Passes the Bechdel test

Signs

Name: Signs
Released: 2002

2002. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, written by M. Night Shyamalan.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
7 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 83.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.

The film

Preacher Graham Hess loses his faith in God after his wife dies in a brutal car accident. He lives with his children and brother in a farmhouse. Crop circles start to appear in their cornfields; Graham dismisses them as mischief by miscreants. After hearing strange noises and watching news coverage on crop circles appearing all over the world, the family grows suspicious of alien activities. Now they must stick together as a family and believe, to survive and escape the ordeal.

Released: 02 Aug 2002
Genres: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 6.8 / 10
Metascore: 59 / 100
Awards: 3 wins & 34 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Graham 236 lines, man
Merrill 110 lines, man
Morgan 88 lines, man
Officer Paski 47 lines, woman
Bo 35 lines, woman
Colleen 9 lines, woman
Crewcut Guy 9 lines, man
Tv Anchor 9 lines, man
Pharmacist 7 lines, woman
Ray 6 lines, man

Full cast, 26 people

Mel Gibson as Graham Hess
Joaquin Phoenix as Merrill Hess
Rory Culkin as Morgan Hess
Abigail Breslin as Bo Hess
Cherry Jones as Officer Paski
M. Night Shyamalan as Ray Reddy
Patricia Kalember as Colleen Hess
Ted Sutton as SFC Cunningham
Merritt Wever as Tracey Abernathy
Lanny Flaherty as Mr. Nathan
Marion McCorry as Mrs. Nathan
Michael Showalter as Lionel Prichard
Kevin Pires as Brazilian Birthday Boy
Clifford David as Columbia University Professor
Rhonda Overby as Sarah Hughes
Greg Wood as TV Anchor
Paul L. Nolan as Mexico City Reporter (voice)
Ukee Washington as Off Screen TV Anchor (voice)
Babita Hariani as Car Radio Voice (voice)
Adam Way as Radio Eye Witness (voice)
Angela Eckert as Soda Commercial Girl
Jose L. Rodriguez as Radio Host (voice)
Paul Wilson as Soda Commercial Singer (voice)
Thomas Griffin as Soda Commercial Singer (voice)
Derek Mears as Alien on the Roof (uncredited)
Chuck Pressler as Fireman (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 83

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 2	0	0
3 to 4	0	0
5 to 6	0	0
7 to 8	0	1
9 to 10	3	16
11 to 12	7	12
13 to 14	8	11
15 to 16	0	2
17 to 18	7	7
19 to 20	0	14
21 to 22	0	3
23 to 24	0	6
25 to 26	26	35
27 to 28	4	5
29 to 30	2	7
31 to 32	4	22
33 to 34	7	5
35 to 36	1	5
37 to 38	2	33
39 to 40	0	8
41 to 42	3	29
43 to 44	0	11
45 to 46	2	27
47 to 48	2	6
49 to 50	0	16
51 to 52	0	5
53 to 54	0	14
55 to 56	0	16
57 to 58	0	0
59 to 60	1	15
61 to 62	1	8
63 to 64	0	7
65 to 66	0	15
67 to 68	0	17
69 to 70	4	59
71 to 72	0	1
73 to 74	1	3
75 to 76	8	8
77 to 78	9	11
79 to 80	0	0
81 to 82	1	10
83 to 83	0	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scene

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

BO: It's contaminated. MRS. NATHAN: Carl, there's something wrong with our water!

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 18 are women's.

103 lines from women, 470 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

7 women and 14 men in the cast. 5 women and 10 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 6 of 578. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 61 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 20% of the words (1,283), men 80% (5,031). Women have 18% of the lines, so their lines run longer 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

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 17% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan (man)
Written by: M. Night Shyamalan (man)
Produced by: Sam Mercer (man), Frank Marshall (man), M. Night Shyamalan (man)
Shot by: Tak Fujimoto (man)
Edited by: Barbara Tulliver (woman)
Music by: James Newton Howard (man)
Production design by: Larry Fulton (man)
Costumes by: Ann Roth (woman)
Cast by: Douglas Aibel (man)