Fails the Bechdel test
The Sixth Sense
1999. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, written by M. Night Shyamalan.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
24 women characters. 11 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, though someone marked that rating as dubious.
The film
Malcom Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a child psychologist who receives an award on the same night that he is visited by a very unhappy ex-patient. After this encounter, Crowe takes on the task of curing a young boy with the same ills as the ex-patient (Donnie Wahlberg) . This boy "sees dead people". Crowe spends a lot of time with the boy much to the dismay of his wife (Olivia Williams). Cole's mom (Toni Collette) is at her wit's end with what to do about her son's increasing problems. Crowe is the boy's only hope.
- Released
- 06 Aug 1999
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 8.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 64 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 6 Oscars. 37 wins & 56 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Malcolm 224 lines, man
- Cole 200 lines, man
- Lynn 86 lines, woman
- Anna 31 lines, woman
- Mr. Cunningham 21 lines, man
- Stranger 13 lines
- Tommy 11 lines, man
- Mr. Marschal 10 lines, man
- Vincent 6 lines, man
- Dr. Hill 5 lines, man
Full cast, 50 people
- Bruce Willis as Malcolm Crowe
- Haley Joel Osment as Cole Sear
- Toni Collette as Lynn Sear
- Olivia Williams as Anna Crowe
- Trevor Morgan as Tommy Tammisimo
- Donnie Wahlberg as Vincent Gray
- Peter Anthony Tambakis as Darren
- Jeffrey Zubernis as Bobby
- Bruce Norris as Stanley Cunningham
- Glenn Fitzgerald as Sean
- Greg Wood as Mr. Collins
- Mischa Barton as Kyra Collins
- Angelica Page as Mrs. Collins
- Lisa Summerour as Bridesmaid
- Firdous Bamji as Young Man Buying Ring
- Samia Shoaib as Young Woman Buying Ring
- Hayden Saunier as Darren's Mom
- Janis Dardaris as Kitchen Woman
- Neill Hartley as Visitor #2
- Sarah Ripard as Visitor #3
- Heidi Fischer as Visitor #4
- KaDee Strickland as Visitor #5
- Michael J. Lyons as Visitor #6
- Samantha Fitzpatrick as Kyra's Sister
- Holly Cross Vagley as Society Lady #1
- Kate Kearney-Patch as Society Lady #2
- Marilyn Shanok as Woman at Accident
- M. Night Shyamalan as Dr. Hill
- Wes Heywood as Commercial Narrator (voice)
- Nico Woulard as Hanged Child
- Carol Nielson as Hanged Female
- Keith Woulard as Hanged Male
- Jodi Dawson as Burnt Teacher
- Tony Michael Donnelly as Gunshot Boy
- Ronnie Lea as Secretary
- Carlos Xavier Lopez as Spanish Ghost on Tape (voice)
- Gino Inverso as Young Vincent (voice)
- Ellen Sheppard as Mrs. Sloan
- Tom McLaughlin as Anna's Father
- Candy Aston-Dennis as Anna's Mother
- Patrick McDade as Shaken Driver
- Jose L. Rodriguez as Husband
- Gina Allegro as Bride's Friend (uncredited)
- Bob Bowersox as Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
- Matt Casale as Man Crossing the Street (uncredited)
- Kym Cohen as Bridesmaid (uncredited)
- Colleen June McQuaide as Tommy's TV Mom (uncredited)
- Jonathan Nation as Restaurant Patron (uncredited)
- Sean Oliver as Ghost in the Dungeon (uncredited)
- Alison Robertson as Waitress (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 94
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 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 11 | 28 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 36 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 1 |
| 13 to 14 | 9 | 6 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 2 |
| 17 to 18 | 5 | 22 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 25 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 37 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 22 |
| 27 to 28 | 5 | 7 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 48 |
| 31 to 32 | 3 | 0 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 11 | 8 |
| 37 to 38 | 14 | 21 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 36 |
| 41 to 42 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 to 44 | 1 | 0 |
| 45 to 46 | 3 | 1 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 1 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 22 |
| 53 to 54 | 2 | 3 |
| 55 to 56 | 16 | 7 |
| 57 to 58 | 15 | 4 |
| 59 to 60 | 2 | 5 |
| 61 to 62 | 3 | 1 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 31 |
| 65 to 66 | 1 | 13 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 31 |
| 69 to 70 | 2 | 0 |
| 71 to 72 | 2 | 1 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 0 |
| 75 to 76 | 1 | 0 |
| 77 to 78 | 1 | 4 |
| 79 to 80 | 3 | 1 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 4 |
| 83 to 84 | 7 | 4 |
| 85 to 86 | 1 | 4 |
| 87 to 88 | 2 | 6 |
| 89 to 90 | 0 | 3 |
| 91 to 92 | 25 | 37 |
| 93 to 94 | 5 | 17 |
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, 23 are women's.
150 lines from women, 500 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
24 women and 19 men in the cast. 11 women and 9 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 107 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 25% of the words (1,535), men 75% (4,526). Women have 23% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.
Exhibit D: 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
0
Two men
23
Exhibit E: behind the camera
3 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 18% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- M. Night Shyamalan (man)
- Written by
- M. Night Shyamalan (man)
- Produced by
- Kathleen Kennedy (woman), Frank Marshall (man), Barry Mendel (man)
- Shot by
- Tak Fujimoto (man)
- Edited by
- Andrew Mondshein (man)
- Music by
- James Newton Howard (man)
- Production design by
- Larry Fulton (man)
- Costumes by
- Joanna Johnston (woman)
- Cast by
- Avy Kaufman (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
1 women, 8 men, 15 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 6 men, 8 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 12 men, 6 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 9 men, 7 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 5 men, 5 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 3 men, 4 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 4 men
-
Editing
1 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 29 on average. Men: 24 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Toni Collette 26, Olivia Williams 31
Men
Haley Joel Osment 11, Trevor Morgan 12, Jeffrey Zubernis 12, Peter Anthony Tambakis 15, Glenn Fitzgerald 27, Donnie Wahlberg 29, Bruce Norris 39, Bruce Willis 44
Exhibit G: the money
It made 16.8 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $40 million
- Box office
- $673 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 94 scenes and 675 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
