Passes the Bechdel test

The Boy

Name: The Boy
Released: 2016

2016. Directed by William Brent Bell, written by Stacey Menear.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
4 women characters. 2 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 95.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

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

The film

Greta, a young American woman, takes a job as a nanny in a remote English village and discovers that the family's 8-year-old is a life-sized doll that the parents care for just like a real boy as a way to cope with the death of their actual son 20 years ago. When she violates a list of strict rules, her worst nightmare is brought to life by a series of disturbing, inexplicable events and she comes to believe that the doll is alive.

Released: 22 Jan 2016
Genres: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 6 / 10
Metascore: 42 / 100
Awards: 6 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Gerti 283 lines, woman
Malcolm 180 lines, man
Cole 41 lines, man
Mrs. Heelshire 38 lines, woman
Sandy 27 lines, woman
Mr. Heelshire 21 lines, man
Brahms 13 lines, man
Driver 9 lines, man
Sister 9 lines, woman
Man 3 lines, man

Full cast, 10 people

Lauren Cohan as Greta Evans
Rupert Evans as Malcolm
James Russell as Brahms Heelshire
Jim Norton as Mr. Heelshire
Diana Hardcastle as Mrs. Heelshire
Ben Robson as Cole
Jett Klyne as Child Brahms
Lily Pater as Emily Cribbs
Matthew Walker as Taxi Driver
Stephanie Lemelin as Sandy (voice)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 95

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 2	2	8
3 to 4	35	27
5 to 6	15	0
7 to 8	21	4
9 to 10	5	7
11 to 12	14	2
13 to 14	4	9
15 to 16	0	0
17 to 18	2	0
19 to 20	0	0
21 to 22	1	0
23 to 24	4	4
25 to 26	12	12
27 to 28	21	0
29 to 30	1	0
31 to 32	12	0
33 to 34	2	1
35 to 36	9	14
37 to 38	12	13
39 to 40	23	0
41 to 42	2	0
43 to 44	2	0
45 to 46	1	0
47 to 48	6	0
49 to 50	0	1
51 to 52	0	0
53 to 54	1	0
55 to 56	8	13
57 to 58	0	1
59 to 60	17	0
61 to 62	27	16
63 to 64	17	11
65 to 66	3	4
67 to 68	12	14
69 to 70	0	0
71 to 72	0	0
73 to 74	1	4
75 to 76	14	26
77 to 78	1	0
79 to 80	0	0
81 to 82	15	32
83 to 84	15	19
85 to 86	5	16
87 to 88	3	5
89 to 90	3	0
91 to 92	9	6
93 to 94	0	2
95 to 95	0	0

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.

SANDY: Hey ya’all, this is Sandra. Leave a message...or don’t. GERTI: Sandra, it’s me again. I don’t know what time it is. I still haven’t figured out the whole time difference thing. Maybe you’re asleep. Maybe… GERTI: Call me. Soon. I’m lonely. And this house is creepy. And send more magazines. I’ve read all mine. Especially any with Ryan Gosling. GERTI: I want to come home, Sandy.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 57 are women's.

357 lines from women, 271 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

4 women and 6 men in the cast. 2 women and 6 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 5 of 628. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 10 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 52% of the words (3,459), men 48% (3,212). Women have 57% 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

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

3 of the 16 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 21% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: William Brent Bell (man)
Written by: Stacey Menear (gender not listed)
Produced by: Jim Wedaa (man), Matt Berenson (gender not listed), Gary Lucchesi (man), Tom Rosenberg (man), Richard S. Wright (man), Roy Lee (man)
Shot by: Daniel Pearl (man)
Edited by: Brian Berdan (man)
Music by: Bear McCreary (man)
Production design by: John Willett (man)
Costumes by: Jori Woodman (woman)
Cast by: Julie Hutchinson (gender not listed), Coreen Mayrs (woman), Heike Brandstatter (woman)