Fails the Bechdel test
Reign of Fire
2002. Directed by Rob Bowman, written by Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka and Matt Greenberg.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 1 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
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
In present-day London, 12-year-old Quinn Abercromby witnesses the awakening of a hibernating dragon from a centuries-long slumber, the result of a construction dig supervised by his mother and an incident for which Quinn feels partially responsible. 20 years later, the adult Quinn (Christian Bale) is the fire chief of a refortified castle community, responsible for dousing the blazes lit by the dragon's prodigious number of flame-spewing offspring, airborne juggernauts that have wreaked havoc across the globe, torching civilization and turning humans into an endangered species. Hope arrives in the form of Denton "Dragon Slayer" Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey), an American known to be the only man to ever kill one of the dragons, and Alex (Izabella Scorupco), a scientist/pilot who's a member of Van Zan's army, a zealous fighting force that includes a secret weapon: the Archangels, paratroopers using themselves as bait to attract and then dispatch the deadly beasts.
- Released
- 12 Jul 2002
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Fantasy
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 6.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 39 / 100
- Awards
- 1 win & 3 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Quinn 237 lines, man
- Van Zan 148 lines, man
- Colleen 73 lines, woman
- Creedy 72 lines, man
- Eddie 29 lines, man
- Choir Voices Over P.A 16 lines
- Karen 16 lines, woman
- Gideon 15 lines, man
- Danny 14 lines, man
- Radar Operator 12 lines
Full cast, 26 people
- Christian Bale as Quinn Abercromby
- Matthew McConaughey as Denton Van Zan
- Izabella Scorupco as Alex Jensen
- Gerard Butler as Creedy
- Alexander Siddig as Ajay
- Scott Moutter as Jared Wilke
- David Kennedy as Eddie Stax
- Ned Dennehy as Barlow
- Rory Keenan as Devon
- Terence Maynard as Gideon
- Doug Cockle as Goosh
- Randall Carlton as Burke (Tito)
- Ben Thornton as Young Quinn
- Alice Krige as Karen Abercromby
- Malcolm Douglas as Stuart
- Berts Folan as Construction Worker #1
- Brian McGuinness as Construction Worker #2
- Barry Barnes as Construction Worker #3
- Gerry O'Brien as Jerry
- Laura Pyper as Lin
- Maree Duffy as Rachel
- David Garrick as Jefferson
- Anne Maria McAuley as Rose
- Dessie Gallagher as Jess
- Jack Gleeson as Kid (uncredited)
- Chris Kelly as Mead
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 8 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 8% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 368
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 8 | 14 | 21 |
| 9 to 16 | 2 | 10 |
| 17 to 24 | 2 | 27 |
| 25 to 32 | 0 | 4 |
| 33 to 40 | 0 | 16 |
| 41 to 48 | 0 | 6 |
| 49 to 56 | 3 | 9 |
| 57 to 64 | 1 | 8 |
| 65 to 72 | 0 | 43 |
| 73 to 80 | 0 | 35 |
| 81 to 88 | 7 | 28 |
| 89 to 96 | 0 | 56 |
| 97 to 104 | 3 | 14 |
| 105 to 112 | 5 | 12 |
| 113 to 120 | 2 | 3 |
| 121 to 128 | 1 | 3 |
| 129 to 136 | 1 | 1 |
| 137 to 144 | 2 | 2 |
| 145 to 152 | 0 | 13 |
| 153 to 160 | 7 | 8 |
| 161 to 168 | 0 | 2 |
| 169 to 176 | 2 | 6 |
| 177 to 184 | 0 | 12 |
| 185 to 192 | 2 | 50 |
| 193 to 200 | 18 | 52 |
| 201 to 208 | 2 | 8 |
| 209 to 216 | 0 | 7 |
| 217 to 224 | 0 | 1 |
| 225 to 232 | 1 | 3 |
| 233 to 240 | 3 | 7 |
| 241 to 248 | 1 | 3 |
| 249 to 256 | 0 | 4 |
| 257 to 264 | 0 | 7 |
| 265 to 272 | 0 | 13 |
| 273 to 280 | 4 | 42 |
| 281 to 288 | 0 | 1 |
| 289 to 296 | 1 | 1 |
| 297 to 304 | 1 | 7 |
| 305 to 312 | 0 | 6 |
| 313 to 320 | 1 | 6 |
| 321 to 328 | 1 | 1 |
| 329 to 336 | 2 | 1 |
| 337 to 344 | 0 | 3 |
| 345 to 352 | 0 | 0 |
| 353 to 360 | 0 | 1 |
| 361 to 368 | 6 | 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, 14 are women's.
95 lines from women, 567 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 17 men in the cast. 1 women and 17 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 720.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 102 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 11% of the words (620), men 89% (4,871). Women have 14% 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
67
Exhibit E: behind the camera
4 of the 16 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 23% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Rob Bowman (man)
- Written by
- Matt Greenberg (man), Gregg Chabot (man)
- Story by
- Kevin Peterka (man)
- Produced by
- Roger Birnbaum (man), Gary Barber (man), Richard D. Zanuck (man), Lili Fini Zanuck (woman)
- Shot by
- Adrian Biddle (man)
- Edited by
- Declan McGrath (gender not listed), Thom Noble (man)
- Music by
- Edward Shearmur (man)
- Production design by
- Wolf Kroeger (man)
- Costumes by
- Joan Bergin (woman)
- Cast by
- Priscilla John (woman), Marcia Ross (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
7 women, 12 men, 16 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 13 men, 15 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 10 men, 14 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 8 men, 9 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 8 men, 9 not listed
-
Visual Effects
2 women, 3 men, 11 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
5 women, 0 men, 4 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 6 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 32 on average. Men: 32 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Izabella Scorupco 32
Men
Rory Keenan 22, Christian Bale 28, Matthew McConaughey 32, Gerard Butler 32, Terence Maynard 33, Alexander Siddig 36, Ned Dennehy 36, David Kennedy 38
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.4 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $60 million
- Box office
- $82.2 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 368 scenes and 720 lines of dialogue. How the test works
