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Passes the Bechdel test

What Lies Beneath

2000. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Clark Gregg and Sarah Kernochan.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    12 women characters. 6 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 6 scenes out of 128.
  3. 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.

Poster for What Lies Beneath

The film

Norman Spencer, a university research scientist, is growing more and more concerned about his wife, Claire, a retired concert cellist who a year ago was involved in a serious auto accident, and who has just sent off her daughter Caitlin (Norman's stepdaughter) to college. Now, Claire reports hearing voices and witnessing eerie occurrences in and around their lakeside Vermont home, including seeing the face of a young woman reflected in water. An increasingly frightened Claire thinks the phenomena have something to do with the couple living next door, especially since the wife has disappeared without apparent explanation. At her husband's urging, Claire starts to see a therapist; she tells him she thinks the house is being haunted by a ghost. His advice? Try to make contact. Enlisting the help of her best friend, Jody, and an Ouija board, Claire seeks to find out the truth.

Released
21 Jul 2000
Genres
Drama, Horror, Mystery
Rated
PG-13
IMDb
6.6 / 10
Metascore
51 / 100
Awards
7 wins & 7 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Claire 445 lines, woman
  2. Norman 238 lines, man
  3. Jody 75 lines, woman
  4. Dr. Drayton 34 lines, man
  5. Caitlin 25 lines, woman
  6. Mrs. Feur 25 lines, woman
  7. Mrs. Frank 21 lines, woman
  8. Elena 12 lines, woman
  9. Mrs. Templeton 12 lines, woman
  10. Mr. Feur 9 lines, man
Full cast, 21 people
  • Michelle Pfeiffer as Claire Spencer
  • Harrison Ford as Norman Spencer
  • Diana Scarwid as Jody
  • Joe Morton as Dr. Drayton
  • James Remar as Warren Feur
  • Miranda Otto as Mary Feur
  • Wendy Crewson as Elena
  • Ray Baker as Stan Powell
  • Micole Mercurio as Mrs. Frank
  • Amber Valletta as Madison Frank
  • Katharine Towne as Caitlin Spencer
  • Sloane Shelton as Mrs. Templeton
  • Victoria Bidewell as Beatrice
  • Eliott Goretsky as Teddy
  • Dennison Samaroo as PhD Student #1
  • Jennifer Tung as PhD Student #2
  • Rachel Singer as PhD Student #3
  • Daniel Zelman as PhD Student #4
  • Tom Dahlgren as Dean Templeton
  • Donald Taylor as Male EMT Worker
  • J.C. Brandy as Band Member (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 128

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 300
4 to 62912
7 to 92423
10 to 124011
13 to 15314
16 to 1874
19 to 2130
22 to 24712
25 to 2732
28 to 301820
31 to 3386
34 to 36262
37 to 392524
40 to 42316
43 to 4557
46 to 484720
49 to 5110
52 to 541715
55 to 572618
58 to 60259
61 to 63273
64 to 66462
67 to 6977
70 to 721410
73 to 75250
76 to 78131
79 to 811715
82 to 841614
85 to 87260
88 to 90164
91 to 9300
94 to 9657
97 to 9900
100 to 1021810
103 to 10530
106 to 10800
109 to 11157
112 to 114314
115 to 11710
118 to 12000
121 to 12310
124 to 12630
127 to 12810

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.
CLAIRE: Morning, beauty. CLAIRE: Let's go. Or we'll never leave on time. CAITLIN: I'm totally ready. CLAIRE: Come on, I'll make you some waffles, maybe we'll squeeze in a trip to the mall. Caitlin...
CAITLIN: Mom. CAITLIN: I have'ta go. CAITLIN: I'll call you. CLAIRE: Come home anytime.
CAITLIN: Bye. CLAIRE: I almost made it.
JODY: Sit down here. CLAIRE: Are we hoping the ghost is going to have to pee? JODY: Isn't this where you saw her? JODY: Then this is where she'll be.
JODY: I have to go. CLAIRE: Jody, wait. JODY: Claire, this is...this is...

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 68 are women's.

620 lines from women, 289 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

12 women and 8 men in the cast. 6 women and 3 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 15 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 66% of the words (4,225), men 34% (2,195). Women have 68% of the lines, so their lines run shorter 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

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 16 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 29% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Robert Zemeckis (man)
Written by
Clark Gregg (man)
Story by
Sarah Kernochan (woman), Clark Gregg (man)
Produced by
Robert Zemeckis (man), Jack Rapke (man), Steve Starkey (man)
Shot by
Don Burgess (man)
Edited by
Arthur Schmidt (man)
Music by
Alan Silvestri (man)
Production design by
Rick Carter (man), William James Teegarden (man)
Costumes by
Susie DeSanto (woman), Bernie Pollack (man)
Cast by
Marcia DeBonis (woman), Ellen Lewis (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Other crew

    6 women, 19 men, 18 not listed

  • Production

    10 women, 11 men, 11 not listed

  • Art

    3 women, 11 men, 8 not listed

  • Sound

    5 women, 8 men, 5 not listed

  • Camera

    1 women, 8 men, 5 not listed

  • Costume & Make-Up

    2 women, 3 men, 9 not listed

  • Editing

    0 women, 5 men, 5 not listed

  • Visual Effects

    0 women, 4 men, 4 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 42 on average. Men: 52 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Amber Valletta 26, Miranda Otto 32, Michelle Pfeiffer 42, Diana Scarwid 44, Wendy Crewson 44, Micole Mercurio 62

Men

James Remar 46, Joe Morton 52, Ray Baker 52, Harrison Ford 58

Exhibit H: the money

It made 2.9 times what it cost.

Budget
$100 million
Box office
$291 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 128 scenes and 923 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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