Fails the Bechdel test

Rambo: First Blood Part II

Name: Rambo: First Blood Part II
Released: 1985

1985. Directed by George P. Cosmatos, written by David Morrell and Kevin Jarre and Sylvester Stallone.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
The film has at least 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 0 out of 3.

The film

Only a few years after the all-out guerrilla war in First Blood (1982), John Rambo's former commanding officer, Colonel Sam Trautman, pulls him out of jail, only to send him back to a place he swore never to return: the impenetrable jungles of Vietnam. Entrusted with the dangerous task of collecting evidence that American POWs are still being held captive, Rambo agrees to infiltrate the unknown zone, and before long, he finds himself double-crossed, marooned behind the enemy lines. Once, John fought for his country. Now, the government has left him for dead in a Soviet-infested land. Can Rambo fulfil his suicide mission? Will he deliver his lethal justice?

Released: 22 May 1985
Genres: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 6.5 / 10
Metascore: 47 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 6 wins & 7 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Rambo 149 lines, man
Brewer 119 lines, man
Trautman 59 lines, man
Kirkhill 57 lines, man
Co 45 lines, woman
De Fravio 25 lines, man
Doyle 25 lines, man
Podovsk 22 lines, man
Fuhrman 11 lines, man
Man 11 lines, man

Full cast, 25 people

Sylvester Stallone as John J. Rambo
Richard Crenna as Col. Samuel Trautman
Charles Napier as Marshall Murdock
Steven Berkoff as Lt. Col. Podovsky
Julia Nickson as Co Bao
Martin Kove as Ericson
George Cheung as Capt Vinh
Andy Wood as Banks
William Ghent as Capt. Vinh
Vojislav Govedarica as Sgt. Yushin
Dana Lee as Gunboat captain
Baoan Coleman as Gunboat captain II
Steve Williams as Lifer
Don Collins as P.O.W. #1
Christopher Grant as P.O.W. #2
John Sterlini as P.O.W. #3
Alain Hocquenghem as P.O.W. #4
William Rothlein as P.O.W. #5
Tony Munafo as Prison Guard
Tom Gehrke as Russian Pilot
Mason Cardiff as Russian Soldier
Roger Cudney as Chief Radio Operator
Jeff Imada as Tay's Soldier
John Pankow as POW #6
John Sabol as Radio Operator

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 212

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 5	0	1
6 to 10	0	49
11 to 15	1	27
16 to 20	0	36
21 to 25	0	32
26 to 30	0	0
31 to 35	0	7
36 to 40	0	5
41 to 45	0	1
46 to 50	0	5
51 to 55	0	7
56 to 60	0	5
61 to 65	11	56
66 to 70	1	16
71 to 75	8	11
76 to 80	1	27
81 to 85	0	12
86 to 90	5	26
91 to 95	2	10
96 to 100	0	27
101 to 105	0	33
106 to 110	0	9
111 to 115	0	6
116 to 120	1	2
121 to 125	1	2
126 to 130	0	0
131 to 135	0	3
136 to 140	0	4
141 to 145	0	15
146 to 150	0	2
151 to 155	0	4
156 to 160	15	14
161 to 165	0	1
166 to 170	1	2
171 to 175	2	9
176 to 180	0	1
181 to 185	0	0
186 to 190	0	3
191 to 195	0	19
196 to 200	0	4
201 to 205	0	5
206 to 210	0	6
211 to 212	0	4

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, 9 are women's.

49 lines from women, 508 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

1 women and 24 men in the cast. 1 women and 7 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 81 of 597. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 145 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 9% of the words (468), men 91% (4,670).

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

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

1 of the 16 people in these jobs is a woman. Across the whole crew, 13% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: George P. Cosmatos (man)
Written by: Sylvester Stallone (man), James Cameron (man)
Story by: Kevin Jarre (man)
Produced by: Buzz Feitshans (man)
Shot by: Jack Cardiff (man)
Edited by: Frank E. Jimenez (man), Larry Bock (man), Mark Goldblatt (man), Gib Jaffe (gender not listed), Mark Helfrich (man)
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith (man)
Production design by: Bill Kenney (man)
Costumes by: Tom Bronson (man)
Cast by: Rhonda Young (woman), Jesús Guerrero (gender not listed)

The crew, department by department

Other crew

1 women, 31 men, 8 not listed
Sound

4 women, 8 men, 2 not listed
Editing

1 women, 6 men, 4 not listed
Production

2 women, 6 men, 3 not listed
Art

0 women, 3 men, 6 not listed
Camera

0 women, 5 men, 4 not listed
Costume & Make-Up

1 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
Directing

1 women, 1 men, 2 not listed

Women
Men
Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Women: 26 on average. Men: 44 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Julia Nickson 26

Men

George Cheung 36, Sylvester Stallone 38, Martin Kove 39, William Ghent 41, Vojislav Govedarica 45, Steven Berkoff 47, Charles Napier 49, Richard Crenna 58

Exhibit G: the money

It made 6.8 times what it cost.

Budget: $44 million
Box office: $300 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 212 scenes and 597 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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