Passes the Bechdel test

The Martian

Name: The Martian
Released: 2015

2015. Directed by Ridley Scott, written by Drew Goddard and Andy Weir.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
12 women characters. 8 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 7 scenes out of 301.
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

During a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meager supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive. Millions of miles away, NASA and a team of international scientists work tirelessly to bring "the Martian" home, while his crewmates concurrently plot a daring, if not impossible, rescue mission. As these stories of incredible bravery unfold, the world comes together to root for Watney's safe return.

Released: 02 Oct 2015
Genres: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 8 / 10
Metascore: 80 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 7 Oscars. 41 wins & 199 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Vincent 97 lines, man
Lewis 96 lines, woman
Mark 89 lines, man
Teddy 75 lines, man
Martinez 49 lines, man
Johanssen 48 lines, woman
Mitch 35 lines, man
Annie 29 lines, woman
Beck 27 lines, man
Bruce 27 lines, man

Full cast, 54 people

Matt Damon as Mark Watney
Jessica Chastain as Melissa Lewis
Kristen Wiig as Annie Montrose
Jeff Daniels as Theodore "Teddy" Sanders
Michael Peña as Rick Martinez
Sean Bean as Mitch Henderson
Kate Mara as Beth Johanssen
Sebastian Stan as Chris Beck
Aksel Hennie as Alex Vogel
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Vincent Kapoor
Benedict Wong as Bruce Ng
Mackenzie Davis as Mindy Park
Donald Glover as Rich Purnell
Nick Mohammed as Tim Grimes
Chen Shu as Zhu Tao
Eddy Ko Hung as Guo Ming
Enzo Cilenti as Mike Watkins
Jonathan Aris as Brendan Hatch
Gruffudd Glyn as Jack
Geoffrey Thomas as U.S. President
Yang Haiwen as Chinese Flight Director
Narantsogt Tsogtsaikhan as Wen Jiang
Brian Caspe as Timer Controller
Szonja Oroszlán as Launch Control
Mark O'Neal as Guidance
Karen Gagnon as Reporter 2
Lili Bordán as Blair
Nikolett Barabas as Reporter 1
Dilyana Bouklieva as Police Woman
Björn Freiberg as Nasa Staff Member
James Fred Harkins Jr. as Pathfinder Developer
Sam Spruell as NASA Psychologist
Matt Devere as Satcon
Mike Kelly as Launcher Interface
Greg De Cuir as Capcom
Peter Linka as Telemetry
Declan Hannigan as Comms
Peter Schueller as NASA Break Room Worker
Waleska Latorre as Vincent's Secretary
Frederik Pleitgen as CNN Reporter
Charlie Gardner as Robert Lewis
Nóra Lili Hörich as Vogel's Wife
Kamilla Fátyol as Marissa Martinez
Yang Liu as Chinese Translator
Richard Rifkin as JPL Store Man
Nicholas Wittman as JPL White Room Worker
Ben O'Brien as JPL Pathfinder Team
Scott Alexander Young as JPL Pathfinder Team
Jason Ryan as JPL Pathfinder Team
James Dougherty as JPL Pathfinder Team
Xue Xuxing as Ming's Secretary
Balázs Medveczky as JPL White Room Worker
Dora Endre as Receptionist
Naomi Scott as Ryoko

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 7 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 301

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 7	2	9
8 to 14	32	20
15 to 21	2	16
22 to 28	2	4
29 to 35	0	9
36 to 42	0	0
43 to 49	0	7
50 to 56	0	22
57 to 63	11	24
64 to 70	2	6
71 to 77	14	31
78 to 84	0	7
85 to 91	0	15
92 to 98	0	1
99 to 105	0	9
106 to 112	9	13
113 to 119	2	12
120 to 126	3	15
127 to 133	1	13
134 to 140	0	22
141 to 147	0	15
148 to 154	4	9
155 to 161	12	51
162 to 168	15	48
169 to 175	0	2
176 to 182	0	3
183 to 189	0	0
190 to 196	0	4
197 to 203	0	0
204 to 210	5	29
211 to 217	2	0
218 to 224	8	6
225 to 231	8	9
232 to 238	3	3
239 to 245	20	7
246 to 252	4	7
253 to 259	13	12
260 to 266	14	9
267 to 273	8	3
274 to 280	3	4
281 to 287	2	7
288 to 294	3	10
295 to 301	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.

LEWIS: "...twelve-hundred kilometers in diameter, bearing 24.41 degrees..." JOHANSSEN: That's tracking right towards us. LEWIS: "...based on current escalation, estimate a force of... "Eighty-six hundred Newtons."

JOHANSSEN: Commander? LEWIS: Prep for emergency departure. LEWIS: We're scrubbed.

JOHANSSEN: Whatever does it for you. We've got a system update, I'll take care of that, and... huh. There's a voice message. Addressed to the whole cre… LEWIS: Play it.

LEWIS: Yes. If we do the maneuver, they'll have to send the supply ship or we'll die. We have the opportunity to force their hand. JOHANSSEN: Are we gonna do it? LEWIS: If it were up to me, we'd already be on our way.

JOHANSSEN: Velocity 741 meters per second. Altitude 1350 meters... LEWIS: That's too low --

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

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

204 lines from women, 493 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

12 women and 32 men in the cast. 8 women and 23 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 7 of 736. 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 24% of the words (2,197), men 76% (6,899). Women have 29% 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

3 of the 16 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 26% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Ridley Scott (man)
Written by: Drew Goddard (man)
From the novel by: Andy Weir (man)
Produced by: Aditya Sood (man), Simon Kinberg (man), Ridley Scott (man), Mark Huffam (man), Michael Schaefer (man)
Shot by: Dariusz Wolski (man)
Edited by: Pietro Scalia (man)
Music by: Harry Gregson-Williams (man)
Production design by: Arthur Max (man)
Costumes by: Janty Yates (woman)
Cast by: Carmen Cuba (woman), Zsolt Csutak (gender not listed), Nina Gold (woman)