Passes the Bechdel test

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Name: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Released: 2005

2005. Directed by Garth Jennings, written by Douglas Adams and Karey Kirkpatrick.

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 2 scenes out of 86.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.

Poster for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The film

Everyone has bad mornings. You wake up late, you stub your toe, you burn the toast, but for a man named Arthur Dent, this goes far beyond a bad day. When he learns that a friend of his is actually an alien with advanced knowledge of Earth's impending destruction, he is transported off the Earth seconds before it is blown up to make way for a new hyperspace motorway. And as if that's not enough, throw in being wanted by the Police, Earth II, an insane electronic encyclopedia, no tea whatsoever, a chronically depressed robot and the search for the meaning of life, and you've got the greatest adventure off Earth.

Released: 29 Apr 2005
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Rated: PG
IMDb: 6.7 / 10
Metascore: 63 / 100
Awards: 1 win & 10 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Arthur 218 lines, man
Ford 141 lines, man
Zaphod 129 lines, man
Trillian 65 lines, woman
Slartibartfast 36 lines, man
Guide Voice 35 lines, man
Kwaltz 34 lines, man
Marvin 33 lines, man
Deep Thought 31 lines, woman
Eddie 21 lines, man

Full cast, 60 people

Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent
Yasiin Bey as Ford Prefect
Zooey Deschanel as Trillian
Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox
Alan Rickman as Marvin (voice)
Anna Chancellor as Questular Rontok
Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast
Richard Griffiths as Jeltz (voice)
John Malkovich as Humma Kavula
Helen Mirren as Deep Thought (voice)
Thomas Lennon as Eddie the Computer (voice)
Stephen Fry as Narrator / The Guide (voice)
Warwick Davis as Marvin
Bill Bailey as The Whale (voice)
Su Elliot as Pub Customer
Dominique Jackson as Fook
Simon Jones as Ghostly Image
Kelly Macdonald as Reporter
Ian McNeice as Kwaltz (voice)
Steve Pemberton as Mr. Prosser
Albie Woodington as Barman
Mark Longhurst as Bulldozer Driver
Jack Stanley as Lunkwill
Mak Wilson as Vogon Interpreter (voice)
Mark Gatiss as Additional Vogon Voices
Reece Shearsmith as Additional Vogon Voices
Mason Ball as Creature Performer
Sarah Bennett as Creature Performer
Danny Blackner as Creature Performer
Hayley Burroughs as Creature Performer
Cecily Fay as Creature Performer
Aron Freeman as Creature Performer
Ian Kay as Creature Performer
Nikki Bond as Creature Performer
Mohsen Nouri as Creature Performer
Oliver Parham as Creature Performer
Nigel Plaskitt as Creature Performer
Lynn Robertson Bruce as Creature Performer
Jerome St. John Blake as Vogon Soldier
Milo Bodrozic as Vogon Soldier
Martin Dawson as Vogon Soldier
Dan Ellis as Vogon Soldier
Steve Grindle as Vogon Soldier
Art Hewitt as Vogon Soldier
Simon Hibbs as Vogon Soldier
Rob Horseman as Vogon Soldier
Mike Lewis as Vogon Soldier
Paul Nathaniel as Vogon Soldier
Tim Perrin as Vogon Soldier
Jessie Riley as Vogon Soldier
Tucker Stevens as Vogon Soldier
Ashley Stuart as Vogon Soldier
Benjamin Uttley as Vogon Soldier
Patrick Walker as Vogon Soldier
Spencer Wilding as Vogon Soldier
William Wollen as Vogon Soldier
Edgar Wright as Deep Thought Technician (uncredited)
Jason Schwartzman as Gag Halfrunt (uncredited)
Mark Rhino Smith as Pall Bearer (uncredited)
Sean Sollé as London Citizen

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 86

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

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.

FOOK: Hang on. Did you say second greatest? DEEP THOUGHT: Second greatest. Yes. FOOK: But we designed you to be the greatest computer so you could...

DEEP THOUGHT: Can I help you? FOOK: Deep Thought. Do you have... DEEP THOUGHT: An answer for you? Yes. I have. FOOK: There really is an answer?

DEEP THOUGHT: ... of Life, the Universe, and Everything ... FOOK: Yes! DEEP THOUGHT: ... is ...

DEEP THOUGHT: Yes, but what actually is it? FOOK: Everything! You know ... just EVERYTHING! DEEP THOUGHT: That's not a question. Only when you know what the actual question will you know what the answer means.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 15 are women's.

130 lines from women, 762 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

10 women and 31 men in the cast. 7 women and 30 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 214 of 950. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 213 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 11% of the words (1,212), men 89% (9,340). Women have 15% 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

2 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 15% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Garth Jennings (man)
Written by: Karey Kirkpatrick (man), Douglas Adams (man)
From the novel by: Douglas Adams (man)
Produced by: Roger Birnbaum (man), Nick Goldsmith (man), Jonathan Glickman (man), Jay Roach (man), Gary Barber (man)
Shot by: Igor Jadue-Lillo (man)
Edited by: Niven Howie (man)
Music by: Joby Talbot (man)
Production design by: Joel Collins (man)
Costumes by: Sammy Sheldon (woman)
Cast by: Marcia Ross (woman)