines
- Dodge 24 lines, man
- Honorius 13 lines
Full cast, 44 people
- Charlton Heston as George Taylor
- Roddy McDowall as Cornelius
- Kim Hunter as Zira
- Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius
- James Whitmore as President of the Assembly
- James Daly as Dr. Honorious
- Linda Harrison as Nova
- Robert Gunner as Landon
- Lou Wagner as Lucius
- Woodrow Parfrey as Dr. Maximus
- Jeff Burton as Dodge
- Buck Kartalian as Julius
- Norman Burton as Hunt Leader
- Wright King as Dr. Galen
- Paul Lambert as Minister
- Martin Abrahams as Human in Cage (uncredited)
- Army Archerd as Gorilla (uncredited)
- James Bacon as Ape (uncredited)
- Erlynn Mary Botelho as Gorilla (uncredited)
- Priscilla Boyd as Human #1 (uncredited)
- Eldon Burke as Gorilla (uncredited)
- David Chow as Chimpanzee (uncredited)
- Billy Curtis as Child Ape (uncredited)
- Frank Delfino as Child Ape (uncredited)
- Buddy Douglas as Child Ape (uncredited)
- Chuck Fisher as Gorilla (uncredited)
- William Graeff Jr. as Gorilla (uncredited)
- Lars Hensen as Gorilla (uncredited)
- Irvin 'Zabo' Koszewski as Gorilla (uncredited)
- Norma Jean Kron as Chimpanzee (uncredited)
- Robert Lombardo as Gorilla Photographer (uncredited)
- Jerry Maren as Child Ape (uncredited)
- Cass Martin as Chimpanzee (uncredited)
- Stephan Merjanian as Gorilla (uncredited)
- Harry Monty as Child Ape (uncredited)
- John Quijada as Gorilla (uncredited)
- Smokey Roberds as Chimpanzee (uncredited)
- Dave Rodgers as Gorilla (uncredited)
- Jane Ross as Human (uncredited)
- George Sasaki as Chimpanzee (uncredited)
- Felix Silla as Child Gorilla (uncredited)
- Emory Souza as Child Ape (uncredited)
- Dianne Stanley as Astronaut Stewart (uncredited)
- Joe Tornatore as Gorilla (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, 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 62
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 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 2 | 5 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 8 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 66 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 5 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 4 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 8 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 9 |
| 19 to 20 | 8 | 12 |
| 21 to 22 | 29 | 43 |
| 23 to 24 | 30 | 40 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 5 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 5 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 1 |
| 39 to 40 | 2 | 15 |
| 41 to 42 | 18 | 30 |
| 43 to 44 | 4 | 41 |
| 45 to 46 | 3 | 19 |
| 47 to 48 | 4 | 7 |
| 49 to 50 | 8 | 24 |
| 51 to 52 | 1 | 5 |
| 53 to 54 | 2 | 11 |
| 55 to 56 | 1 | 36 |
| 57 to 58 | 4 | 27 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 3 |
| 61 to 62 | 8 | 65 |
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, 20 are women's.
125 lines from women, 498 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
4 women and 29 men in the cast. 2 women and 19 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 3 of 688.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 110 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 18% of the words (1,252), men 82% (5,879). Women have 20% 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
52
Exhibit E: behind the camera
None of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 2% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Franklin J. Schaffner (man)
- Written by
- Rod Serling (man), Michael Wilson (man)
- From the novel by
- Pierre Boulle (man)
- Produced by
- Arthur P. Jacobs (man)
- Shot by
- Leon Shamroy (man)
- Edited by
- Hugh S. Fowler (man)
- Music by
- Jerry Goldsmith (man)
- Costumes by
- Morton Haack (man)
- Cast by
- Joe Scully (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
0 women, 30 men, 7 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Production
0 women, 4 men
-
Sound
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Writing
0 women, 3 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 34 on average. Men: 44 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Linda Harrison 22, Kim Hunter 45
Men
Lou Wagner 27, Robert Gunner 36, Roddy McDowall 39, Charlton Heston 44, Woodrow Parfrey 45, James Whitmore 46, James Daly 49, Maurice Evans 66
Exhibit G: the money
It made 5.6 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $5.8 million
- Box office
- $32.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 62 scenes and 688 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
