Fails the Bechdel test

Valkyrie

Name: Valkyrie
Released: 2008

2008. Directed by Bryan Singer, written by Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
2 women characters. 1 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 Nazi Germany during World War II, as the tide turned in favor of the Allies, a cadre of senior German officers and politicians desperately plot to topple the Nazi regime before the nation is crushed in a nearly inevitable defeat. To this end, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, an Army officer convinced he must save Germany from Adolf Hitler, is recruited to mastermind a real plan. To do so, he arranges for the internal emergency measure, Operation: Valkyrie, to be changed to enable his fellows to seize control of Berlin after the assassination of Der Führer. However, even as the plan is put into action, a combination of bad luck and human failings conspire on their own to create a tragedy that would prolong the greater one gripping Europe.

Released: 25 Dec 2008
Genres: Drama, History, Thriller
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 7.1 / 10
Metascore: 56 / 100
Awards: 3 wins & 11 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

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

Stauffenberg 179 lines, man
Olbricht 77 lines, man
Fromm 49 lines, man
Beck 41 lines, man
Tresckow 40 lines, man
Mertz 29 lines, man
Goerdeler 26 lines, man
Haeften 16 lines, man
Remer 16 lines, man
Fellgiebel 15 lines, man

Full cast, 35 people

Tom Cruise as Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
Kenneth Branagh as Henning von Tresckow
Bill Nighy as Friedrich Olbricht
Terence Stamp as Ludwig Beck
Tom Wilkinson as Friedrich Fromm
Carice van Houten as Nina Schenk Gräfin von Stauffenberg
Kenneth Cranham as Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
Thomas Kretschmann as Otto Ernst Remer
Suzy Eddie Izzard as Erich Fellgiebel
Kevin McNally as Carl-Friedrich Goerdeler
David Bamber as Adolf Hitler
Tom Hollander as Colonel Heinz Brandt
David Schofield as Erwin von Witzleben
Christian Berkel as Albrecht Ritter Mertz von Quirnheim
Jamie Parker as Werner von Haeften
Ian McNeice as Pompous General
Danny Webb as Captain Haans
Bernard Hill as General - Desert Sequence
Chris Larkin as Sergeant Helm
Matthew Burton as Lieutenant-General Adolf Heusinger
Gerhard Haase-Hindenberg as Hermann Göring
Matthias Freihof as Heinrich Himmler
Halina Reijn as Margarethe Van Oven
Anton Algrang as Albert Speer
Werner Daehn as Ernst-John Von Freyend
Matthias Schweighöfer as SS-Soldat im Erschießungskommando
Andy Gätjen as SS-Soldat
Philipp von Schulthess as SS-Adjutant von Henning von Tresckow
Karl Alexander Seidel as Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
Justus Kammerer as Heimeran Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg
Frank Christian Marx as Thomas Arnold
Florian Panzner as Leutnant Hans Wilhelm Hagen
Julian Morris as Young Lieutenant - Desert
Tim Williams as Doctor
Christoph Förster as Aide to Stauffenberg

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 161

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	6
5 to 8	0	8
9 to 12	0	23
13 to 16	5	7
17 to 20	0	26
21 to 24	0	27
25 to 28	0	17
29 to 32	0	62
33 to 36	0	4
37 to 40	1	37
41 to 44	0	34
45 to 48	0	24
49 to 52	7	36
53 to 56	0	2
57 to 60	0	2
61 to 64	0	9
65 to 68	0	21
69 to 72	0	32
73 to 76	0	0
77 to 80	0	4
81 to 84	0	3
85 to 88	0	6
89 to 92	0	17
93 to 96	0	4
97 to 100	0	11
101 to 104	0	1
105 to 108	0	6
109 to 112	0	22
113 to 116	0	10
117 to 120	0	6
121 to 124	0	3
125 to 128	0	21
129 to 132	0	13
133 to 136	0	27
137 to 140	0	21
141 to 144	0	16
145 to 148	0	20
149 to 152	0	1
153 to 156	0	22
157 to 160	0	1
161 to 161	0	2

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, 2 are women's.

13 lines from women, 614 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

2 women and 32 men in the cast. 1 women and 22 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 49 of 673. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 364 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 1% of the words (100), men 99% (7,365). Women have 2% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

3 of the 15 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 13% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Bryan Singer (man)
Written by: Christopher McQuarrie (man), Nathan Alexander (man)
Produced by: Christopher McQuarrie (man), Bryan Singer (man), Gilbert Adler (man)
Shot by: Newton Thomas Sigel (man)
Edited by: John Ottman (man), Elliot Graham (man)
Music by: John Ottman (man)
Production design by: Lilly Kilvert (woman), Patrick Lumb (man)
Costumes by: Joanna Johnston (woman)
Cast by: Roger Mussenden (man), Heta Mantscheff (woman)