Passes the Bechdel test
The Big Sick
2017. Directed by Michael Showalter, written by Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
24 women characters. 16 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 8 scenes out of 119. -
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
Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani), in the middle of becoming a budding stand-up comedian, meets Emily (Zoe Kazan). Meanwhile, a sudden illness sets in forcing Emily to be put into a medically-induced coma. Kumail must navigate being a comedian, dealing with tragic illness, and placating his family's desire to let them fix him up with a spouse, while contemplating and figuring out who he really is and what he truly believes.
- Released
- 14 Jul 2017
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.5 / 10
- Metascore
- 86 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 19 wins & 101 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Kumail 413 lines, man
- Emily 172 lines, woman
- Terry 124 lines, man
- Beth 94 lines, woman
- Chris 42 lines, man
- Cj 31 lines, man
- Sharmeen 30 lines, woman
- Naveed 28 lines, man
- Azmat 27 lines, man
- Mary 25 lines, woman
Full cast, 44 people
- Kumail Nanjiani as Kumail Nanjiani
- Zoe Kazan as Emily Gardner
- Holly Hunter as Beth Gardner
- Ray Romano as Terry Gardner
- Anupam Kher as Azmat Nanjiani
- Zenobia Shroff as Sharmeen Nanjiani
- Adeel Akhtar as Naveed Nanjiani
- Bo Burnham as CJ
- Aidy Bryant as Mary
- Kurt Braunohler as Chris
- Vella Lovell as Khadija
- Myra Lucretia Taylor as Nurse Judy
- Jeremy Shamos as Bob Dalavan
- David Alan Grier as Andy Dodd
- Ed Herbstman as Sam Highsmith
- Shenaz Treasury as Fatima Nanjiani
- Rebecca Naomi Jones as Jesse
- Kuhoo Verma as Zubeida
- Mitra Jouhari as Yazmin
- Celeste Arias as Denise
- Shana Solomon as Nurse Bette
- Jeff Blumenkrantz as Dr. Wright
- Linda Emond as Dr. Cunningham
- Holly Chou as Dr. Whelan
- Andrew Pang as Dr. Spellman
- Alison Cimmet as Dr. Platt
- Lawrence Ballard as Dr. Lewin
- Shunori Ramanathan as Sumera
- Spencer House as Racist Heckler
- Susham Bedi as Tina (Khadija's Mother)
- Rahul Bedi as Farhan (Khadija's Father)
- Matty Cardarople as Fast Food Cashier
- Myra Turley as Waiting Room Person 1
- William Stephenson as Waiting Room Person 2
- Marilyn Torres as Waiting Room Person 3
- Kerry Flanagan as Waiting Room Person 4
- Jack A. O'Connell as Waiting Room Person 5
- Charles Gould as Waiting Room Person 6
- Isabel Shill as Party Goer 1
- Lauren Patten as Party Goer 2
- Keilly McQuail as Party Goer 3
- Zach Cherry as Party Goer 4
- Sophia Muller as Chrissy (uncredited)
- Jack Corrigan as Restaurant Boy (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 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 119
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 | 5 | 30 |
| 4 to 6 | 15 | 25 |
| 7 to 9 | 20 | 26 |
| 10 to 12 | 13 | 25 |
| 13 to 15 | 9 | 10 |
| 16 to 18 | 20 | 22 |
| 19 to 21 | 15 | 32 |
| 22 to 24 | 12 | 12 |
| 25 to 27 | 1 | 32 |
| 28 to 30 | 18 | 15 |
| 31 to 33 | 11 | 12 |
| 34 to 36 | 5 | 18 |
| 37 to 39 | 10 | 7 |
| 40 to 42 | 3 | 17 |
| 43 to 45 | 6 | 6 |
| 46 to 48 | 2 | 12 |
| 49 to 51 | 0 | 2 |
| 52 to 54 | 12 | 13 |
| 55 to 57 | 9 | 29 |
| 58 to 60 | 10 | 3 |
| 61 to 63 | 11 | 36 |
| 64 to 66 | 11 | 16 |
| 67 to 69 | 12 | 25 |
| 70 to 72 | 9 | 23 |
| 73 to 75 | 13 | 10 |
| 76 to 78 | 10 | 14 |
| 79 to 81 | 13 | 13 |
| 82 to 84 | 11 | 15 |
| 85 to 87 | 4 | 14 |
| 88 to 90 | 10 | 55 |
| 91 to 93 | 2 | 23 |
| 94 to 96 | 0 | 15 |
| 97 to 99 | 0 | 0 |
| 100 to 102 | 22 | 13 |
| 103 to 105 | 2 | 7 |
| 106 to 108 | 14 | 21 |
| 109 to 111 | 10 | 8 |
| 112 to 114 | 13 | 17 |
| 115 to 117 | 15 | 30 |
| 118 to 119 | 5 | 7 |
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.
SHARMEEN: Everyone. This is Zubeida. She just dropped in. ZUBEIDA: Salaam.
MARY: I really liked it. EMILY: I can't wait to see the show.
EMILY: What's going on?! Where are you taking me? NURSE JUDY: You should call her family.
DR. CUNNINGHAM: Hello. DR. CUNNINGHAM: Please sit. I'm Dr. Cunningham, Emily's attending. I'll be coordinating all the doctors and orchestrating her treatment strategy. BETH: "All the doctors"? How many are there? DR. CUNNINGHAM: Five.
DR. CUNNINGHAM: I know this isn't the news you were hoping for but we aren't ready to bring Emily out of the coma yet. BETH: Oh. I-
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 35 are women's.
383 lines from women, 710 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
24 women and 20 men in the cast. 16 women and 15 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 11 of 1,120.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 48 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 34% of the words (4,508), men 66% (8,740). Women have 35% 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
22
Two men
71
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 23% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Michael Showalter (man)
- Written by
- Emily V. Gordon (woman), Kumail Nanjiani (man)
- Produced by
- Judd Apatow (man), Barry Mendel (man)
- Shot by
- Brian Burgoyne (man)
- Edited by
- Robert Nassau (gender not listed)
- Music by
- Michael Andrews (man)
- Production design by
- Brandon Tonner-Connolly (man)
- Cast by
- Gayle Keller (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
3 women, 23 men, 43 not listed
-
Production
9 women, 14 men, 10 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 6 men, 16 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 13 men, 5 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
4 women, 3 men, 12 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 10 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 2 men, 5 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 0 men, 6 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 43 on average. Men: 44 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Aidy Bryant 29, Zoe Kazan 33, Zenobia Shroff 51, Holly Hunter 59
Men
Bo Burnham 26, Adeel Akhtar 36, Kumail Nanjiani 38, Kurt Braunohler 41, Ray Romano 59, Anupam Kher 62
Exhibit H: the money
It made 11.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $5 million
- Box office
- $56.3 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 119 scenes and 1,120 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
