Fails the Bechdel test
RoboCop
1987. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
15 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
Alex Murphy patrols a city that has already decided he is expendable. OCP doesn't resurrect him out of mercy; they need a product. What they get is something messier. Buried beneath behavioral directives, Murphy's memory keeps surfacing at the worst moments, turning routine enforcement into something far more volatile. The closer he gets to the men who destroyed him, the more his programming strains against what he actually is. He cannot officially want revenge. But he does. That gap between what RoboCop is permitted to be and what Murphy cannot stop being is where the film lives.
- Released
- 17 Jul 1987
- Genres
- Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 70 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 17 wins & 15 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Morton 39 lines, man
- Robo 38 lines, man
- Clarence 36 lines, man
- Lewis 33 lines, woman
- Jones 30 lines, man
- Murphy 17 lines, man
- Emil 14 lines, man
- Reed 12 lines, man
- Casey 10 lines, man
- Tyler 10 lines, woman
Full cast, 72 people
- Peter Weller as Officer Alex J. Murphy / RoboCop
- Nancy Allen as Officer Anne Lewis
- Dan O'Herlihy as The Old Man
- Ronny Cox as Dick Jones
- Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker
- Miguel Ferrer as Bob Morton
- Robert DoQui as Sgt. Warren Reed
- Ray Wise as Leon Nash
- Felton Perry as Johnson
- Paul McCrane as Emil Antonowsky
- Jesse D. Goins as Joe Cox
- Del Zamora as Kaplan
- Calvin Jung as Steve Minh
- Rick Lieberman as Walker
- Lee de Broux as Sal
- Mark Carlton as Miller
- Edward Edwards as Manson
- Michael Gregory as Lt. Hedgecock
- Freddie Hice as Bobby
- Neil Summers as Dougy
- Gene Wolande as Prisoner
- Gregory Poudevigne as Slimey Lawyer
- Charles Carroll as Bail Bondsman
- Kevin Page as Kinney
- Yolonda Williams as Ramirez
- Tyrees Allen as Starkweather
- John S. Davies as Chessman
- Laird Stuart as Cecil the Clerk
- Stephen Berrier as Roosevelt
- Sage Parker as Tyler
- Karen Radcliffe as Technician #1
- Darryl Cox as Technician #2
- Jerry Haynes as Dr. McNamara
- Bill Schockley as Creep
- Donna Keegan as Rape Victim
- Mike Moroff as Hophead
- Marjorie Rynearson as Grocery Mom
- Jo Livingston as Grocery Pop
- Joan Pirkle as Barbara
- Diane Robin as Chandra
- Adrianne Sachs as Tawney
- Maarten Goslins as Salesman
- Angie Bolling as Murphy's Wife
- Jason Levine as Murphy's Son
- S.D. Nemeth as Bixby Snyder
- Bill Farmer as Justin Ballard-Watkins
- Michael Hunter as Peter the Homeowner
- Spencer Prokop as Gas Station Attendant
- Debra Zach as Nurse
- L.J. King as Emergency Doctor
- David Packer as Emergency Doctor
- Leeza Gibbons as Jesse Perkins
- Mario Machado as Casey Wong
- Bill Blair as Undercover Cop (uncredited)
- Gilbert B. Combs as Sal's Gunman (uncredited)
- Jon Davison as ED-209 (voice) (uncredited)
- Wanda De Jesus as Estevez (uncredited)
- James Field as Restroom Junior Executive (uncredited)
- John Garrett as News Crew (uncredited)
- Allan Graf as Sal's Bodyguard (uncredited)
- Katie Griffin as Young Girl (uncredited)
- Harry Johnson as Dad in Nuke-'em' Commercial (uncredited)
- Debra Lamb as Pizza Dough Juggling Girl (uncredited)
- John Landis as Man in '6000 SUX' Commercial (uncredited)
- Randall Oliver as S.W.A.T. Team Member (uncredited)
- Scott Sligar as S.W.A.T. Team Member (uncredited)
- James Staszkiel as Keva Rosenberg (uncredited)
- Scott Thomson as Blonde Thug (uncredited)
- Paul Verhoeven as Dancer at Disco (uncredited)
- Mark Edward Walters as Street Kid (uncredited)
- Sean Wohland as Nukem (uncredited)
- Don 'Tex' Clark as Boardroom Executive (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 16% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 165
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 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 5 |
| 13 to 16 | 0 | 14 |
| 17 to 20 | 2 | 14 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 30 |
| 25 to 28 | 3 | 9 |
| 29 to 32 | 0 | 9 |
| 33 to 36 | 1 | 7 |
| 37 to 40 | 1 | 2 |
| 41 to 44 | 1 | 4 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 6 |
| 49 to 52 | 3 | 10 |
| 53 to 56 | 4 | 25 |
| 57 to 60 | 4 | 7 |
| 61 to 64 | 3 | 15 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 2 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 6 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 8 |
| 77 to 80 | 0 | 17 |
| 81 to 84 | 10 | 14 |
| 85 to 88 | 0 | 8 |
| 89 to 92 | 2 | 7 |
| 93 to 96 | 1 | 6 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 21 |
| 101 to 104 | 1 | 0 |
| 105 to 108 | 0 | 11 |
| 109 to 112 | 1 | 1 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 4 |
| 117 to 120 | 3 | 14 |
| 121 to 124 | 5 | 4 |
| 125 to 128 | 3 | 14 |
| 129 to 132 | 3 | 6 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 0 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 0 |
| 141 to 144 | 1 | 0 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 3 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 5 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 0 |
| 157 to 160 | 1 | 6 |
| 161 to 164 | 0 | 2 |
| 165 to 165 | 1 | 18 |
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.
54 lines from women, 339 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
15 women and 54 men in the cast. 5 women and 38 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 43 of 466.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 51 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 (506), men 91% (4,837). 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
1
Two men
57
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 11 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Paul Verhoeven (man)
- Written by
- Edward Neumeier (man), Michael Miner (man)
- Produced by
- Arne Schmidt (man)
- Shot by
- Jost Vacano (man)
- Edited by
- Frank J. Urioste (man)
- Music by
- Basil Poledouris (man)
- Production design by
- William Sandell (man)
- Costumes by
- Erica Edell Phillips (woman)
- Cast by
- Sally Dennison (gender not listed), Julie Selzer (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
4 women, 19 men, 4 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 13 men, 3 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 9 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
2 women, 8 men, 2 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
6 women, 4 men
-
Camera
2 women, 4 men
-
Directing
2 women, 3 men
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 4 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 37 on average. Men: 43 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Nancy Allen 37
Men
Paul McCrane 26, Miguel Ferrer 32, Ray Wise 39, Peter Weller 40, Felton Perry 41, Kurtwood Smith 44, Ronny Cox 48, Robert DoQui 53, Dan O'Herlihy 68
Exhibit G: the money
It made 4.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $13 million
- Box office
- $53.4 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 165 scenes and 466 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
