Passes the Bechdel test
Sliver
1993. Directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Ira Levin and Joe Eszterhas.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
13 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 4 scenes out of 100. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
In a daring attempt to start afresh after a dead-end marriage, Carly Norris, a successful book editor, moves into her elegant new apartment on the twentieth floor of a high-tech Manhattan apartment building. Unbeknownst to her, the luxurious "sliver" building comes with a terrible history of unsolved grisly murders, Carly catches the eye of both a burned-out crime novelist, Jack Landsford, and a shyly charming video-game designer, Zeke Hawkins. As a mysterious voyeur watches the tenants' every move, yet another female neighbor dies. Could Norris be next?
- Released
- 21 May 1993
- Genres
- Drama, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 5.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 38 / 100
- Awards
- 4 wins & 9 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Carly 348 lines, woman
- Zeke 270 lines, man
- Jack 81 lines, man
- Lt. Corelli 37 lines
- Alex 26 lines, man
- Vida 26 lines, woman
- Roxie 16 lines, woman
- Peter 15 lines, man
- Mrs. Mcevoy 13 lines, woman
- Judy 11 lines, woman
Full cast, 32 people
- Sharon Stone as Carly Norris
- William Baldwin as Zeke Hawkins
- Tom Berenger as Jack Lansford
- Polly Walker as Vida Warren
- Colleen Camp as Judy Marks
- Amanda Foreman as Samantha Moore
- Martin Landau as Alex Parsons
- CCH Pounder as Victoria Hendrix
- Nina Foch as Mrs. McEvoy
- Keene Curtis as Gus Hale
- Nicholas Pryor as Peter Farrell
- Anne Betancourt as Jackie Kinsella
- Sid McCoy as Mr. Anderson
- Marnette Patterson as Joanie Ballinger
- Sandy Gutman as Ted Weisberge
- Tony Peck as Martin Kinsella
- Frantz Turner as Doorman #1
- James Noah as Doorman #2
- Allison Mackie as Naomi Singer
- Christine Toy Johnson as Reporter #1
- Philip Hoffman as Reporter #2
- Nicole Orth-Pallavicini as Reporter #3
- Mik Scriba as Security Guard #1
- Steve Carlisle as Security Guard #2
- Jim Beaver as Detective Ira
- Ryan Cutrona as Det. Ennis
- Robert Miano as Det. Howard
- Steve Eastin as Det. Phillip
- Victor Brandt as Det. McCracken
- Wendy Cutler as Mrs. Colson
- Shannon Whirry as Woman Looking in Mirror (uncredited)
- Cheryl Hunter as Secretary
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 15% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 100
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 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 4 to 6 | 13 | 1 |
| 7 to 9 | 50 | 7 |
| 10 to 12 | 14 | 15 |
| 13 to 15 | 11 | 5 |
| 16 to 18 | 65 | 53 |
| 19 to 21 | 7 | 0 |
| 22 to 24 | 8 | 0 |
| 25 to 27 | 46 | 58 |
| 28 to 30 | 8 | 5 |
| 31 to 33 | 7 | 9 |
| 34 to 36 | 17 | 23 |
| 37 to 39 | 13 | 21 |
| 40 to 42 | 30 | 23 |
| 43 to 45 | 16 | 19 |
| 46 to 48 | 19 | 31 |
| 49 to 51 | 9 | 8 |
| 52 to 54 | 5 | 0 |
| 55 to 57 | 0 | 0 |
| 58 to 60 | 1 | 2 |
| 61 to 63 | 3 | 6 |
| 64 to 66 | 12 | 12 |
| 67 to 69 | 10 | 15 |
| 70 to 72 | 21 | 36 |
| 73 to 75 | 5 | 4 |
| 76 to 78 | 2 | 2 |
| 79 to 81 | 2 | 3 |
| 82 to 84 | 2 | 1 |
| 85 to 87 | 7 | 8 |
| 88 to 90 | 4 | 8 |
| 91 to 93 | 9 | 13 |
| 94 to 96 | 5 | 20 |
| 97 to 99 | 9 | 7 |
| 100 to 100 | 5 | 3 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
CARLY: -- I'm bored shitless? Why don't you ever get tickets to •.• She thinks -- her assistant, ROXIE, young, good- lookinq, comes up to her. ROXIE: Tom's waiting for you in your office. Carly nods, turns to Judy. CARLY: . • • The Red Hot Chili Peppers. ROXIE: All right -- I love the Chilis!
CARLY: I!! a putz. I wasted seven years. JUDY: Will you stop it? You're a vibrant, sensuous woman ready for new adventures, new horizons, new lovers, new orgasms-- CARLY: I remember that word. ! have a faint memory of it. I've forgotten what it means exactly.
CARLY: Jann? Cajole? Not at all. I Juit know Jann's going to be very happy to publish it. Roxie comes ln . ROXIt r •m sorry. There's a Mrs. McEvoy … CARLY: I got my new apartment. ROXIE: Y.ou just looked at it this ROXIE: This fast?
ROXIE: Thirteen-hundred? CARLY: Yes. What's the matter?
CARLY: Yes. ROXIE: Those deaths. I'm not superstitious -- weird, though. I remembered tbe address. Suicide, an o.o., a couple days ago, there was· this janitor…
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 51 are women's.
435 lines from women, 422 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
13 women and 18 men in the cast. 5 women and 11 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 13 of 1,004.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 12 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 45% of the words (5,647), men 55% (6,840). Women have 51% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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
21
Two men
16
Exhibit F: behind the camera
3 of the 12 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 26% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Phillip Noyce (man)
- Written by
- Joe Eszterhas (man)
- From the novel by
- Ira Levin (man)
- Produced by
- Robert Evans (man)
- Shot by
- Vilmos Zsigmond (man)
- Edited by
- Richard Francis-Bruce (man), William Hoy (man)
- Music by
- Howard Shore (man)
- Production design by
- Paul Sylbert (man)
- Costumes by
- Deborah L. Scott (woman)
- Cast by
- Cathy Sandrich Gelfond (woman), Amanda Mackey (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
0 women, 15 men, 7 not listed
-
Other crew
4 women, 9 men, 1 not listed
-
Production
3 women, 6 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
4 women, 1 men
-
Art
2 women, 2 men
-
Camera
2 women, 2 men
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 39 on average. Men: 52 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Amanda Foreman 26, Polly Walker 27, Sharon Stone 35, Colleen Camp 39, CCH Pounder 40, Nina Foch 69
Men
William Baldwin 30, Tom Berenger 43, Martin Landau 64, Keene Curtis 70
Exhibit H: the money
It made 2.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $40 million
- Box office
- $116 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 100 scenes and 1,004 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
