Fails the Bechdel test
Very Bad Things
1998. Directed by Peter Berg, written by Peter Berg.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
A group of friends head to Las Vegas for a wild bachelor party, but things get too wild and go too wrong and a woman is killed. Soon the bodies are piling up and the friends, including two brothers, are turning against one another as the cover-up builds and the stress levels rise.
- Released
- 25 Nov 1998
- Genres
- Comedy, Crime, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.3 / 10
- Metascore
- 33 / 100
- Awards
- 2 wins & 3 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Fisher 265 lines, man
- Boyd 218 lines, man
- Liz 141 lines, woman
- Adam 127 lines, man
- Michael 101 lines, man
- Moore 57 lines, man
- Lois 29 lines, woman
- Ralph 17 lines, man
- Judge Tower 11 lines
- Announcer 9 lines
Full cast, 22 people
- Christian Slater as Robert Boyd
- Cameron Diaz as Laura Garrety
- Jon Favreau as Kyle Fisher
- Leland Orser as Charles Moore
- Jeremy Piven as Michael Berkow
- Daniel Stern as Adam Berkow
- Jeanne Tripplehorn as Lois Berkow
- Rob Brownstein as Man
- Blake Gibbons as Suit
- Tyler Cole Malinger as Timmy Berkow
- Joey Zimmerman as Adam Berkow Jr.
- Russell B. McKenzie as Security Guard
- Kobe Tai as Tina
- Pancho Demmings as Cop
- Lawrence Pressman as Mr. Fisher
- Brian Grandison as Doctor #1
- John Cappon as Doctor #2
- Steve Fitchpatrick as Cop at Hospital
- Angelo Di Mascio Jr. as Clerk
- Linda Klein as Doctor #3
- Peter Berg as Man at Funeral
- Brian Grandison as Doctor
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 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 88
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 | 0 | 2 |
| 3 to 4 | 28 | 27 |
| 5 to 6 | 18 | 23 |
| 7 to 8 | 12 | 34 |
| 9 to 10 | 13 | 4 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 52 |
| 13 to 14 | 1 | 14 |
| 15 to 16 | 7 | 16 |
| 17 to 18 | 7 | 179 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 8 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 2 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 2 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 49 |
| 27 to 28 | 8 | 16 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 11 |
| 31 to 32 | 10 | 5 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 9 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 17 |
| 37 to 38 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 to 40 | 5 | 2 |
| 41 to 42 | 5 | 14 |
| 43 to 44 | 2 | 13 |
| 45 to 46 | 3 | 54 |
| 47 to 48 | 2 | 14 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 1 |
| 51 to 52 | 0 | 13 |
| 53 to 54 | 0 | 14 |
| 55 to 56 | 4 | 24 |
| 57 to 58 | 1 | 26 |
| 59 to 60 | 12 | 24 |
| 61 to 62 | 4 | 12 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 7 |
| 65 to 66 | 1 | 21 |
| 67 to 68 | 0 | 13 |
| 69 to 70 | 7 | 9 |
| 71 to 72 | 15 | 14 |
| 73 to 74 | 1 | 13 |
| 75 to 76 | 1 | 11 |
| 77 to 78 | 0 | 0 |
| 79 to 80 | 11 | 18 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 6 |
| 83 to 84 | 0 | 15 |
| 85 to 86 | 0 | 2 |
| 87 to 88 | 0 | 12 |
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, 18 are women's.
178 lines from women, 822 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
4 women and 17 men in the cast. 2 women and 15 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 10 of 1,043.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 197 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 14% of the words (1,359), men 86% (8,194). Women have 18% 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
2
Two men
48
Exhibit E: 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
- Peter Berg (man)
- Written by
- Peter Berg (man)
- Produced by
- Cindy Cowan (woman), Joanna Johnson (woman), Michael Schiffer (man), Diane Nabatoff (woman)
- Shot by
- David Hennings (man)
- Edited by
- Dan Lebental (man)
- Music by
- Stewart Copeland (man)
- Production design by
- Dina Lipton (gender not listed)
- Costumes by
- Terry Dresbach (gender not listed)
- Cast by
- Debi Manwiller (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
5 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 1 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
0 women, 3 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men
-
Sound
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
0 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 31 on average. Men: 31 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Cameron Diaz 26, Jeanne Tripplehorn 35
Men
Tyler Cole Malinger 9, Christian Slater 29, Jon Favreau 32, Jeremy Piven 33, Blake Gibbons 37, Leland Orser 38, Daniel Stern 41
Exhibit G: the money
It made 33% of what it cost.
- Budget
- $30 million
- Box office
- $9.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 88 scenes and 1,043 lines of dialogue. How the test works
