Passes the Bechdel test

Upgrade

Name: Upgrade
Released: 2018

2018. Directed by Leigh Whannell, written by Leigh Whannell.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
11 women characters. 7 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 147.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Disagree bechdeltest.com readers give it 2 out of 3.

The film

Grey's a stay-at-home mechanic, whose wife is Asha. One day, Grey asks Asha to help him return a car to his client. Whilst Grey and Asha's self-driving car malfunctions, it crashes. Grey watches helplessly as Asha bleeds to death next to him. Grey returns home - a widowed quadriplegic, under the care of his mother. His wife's death and the inability of police to identify their attackers cause him to sink into a depression. After a suicide attempt, he's offered to have high tech chip implanted - enabling him to walk. Though initially hesitant, he's persuaded to have the surgery.

Released: 01 Jun 2018
Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.5 / 10
Metascore: 67 / 100
Awards: 3 wins & 26 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Grey 293 lines, man
Stem 149 lines, man
Eron 84 lines, man
Cortez 51 lines, woman
Asha 36 lines, woman
Fisk 21 lines, man
Computer Voice 15 lines
Brennan 10 lines
Handley 10 lines, man
Pamela 10 lines, woman

Full cast, 41 people

Logan Marshall-Green as Grey Trace
Betty Gabriel as Detective Cortez
Harrison Gilbertson as Eron Keen
Melanie Vallejo as Asha Trace
Benedict Hardie as Fisk
Linda Cropper as Pamela
Simon Maiden as Stem (voice)
Steve Danielsen as Jeff Handley
Richard Cawthorne as Serk
Christopher Kirby as Tolan
Abby Craden as Kara (voice)
Richard Anastasios as Wen
Kenny Low as Police Driver
Emily Havea as Nurse Henderson
Ming-Zhu Hii as Dr. Diana Gordon
Stephanie Demkiw as Technician
Manjot Jassal as Technician
Esther Joseph as Technician
Sachin Joab as Dr. Bhatia
Matt Davis as Homeless Man
Clayton Jacobson as Manny
Arthur Angel as Old Bones Patron
Puven Pather as Old Bones Heavy
Ri-Jie Kwok as Old Bones Heavy
Dave Mondon as Old Bones Heavy
Rosco Campbell as VR Guy
Kai Bradley as Jamie
Michael M. Foster as Vessel Guard
Zia Kelly as Vessel Guard
Mark Doggett as Business Man
James Ao as Militarised Police Officer (uncredited)
Kylie Azzopardi as Old Bones Patron (uncredited)
Thomas Banda as Militarised Police Officer (uncredited)
Douglas Embry as Detective (uncredited)
Cat Franke as Passerby (uncredited)
Savannah Gail as Refugee (uncredited)
Liam Howarth as Homeless Drifter (uncredited)
David Lieu as Passerby (uncredited)
Yuki Nagashima as Militarised Police Officer (uncredited)
Lorie Raymundo as Passerby (uncredited)
Yasemin Islek as Passerby (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 7% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 147

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	11	13
5 to 8	8	21
9 to 12	6	17
13 to 16	10	7
17 to 20	3	11
21 to 24	0	4
25 to 28	15	14
29 to 32	2	22
33 to 36	8	12
37 to 40	4	6
41 to 44	0	23
45 to 48	0	67
49 to 52	0	9
53 to 56	0	18
57 to 60	8	19
61 to 64	16	18
65 to 68	1	15
69 to 72	4	27
73 to 76	1	14
77 to 80	1	14
81 to 84	1	6
85 to 88	1	3
89 to 92	1	4
93 to 96	1	10
97 to 100	0	0
101 to 104	0	0
105 to 108	2	22
109 to 112	0	49
113 to 116	3	1
117 to 120	1	18
121 to 124	0	5
125 to 128	0	0
129 to 132	0	3
133 to 136	1	0
137 to 140	0	44
141 to 144	0	55
145 to 147	0	25

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scene

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

CORTEZ: I’m sorry, Grey. I wish I had better news for you regarding the case. PAMELA: She’s on your side.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 15 are women's.

109 lines from women, 596 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

11 women and 20 men in the cast. 7 women and 9 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 6 of 757. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 129 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 16% of the words (1,164), men 84% (6,195). Women have 15% 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

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 32% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Leigh Whannell (man)
Written by: Leigh Whannell (man)
Produced by: Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (man), Kylie du Fresne (woman), Jason Blum (man)
Shot by: Stefan Duscio (man)
Edited by: Andy Canny (man)
Music by: Jed Palmer (man)
Production design by: Felicity Abbott (woman)
Costumes by: Maria Pattison (gender not listed)
Cast by: Terri Taylor (woman), Nikki Barrett (woman)