Fails the Bechdel test
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2012. Directed by Tomas Alfredson, written by John le Carré and Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
1 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
9 women characters. 6 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
In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British Intelligence, Control (Sir John Hurt), resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary goes badly wrong. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian Agent, a mole, and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which one it was. George Smiley (Gary Oldman) had been forced into retirement by Control's departure, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by rogue Agent Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy), that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of significant Soviet Intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him.
- Released
- 06 Jan 2012
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7 / 10
- Metascore
- 85 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 3 Oscars. 35 wins & 102 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Smiley 177 lines, man
- Peter Guillam 72 lines, man
- Ricki Tarr 52 lines, man
- Prideaux 36 lines, man
- Bill Haydon 32 lines, man
- Lacon 29 lines, man
- Control 28 lines, man
- Percy Alleline 28 lines, man
- Connie Sachs 27 lines, woman
- Mendel 26 lines, man
Full cast, 47 people
- Gary Oldman as George Smiley
- Colin Firth as Bill Haydon
- Tom Hardy as Ricki Tarr
- John Hurt as Control
- Toby Jones as Percy Alleline
- Mark Strong as Jim Prideaux
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Peter Guillam
- Ciarán Hinds as Roy Bland
- David Dencik as Toby Esterhase
- Kathy Burke as Connie Sachs
- Stephen Graham as Jerry Westerby
- Simon McBurney as Oliver Lacon
- Svetlana Khodchenkova as Irina
- Roger Lloyd Pack as Mendel
- Konstantin Khabensky as Polyakov
- Christian McKay as Mackelvore
- Zoltán Mucsi as Magyar
- Péter Kálloy Molnár as Hungarian Waiter
- Ilona Kassai as Woman in Window
- Imre Csuja as KGB Agent
- Arthur Nightingale as Bryant
- Amanda Fairbank-Hynes as Belinda
- Peter McNeil O'Connor as Fawn
- Matyelok Gibbs as Mrs Pope-Graham
- Philip Hill-Pearson as Norman
- Jamie Thomas King as Kaspart
- Stuart Graham as Minister
- Sarah-Jane Wright as Mary Alleline
- Katrina Vasilieva as Ann Smiley
- Linda Marlowe as Mrs McCraig
- William Haddock as Bill Roach
- Erskine Wylie as Spikeley
- Philip Martin Brown as Tufty Thesinger
- Tomasz Kowalski as Boris
- Alexandra Salafranca as Turkish Mistress
- Dennis Good as Ivan
- Oleg Dzhabrailov as Sergei
- Gillian Stevenson as Listening Woman
- Nick Hopper as Janitor Alwyn
- Laura Carmichael as Sal
- Rupert Procter as Guillam's Boyfriend
- John le Carré as Christmas Party Guest
- Michael Sarne as Karla (Voice)
- Jean-Claude Jay as French Man at Residency
- Tom Stuart as Ben
- Harvey Walsh as Schoolboy (uncredited)
- Lutz Michael as Mechanic
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 6 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 251
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 | 11 |
| 7 to 12 | 0 | 5 |
| 13 to 18 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 to 24 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 to 30 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 to 36 | 0 | 11 |
| 37 to 42 | 0 | 2 |
| 43 to 48 | 0 | 33 |
| 49 to 54 | 3 | 14 |
| 55 to 60 | 0 | 10 |
| 61 to 66 | 0 | 24 |
| 67 to 72 | 0 | 18 |
| 73 to 78 | 18 | 10 |
| 79 to 84 | 9 | 10 |
| 85 to 90 | 0 | 42 |
| 91 to 96 | 0 | 33 |
| 97 to 102 | 0 | 3 |
| 103 to 108 | 0 | 8 |
| 109 to 114 | 5 | 12 |
| 115 to 120 | 0 | 15 |
| 121 to 126 | 0 | 0 |
| 127 to 132 | 0 | 13 |
| 133 to 138 | 0 | 12 |
| 139 to 144 | 4 | 22 |
| 145 to 150 | 1 | 30 |
| 151 to 156 | 0 | 47 |
| 157 to 162 | 1 | 16 |
| 163 to 168 | 0 | 23 |
| 169 to 174 | 1 | 11 |
| 175 to 180 | 0 | 13 |
| 181 to 186 | 0 | 20 |
| 187 to 192 | 1 | 31 |
| 193 to 198 | 0 | 29 |
| 199 to 204 | 0 | 7 |
| 205 to 210 | 0 | 14 |
| 211 to 216 | 3 | 13 |
| 217 to 222 | 0 | 9 |
| 223 to 228 | 0 | 9 |
| 229 to 234 | 0 | 5 |
| 235 to 240 | 0 | 2 |
| 241 to 246 | 0 | 26 |
| 247 to 251 | 0 | 4 |
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, 7 are women's.
46 lines from women, 617 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
9 women and 31 men in the cast. 6 women and 27 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 67 of 677.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 92 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 8% of the words (598), men 92% (6,717). Women have 7% 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
68
Exhibit E: behind the camera
5 of the 13 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Tomas Alfredson (man)
- Written by
- Bridget O'Connor (woman), Peter Straughan (man)
- From the novel by
- John le Carré (man)
- Produced by
- Eric Fellner (man), Robyn Slovo (woman), Tim Bevan (man)
- Shot by
- Hoyte van Hoytema (man)
- Edited by
- Dino Jonsäter (man)
- Music by
- Alberto Iglesias (man)
- Production design by
- Maria Djurkovic (woman)
- Costumes by
- Jacqueline Durran (woman)
- Cast by
- Jina Jay (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Costume & Make-Up
5 women, 1 men, 12 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 8 men, 3 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 8 men, 4 not listed
-
Art
4 women, 2 men, 4 not listed
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 4 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 4 men, 3 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 3 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 47 on average. Men: 48 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Kathy Burke 47
Men
Tom Hardy 34, Benedict Cumberbatch 35, David Dencik 36, Toby Jones 45, Mark Strong 48, Colin Firth 51, Gary Oldman 53, Ciarán Hinds 58, John Hurt 71
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.7 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $30 million
- Box office
- $81.5 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 251 scenes and 677 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
