Fails the Bechdel test

The Incredibles

Name: The Incredibles
Released: 2004

2004. Directed by Brad Bird, written by Brad Bird.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
17 women characters. 7 of them speak.
No 2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other.
No 3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.

Second opinion

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

The film

Bob Parr (A.K.A. Mr. Incredible), and his wife Helen (A.K.A. Elastigirl), are the world's greatest famous crime-fighting superheroes in Metroville, always saving lives and battling evil on a daily basis. But 15 years later, they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs where they have no choice but to retire as superheroes to live a "normal life" with their three children Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack, who were born with secret superpowers. Itching to get back into action, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to a remote island for a top-secret assignment. He soon discovers that it will take a super family effort to rescue the world from total destruction.

Released: 05 Nov 2004
Genres: Animation, Action, Adventure
Rated: PG
IMDb: 8 / 10
Metascore: 90 / 100
Awards: Won 2 Oscars. 70 wins & 56 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Bob 277 lines, man
Helen 205 lines, woman
Dash 77 lines, man
Violet 66 lines, woman
Lucius 47 lines, man
Mirage 35 lines, woman
Syndrome 33 lines, man
Buddy 16 lines, man
Mr. Huph 16 lines, man
Rick 11 lines, man

Full cast, 60 people

Craig T. Nelson as Bob Parr / Mr. Incredible (voice)
Holly Hunter as Helen Parr / Elastigirl (voice)
Sarah Vowell as Violet Parr (voice)
Spencer Fox as Dashiell 'Dash' Parr (voice)
Jason Lee as Buddy Pine / Syndrome (voice)
Samuel L. Jackson as Lucius Best / Frozone (voice)
Elizabeth Peña as Mirage (voice)
Eli Fucile as Jack-Jack Parr (voice)
Maeve Andrews as Jack-Jack Parr (voice)
Brad Bird as Edna 'E' Mode (voice)
Dominique Louis as Bomb Voyage (voice)
Teddy Newton as Newsreel Narrator (voice)
Jean Sincere as Mrs. Hogenson (voice)
Wallace Shawn as Gilbert Huph (voice)
Lou Romano as Bernie Kropp (voice)
Wayne Canney as Principal (voice)
Michael Bird as Tony Rydinger (voice)
Bud Luckey as Rick Dicker (voice)
Bret Parker as Kari (voice)
Kimberly Adair Clark as Honey (voice)
John Ratzenberger as Underminer (voice)
Mark Andrews as Additional Voices (voice)
Nicholas Bird as Additional Voices (voice)
Louis Martin Braga III as Additional Voices (voice)
Mary Elizabeth Clark as Additional Voices (voice)
Pete Docter as Additional Voices (voice)
Louis Gonzales as Additional Voices (voice)
Elizabeth Greenberg as Additional Voices (voice)
Juliet Greenberg as Additional Voices (voice)
Billy Guardino as Additional Voices (voice)
Dennis 'D.J.' Jennings as Additional Voices (voice)
Ollie Johnston as Additional Voices (voice)
Bradford Lewis as Additional Voices (voice)
Ted Mathot as Additional Voices (voice)
Jazzie Mahannah as Additional Voices (voice)
Randy Nelson as Additional Voices (voice)
Bob Peterson as Additional Voices (voice)
Jeff Pidgeon as Additional Voices (voice)
Juliet Pokorny as Additional Voices (voice)
Joe Ranft as Additional Voices (voice)
Lori Richardson as Additional Voices (voice)
A.J. Riebli III as Additional Voices (voice)
Katherine Ringgold as Additional Voices (voice)
Stephen Schaffer as Additional Voices (voice)
Bob Scott as Additional Voices (voice)
Peter Sohn as Additional Voices (voice)
Andrew Stanton as Additional Voices (voice)
Frank Thomas as Additional Voices (voice)
Pamela Gaye Walker as Additional Voices (voice)
Patrick Walker as Additional Voices (voice)
Deirdre Warin as Additional Voices (voice)
Bob Bergen as Firefighters (voice) (uncredited)
Mickie McGowan as Citizen Mother (voice) (uncredited)
Said Faraj as Edna Mode Security Guard (voice) (uncredited)
Mathew Horne as Metroville man (uncredited)
Andrew Adamson as Firefighters (voice) (uncredited)
Toshi Toda as Firefighters (voice) (uncredited)
Phil Proctor as Police Officer (voice) (uncredited)
Jess Harnell as Police Officer (voice) (uncredited)
Danny Mann as Firefighters (voice) (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 38 are women's.

341 lines from women, 560 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

17 women and 43 men in the cast. 7 women and 21 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 8 of 936. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 47 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 40% of the words (3,173), men 60% (4,712). Women have 38% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit D: 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

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

2 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Brad Bird (man)
Written by: Brad Bird (man)
Produced by: John Walker (man)
Shot by: Andrew Jimenez (man), Patrick Lin (man), Janet Lucroy (gender not listed)
Edited by: Stephen Schaffer (man)
Music by: Michael Giacchino (man)
Production design by: Lou Romano (man)
Cast by: Matthew Jon Beck (man), Kevin Reher (man), Jen Rudin (woman), Mary Hidalgo (woman)