Passes the Bechdel test
The Descent
2006. Directed by Neil Marshall, written by Neil Marshall.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
10 women characters. 7 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 45 scenes out of 163. -
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
After a tragic accident, six friends reunite for a caving expedition. Their adventure soon goes horribly wrong when a collapse traps them deep underground and they find themselves pursued by bloodthirsty creatures. As their friendships deteriorate, they find themselves in a desperate struggle to survive the creatures and each other.
- Released
- 04 Aug 2006
- Genres
- Adventure, Horror, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 71 / 100
- Awards
- 8 wins & 22 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Juno 112 lines, woman
- Beth 87 lines, woman
- Sarah 82 lines, woman
- Rebecca 72 lines, woman
- Sam 60 lines, woman
- Holly 42 lines, woman
- Jessica 2 lines, woman
- Paul 2 lines, man
- Holy 1 lines
Full cast, 18 people
- Shauna Macdonald as Sarah
- Natalie Mendoza as Juno
- Alex Reid as Beth
- Saskia Mulder as Rebecca
- MyAnna Buring as Sam
- Nora-Jane Noone as Holly
- Oliver Milburn as Paul
- Molly Kayll as Jessica
- Craig Conway as Crawler - Scar
- Tristan Matthiae as Crawler
- Leslie Simpson as Crawler
- Mark Cronfield as Crawler
- Stephen Lamb as Crawler
- Catherine Dyson as Crawler
- Julie Ellis as Crawler
- Sophie Trott as Crawler
- Stuart Luis as Crawler
- Justin Hackney as Crawler
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 163
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 | 5 | 0 |
| 5 to 8 | 14 | 2 |
| 9 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 16 | 10 | 0 |
| 17 to 20 | 42 | 0 |
| 21 to 24 | 7 | 0 |
| 25 to 28 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 to 32 | 3 | 0 |
| 33 to 36 | 3 | 0 |
| 37 to 40 | 1 | 0 |
| 41 to 44 | 12 | 0 |
| 45 to 48 | 3 | 0 |
| 49 to 52 | 17 | 0 |
| 53 to 56 | 6 | 0 |
| 57 to 60 | 6 | 0 |
| 61 to 64 | 9 | 0 |
| 65 to 68 | 33 | 0 |
| 69 to 72 | 6 | 0 |
| 73 to 76 | 4 | 0 |
| 77 to 80 | 24 | 0 |
| 81 to 84 | 67 | 0 |
| 85 to 88 | 0 | 0 |
| 89 to 92 | 7 | 0 |
| 93 to 96 | 25 | 0 |
| 97 to 100 | 16 | 0 |
| 101 to 104 | 25 | 0 |
| 105 to 108 | 18 | 0 |
| 109 to 112 | 2 | 0 |
| 113 to 116 | 7 | 0 |
| 117 to 120 | 0 | 0 |
| 121 to 124 | 2 | 0 |
| 125 to 128 | 7 | 0 |
| 129 to 132 | 4 | 0 |
| 133 to 136 | 30 | 0 |
| 137 to 140 | 10 | 0 |
| 141 to 144 | 17 | 0 |
| 145 to 148 | 15 | 0 |
| 149 to 152 | 0 | 0 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 0 |
| 157 to 160 | 0 | 0 |
| 161 to 163 | 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 scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
SARAH: What is that?! JUNO: The meat-grinder! BETH: Who names these things?! SARAH: I don’t know if I’m ready for this yet.
SARAH: Alright! BETH: Alright?! JUNO: ALRIGHT!!! Come on! Paddle! JUNO: Keep paddling!
BETH: Its mud, blood and beer... BETH: We don’t have to do this you know. We can turn back, stay in town, get wasted and go to a barn dance. SARAH: Now that is frightening. BETH: My kind of town.
JUNO: Sarah! Beth! SARAH: Juno. JUNO: Everything’s going to be fine. Better, it’s going to be great - go on in, Rebecca and Sam can’t wait to see you. BETH: She’s here. I wouldn’t push it any further than that.
REBECCA: It’s so good to see you. So good. SAM: Beth! Sarah! SARAH: Sam. Thank you for your letter, it meant a lot to me. SAM: I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. Mid- terms...
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 100 are women's.
457 lines from women, 2 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
10 women and 7 men in the cast. 7 women and 1 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 1 line.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 100% of the words (3,393), men 0% (14).
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Run the other way, for men, the film scores 0 out of 3.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
56
Two men
0
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Neil Marshall (man)
- Written by
- Neil Marshall (man)
- Produced by
- Christian Colson (man)
- Shot by
- Sam McCurdy (man)
- Edited by
- Jon Harris (man)
- Music by
- David Julyan (man)
- Production design by
- Simon Bowles (man)
- Costumes by
- Nancy Thompson (woman)
- Cast by
- Gail Stevens (woman), William Davies (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
7 women, 9 men, 3 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 8 men, 8 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 12 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 3 men, 10 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 4 men, 12 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
4 women, 2 men, 9 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 1 men, 5 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 25 on average. Men: 31 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Nora-Jane Noone 21, Shauna Macdonald 24, Natalie Mendoza 24, Alex Reid 24, MyAnna Buring 25, Saskia Mulder 32
Men
Craig Conway 30, Oliver Milburn 32
Exhibit H: the money
It made 16.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $3.5 million
- Box office
- $57.1 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 163 scenes and 460 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
