Passes the Bechdel test

The Butterfly Effect

Name: The Butterfly Effect
Released: 2004

2004. Directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, written by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
16 women characters. 10 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 182.
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 2 out of 3.

The film

As a child, Evan Treborn was afflicted with blackouts where he would be in one place one minute and then another the next, remembering absolutely nothing in-between. Now all grown up and in college, he decides to read from an old journal he wrote to remember stuff that might have happened in the in-between, and suddenly finds himself back at a certain point in his life. He realizes that those blackouts he had were actually empty spaces of time he had to fill up later in life. Attempting to use this ability to undo unpleasant past events, Evan starts to find that every time he goes back and tries to fix things, he ends up making everything worse. How can he prevent more tragedies from happening and save the one girl he ever loved, Kayleigh (Amy Smart)?

Released: 23 Jan 2004
Genres: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.6 / 10
Metascore: 30 / 100
Awards: 1 win & 8 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Evan 317 lines, man
Kayleigh 107 lines, woman
Andrea 75 lines, woman
Tommy 43 lines, man
Dr. Redfield 41 lines, man
Lenny 31 lines, man
Mr. Miller 26 lines, man
Thumper 20 lines, man
Heidi 12 lines, woman
Carlos 10 lines, man

Full cast, 55 people

Ashton Kutcher as Evan Treborn
Amy Smart as Kayleigh Miller
Melora Walters as Andrea Treborn
Elden Henson as Lenny Kagan
William Lee Scott as Tommy Miller
Eric Stoltz as George Miller
Ethan Suplee as Thumper
Logan Lerman as Evan Treborn age 7
John Patrick Amedori as Evan Treborn age 13
Irina Gorovaia as Kayleigh age 13
Kevin G. Schmidt as Lenny age 13
Jesse James as Tommy age 13
Nathaniel DeVeaux as Dr. Redfield
Kevin Durand as Carlos
Callum Keith Rennie as Jason Treborn
Cameron Bright as Tommy age 7
Lorena Gale as Mrs. Boswell
Kendall Cross as Mrs. Kagan
John Tierney as Priest
Ted Friend as Anchor
John B. Lowe as Professor Carter
Camille Sullivan as Cricket
Tara Wilson as Heidi
Jesse Hutch as Spencer
Bill Croft as Boss
Kevan Ohtsji as Anesthesiologist
Daniel Spink as Senior Brother
Grant Thompson as Hunter
Melanie Hall as Gesela
Sam Easton as Frat Boy Pledge
Jake Kaese as Lenny at 7
Sarah Widdows as Kayleigh at 7
Amy Esterle as Gothic Co-Ed
Jacqueline Stewart as Gwen
Glenn Richards as Pinching Customer
Sadie Lawrence as Mrs. Halpern
Sam Easton as Theta Chi Pledge
Douglas Arthurs as Karl
Paul Lazenby as Rick
June B. Wilde as Waitress
Kimani Ray Smith as Orderly
Trevor Jones as Sunnyvale Guard
Colby Chartrand as Teen Punk
Shelly Schiavoni as Mrs. Miller
Brandy Kopp as Kristen
Chapelle Jaffe as Madame Helga
Scott Swanson as Obstetrician
David Cook as Moviegoer
Magda Apanowicz as Teen Punk Girl
Garry Little as Wedding Priest
David Dasilma as Theta Chi Pledge #2 (uncredited)
Stan Edmonds as Crying Mental Patient (uncredited)
Cameron K. Smith as Theater Patron (uncredited)
J. Jackson Kocela as Evan at 3
Andrew Olcott as Andrea's New Husband

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 182

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	10	9
9 to 12	15	8
13 to 16	3	9
17 to 20	9	9
21 to 24	9	18
25 to 28	3	8
29 to 32	3	8
33 to 36	6	16
37 to 40	3	29
41 to 44	11	10
45 to 48	5	8
49 to 52	3	8
53 to 56	1	5
57 to 60	13	28
61 to 64	2	7
65 to 68	4	18
69 to 72	7	21
73 to 76	17	19
77 to 80	0	3
81 to 84	2	22
85 to 88	0	0
89 to 92	0	0
93 to 96	6	6
97 to 100	7	26
101 to 104	4	12
105 to 108	12	19
109 to 112	5	13
113 to 116	0	13
117 to 120	2	14
121 to 124	2	12
125 to 128	0	0
129 to 132	3	11
133 to 136	0	15
137 to 140	4	7
141 to 144	24	24
145 to 148	0	7
149 to 152	0	0
153 to 156	11	23
157 to 160	8	22
161 to 164	0	14
165 to 168	0	2
169 to 172	1	12
173 to 176	0	2
177 to 180	4	5
181 to 182	0	2

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.

ANDREA: So how was the movie? KAYLEIGH: Okay. ANDREA: Any exploding mailboxes? KAYLEIGH: What do you mean?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 29 are women's.

219 lines from women, 526 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

16 women and 34 men in the cast. 10 women and 18 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 4 of 751. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 26 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 29% of the words (2,272), men 71% (5,681).

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

4 of the 16 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 31% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Eric Bress (man), J. Mackye Gruber (man)
Written by: J. Mackye Gruber (man), Eric Bress (man)
Produced by: Chris Bender (man), A.J. Dix (gender not listed), J.C. Spink (man), Anthony Rhulen (man)
Shot by: Matthew F. Leonetti (man)
Edited by: Peter Amundson (man)
Music by: Michael Suby (man)
Production design by: Douglas Higgins (man)
Costumes by: Carla Hetland (woman)
Cast by: Carmen Cuba (woman), Heike Brandstatter (woman), Coreen Mayrs (woman)