Passes the Bechdel test
Sphere
1998. Directed by Barry Levinson, written by Michael Crichton and Kurt Wimmer and Stephen Hauser.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
3 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 180. -
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
1000 feet below the ocean, navy divers discover an object half-a-mile long. A crack team of scientists are deployed to the site in Deepsea Habitats. What they find boggles the mind as they discover a perfect metal sphere. What is the secret behind the sphere? Will they survive the mysterious 'manifestations'? Who or what is creating these? They may never live to find out.
- Released
- 13 Feb 1998
- Genres
- Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 6.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 35 / 100
- Awards
- 3 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Norman 437 lines, man
- Beth 290 lines, woman
- Barnes 234 lines, man
- Harry 180 lines, man
- Ted 102 lines, man
- Edmunds 26 lines, woman
- Man 12 lines, man
- Fletcher 10 lines, woman
- Officer 10 lines
- Pilot 9 lines, man
Full cast, 12 people
- Dustin Hoffman as Dr. Norman Goodman
- Sharon Stone as Dr. Elizabeth 'Beth' Halperin
- Samuel L. Jackson as Dr. Harry Adams
- Peter Coyote as Captain Harold C. Barnes
- Liev Schreiber as Dr. Ted Fielding
- Queen Latifah as Alice 'Teeny' Fletcher
- Marga Gómez as Jane Edmunds
- Huey Lewis as Helicopter Pilot
- Bernard Hocke as Seaman
- James Pickens Jr. as O.S.S.A. Instructor
- Michael Keys Hall as O.S.S.A. Official
- Ralph Tabakin as O.S.S.A. Official
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 180
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 | 9 | 23 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 7 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 57 |
| 13 to 16 | 13 | 25 |
| 17 to 20 | 1 | 35 |
| 21 to 24 | 9 | 39 |
| 25 to 28 | 18 | 90 |
| 29 to 32 | 3 | 41 |
| 33 to 36 | 2 | 32 |
| 37 to 40 | 2 | 19 |
| 41 to 44 | 3 | 8 |
| 45 to 48 | 4 | 5 |
| 49 to 52 | 6 | 7 |
| 53 to 56 | 2 | 3 |
| 57 to 60 | 2 | 5 |
| 61 to 64 | 6 | 24 |
| 65 to 68 | 5 | 8 |
| 69 to 72 | 8 | 19 |
| 73 to 76 | 18 | 44 |
| 77 to 80 | 8 | 106 |
| 81 to 84 | 2 | 15 |
| 85 to 88 | 19 | 35 |
| 89 to 92 | 9 | 17 |
| 93 to 96 | 1 | 6 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 2 |
| 101 to 104 | 0 | 1 |
| 105 to 108 | 3 | 9 |
| 109 to 112 | 3 | 3 |
| 113 to 116 | 1 | 20 |
| 117 to 120 | 20 | 27 |
| 121 to 124 | 7 | 26 |
| 125 to 128 | 17 | 14 |
| 129 to 132 | 41 | 57 |
| 133 to 136 | 1 | 7 |
| 137 to 140 | 2 | 4 |
| 141 to 144 | 4 | 6 |
| 145 to 148 | 1 | 12 |
| 149 to 152 | 51 | 36 |
| 153 to 156 | 17 | 8 |
| 157 to 160 | 1 | 1 |
| 161 to 164 | 11 | 23 |
| 165 to 168 | 0 | 23 |
| 169 to 172 | 0 | 24 |
| 173 to 176 | 4 | 16 |
| 177 to 180 | 1 | 4 |
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.
EDMUNDS: Comfortably? Seventy-two hours. BETH: Comfortably -- what's that mean -- with oxygen?
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 25 are women's.
335 lines from women, 993 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
3 women and 9 men in the cast. 3 women and 7 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 89 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 27% of the words (3,019), men 73% (8,234). Women have 25% 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
1
Two men
92
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 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
- Barry Levinson (man)
- Written by
- Paul Attanasio (man), Stephen Hauser (gender not listed)
- From the novel by
- Michael Crichton (man)
- Produced by
- Barry Levinson (man), Andrew Wald (gender not listed), Michael Crichton (man)
- Shot by
- Adam Greenberg (man)
- Edited by
- Stu Linder (man)
- Music by
- Elliot Goldenthal (man)
- Production design by
- Norman Reynolds (man)
- Costumes by
- Gloria Gresham (woman)
- Cast by
- Ellen Chenoweth (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
1 women, 11 men, 21 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 8 men, 10 not listed
-
Sound
5 women, 11 men, 5 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 8 men, 6 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 11 men, 4 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
5 women, 5 men, 5 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 6 men, 8 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 2 men, 7 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 34 on average. Men: 47 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Queen Latifah 27, Marga Gómez 37, Sharon Stone 39
Men
Liev Schreiber 30, James Pickens Jr. 43, Bernard Hocke 44, Huey Lewis 47, Samuel L. Jackson 49, Peter Coyote 56, Dustin Hoffman 60
Exhibit H: the money
It made 46% of what it cost.
- Budget
- $80 million
- Box office
- $37 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 180 scenes and 1,350 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
