Passes the Bechdel test

They

Name: They
Released: 2002

2002. Directed by Robert Harmon, written by Brendan Hood.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
5 women characters. 5 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 8 scenes out of 173.
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

After witnessing a horrific and traumatic event, Julia Lund, a graduate student in psychology, gradually comes to the realization that everything which scared her as a child could be real. And what's worse, it might be coming back to get her...

Released: 27 Nov 2002
Genres: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 4.8 / 10
Metascore: 31 / 100
Awards: 1 win & 1 nomination
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Julia 334 lines, woman
Paul 210 lines, man
Terry 119 lines, woman
Sam 63 lines, man
Font-Size 27 lines
Connor 18 lines
Rosemary 18 lines, woman
Girl 12 lines, woman
Student 11 lines
Tess 8 lines

Full cast, 16 people

Laura Regan as Julia Lund
Marc Blucas as Paul Loomis
Ethan Embry as Sam Burnside
Jon Abrahams as Billy Parks
Dagmara Dominczyk as Terry Alba
Desiree Zurowski as Mary Parks
Alexander Gould as Young Billy
Mark Hildreth as Troy
Jonathan Cherry as Darren
Jessica Amlee as Young Julia
Jay Brazeau as Dr. Booth
L. Harvey Gold as Professor Crowley
David Abbott as Professor Adkins
Jodelle Ferland as Sarah
Peter LaCroix as David Parks (as Peter Lacroix)
Colin Foo as Chinese Chef

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 16% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 173

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 4	17	15
5 to 8	15	8
9 to 12	30	1
13 to 16	39	51
17 to 20	9	12
21 to 24	2	2
25 to 28	14	16
29 to 32	16	17
33 to 36	13	6
37 to 40	11	8
41 to 44	41	6
45 to 48	1	1
49 to 52	20	17
53 to 56	0	0
57 to 60	2	1
61 to 64	11	13
65 to 68	28	6
69 to 72	22	20
73 to 76	30	11
77 to 80	19	11
81 to 84	0	0
85 to 88	11	8
89 to 92	0	1
93 to 96	11	8
97 to 100	0	0
101 to 104	25	15
105 to 108	44	1
109 to 112	1	0
113 to 116	1	0
117 to 120	11	6
121 to 124	4	3
125 to 128	6	0
129 to 132	4	1
133 to 136	2	2
137 to 140	21	21
141 to 144	0	1
145 to 148	3	2
149 to 152	1	0
153 to 156	3	0
157 to 160	1	0
161 to 164	0	0
165 to 168	2	3
169 to 172	6	0
173 to 173	1	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.

JULIA: I think most women tend to wonder if Superman is super in every way. TERRY: I don't.

TERRY: So the cabin has electricity, right? And plumbing? Everything we need? JULIA: Uh-huh. TERRY: So it has everything. JULIA: It has everything.

JULIA: The Boogeyman. The thing under the bed. The monster hiding in the closet. TERRY: What made you think of that? JULIA: A little girl at Sam's house. She was convinced there was a monster trying to get her.

JULIA: Serial killers aside, my take on this subject is very simple. If I don't have a picture of it -- it's not real. TERRY: Okay, is this conversation like a radio station? Can we just change the channel? Because personally, I'd like to get to sleep tonight. Terry…

TERRY: We're fine. JULIA: What was that?

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 63 are women's.

498 lines from women, 294 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

5 women and 11 men in the cast. 5 women and 4 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 29 of 946. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 28 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 63% of the words (6,836), men 37% (3,975).

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

4 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 36% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Robert Harmon (man)
Written by: Brendan Hood (man)
Produced by: Scott Kroopf (man), Tom Engelman (man)
Shot by: Rene Ohashi (man)
Edited by: Chris Peppe (man)
Music by: Elia Cmiral (man)
Production design by: Douglas Higgins (man)
Costumes by: Karen L. Matthews (woman)
Cast by: Amy McIntyre Britt (woman), Anya Colloff (woman), Jennifer Pate (woman)