Bechdel Test Movie List

One significant female character in the film, one minor named female character. They're only in the same space together once, briefly, and they never speak to each other.

The film has at least 3 named female characters in it, but they never talk to each other.

It could be argued that Rita speaks with Nance when rallying the squad, but she is speaking to a group, not a woman-to-woman conversation. I don't believe it counts.

May not pass the Bechdel Test, but it really gets a strong female character RIGHT. Rita never loses her agency like so many others do. In fact, even though Cage was a "chosen one" type character, his role is always either to support Rita in her quest, or at most to be her equal partner. I'd argue that Edge of Tomorrow goes around the Bechdel Test, surpassing its low bar. Maybe we need a more comprehensive test?

The Bechdel Test is fine! One movie failing isn't a problem. The problem is that a lot do.

I guess you could argue this passes the Mako Mori test. But I find the "story not in support of a man" too vague.

Even when she's talking to her scientist friend she's mostly talking about Tom Cruise (he's time travel ability,training, what it means for the war, and how they plan to take advantage of it) so even if they went and made that character a woman it would be a narrow pass at best.

Not only does Rita remain strong in the movie, they actually made her a stronger character than she is in the book. Definitely moving in the right direction. In the book Keiji (Cage in the movie) was trained by his CO while in the movie Rita trained him and was clearly the superior fighter. In the book it's clear that Rita was a superb fighter even before the looping began for her. They didn't touch on that in the movie so you're left to assume she was good only due to the loops.

Also, in the book it was Rita that figured out how to break the loop and despite the solution being very unpleasant she did not hesitate to do what was needed. (The book ends quite a bit differently than the movie - I'm being vague to avoid spoilers)

It's important to remember that the Bechdel test is just to demonstrate how such a regular occurrence for women (talking to another woman about something other than men) is rarely portrayed in movies. So, though this movie has such a strong female lead, just observing that it does not pass this very simple test can help us to see the level of reality a movie contains

I agree that it doesn't pass the test, but you definitely shouldn't avoid it for that reason. She is an excellent female character and she remains very interesting throughout the movie. She has her own internal conflicts and she does not exist solely as an object of love for Tom Cruise. She is an amazing character even if this movie doesn't pass this one test.

That this movie can fail shows the flaw of the test and why it shouldn't be used as some "ultimate guide" to whether or not a movie (or movies as a whole) are becoming less sexist as time goes on. It shows how meaningless it is when presented with a movie where, really, there's only a single female character of note. And considering we're dealing with a military-like situation here it's not too out of the realm of possibility for there to only be a single female character who is central in the story. Rita having gained a noteworthy reputation and position in the military, any other female soldiers being like everyone else, cannon fodder, or elsewhere in the military brass hierarchy.

This movie has a single female character of note but she's not an object of conquest or affection for the male characters. Yes, Cruise's character falls for her but not in a "she's a pretty lady" sort of way he grows a connection with her through the movie's progress. He's also portrayed as somewhat of a jerk, hence an early suggestion of using sex to transfer his powers.

But Rita is a strong woman, who's seen as a strong fighter in the military that other soldiers look-up too -her military nick-name not being out of the line for such a situation- and she plays important roles in the training of Cruise and in the movie's climax.

This movie should have passed. For a movie to pass this test does it really need to slip in a scene of two female characters talking about something other than a man? Does this mean you can have the most sexually graphic, sexually offense, dense female characters possible movie featuring women that borders on being porn, but it'd pass if two female characters talk to one another about cooking? (A stereotypical female topic, but it isn't about a man!)

I think there needs to be a better standard for how well a movie uses females in it than simply having two characters in it talking about something other than a man.

There's a lot of problems with the use of females in movies, Furious 7 has a good use of female characters in it who're shown as equals to men and don't provide a hindrance to proceedings with their womanly ways. It can't be dinged for sexualized scenes of women (camera shots bordering on proctology exams) but still it uses its female characters well. So it's a movie that should be lauded for its use of the female characters, dinged slightly for the use of female extras. A grading scale maybe giving it a B+, 8/10. Or something.

EoT should flirt with a perfect score in such a system.

This test is very, very, flawed and it honestly sets the bar way too low and it makes it way too possible for a movie to "pass" while still abusing female characters. I think we should demand more from Hollywood and movie makers when it comes to its use of women.

Imagine if Dr Carter was a woman - boom! Test passed and wouldn't have changed the story one bit. How hard would that have been?