Fails the Bechdel test
They Live
1988. Directed by John Carpenter, written by Ray Nelson and John Carpenter.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
13 women characters. 8 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 0 out of 3.
The film
Nada, a down-on-his-luck construction worker, discovers a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by media and government with messages like "Stay Asleep," "No Imagination," "Submit to Authority." Even scarier is that he is able to see that some usually normal-looking people are in fact ugly aliens in charge of the massive campaign to keep humans subdued.
- Released
- 04 Nov 1988
- Genres
- Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 55 / 100
- Awards
- 4 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Nada 122 lines, man
- Frank 49 lines, man
- Drifter 31 lines, man
- Holly 24 lines, woman
- Gilbert 21 lines, man
- Bearded-Man 11 lines, man
- Street Preacher 9 lines, man
- Family Man 8 lines, man
- Female Voice 5 lines, woman
- Foreman 4 lines, man
Full cast, 48 people
- Roddy Piper as John Nada
- Keith David as Frank Armitage
- Meg Foster as Holly Thompsen
- George Buck Flower as Drifter
- Peter Jason as Gilbert
- Raymond St. Jacques as Street Preacher
- Jason Robards III as Family Man
- John Lawrence as Bearded Man
- Susan Barnes as Brown Haired Woman
- Sy Richardson as Black Revolutionary
- Wendy Brainard as Family Man's Daughter
- Lucille Meredith as Female Interviewer
- Susan Blanchard as Ingenue
- Norman Alden as Foreman
- Dana Bratton as Black Junkie
- John F. Goff as Well Dressed Customer
- Norman D. Wilson as Vendor
- Thelma Lee as Rich Lady
- Stratton Leopold as Depressed Human
- Rezza Shan as Arab Clerk
- Norman Howell as Blonde Haired Cop
- Larry Franco as Neighbor
- Tom Searle as Biker
- Robert Grasmere as Scruffy Blonde Man
- Vince Inneo as Passageway Guard
- Bob Hudson as Passageway Guard #2
- Jon Paul Jones as Manager
- Dennis Michael as Male News Anchor
- Nancy Gee as Female News Anchor
- Claudia Stanlee as Young Female Executive
- Christine Anne Baur as Woman on Phone
- Eileen Wesson as Pregnant Secretary
- Gregory J. Barnett as Security Guard #1
- Jim Nickerson as Security Guard #2
- Kerry Rossall as 2nd Unit Guard
- Cibby Danyla as Naked Lady
- Jeff Imada as Male Ghoul
- Michelle Costello as Female Ghoul
- Jeb Stuart Adams as Homeless kid (uncredited)
- Jennifer Austin as Teenage Girl (uncredited)
- Michael Forino as Ghoul at Bar (uncredited)
- Robert V. Greene as TV Technician (uncredited)
- Helen Kelly as Woman at the Dinner Party (uncredited)
- Al Leong as Asian Revolutionary (uncredited)
- Gunnar Magg as Male Ghoulie (uncredited)
- Matt McColm as Police Officer (uncredited)
- Tommy Morrison as Dave - Resistance Fighter (uncredited)
- John Carpenter as Voice That Says 'Sleep' (voice) (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 21% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 85
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 | 1 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 2 | 7 |
| 7 to 8 | 1 | 12 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 2 |
| 11 to 12 | 1 | 27 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 12 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 3 |
| 17 to 18 | 0 | 12 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 3 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 9 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 15 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 1 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 3 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 to 40 | 3 | 13 |
| 41 to 42 | 1 | 10 |
| 43 to 44 | 0 | 5 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 4 |
| 47 to 48 | 2 | 3 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 2 |
| 51 to 52 | 12 | 17 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 0 |
| 55 to 56 | 1 | 0 |
| 57 to 58 | 1 | 0 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 0 |
| 61 to 62 | 0 | 0 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 0 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 0 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 7 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 15 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 12 |
| 75 to 76 | 0 | 1 |
| 77 to 78 | 8 | 36 |
| 79 to 80 | 4 | 17 |
| 81 to 82 | 1 | 32 |
| 83 to 84 | 3 | 4 |
| 85 to 85 | 2 | 1 |
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, 13 are women's.
42 lines from women, 286 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
13 women and 24 men in the cast. 8 women and 17 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 4 of 417.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 95 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 13% of the words (584), men 87% (3,991).
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
37
Exhibit E: behind the camera
None of the 9 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 13% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- John Carpenter (man)
- Written by
- John Carpenter (man)
- From the novel by
- Ray Nelson (man)
- Produced by
- Larry Franco (man)
- Shot by
- Gary B. Kibbe (man)
- Edited by
- Gib Jaffe (gender not listed), Frank E. Jimenez (man)
- Music by
- John Carpenter (man), Alan Howarth (man)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
9 women, 61 men, 7 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 21 men, 5 not listed
-
Production
3 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 2 men, 6 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 4 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
1 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 0 men, 5 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 41 on average. Men: 45 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Meg Foster 40, Susan Barnes 41
Men
Keith David 32, Roddy Piper 34, Jason Robards III 39, Peter Jason 44, Sy Richardson 47, George Buck Flower 51, John Lawrence 57, Raymond St. Jacques 58
Exhibit G: the money
It made 3.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $4 million
- Box office
- $13 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 85 scenes and 417 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
