Passes the Bechdel test
The Descendants
2011. Directed by Alexander Payne, written by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon and Jim Rash.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
7 women characters. 7 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 11 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
Matt King's family has lived in Hawaii for generations. His extended family - namely he and his many cousins - own 25,000 acres of undeveloped land on Kauai held in trust, which ends in seven years. The easiest thing for the family to do is sell the land before the seven years is up, which is all the talk in the state, as, to whom they sell the property could very well change the face of Kauai. Despite the vast wealth that comes with the land, Matt has decided to live solely on what he earns as a Honolulu lawyer. However, Matt has not had a perfect life living in Hawaiian paradise as many believe. He and his wife Elizabeth were having problems in their marriage. She recently got into a boating accident which has placed her in a coma. Their seventeen year old daughter Alex is in boarding school on the big island since they couldn't handle her rebellion, which was made all the worse by an argument of an unknown nature between mother and daughter during Alex's last visit home. And their ten year old daughter Scottie is starting to act out, which Matt doesn't know if he can handle, potentially raising her on his own. Matt decides to bring Alex home upon news that Elizabeth is brain dead, and that she will be pulled off life support. But revelations about Elizabeth and Alex's argument, which is tied indirectly to the issue of the land sale, leads to some decisions on Matt's part about what is best for him in both mourning Elizabeth's death and what is the best thing to do about the land, the two decisions which may be incompatible.
- Released
- 09 Dec 2011
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 84 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 66 wins & 148 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Matt 410 lines, man
- Alexandra 148 lines, woman
- Scottie 104 lines, woman
- Sid 61 lines, man
- Julie 36 lines, woman
- Cousin Hugh 26 lines, man
- Scott Thorson 23 lines, man
- Brian Speer 22 lines, man
- Barb Higgins 18 lines
- Kai 14 lines, woman
Full cast, 47 people
- George Clooney as Matt King
- Shailene Woodley as Alexandra King
- Amara Miller as Scottie King
- Nick Krause as Sid
- Patricia Hastie as Elizabeth King
- Grace A. Cruz as Scottie's Teacher
- Kim Gennaula as School Counselor
- Karen Kuioka Hironaga as Barb Higgins
- Carmen Kaichi as Lani Higgins
- Kaui Hart Hemmings as Matt's Secretary Noe
- Beau Bridges as Cousin Hugh
- Matt Corboy as Cousin Ralph
- Matt Esecson as Cousin Hal
- Michael Ontkean as Cousin Milo
- Stanton Johnston as Cousin Stan
- Jon McManus as Cousin Six
- Hugh Foster as Cousin Wink
- Tiare R. Finney as Cousin Connie
- Tom McTigue as Cousin Dave
- Milt Kogan as Dr. Johnston
- Mary Birdsong as Kai Mitchell
- Rob Huebel as Mark Mitchell
- Laird Hamilton as Troy Cook
- Aileen "Boo" Arnold as Dorm Supervisor
- Esther Kang as Alex's Roommate
- Melissa Kim as Alex's Drunken Friend
- Robert Forster as Scott Thorson
- Barbara L. Southern as Alice "Tutu" Thorson
- Celia Kenney as Reina
- Matt Reese as Buzz
- Zoel Turnbull as Hotel Clerk
- Matthew Lillard as Brian Speer
- Judy Greer as Julie Speer
- Linda Rose Herman as Grief Counselor
- Scott Michael Morgan as Barry Thorson
- Darryl K. Gonzales as Tahiti Nui Singer (Kanak Attack)
- Koko Kanealii as Tahiti Nui Singer (Kanak Attack)
- Romey "Keola" Yokotake as Tahiti Nui Singer (Kanak Attack)
- Dennis Falt as Airplane Passenger (uncredited)
- Sisa Grey as Nurse (uncredited)
- Tom Holowach as Cousin (uncredited)
- Dane Justman as Drunk Guy (uncredited)
- James Koons as Attorney (uncredited)
- John A. Weaver as Cousin (uncredited)
- Larry Wegger as Airline Passenger (uncredited)
- Joseph Wilson as Cousin (uncredited)
- Joji Yoshida as Troy's Friend (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% 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 | 0 | 2 |
| 4 to 6 | 1 | 7 |
| 7 to 9 | 24 | 26 |
| 10 to 12 | 0 | 7 |
| 13 to 15 | 4 | 8 |
| 16 to 18 | 6 | 15 |
| 19 to 21 | 5 | 9 |
| 22 to 24 | 1 | 8 |
| 25 to 27 | 1 | 4 |
| 28 to 30 | 2 | 11 |
| 31 to 33 | 5 | 17 |
| 34 to 36 | 4 | 5 |
| 37 to 39 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 to 42 | 7 | 8 |
| 43 to 45 | 0 | 1 |
| 46 to 48 | 35 | 32 |
| 49 to 51 | 0 | 0 |
| 52 to 54 | 12 | 21 |
| 55 to 57 | 9 | 34 |
| 58 to 60 | 10 | 22 |
| 61 to 63 | 20 | 18 |
| 64 to 66 | 0 | 11 |
| 67 to 69 | 34 | 22 |
| 70 to 72 | 1 | 8 |
| 73 to 75 | 7 | 6 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 21 |
| 79 to 81 | 4 | 14 |
| 82 to 84 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 to 87 | 10 | 16 |
| 88 to 90 | 13 | 12 |
| 91 to 93 | 14 | 5 |
| 94 to 96 | 0 | 34 |
| 97 to 99 | 19 | 55 |
| 100 to 102 | 33 | 60 |
| 103 to 105 | 5 | 6 |
| 106 to 108 | 19 | 38 |
| 109 to 111 | 0 | 0 |
| 112 to 114 | 0 | 20 |
| 115 to 117 | 12 | 13 |
| 118 to 119 | 7 | 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.
SCOTTIE: Hi, Mom! Look who's here. SCOTTIE: Say something, Alex. People in a coma can hear you. You're supposed to talk to them. ALEXANDRA: Hi, Mom. SCOTTIE: Tell her how you were drunk the other night. Tell her maybe you're an alcoholic.
REINA: That's okay. I'm done. You aren't a liar after all. SCOTTIE: Don't you want to hang out? REINA: No, I should go. I'll see you at the club. Hope your mom gets better. ALEXANDRA: Scottie, what'd she mean by "You aren't a liar after all?" What'd she think you were lying about?
SCOTTIE: What about me? I want to camp. I wish we lived in the old days. ALEXANDRA: We do. We still do. Do we really have to sell?
ALEXANDRA: Yeah, let's go. Scottie! SCOTTIE: Can we swim with the sharks? I read in the hotel magazine how they put you in a cage in the ocean and throw shark feed in the water and shar… ALEXANDRA: Scottie, we're not really here to do stuff like that.
SCOTTIE: Lots of stuff. She's not old and ugly like other moms. SCOTTIE: I like her stories -- like how she streaked at the wedding and the time she beat a wild pig with a shoe. How about you, Alex? ALEXANDRA: Why are we still talking about this? I like how she's not afraid of anything.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 35 are women's.
324 lines from women, 603 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
7 women and 19 men in the cast. 7 women and 12 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 11 of 979.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 36 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 28% of the words (3,663), men 72% (9,236). 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
24
Two men
40
Exhibit F: behind the camera
3 of the 14 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 20% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Alexander Payne (man)
- Written by
- Alexander Payne (man), Nat Faxon (man), Jim Rash (man)
- From the novel by
- Kaui Hart Hemmings (woman)
- Produced by
- Jim Burke (man), Alexander Payne (man), Jim Taylor (man)
- Shot by
- Phedon Papamichael (man)
- Edited by
- Kevin Tent (man)
- Music by
- Jeff Peterson (gender not listed)
- Production design by
- Jane Ann Stewart (woman)
- Costumes by
- Wendy Chuck (woman)
- Cast by
- John Jackson (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
0 women, 5 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 0 men, 3 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Writing
1 women, 3 men
-
Lighting
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 15 on average. Men: 35 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Amara Miller 11, Shailene Woodley 19
Men
Nick Krause 19, George Clooney 50
Exhibit H: the money
It made 8.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $20 million
- Box office
- $177 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 119 scenes and 979 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
