Fails the Bechdel test
Saw
2004. Directed by James Wan, written by Leigh Whannell and James Wan.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 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 2 out of 3.
The film
Two strangers, freelance photographer Adam Stanheight and Dr. Lawrence Gordon, awaken in a dilapidated bathroom with no memory of how they ended up there. Both men find a tape recording in their pockets, and not long after listening to them, realize they have been trapped in a "game" perpetrated by the infamous man known as Jigsaw. Escape seems unlikely at first, but Adam and Lawrence soon realize they may have a chance, but at a big cost.
- Released
- 29 Oct 2004
- Genres
- Horror, Mystery, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 46 / 100
- Awards
- 9 wins & 10 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Lawrence 198 lines, man
- Adam 137 lines, man
- Tapp 44 lines, man
- Sing 37 lines, man
- Jigsaw 32 lines, man
- Alison 30 lines, woman
- Diana 20 lines, woman
- Carla 5 lines, woman
- Zep 5 lines, man
- Amanda 4 lines, woman
Full cast, 18 people
- Leigh Whannell as Adam
- Cary Elwes as Lawrence Gordon
- Tobin Bell as Jigsaw
- Danny Glover as David Tapp
- Ken Leung as Steven Sing
- Dina Meyer as Kerry
- Mike Butters as Paul
- Paul Gutrecht as Mark
- Michael Emerson as Zep Hindle
- Benito Martinez as Brett
- Shawnee Smith as Amanda
- Makenzie Vega as Diana Gordon
- Monica Potter as Alison Gordon
- Ned Bellamy as Jeff
- Alexandra Bokyun Chun as Carla
- Avner Garbi as Father
- Hans Raith as Detective (uncredited)
- Oren Koules as Dead Cellmate (uncredited)
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: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 12 are women's.
63 lines from women, 460 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
5 women and 13 men in the cast. 5 women and 7 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 100 of 537.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 151 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 10% of the words (588), men 90% (5,102). Women have 12% 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
16
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 23% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- James Wan (man)
- Written by
- Leigh Whannell (man)
- Story by
- Leigh Whannell (man), James Wan (man)
- Produced by
- Gregg Hoffman (man), Oren Koules (man), Mark Burg (man)
- Shot by
- David A. Armstrong (man)
- Edited by
- Kevin Greutert (man)
- Music by
- Charlie Clouser (man)
- Production design by
- Julie Berghoff (woman)
- Costumes by
- Jennifer L. Soulages (woman)
- Cast by
- Amy Lippens (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
3 women, 7 men, 9 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 8 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men, 7 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men, 8 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 3 men, 4 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 1 men, 4 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 35 on average. Men: 43 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Dina Meyer 35
Men
Leigh Whannell 27, Benito Martinez 33, Ken Leung 34, Paul Gutrecht 37, Cary Elwes 41, Michael Emerson 50, Danny Glover 58, Tobin Bell 62
Exhibit G: the money
It made 86.7 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $1.2 million
- Box office
- $104 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 537 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
