Fails the Bechdel test

The Road

Name: The Road
Released: 2009

2009. Directed by John Hillcoat, written by Joe Penhall and Cormac McCarthy.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
3 women characters. 1 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

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

The film

It's a post-apocalyptic world, several years after whatever the cataclysmic event, which has in turn caused frequent quakes as further potential hazards. The world is gray and getting quickly grayer as more and more things die off. A man and his pre-teen son, who was born after the apocalypse, are currently on the road, their plan to walk to the coast and head south where the man hopes there will be a more hospitable environment in which to live. The man has taught his son that they are the "good people" who have fire in their hearts, which in combination largely means that they will not resort to cannibalism to survive. The man owns a pistol with two bullets remaining, which he will use for murder/suicide of him and his son if he feels that that is a better fate for them than life in the alternative. Food and fuel are for what everyone is looking. The man has taught his son to be suspect of everyone that they may meet, these strangers who, out of desperation, may not only try to steal what they have managed to scavenge for their own survival, but may kill them as food. Although life with his father in this world is all the boy has known, he may come to his own thoughts as to what it means holistically to be one of the good or one of the bad. Meanwhile, the man occasionally has thoughts to happier times with his wife/the boy's mother before the apocalypse, as well as not as happy times with her after the apocalypse and the reason she is no longer with them.

Released: 18 Dec 2009
Genres: Drama, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.2 / 10
Metascore: 64 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award. 5 wins & 34 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Man 446 lines, man
Boy 312 lines, man
Woman 36 lines, woman
Veteran 34 lines, man
Old Man 30 lines, man
Gang Member 12 lines, man
Thief 11 lines, man
Well Fed Woman 5 lines, woman
Archer'S Woman 4 lines, woman
Bearded Man 2 4 lines, man

Full cast, 17 people

Viggo Mortensen as Father
Kodi Smit-McPhee as Boy
Charlize Theron as Mother
Robert Duvall as Old Man - Eli
Guy Pearce as Veteran
Molly Parker as Friendly Woman
Michael Kenneth Williams as The Thief
Garret Dillahunt as Gang Member
Bob Jennings as Bearded Man
Buddy Sosthand as Archer
Agnes Herrmann as Archer's Woman
Kirk Brown as Bearded Face
Jack Erdie as Bearded Man #2
David August Lindauer as Man On Mattress
Gina Preciado as Well Fed Woman
Wilson Moore as Boy running from cannibals
Mark Tierno as Baby Eater

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 193

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 5	4	2
6 to 10	0	11
11 to 15	0	5
16 to 20	0	23
21 to 25	4	22
26 to 30	1	30
31 to 35	0	38
36 to 40	0	20
41 to 45	12	28
46 to 50	0	22
51 to 55	6	12
56 to 60	0	7
61 to 65	0	18
66 to 70	0	2
71 to 75	6	24
76 to 80	0	20
81 to 85	0	37
86 to 90	0	1
91 to 95	0	13
96 to 100	0	38
101 to 105	0	14
106 to 110	4	27
111 to 115	0	28
116 to 120	2	4
121 to 125	0	3
126 to 130	0	32
131 to 135	0	51
136 to 140	0	42
141 to 145	0	26
146 to 150	0	33
151 to 155	0	7
156 to 160	0	3
161 to 165	0	66
166 to 170	0	18
171 to 175	0	11
176 to 180	4	16
181 to 185	2	35
186 to 190	0	52
191 to 193	5	16

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, 6 are women's.

50 lines from women, 857 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

3 women and 11 men in the cast. 1 women and 6 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 293 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 7% of the words (879), men 93% (11,609). Women have 6% 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 1 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, 21% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: John Hillcoat (man)
Written by: Joe Penhall (man)
From the novel by: Cormac McCarthy (man)
Produced by: Steve Schwartz (man), Nick Wechsler (man), Paula Mae Schwartz (gender not listed)
Shot by: Javier Aguirresarobe (man)
Edited by: Jon Gregory (man)
Music by: Warren Ellis (man), Nick Cave (man)
Production design by: Chris Kennedy (man)
Costumes by: Margot Wilson (woman)
Cast by: Francine Maisler (woman)