Fails the Bechdel test

Sound of Metal

Name: Sound of Metal
Released: 2020

2020. Directed by Darius Marder, written by Darius Marder and Abraham Marder and Derek Cianfrance.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
5 women characters. 3 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

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

The film

Ruben, a metal drummer trying to keep his inner demons at bay by devoting himself to art, has been living for the moment for the past four years. However, tomorrow is another story. As he navigates through numbing fear and angry denial after the sudden deterioration of his hearing, Ruben reluctantly becomes part of a small deaf community overseen by Joe, a compassionate Vietnam War veteran. But in this new beginning, Ruben must find solid ground and learn that deafness is not a handicap he needs to fix but an experience he must embrace. Once, music was his everything. Will Ruben accept his new life and learn to thrive in a world without sound?

Released: 04 Dec 2020
Genres: Drama, Music
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.7 / 10
Metascore: 82 / 100
Awards: Won 2 Oscars. 90 wins & 179 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Ruben 296 lines, man
Joe 134 lines, man
Lou 115 lines, woman
Richard 36 lines, man
Doctor 34 lines
Diane 11 lines, woman
Jeremy 9 lines, man
Jenn 8 lines
Pharmacist 8 lines, man
Audiologist 7 lines, woman

Full cast, 29 people

Riz Ahmed as Ruben Stone
Olivia Cooke as Lou
Paul Raci as Joe
Lauren Ridloff as Diane
Mathieu Amalric as Richard Berger
Domenico Toledo as Michael
Chelsea Lee as Jenn
Shaheem Sanchez as Shaheem
Chris Perfetti as Harlan
Bill Thorpe as The Man
Michael Tow as Pharmacist
William Xifaras as Michael's Father
Rena Maliszewski as Audiologist
Tom Kemp as Dr. Paysinger
Elan Sicroff as Pianist
Jeremy Lee Stone as ASL Teacher
Ezra Marder as ASL Student
Hartmut Teuber as Karl
Hillary Baack as Hanna
Joe Toledo as Toldeo
Adam Preston as Jake
Jonathon LeJeune as Frank
Sean Powell as Surfbort Member
Dani Miller as Surfbort Member
Alex Kilgore as Surfbort Member
Jamie Ghazarian as Concert Goer (uncredited)
David Arthur Sousa as Rock Fan (uncredited)
Marisa DeFranco as Student (uncredited)
Thomas O'Brien Vallor as Concert Goer (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 152

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	0
5 to 8	0	0
9 to 12	3	8
13 to 16	5	7
17 to 20	5	3
21 to 24	0	0
25 to 28	1	15
29 to 32	2	29
33 to 36	21	26
37 to 40	0	0
41 to 44	8	19
45 to 48	0	74
49 to 52	9	31
53 to 56	21	26
57 to 60	0	8
61 to 64	0	0
65 to 68	0	0
69 to 72	9	6
73 to 76	0	2
77 to 80	0	3
81 to 84	0	45
85 to 88	0	2
89 to 92	0	0
93 to 96	0	6
97 to 100	0	13
101 to 104	0	8
105 to 108	2	3
109 to 112	0	5
113 to 116	0	2
117 to 120	0	3
121 to 124	0	12
125 to 128	0	43
129 to 132	0	0
133 to 136	7	3
137 to 140	0	51
141 to 144	10	13
145 to 148	30	24
149 to 152	0	0

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, 21 are women's.

133 lines from women, 490 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

5 women and 10 men in the cast. 3 women and 4 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 668. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 90 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 16% of the words (913), men 84% (4,664). Women have 21% 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

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

4 of the 17 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 35% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Darius Marder (man)
Written by: Darius Marder (man), Abraham Marder (gender not listed)
Story by: Darius Marder (man), Derek Cianfrance (man)
Produced by: Kathy Benz (woman), Bill Benz (man), Sacha Ben Harroche (man), Bert Hamelinck (man)
Shot by: Daniël Bouquet (man)
Edited by: Mikkel E.G. Nielsen (man)
Music by: Nicolas Becker (man), Abraham Marder (gender not listed)
Production design by: Jeremy Woodward (man)
Costumes by: Megan Stark Evans (woman)
Cast by: Lisa Lobel (woman), Susan Shopmaker (woman)