Passes the Bechdel test

Proof of Life

2000. Directed by Taylor Hackford, written by Tony Gilroy and William Prochnau and Thomas Hargrove.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    10 women characters. 6 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 1 scene out of 1.
  3. Yes 3. About something besides a man
    In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

Poster for Proof of Life

The film

Americans Alice and Peter Bowman have traveled from third world country to third world country working on humanitarian projects. They are currently in Tecala, a country nestled in the Andes, as Peter, an engineer, has been hired by QUAD Carbon, an oil company - the moral "enemy" - to lead a project to construct a dam to prevent what is the constant flooding in the country. Alice and Peter eventually learn that QUAD Carbon cares nothing about the dam, which is just a smoke-screen to get an oil pipeline approved and built. Despite loving each other, they have had problems in the marriage of late because of being in Tecala, where Alice has not been able to find her place, and needing to deal with the aftermath of Alice's recent miscarriage. On his way to work one day, Peter, along with a group of others, are random kidnap victims of left wing guerrillas, the Liberation Army of Tecala (ELT), whose reason for being has changed from a political agenda to a monetary one, primarily getting said money through kidnapping and the drug trade in cocaine. The ELT may believe they can get good money for Peter being an oil company executive, despite he not being wealthy as he is not on the oil side of the business. Luthan Risk International, who is the contracted agency for QUAD Carbon's kidnap and ransom (K&R) requirements, dispatches Australian-British Terry Thorne to negotiate Peter's release, Terry an ex-special ops soldier who is known as the best in the business within his own circles. But QUAD Carbon's financial troubles may prevent Terry or anyone else from Luthan Risk helping to get Peter back. Regardless, Alice has to decide whether to trust Terry, the global expert, or locals assigned by QUAD Carbon whose actions are on the surface more promising despite Terry's assertions to the contrary. All, however, need constant proof that Peter is indeed still alive to continue with their work to get him back. But what Alice and Terry begin to feel for each other ultimately factors into what they decide to do in relation to Peter.

Released
08 Dec 2000
Genres
Action, Drama, Thriller
Rated
R
IMDb
6.3 / 10
Metascore
45 / 100
Awards
5 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Terry 244 lines, man
  2. Alice 175 lines, woman
  3. Peter 78 lines, man
  4. Dino 45 lines, man
  5. Janis 43 lines, woman
  6. Fernandez 21 lines, man
  7. Fellner 20 lines, man
  8. Voice/Radio 16 lines
  9. Havery 13 lines, man
  10. Jerry 12 lines, man
Full cast, 47 people
  • Meg Ryan as Alice Bowman
  • Russell Crowe as Terry Thorne
  • David Morse as Peter Bowman
  • Pamela Reed as Janis Goodman
  • David Caruso as Dino
  • Anthony Heald as Ted Fellner
  • Stanley Anderson as Jerry
  • Gottfried John as Eric Kessler
  • Alun Armstrong as Wyatt
  • Michael Kitchen as Ian Havery
  • Margo Martindale as Ivy
  • Mario Ernesto Sánchez as Arturo Fernandez
  • Pietro Sibille as Juaco
  • Vicky Hernández as Maria
  • Norma Martínez as Norma
  • Diego Trujillo as Eliodoro
  • Aristóteles Picho as Sandro
  • Sarahi Echeverria as Cinta
  • Carlos Blanchard as Carlos
  • Raúl Rodríguez as Tomas
  • Mauro Cueva as Rico
  • Alejandro Cordova as Rambo
  • Sandro Bellido as Mono
  • Miguel Iza as ELT Officer
  • Roberto Frisone as Calitri
  • Tony Vázquez as Fred / Marco
  • Claudia Dammert as Ginger
  • Rowena King as Pamela
  • Michael Byrne as Lord Luthan
  • Jaime Zevallos as Nino
  • Gilberto Torres as Raymo
  • Flora Martínez as Linda
  • Laura Escobar as Cara
  • Marco Bustos as Alex
  • Jorge Medina as Berto
  • Gerard Naprous as Pierre Lenoir
  • Aleksandr Baluev as Russian Colonel
  • Dmitriy Shevchenko as Russian Sergeant
  • Zbigniew Zamachowski as Terry's Driver
  • Said K. Saralijen as Chechen Leader
  • Óscar Carrillo as Trial Honcho
  • Pedro Martínez Laya as Trial Honcho
  • Wolframio Sinué as Trial Honcho
  • Alonso Alegría as Master of Ceremonies
  • Merlin Hanbury-Tenison as Terry's Son
  • Stefan Gryff as Bank Official
  • Yolanda Vazquez as Notary

Who talks, scene by scene

We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.

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.

ALICE: I was home all day. Here comes IVY with a plate.of food. She's a fort.y-five- year-old bottle-blonde Alabaman. Ex-pat lifer. IVY: Hey ya'll.- Sorry we're late. ALICE: Where is everyone?
JANIS: You're not selling something, are you? ALICE: Janis ... JANIS: What?
JANIS: You're kidding ••• You can underst~nd why I 'd be ... ALICE: So you :ust flew in?
JANIS: Not use Risk Management? ALICE: What circumstances?
ALICE: I bet they can't wait for that. I'm sure they're just standing-by ready to jump in and help out. JANIS: This is absurd.. Where's Gem-carbon in all this?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 32 are women's.

236 lines from women, 513 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

10 women and 23 men in the cast. 6 women and 21 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 23 of 832. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 56 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 24% of the words (2,530), men 76% (7,942). Women have 32% 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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

1 of the 10 people in these jobs is a woman. Across the whole crew, 19% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Taylor Hackford (man)
Written by
Tony Gilroy (man)
Produced by
Taylor Hackford (man), Charles Mulvehill (man)
Shot by
Sławomir Idziak (man)
Edited by
Sheldon Kahn (man), John Smith (man)
Music by
Danny Elfman (man)
Production design by
Bruno Rubeo (man)
Cast by
Nancy Klopper (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Production

    3 women, 4 men, 4 not listed

  • Directing

    0 women, 4 men

  • Art

    1 women, 2 men

  • Other crew

    0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed

  • Camera

    0 women, 2 men

  • Costume & Make-Up

    1 women, 1 men

  • Editing

    0 women, 2 men

  • Lighting

    0 women, 1 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 45 on average. Men: 51 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Meg Ryan 39, Pamela Reed 51

Men

Russell Crowe 36, David Caruso 44, David Morse 47, Michael Kitchen 52, Alun Armstrong 54, Anthony Heald 56, Gottfried John 58, Stanley Anderson 61

Exhibit H: the money

It made 97% of what it cost.

Budget
$65 million
Box office
$62.8 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 832 lines of dialogue. How the test works

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