Passes the Bechdel test
Tremors
1990. Directed by Ron Underwood, written by S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock and Ron Underwood.
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 4 scenes out of 155. -
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
A small town gradually becomes aware of a strange creature which picks off people one by one. But what is this creature, and where is it? At the same time, a seismologist is working in the area, she detects _tremors_. The creature lives underground, and can 'pop up' without warning. Trapped in their town, the town-folk have no escape.
- Released
- 19 Jan 1990
- Genres
- Comedy, Horror
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 7.2 / 10
- Metascore
- 65 / 100
- Awards
- 5 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Val 222 lines, man
- Earl 206 lines, man
- Rhonda 71 lines, woman
- Burt 61 lines, man
- Melvin 21 lines, man
- Miguel 20 lines, man
- Heather 18 lines, woman
- Jim 16 lines, man
- Nancy 16 lines, woman
- Pham Van 16 lines
Full cast, 19 people
- Kevin Bacon as Valentine McKee
- Fred Ward as Earl Bassett
- Finn Carter as Rhonda LeBeck
- Michael Gross as Burt Gummer
- Reba McEntire as Heather Gummer
- Victor Wong as Walter Chang
- Robert Jayne as Melvin Plug
- Ariana Richards as Mindy Sterngood
- Charlotte Stewart as Nancy Sterngood
- Tony Genaro as Miguel
- Richard Marcus as Nestor
- Bibi Besch as Megan - The Doctor's Wife
- Conrad Bachmann as Jim - The Doctor
- Sunshine Parker as Edgar
- Michael Dan Wagner as Old Fred
- John Goodwin as Howard - Roadworker
- John Pappas as Carmine - Roadworker
- Frank Welker as Graboids (uncredited)
- Tom Woodruff Jr. as Graboids (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 155
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 | 0 | 16 |
| 5 to 8 | 0 | 21 |
| 9 to 12 | 6 | 24 |
| 13 to 16 | 2 | 29 |
| 17 to 20 | 4 | 18 |
| 21 to 24 | 0 | 4 |
| 25 to 28 | 0 | 11 |
| 29 to 32 | 2 | 18 |
| 33 to 36 | 0 | 20 |
| 37 to 40 | 6 | 40 |
| 41 to 44 | 12 | 32 |
| 45 to 48 | 2 | 25 |
| 49 to 52 | 11 | 30 |
| 53 to 56 | 10 | 19 |
| 57 to 60 | 9 | 22 |
| 61 to 64 | 1 | 4 |
| 65 to 68 | 4 | 4 |
| 69 to 72 | 5 | 9 |
| 73 to 76 | 1 | 9 |
| 77 to 80 | 0 | 3 |
| 81 to 84 | 1 | 4 |
| 85 to 88 | 0 | 10 |
| 89 to 92 | 0 | 9 |
| 93 to 96 | 0 | 4 |
| 97 to 100 | 0 | 1 |
| 101 to 104 | 3 | 10 |
| 105 to 108 | 1 | 7 |
| 109 to 112 | 9 | 35 |
| 113 to 116 | 1 | 4 |
| 117 to 120 | 1 | 15 |
| 121 to 124 | 0 | 1 |
| 125 to 128 | 1 | 1 |
| 129 to 132 | 0 | 2 |
| 133 to 136 | 1 | 2 |
| 137 to 140 | 0 | 4 |
| 141 to 144 | 1 | 13 |
| 145 to 148 | 17 | 44 |
| 149 to 152 | 4 | 28 |
| 153 to 155 | 6 | 25 |
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.
HEATHER: Phone's out. Road's out. We're on our own. NANCY: And you two just love it, don't you? HEATHER: Come on, Nancy, don't let's get personal. We need to do something.
HEATHER: What's that? NANCY: Is it them?
HEATHER: What's the matter with you? What are you talking about?! RHONDA: They'll just wait out there till we're dead. That's what they do.
RHONDA: Nope, there! That's one. HEATHER: Make noise. Everybody! COME ON!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 17 are women's.
121 lines from women, 577 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
5 women and 14 men in the cast. 5 women and 9 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 46 of 726.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 54 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 19% of the words (1,325), men 81% (5,681). Women have 17% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.
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
5
Two men
52
Exhibit F: behind the camera
2 of the 14 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 20% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Ron Underwood (man)
- Written by
- S.S. Wilson (man), Brent Maddock (man)
- Story by
- Brent Maddock (man), S.S. Wilson (man), Ron Underwood (man)
- Produced by
- Brent Maddock (man), S.S. Wilson (man)
- Shot by
- Alexander Gruszynski (man)
- Edited by
- O. Nicholas Brown (man)
- Music by
- Ernest Troost (man)
- Production design by
- Ivo Cristante (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Abigail Murray (woman)
- Cast by
- Pam Dixon (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
5 women, 14 men, 15 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 6 men, 18 not listed
-
Camera
2 women, 10 men, 10 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 3 men, 9 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 9 men, 2 not listed
-
Visual Effects
1 women, 6 men, 6 not listed
-
Lighting
0 women, 5 men, 7 not listed
-
Sound
1 women, 10 men, 1 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 30 on average. Men: 41 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Ariana Richards 10, Finn Carter 29, Reba McEntire 34, Charlotte Stewart 48
Men
Robert Jayne 17, Kevin Bacon 31, Michael Gross 42, Fred Ward 47, Tony Genaro 49, Victor Wong 62
Exhibit H: the money
It made 4.4 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $11 million
- Box office
- $48.6 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 155 scenes and 726 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
