Fails the Bechdel test
The Spy Who Loved Me
1977. Directed by Lewis Gilbert, written by Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum and Ian Fleming.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
12 women characters. 5 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
James Bond is back again and his new mission is to find out how a Royal Navy Polaris submarine holding sixteen nuclear warheads simply disappeared while on patrol. Bond joins Major Anya Amasova and takes on a a web-handed mastermind, known as Karl Stromberg, as well as his henchman Jaws, who has a mouthful of metal teeth. Bond must track down the location of the missing submarine before the warheads are fired.
- Released
- 03 Aug 1977
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Thriller
- Rated
- PG
- IMDb
- 7 / 10
- Metascore
- 55 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 3 Oscars. 4 wins & 12 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Bond 181 lines, man
- Anya 84 lines, woman
- Stromberg 42 lines, man
- Carter 36 lines, man
- Q 11 lines
- Felicca 10 lines, woman
- Voice 9 lines
- Gogol 8 lines, man
- Gray 8 lines, man
- M 7 lines
Full cast, 74 people
- Roger Moore as James Bond
- Barbara Bach as Major Anya Amasova
- Curd Jürgens as Karl Stromberg
- Richard Kiel as Jaws
- Caroline Munro as Naomi
- Walter Gotell as General Anatol Gogol
- Geoffrey Keen as Sir Frederick Gray
- Bernard Lee as M
- George Baker as Captain Benson
- Michael Billington as Sergei Barsov
- Olga Bisera as Felicca
- Desmond Llewelyn as Q
- Edward de Souza as Sheik Hosein
- Vernon Dobtcheff as Max Kalba
- Valerie Leon as Hotel Recepcionist
- Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny
- Sydney Tafler as Liparus Captain
- Nadim Sawalha as Aziz Fekkesh
- Sue Vanner as Log Cabin Girl
- Eva Rueber-Staier as Rublevich
- Robert Brown as Admiral Hargreaves
- Marilyn Galsworthy as Stromberg's Assistant
- Milton Reid as Sandor
- Cyril Shaps as Dr. Bechmann
- Milo Sperber as Prof. Markovitz
- Albert Moses as Barman
- Rafiq Anwar as Cairo Club Waiter
- Felicity York as Arab Beauty
- Dawn Rodrigues as Arab Beauty
- Anika Pavel as Arab Beauty
- Jill Goodall as Arab Beauty
- Shane Rimmer as Cmdr. Carter
- Bob Sherman as USS Wayne Crewman
- Doyle Richmond as USS Wayne Crewman
- Peter Whitman as USS Wayne Crewman
- Ray Hassett as USS Wayne Crewman
- Vincent Marzello as USS Wayne Crewman
- Nicholas Campbell as USS Wayne Crewman
- Ray Evans as USS Wayne Crewman
- Anthony Forrest as USS Wayne Crewman
- Garrick Hagon as USS Wayne Crewman
- Ray Jewers as USS Wayne Crewman
- George Mallaby as USS Wayne Crewman
- Christopher Muncke as USS Wayne Crewman
- Anthony Pullen Shaw as USS Wayne Crewman
- Don Staton as USS Wayne Crewman
- Stephen Temperley as USS Wayne Crewman
- Bryan Marshall as Cmdr. Talbot
- Michael Howarth as HMS Ranger Crewman
- Kim Fortune as HMS Ranger Crewman
- Barry Andrews as HMS Ranger Crewman
- Kevin McNally as HMS Ranger Crewman
- Jeremy Bulloch as HMS Ranger Crewman
- Sean Bury as HMS Ranger Crewman
- John Sarbutt as HMS Rangers Crewman
- David Auker as HMS Ranger Crewman
- Dennis Blanch as HMS Ranger Crewman
- Keith Buckley as HMS Ranger Crewman
- Nick Ellsworth as HMS Ranger Crewman
- Keith Morris as HMS Ranger Crewman
- John Salthouse as HMS Ranger Crewman
- George Roubicek as Stromberg One Captain
- Lenny Rabin as Liparus Crewman
- Irvin Allen as Stromberg Crew
- Yashaw Adem as Stromberg Crew
- John Truscott as USS Wayne Crewman
- Robert Sheedy as USS Wayne Crewman
- Eric Stine as USS Wayne Crewman
- Murray Salem as USS Wayne Crewman
- Harry Fielder as USS Wayne Crewmember (uncredited)
- Barbara Jefford as Naomi (voice) (uncredited)
- Bob Simmons as KGB Thug #2 (uncredited)
- Michael G. Wilson as Man in the Audience at the Pyramid Theatre (uncredited)
- Vincent Wong as Liparus Guard (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 6 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 26% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 284
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 6 | 0 | 9 |
| 7 to 12 | 8 | 10 |
| 13 to 18 | 0 | 2 |
| 19 to 24 | 7 | 48 |
| 25 to 30 | 0 | 12 |
| 31 to 36 | 10 | 6 |
| 37 to 42 | 0 | 7 |
| 43 to 48 | 7 | 13 |
| 49 to 54 | 1 | 16 |
| 55 to 60 | 5 | 5 |
| 61 to 66 | 2 | 1 |
| 67 to 72 | 3 | 2 |
| 73 to 78 | 13 | 18 |
| 79 to 84 | 7 | 6 |
| 85 to 90 | 6 | 7 |
| 91 to 96 | 4 | 13 |
| 97 to 102 | 5 | 19 |
| 103 to 108 | 1 | 1 |
| 109 to 114 | 0 | 0 |
| 115 to 120 | 1 | 2 |
| 121 to 126 | 0 | 1 |
| 127 to 132 | 0 | 0 |
| 133 to 138 | 1 | 1 |
| 139 to 144 | 0 | 2 |
| 145 to 150 | 0 | 1 |
| 151 to 156 | 0 | 0 |
| 157 to 162 | 0 | 0 |
| 163 to 168 | 0 | 0 |
| 169 to 174 | 1 | 2 |
| 175 to 180 | 16 | 27 |
| 181 to 186 | 0 | 4 |
| 187 to 192 | 1 | 5 |
| 193 to 198 | 0 | 2 |
| 199 to 204 | 0 | 5 |
| 205 to 210 | 2 | 7 |
| 211 to 216 | 0 | 3 |
| 217 to 222 | 0 | 15 |
| 223 to 228 | 0 | 10 |
| 229 to 234 | 0 | 3 |
| 235 to 240 | 0 | 3 |
| 241 to 246 | 0 | 4 |
| 247 to 252 | 0 | 1 |
| 253 to 258 | 0 | 3 |
| 259 to 264 | 0 | 15 |
| 265 to 270 | 1 | 11 |
| 271 to 276 | 1 | 4 |
| 277 to 282 | 4 | 5 |
| 283 to 284 | 1 | 6 |
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, 24 are women's.
108 lines from women, 337 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
12 women and 53 men in the cast. 5 women and 27 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 26 of 598.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 101 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 22% of the words (1,207), men 78% (4,319). Women have 24% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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
36
Exhibit E: behind the camera
1 of the 11 people in these jobs is a woman.
Across the whole crew, 15% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Lewis Gilbert (man)
- Written by
- Christopher Wood (man), Richard Maibaum (man)
- From the novel by
- Ian Fleming (man)
- Produced by
- Albert R. Broccoli (man)
- Shot by
- Claude Renoir (man)
- Edited by
- John Glen (man)
- Music by
- Marvin Hamlisch (man)
- Production design by
- Ken Adam (man)
- Cast by
- Weston Drury Jr. (man), Maude Spector (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Directing
1 women, 5 men
-
Production
1 women, 4 men
-
Writing
0 women, 4 men
-
Art
0 women, 3 men
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 1 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 3 men
-
Sound
1 women, 2 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 29 on average. Men: 51 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Caroline Munro 28, Barbara Bach 29
Men
Michael Billington 35, Richard Kiel 37, George Baker 46, Roger Moore 49, Walter Gotell 53, Geoffrey Keen 60, Curd Jürgens 61, Bernard Lee 69
Exhibit G: the money
It made 13.7 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $13.5 million
- Box office
- $185 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 284 scenes and 598 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
