Fails the Bechdel test
WALL·E
2008. Directed by Andrew Stanton, written by Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter and Jim Reardon.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
12 women characters. 5 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
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 1 out of 3.
The film
In a distant, but not so unrealistic, future where mankind has abandoned earth because it has become covered with trash from products sold by the powerful multi-national Buy N Large corporation, WALL-E, a garbage collecting robot has been left to clean up the mess. Mesmerized with trinkets of Earth's history and show tunes, WALL-E is alone on Earth except for a sprightly pet cockroach. One day, EVE, a sleek (and dangerous) reconnaissance robot, is sent to Earth to find proof that life is once again sustainable. WALL-E falls in love with EVE. WALL-E rescues EVE from a dust storm and shows her a living plant he found amongst the rubble. Consistent with her "directive", EVE takes the plant and automatically enters a deactivated state except for a blinking green beacon. WALL-E, doesn't understand what has happened to his new friend, but, true to his love, he protects her from wind, rain, and lightning, even as she is unresponsive. One day a massive ship comes to reclaim EVE, but WALL-E, out of love or loneliness, hitches a ride on the outside of the ship to rescue EVE. The ship arrives back at a large space cruise ship, which is carrying all of the humans who evacuated Earth 700 years earlier. The people of Earth ride around this space resort on hovering chairs which give them a constant feed of TV and video chatting. They drink all of their meals through a straw out of laziness and/or bone loss, and are all so fat that they can barely move. When the auto-pilot computer, acting on hastily-given instructions sent many centuries before, tries to prevent the people of Earth from returning by stealing the plant, WALL-E, EVE, the portly captain, and a band of broken robots stage a mutiny.
- Released
- 27 Jun 2008
- Genres
- Animation, Adventure, Family
- Rated
- G
- IMDb
- 8.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 95 / 100
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 96 wins & 95 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Captain 83 lines, man
- Wall-E 73 lines, man
- Eve 60 lines, woman
- Ship'S Computer 30 lines, woman
- Autopilot 28 lines
- Mary 15 lines, woman
- John 13 lines, man
- M-O 12 lines, man
- Buy N Large Ceo 10 lines, man
- Auto 8 lines, man
Full cast, 29 people
- Ben Burtt as WALL·E / M-O (voice)
- Elissa Knight as EVE (voice)
- Jeff Garlin as Captain (voice)
- Fred Willard as Shelby Forthright, BnL CEO
- John Ratzenberger as John (voice)
- Kathy Najimy as Mary (voice)
- Sigourney Weaver as Ship's Computer (voice)
- Lori Alan as Additional Voices (voice)
- Bob Bergen as Additional Voices (voice)
- John Cygan as Additional Voices (voice)
- Pete Docter as Additional Voices (voice)
- Paul Eiding as Additional Voices (voice)
- Donald Fullilove as Additional Voices (voice)
- Teresa Ganzel as Additional Voices (voice)
- Jess Harnell as Additional Voices (voice)
- Sherry Lynn as Additional Voices (voice)
- Mickie McGowan as Additional Voices (voice)
- Laraine Newman as Additional Voices (voice)
- Teddy Newton as Additional Voices (voice)
- Jeff Pidgeon as Additional Voices (voice)
- Jan Rabson as Additional Voices (voice)
- Lori Richardson as Additional Voices (voice)
- Andrew Stanton as Additional Voices (voice)
- Jim Ward as Additional Voices (voice)
- Colette Whitaker as Additional Voices (voice)
- Kim Kopf as Hoverchair Mother (uncredited)
- Angus MacLane as BURN-E (voice) (uncredited)
- Niki McElroy as Pool Mother (uncredited)
- Garrett Palmer as Blond Boy in Commercial (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 75
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 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 to 8 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 to 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 to 18 | 3 | 1 |
| 19 to 20 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 to 22 | 14 | 19 |
| 23 to 24 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 to 28 | 0 | 2 |
| 29 to 30 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 2 |
| 33 to 34 | 0 | 7 |
| 35 to 36 | 0 | 2 |
| 37 to 38 | 10 | 16 |
| 39 to 40 | 1 | 1 |
| 41 to 42 | 9 | 36 |
| 43 to 44 | 4 | 5 |
| 45 to 46 | 0 | 4 |
| 47 to 48 | 3 | 3 |
| 49 to 50 | 2 | 1 |
| 51 to 52 | 1 | 1 |
| 53 to 54 | 16 | 9 |
| 55 to 56 | 5 | 5 |
| 57 to 58 | 6 | 7 |
| 59 to 60 | 15 | 53 |
| 61 to 62 | 1 | 2 |
| 63 to 64 | 2 | 5 |
| 65 to 66 | 0 | 6 |
| 67 to 68 | 9 | 15 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 0 |
| 71 to 72 | 0 | 0 |
| 73 to 74 | 5 | 1 |
| 75 to 75 | 4 | 4 |
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, 34 are women's.
110 lines from women, 211 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
12 women and 17 men in the cast. 5 women and 6 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 5 of 362.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 30 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 26% of the words (469), men 74% (1,335). Women have 34% 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
1
Two men
3
Exhibit E: behind the camera
4 of the 14 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 22% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Andrew Stanton (man)
- Written by
- Jim Reardon (man), Andrew Stanton (man)
- Produced by
- Lindsey Collins (woman), Jim Morris (man)
- Shot by
- Jeremy Lasky (man), Danielle Feinberg (woman), Martin Rosenberg (man)
- Edited by
- Stephen Schaffer (man)
- Music by
- Thomas Newman (man)
- Production design by
- Ralph Eggleston (man)
- Cast by
- Kevin Reher (man), Natalie Lyon (woman), Mickie McGowan (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Visual Effects
8 women, 21 men, 36 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 12 men, 40 not listed
-
Sound
3 women, 21 men, 7 not listed
-
Production
5 women, 5 men, 7 not listed
-
Art
3 women, 9 men, 3 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 7 men, 7 not listed
-
Lighting
2 women, 2 men, 10 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 46 on average. Men: 56 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Elissa Knight 33, Lori Alan 41, Kathy Najimy 51, Sigourney Weaver 58
Men
Bob Bergen 44, Jeff Garlin 46, John Cygan 54, Ben Burtt 59, John Ratzenberger 61, Fred Willard 74
Exhibit G: the money
It made 2.9 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $180 million
- Box office
- $521 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 75 scenes and 362 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
