Passes the Bechdel test
Twister
1996. Directed by Jan de Bont, written by Michael Crichton and Anne-Marie Martin.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
13 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 12 scenes out of 85. -
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
TV weatherman Bill Harding is trying to get his tornado-hunter wife, Jo, to sign divorce papers so he can marry his girlfriend Melissa. But Mother Nature, in the form of a series of intense storms sweeping across Oklahoma, has other plans. Soon the three have joined the team of stormchasers as they attempt to insert a revolutionary measuring device into the very heart of several extremely violent tornados.
- Released
- 10 May 1996
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Thriller
- Rated
- PG-13
- IMDb
- 6.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 68 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 2 Oscars. 11 wins & 17 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Jo 286 lines, woman
- Bill 240 lines, man
- Melissa 118 lines, woman
- Dusty 57 lines, man
- Jonas 52 lines, man
- Margaret 18 lines, woman
- Jim 16 lines, man
- Eddie 15 lines, man
- Rick 15 lines, man
- Timmy 15 lines
Full cast, 47 people
- Helen Hunt as Jo
- Bill Paxton as Bill
- Jami Gertz as Melissa
- Cary Elwes as Jonas
- Lois Smith as Aunt Meg
- Philip Seymour Hoffman as Dusty
- Alan Ruck as Rabbit
- Sean Whalen as Sanders
- Scott Thomson as Preacher
- Todd Field as Beltzer
- Joey Slotnick as Joey
- Wendle Josepher as Haynes
- Jeremy Davies as Laurence
- Zach Grenier as Eddie
- Gregory Sporleder as Willie
- Patrick Fischler as The Communicator
- Nicholas Sadler as Kubrick
- Ben Weber as Stanley
- Anthony Rapp as Tony
- Erik LaRay Harvey as Eric
- Abraham Benrubi as Bubba
- Jake Busey as Mobile Lab Technician
- Melanie Hoopes as Patty
- J. Dean Lindsay as Dean
- Dan Kelpine as Diner Mechanic
- Sharonlyn Morrow as Waitress
- Richard Lineback as Father
- Rusty Schwimmer as Mother
- Alexa PenaVega as Jo – 5 years old
- Taylor Gilbert as NSSL Scientist – Bryce
- Bruce Wright as NSSL Scientist – Murphy
- Gary England as TV Meteorologist #1
- Jeff Lazalier as TV Meteorologist #2
- Rick Mitchell as TV Meteorologist #3
- John Thomas Rhyne as Paramedic
- Paul Douglas as Bodger
- Samantha McDonald as Drive-in Girl
- Jennifer L. Hamilton as Drive-In Girl
- Anneke de Bont as Farm Girl
- Darryl Cox as Four Corners Mechanic (uncredited)
- Thomas E. Bentley as Farmer 1 (uncredited)
- Jon Bielich as Survivor (uncredited)
- Mark Falvo as Survivor (uncredited)
- Ben Jackson as Survivor (uncredited)
- David Dillinger Jefferis as Townsperson (uncredited)
- Brad Masters as Cameraman (uncredited)
- April Warren as Flashback Mom (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 11% 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 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 52 | 45 |
| 7 to 8 | 39 | 13 |
| 9 to 10 | 12 | 17 |
| 11 to 12 | 16 | 15 |
| 13 to 14 | 34 | 33 |
| 15 to 16 | 34 | 27 |
| 17 to 18 | 1 | 0 |
| 19 to 20 | 30 | 5 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 to 24 | 8 | 5 |
| 25 to 26 | 11 | 12 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 5 |
| 29 to 30 | 2 | 14 |
| 31 to 32 | 12 | 12 |
| 33 to 34 | 3 | 6 |
| 35 to 36 | 5 | 6 |
| 37 to 38 | 19 | 20 |
| 39 to 40 | 4 | 5 |
| 41 to 42 | 11 | 15 |
| 43 to 44 | 10 | 1 |
| 45 to 46 | 2 | 1 |
| 47 to 48 | 28 | 26 |
| 49 to 50 | 6 | 16 |
| 51 to 52 | 3 | 4 |
| 53 to 54 | 2 | 1 |
| 55 to 56 | 3 | 2 |
| 57 to 58 | 0 | 0 |
| 59 to 60 | 2 | 1 |
| 61 to 62 | 1 | 1 |
| 63 to 64 | 22 | 15 |
| 65 to 66 | 23 | 21 |
| 67 to 68 | 6 | 8 |
| 69 to 70 | 2 | 6 |
| 71 to 72 | 3 | 6 |
| 73 to 74 | 3 | 15 |
| 75 to 76 | 0 | 0 |
| 77 to 78 | 2 | 2 |
| 79 to 80 | 3 | 6 |
| 81 to 82 | 1 | 8 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 0 |
| 85 to 85 | 8 | 7 |
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.
JO: Melissa. So nice to meet you. I'm Jo. MELISSA: Hello... JO: Congratulations on your marriage. I'm sure you'll be very happy. MELISSA: Thank you...
JO: I'm sorry you had to go out of your way for this... Where do you two go from here? MELISSA: Phoenix. JO: What takes you to Phoenix? MELISSA: That's where we're going to live.
JO: I know what I'm doing. MELISSA: Bill! MELISSA: Bill! Oh, Bill...
MELISSA: What? JO: It's gonna turn.
JO: Let's go anyway. MELISSA: Let's not. This seems very unwise...
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 51 are women's.
424 lines from women, 403 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
13 women and 24 men in the cast. 3 women and 9 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 2 of 927.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 17 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 57% of the words (3,542), men 43% (2,640). Women have 51% 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
26
Two men
27
Exhibit F: behind the camera
4 of the 12 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 29% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Jan de Bont (man)
- Written by
- Michael Crichton (man), Anne-Marie Martin (woman)
- Produced by
- Kathleen Kennedy (woman), Michael Crichton (man), Ian Bryce (man)
- Shot by
- Jack N. Green (man)
- Edited by
- Michael Kahn (man)
- Music by
- Mark Mancina (man)
- Production design by
- Joseph C. Nemec III (man)
- Costumes by
- Ellen Mirojnick (woman)
- Cast by
- Risa Bramon Garcia (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Other crew
2 women, 15 men, 10 not listed
-
Sound
5 women, 13 men, 9 not listed
-
Production
7 women, 6 men, 9 not listed
-
Art
3 women, 10 men, 6 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 10 men, 4 not listed
-
Visual Effects
3 women, 3 men, 7 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 0 men, 5 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 3 men, 3 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 42 on average. Men: 34 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Jami Gertz 30, Helen Hunt 32, Lois Smith 65
Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman 28, Sean Whalen 31, Todd Field 32, Cary Elwes 33, Scott Thomson 38, Alan Ruck 39, Bill Paxton 40
Exhibit H: the money
It made 5.4 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $92 million
- Box office
- $494 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 85 scenes and 927 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
