Hidden Figures (2016)

The story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.

Director:

Theodore Melfi

Writers:

Allison Schroeder (screenplay by), Theodore Melfi (screenplay by)

Stars:

Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 37 wins & 82 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Taraji P. Henson	...	Katherine G. Johnson
Octavia Spencer	...	Dorothy Vaughan
Janelle Monáe	...	Mary Jackson
Kevin Costner	...	Al Harrison
Kirsten Dunst	...	Vivian Mitchell
Jim Parsons	...	Paul Stafford
Mahershala Ali	...	Colonel Jim Johnson
Aldis Hodge	...	Levi Jackson
Glen Powell	...	John Glenn
Kimberly Quinn	...	Ruth
Olek Krupa	...	Karl Zielinski
Kurt Krause	...	Sam Turner
Ken Strunk	...	Jim Webb
Lidya Jewett	...	Young Katherine Coleman
Donna Biscoe	...	Mrs. Joylette Coleman

Storyline

As the United States raced against Russia to put a man in space, NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Based on the unbelievably true life stories of three of these women, known as "human computers", we follow these women as they quickly rose the ranks of NASA alongside many of history's greatest minds specifically tasked with calculating the momentous launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, and guaranteeing his safe return. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Gobels Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.

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Plot Keywords:

space program | nasa | segregation | 1960s | african american | 

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Taglines:

Meet the women you don't know, behind the mission you do.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | History

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for thematic elements and some language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 January 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Talentos ocultos

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$515,499, 25 December 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$169,387,004

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$234,874,979

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox 2000 Pictures, Chernin Entertainment, Levantine Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS (DTS: X) Auro 11.1 SDDS

Color:

Color Black and White (some sequences)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film rights to this movie were bought while Margot Lee Sheyterly was still working on the book, "Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race", that was the source of the movie. The book itsel takes place from the 1930s through the 1960s when women were still viewed as inferior to men. The Chronicles the multi-dimensional Discrimination the women faced: first as women and then also for their race.

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Goofs

The wind tunnel crew repeatedly refer to the crew compartment skin and various hatches as the heat shield, while in reality the heat shield is actually situated at the bottom of the capsule, beneath the pilot.

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Quotes

Mary Jackson: Every time we get a chance to get ahead they move the finish line. Every time.

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Connections

Referenced in Film '72: Episode #46.5 (2017)

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Soundtracks

Able
Written and Performed by Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams performs courtesy of i am OTHER Entertainment/Columbia Records

User Reviews

Punches all my buttons: segregation, space, engineering, computers

I'm an engineer. I designed computers, I grew up in the south during the 1950s and 1960s. I was heavily involved in the space race at an early age and watched every launch and recovery on black-and-white TV. I never saw separate restrooms and drinking fountains for "colored" but they were there. I never rode on segregated public buses, but they were there and I knew it. This movie, "Hidden Figures," brings all of these worlds back to me. No, it's not a painstakingly accurate picture. NASA didn't have flat-panel screens back then. Communications between the ground and the Mercury capsules were not static-free. But a lot of this movie feels real. Very real.

The protagonists in this movie are three women of color working in one of the most unwelcoming environments they might hope to find: NASA Langley, Virginia, in 1961. As women, they were employed as human "computers" because they were less expensive and they got their numbers right. As "colored" folk, they got their own separate (and sparse) restrooms and their own, separate dining facilities. This was not America's shining hour, even in some place as lofty as NASA.

At the same time, civil unrest was rising in the towns. This is the time of Martin Luther King's rise to prominence. It's a time just before the rise of militant civil rights groups. It's a time when resistance to segregation and discrimination was still civil, but as the movie shows, that resistance was beginning to firm up and become widespread.

There are several reasons to see this movie: from a civil rights perspective; from a feminism perspective; from the perspective of the early space race when we lagged the Soviet Union, badly. If you lived during this time, see the movie to remember. If you were born later, see this movie to see what things were like.