Passes the Bechdel test
Sully
2016. Directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Todd Komarnicki and Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
16 women characters. 14 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 166. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
On January 15, 2009, flight 1549 left New York City, but shortly after taking off there's an accident that wrecks the plane's engines. They were told to return to the airport, but pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger decides that the plane won't make it to the airport, so he chooses to land in the Hudson River. And even when none of the passengers were seriously injured, Sully finds himself under intense scrutiny by the National Transportation Safety Board (N.T.S.B.), whose investigation reveals that the plane could have made it to the airport and one of the engines was still working. Sully still maintains the engines were out and if they tried to go to the airport, they would have crashed.
- Released
- 09 Sep 2016
- Genres
- Biography, Drama, History
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 74 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 14 wins & 37 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Sully 229 lines, man
- Skiles 85 lines, man
- Lorrie 54 lines, woman
- Patrick 50 lines, man
- Charles Porter 35 lines, man
- Ben Edwards 17 lines, man
- Elizabeth Davis 14 lines, woman
- Rob 12 lines, man
- Warning System 12 lines
- Diane Higgins 11 lines, woman
Full cast, 62 people
- Tom Hanks as Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger
- Aaron Eckhart as Jeff Skiles
- Anna Gunn as Elizabeth Davis
- Holt McCallany as Mike Cleary
- Mike O'Malley as Charles Porter
- Jamey Sheridan as Ben Edwards
- Valerie Mahaffey as Diane Higgins
- Delphi Harrington as Lucille Palmer
- Ahmed Lucan as Egyptian Driver
- Laura Linney as Lorrie Sullenberger
- Laura Lundy Wheale as Reporter #1
- Onira Tarés as Reporter #2
- Gary Weeks as Reporter #3
- Katie Couric as Katie Couric
- Jeff Kober as LT Cook
- Blake Jones as Sully (16 Years Old)
- Molly Bernard as Alison
- Chris Bauer as Larry Rooney
- Jane Gabbert as Sheila Dail
- Ann Cusack as Donna Dent
- Molly Hagan as Doreen Welsh
- Purva Bedi as Gurisman
- Max Adler as Jimmy Stefanik
- Sam Huntington as Jeff Kolodjay
- Christopher Curry as Rob Kolodjay
- Ashley Austin Morris as Emily - Gate Attendant
- Cooper Thornton as Jim Whitaker
- Autumn Reeser as Passenger with Baby
- Jeffrey Nordling as Barry Leonard
- Patch Darragh as Patrick Harten
- Robert C. Treveiler as ATC Supervisor
- Bill Richards as Male Pilot
- Aida Manassy as French Woman
- Pascal Yen-Pfister as French Man
- Marcia DeBonis as Shae Childers
- Noel Fisher as GIB - Andrew Carrigan
- Adam Boyer as Johnny - Drunk Customer
- Wilbur Fitzgerald as Drunk Customer #2
- Michael Rapaport as Bartender - Pete
- Vincent Lombardi as Captain Vincent Peter Lombardi
- Jeremy Luke as Victor Gaggero
- Bernardo Badillo as Robert Rodriguez
- Jerry Ferrara as Michael Delaney
- Victoria Kharchenko as Russian Woman
- Randall Pinkston as Randall Pinkston
- Graham Sibley as Carlo Alfonso
- Grant Roberts as Franco Santini
- Wayne Bastrup as Brian Kelly
- Bobby Cuza as Bobby Cuza
- Billy Smith as Dan Britt
- Michael Barabas as Police Captain
- E. Roger Mitchell as ATC #1
- Robert Pralgo as St. Luke's Doctor
- Clayton Landey as Arnie Gentile
- Tracee Chimo as Evelyn May
- Brett Rice as Carl Clarke
- Kristine Johnson as Kristine Johnson
- Larry Guthrie as Pilot Flight #1
- Lucy Young as Co-Pilot - Flight #1
- Lori Cline as Pilot - Flight #3
- Jon Witten as Co-Pilot #3
- Chesley Sullenberger as Self (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 166
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 | 2 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 5 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 1 |
| 13 to 16 | 2 | 50 |
| 17 to 20 | 6 | 4 |
| 21 to 24 | 3 | 1 |
| 25 to 28 | 14 | 29 |
| 29 to 32 | 7 | 18 |
| 33 to 36 | 9 | 51 |
| 37 to 40 | 35 | 46 |
| 41 to 44 | 8 | 18 |
| 45 to 48 | 2 | 17 |
| 49 to 52 | 0 | 24 |
| 53 to 56 | 0 | 14 |
| 57 to 60 | 0 | 13 |
| 61 to 64 | 4 | 5 |
| 65 to 68 | 0 | 9 |
| 69 to 72 | 0 | 12 |
| 73 to 76 | 0 | 4 |
| 77 to 80 | 1 | 3 |
| 81 to 84 | 1 | 3 |
| 85 to 88 | 6 | 7 |
| 89 to 92 | 1 | 0 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 1 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 1 |
| 101 to 104 | 3 | 2 |
| 105 to 108 | 4 | 6 |
| 109 to 112 | 5 | 15 |
| 113 to 116 | 0 | 30 |
| 117 to 120 | 5 | 29 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 16 |
| 125 to 128 | 1 | 13 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 2 |
| 133 to 136 | 0 | 1 |
| 137 to 140 | 2 | 41 |
| 141 to 144 | 0 | 13 |
| 145 to 148 | 0 | 15 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 11 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 13 |
| 157 to 160 | 0 | 1 |
| 161 to 164 | 0 | 2 |
| 165 to 166 | 10 | 16 |
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.
DIANE HIGGINS: I love you, Mom. I love you, I love you. LUCILLE: To the moon and the stars and... DIANE HIGGINS: ... and all the way back.
LUCILLE: Diane. You have to go. DIANE HIGGINS: I’m not leaving... LUCILLE: Please go. I’ll only trap you here. DIANE HIGGINS: Mom. I won’t leave you.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 19 are women's.
129 lines from women, 564 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
16 women and 35 men in the cast. 14 women and 32 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 17 of 734.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 84 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 (1,381), men 80% (5,696). Women have 19% 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
3
Two men
59
Exhibit F: behind the camera
1 of the 12 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Clint Eastwood (man)
- Written by
- Todd Komarnicki (man)
- Produced by
- Frank Marshall (man), Tim Moore (man), Allyn Stewart (gender not listed), Clint Eastwood (man)
- Shot by
- Tom Stern (man)
- Edited by
- Blu Murray (man)
- Music by
- Christian Jacob (gender not listed)
- Production design by
- James J. Murakami (man)
- Costumes by
- Deborah Hopper (woman)
- Cast by
- Geoffrey Miclat (gender not listed)
The crew, department by department
-
Costume & Make-Up
6 women, 4 men, 10 not listed
-
Other crew
5 women, 12 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
1 women, 7 men, 6 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 9 men, 1 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 3 men, 8 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 6 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 6 men, 1 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 61 on average. Men: 55 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Anna Gunn 48, Laura Linney 52, Valerie Mahaffey 63, Delphi Harrington 79
Men
Aaron Eckhart 48, Mike O'Malley 49, Holt McCallany 53, Tom Hanks 60, Jamey Sheridan 65
Exhibit H: the money
It made 4.0 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $60 million
- Box office
- $241 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 166 scenes and 734 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
