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Fails the Bechdel test

Tomorrow Never Dies

1997. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode, written by Bruce Feirstein and Ian Fleming.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    12 women characters. 3 of them speak.
  2. No 2. Who talk to each other
    Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other.
  3. 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.

Poster for Tomorrow Never Dies

The film

Agent James Bond 007 (Pierce Brosnan) is on a mission which includes a media tycoon, his former lover and a Chinese Agent. Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) wants to complete his global media empire, but in order for this to work, he must achieve broadcasting rights in China. Carver wants to start up World War III by starting a confrontation over British and Chinese waters. Bond gains the help of Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) on his quest to stop him, but how will Bond feel when he meets up with his former lover, Paris (Teri Hatcher), who is now Carver's wife.

Released
19 Dec 1997
Genres
Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rated
PG-13
IMDb
6.5 / 10
Metascore
52 / 100
Awards
6 wins & 10 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Bond 280 lines, man
  2. Harmsway 158 lines, man
  3. Sidney 94 lines
  4. M 46 lines
  5. Wade 30 lines, man
  6. Stamper 28 lines, man
  7. First Officer 26 lines, man
  8. Captain Morton 19 lines
  9. Minister Johnstone 18 lines, man
  10. Yung 18 lines, man
Full cast, 48 people
  • Pierce Brosnan as James Bond
  • Jonathan Pryce as Elliot Carver
  • Michelle Yeoh as Wai Lin
  • Teri Hatcher as Paris Carver
  • Ricky Jay as Henry Gupta
  • Götz Otto as Stamper
  • Joe Don Baker as Wade
  • Vincent Schiavelli as Dr. Kaufman
  • Judi Dench as M
  • Desmond Llewelyn as Q
  • Samantha Bond as Moneypenny
  • Colin Salmon as Robinson
  • Geoffrey Palmer as Admiral Roebuck
  • Julian Fellowes as Minister of Defence
  • Terence Rigby as General Bukharin
  • Cecilie Thomsen as Inga Bergstrom
  • Nina Young as Tamara Steel
  • Daphne Deckers as PR Lady
  • Colin Stinton as Dave Greenwalt
  • Al Matthews as Master Sergeant 3
  • Mark Spalding as Stealth Boat Captain
  • Bruce Alexander as HMS Chester Captain
  • Anthony Green as HMS Chester Firing Officer
  • Christopher Bowen as HMS Devonshire Commander Day
  • Dominic Shaun as HMS Devonshire Lieutenant Commander Hume
  • Julian Rhind-Tutt as HMS Devonshire Yeoman
  • Gerard Butler as HMS Devonshire Leading Seaman
  • Adam Barker as HMS Devonshire Sonar
  • Michael Byrne as HMS Bedford Admiral Kelly
  • Pip Torrens as HMS Bedford Captain
  • Hugh Bonneville as HMS Bedford Air Warfare Officer
  • Jason Watkins as HMS Bedford Principal Warfare Officer
  • Eoin McCarthy as HMS Bedford Yeoman
  • Brendan Coyle as HMS Bedford Leading Seaman
  • David Ashton as First Sea Lord
  • William Scott-Masson as Staff Officer #1
  • Laura Brattan as Staff Officer #2
  • Nadia Cameron-Blakey as Beth Davidson
  • Liza Ross as Mary Golson
  • Hugo Napier as Jeff Hobbs
  • Rolf Saxon as Philip Jones
  • Vincent Wang as Mig Pilot
  • Phillip Kwok Chui as General Chang
  • Khan Bonfils as Satoshi Isagura (uncredited)
  • Romo Gorrara as Carver's Thug (uncredited)
  • Dinny Powell as Carver's Thug (uncredited)
  • Antje Schmidt as AVIS Lady #1 (uncredited)
  • Sophie Schütt as AVIS Lady #2 (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 5 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 34% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 202

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 509
6 to 1008
11 to 1502
16 to 20614
21 to 25768
26 to 301517
31 to 35312
36 to 40332
41 to 4504
46 to 5005
51 to 55027
56 to 60010
61 to 65023
66 to 70215
71 to 7505
76 to 80022
81 to 8507
86 to 90021
91 to 95032
96 to 100332
101 to 105011
106 to 110031
111 to 115011
116 to 12032
121 to 125123
126 to 130044
131 to 13509
136 to 140014
141 to 14506
146 to 150012
151 to 155019
156 to 16001
161 to 16508
166 to 170044
171 to 17507
176 to 18006
181 to 18500
186 to 19003
191 to 19504
196 to 20000
201 to 202017

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, 6 are women's.

43 lines from women, 637 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

12 women and 35 men in the cast. 3 women and 15 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 67 of 1,025. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 300 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 6% of the words (427), men 94% (6,749).

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

Exhibit E: behind the camera

4 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
Roger Spottiswoode (man)
Written by
Bruce Feirstein (man)
Produced by
Barbara Broccoli (woman), Michael G. Wilson (man)
Shot by
Robert Elswit (man)
Edited by
Michel Arcand (man), Dominique Fortin (woman)
Music by
David Arnold (man)
Production design by
Allan Cameron (man)
Costumes by
Lindy Hemming (woman)
Cast by
Debbie McWilliams (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Other crew

    2 women, 29 men, 1 not listed

  • Art

    0 women, 10 men, 1 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    5 women, 1 men, 3 not listed

  • Production

    3 women, 6 men

  • Camera

    0 women, 5 men

  • Sound

    2 women, 1 men

  • Visual Effects

    0 women, 3 men

  • Editing

    1 women, 1 men

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit F: how old the stars were

Women: 44 on average. Men: 53 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Teri Hatcher 33, Michelle Yeoh 35, Judi Dench 63

Men

Götz Otto 30, Pierce Brosnan 44, Vincent Schiavelli 49, Jonathan Pryce 50, Ricky Jay 51, Joe Don Baker 61, Desmond Llewelyn 83

Exhibit G: the money

It made 3.0 times what it cost.

Budget
$110 million
Box office
$333 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 202 scenes and 1,025 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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