Hidden Figures
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This article is about the film. For the book on which it is based, see Hidden Figures (book).
| Hidden Figures | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Theodore Melfi |
| Produced by |
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| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly |
| Starring | |
| Music by |
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| Cinematography | Mandy Walker |
| Edited by | Peter Teschner |
Production
company | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date
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Running time
| 127 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million[2][3] |
| Box office | $182.8 million[2] |
Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about African American women mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine G. Johnson, a mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions. The film also features Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, with Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Glen Powell, and Mahershala Ali in supporting roles.
Principal photography began in March 2016 in Atlanta and was wrapped up in May 2016. Hidden Figures was released on December 25, 2016, by 20th Century Fox, received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $182 million worldwide. It was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016[4] and has been nominated for numerous awards, including three Oscars, for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress for Spencer, and two Golden Globes, Best Supporting Actress (Spencer) and Best Original Score. It won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Plot[edit]
In 1961, mathematician Katherine Goble works as a "computer" in the segregated West Area Computers division of Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, alongside her colleagues, aspiring engineer Mary Jackson and unofficial supervisor Dorothy Vaughan.
Following a successful Russian satellite launch, pressure to send American astronauts into space increases. White supervisor Mrs Vivian Mitchell assigns her to assist the Space Task Group of Al Harrison. Katherine becomes the first "colored" (African-American) woman in the team—and in the building, which has no bathrooms for colored people.
Katherine's new colleagues are initially dismissive and demeaning, especially head engineer Paul Stafford. Meanwhile, Dorothy's request to be officially promoted to supervisor is rejected by Mrs Mitchell. Mary identifies a flaw in the experimental space capsule's heat shields, encouraging her to more assertively pursue an engineering degree.
At a barbecue, Katherine meets National Guard officer Jim Johnson and they are attracted to each other, but she is disappointed when he voices skepticism at women's mathematical abilities. He later apologizes and they ultimately get married.
Harrison invites his subordinates to solve a complex mathematical equation, and Katherine steps forward, leaving him impressed. The Mercury 7 astronauts visit Langley and astronaut John Glenn is cordial to the West Area Computers.
Over time, Katherine becomes better acquainted with her colleagues. Harrison becomes upset when she is not at her desk and she explains how far she has to walk to use the colored people's bathroom in another building. Harrison abolishes bathroom segregation, personally knocking down the Colored Bathroom sign. Despite Stafford's objections, he allows Katherine to be included in their meetings, in which she creates an elaborate equation to guide the space capsule into a safe re-entry. Despite this, Katherine is forced to remove her name from all the reports, which are credited solely to Stafford. Meanwhile, Mary goes to court and convinces the judge to grant her permission to attend night classes in an all-white school to obtain her engineering degree.
Dorothy learns of the impending installation of an IBM 7090 electronic computer that could replace her co-workers. She visits the computer room and successfully starts the machine. Later, she visits a public library, where the librarian scolds her for visiting the whites-only section, to borrow a book about FORTRAN. While congratulating Dorothy on her work, Mrs Mitchell assures her that she never treated her differently due to the color of her skin; Dorothy is unconvinced. After teaching herself FORTRAN and training her West Area co-workers, she is officially promoted to supervise the Programming Department and the others are transferred there. Mrs Mitchell eventually addresses Dorothy as "Mrs Vaughan", indicating her new-found respect.
As the final arrangements for John Glenn's launch are made, Katherine is informed she is no longer needed at Space Task Group and is being reassigned back to West Area Computers. As a wedding and farewell gift from her colleagues, Harrison buys her a pearl necklace, the only jewelry allowed under the dress code.
Prior to the launch, however, discrepancies arise in the IBM 7090 calculations for the capsule's landing coordinates and Glenn requests that Katherine be called in to check the calculations. Katherine quickly does so and hurriedly delivers the results to the control room, only to have the door slammed in her face. However, Harrison brings her into the control room so they can relay the results to Glenn together.
After a successful launch, the space capsule has a warning light indicating a heat shield problem; mission control decides to land it after three orbits instead of seven. Katherine understands the situation and suggests that they should leave the retro-rocket attached to heat shield for reentry. Her instructions prove correct and Friendship 7 successfully lands in the ocean.[5]
Following the mission, the mathematicians are laid off and ultimately replaced by electronic computers. Katherine is reassigned to the Analysis and Computation Division, Dorothy continues to supervise the Programming Department, and Mary obtains her engineering degree.
An epilogue reveals that Katherine calculated the trajectories for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 missions. In 2015, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a new 40,000-square-foot Computational Research Facility at the Langley Research Center was renamed the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility in her honor the following year.[6]
Historical accuracy[edit]
The film, set at NASA in 1961, depicts segregated facilities such as the West Area Computing unit, an all-black group of female mathematicians, who were originally required to use separate dining and bathroom facilities. However, in reality, Dorothy Vaughan was promoted to supervisor of West Computing in 1949, becoming the first black supervisor at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and one of the few female supervisors. In 1958, when NACA made the transition to NASA, segregated facilities, including the West Computing office, were abolished. Dorothy Vaughan and many of the former West Computers transferred to the new Analysis and Computation Division (ACD), a racially and gender-integrated group.[7]
Mary Jackson was the one who had to find her own way to a colored bathroom, which did exist on the East Side.[8] Katherine (then Goble) was originally unaware that the East Side bathrooms were segregated, and used the unlabeled "whites-only" bathrooms for years before anyone complained. She ignored the complaint, and the issue was dropped.[9]
Mary Jackson did not have to get a court order to attend night classes at the whites-only high school. She asked the city of Hampton for an exception, and it was granted. The school turned out to be run down and dilapidated, a hidden cost of running two parallel school systems.[10] She completed her engineering courses and earned a promotion to engineer in 1958, becoming NASA’s first black female engineer.[11]
Katherine Goble/Johnson carpooled with one Eunice Smith, a nine-year West End computer veteran at the time Katherine joined NACA. Smith was her neighbor and friend from sorority and church choir.[12]
The three Goble children were teenagers at the time of Katherine's marriage to Jim Johnson.[13]
Katherine (then Goble) Johnson was assigned to the Flight Research Division in 1953, a move that soon became permanent. When the Space Task Group was formed in 1958, engineers from the Flight Research Division formed the core of the Group and Katherine moved along with them. She coauthored a research report in 1960, the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division had received credit as an author of a research report.[14]
Katherine gained access to editorial meetings as of 1958 simply through persistence, not because one particular meeting was critical.[15]
The Space Task Group was led by Robert Gilruth, not Al Harrison, who was created to simplify a more complex management structure. In particular, the scene where Harrison smashes the Colored Ladies Room sign never happened, as in real life Katherine refused to use the colored bathroom and, in her words, "just went to the White one".[16]
Vivian Mitchell and Paul Stafford are composites of several team members reflecting common social views and attitudes of the time. Karl Zielinski is based on Mary Jackson's mentor Kazimierz "Kaz" Czarnecki.[17]
John Glenn, who was much older than depicted at the time of launch, did ask specifically for Johnson to verify the IBM calculations, although she had several days before the launch date to complete the process.[18]
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