Hidden Figures

Hidden Figures
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Theodore Melfi
Produced by	Donna Gigliotti Peter Chernin Jenno Topping Pharrell Williams Theodore Melfi
Screenplay by	Allison Schroeder Theodore Melfi
Based on	Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Starring	Taraji P. Henson Octavia Spencer Janelle Monáe Kevin Costner Kirsten Dunst Jim Parsons
Music by	Hans Zimmer Pharrell Williams Benjamin Wallfisch
Cinematography	Mandy Walker
Edited by	Peter Teschner
Production company	Fox 2000 Pictures Chernin Entertainment Levantine Films TSG Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	December 10, 2016 (2016-12-10) (SVA Theatre) December 25, 2016 (2016-12-25) (United States)
Running time	127 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$94.6 million

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 female African-American mathematicians at NASA. 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. It received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $94 million. It was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016 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.

Plot

In 1961, mathematician Katherine Goble works at the segregated West Area Computers division of Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia alongside her colleagues, aspiring engineer Mary Jackson and informal supervisor Dorothy Vaughan.

Following the successful launch of the Sputnik I, Al Harrison, the director of the Space Task Group, is pressured by his superiors to double his efforts to send American astronauts into space, and Katherine is assigned to assist them by her supervisor Vivian Mitchell, becoming the first African-American woman in the team. Katherine is forbidden to use the station's restroom, drink coffee from the same pot as her co-workers or wear any kind of jewelry, aside from pearls, though Katherine reveals she doesn't own any.

Katherine's presence is initially dismissed by her colleagues and she is forced to work under belligerent head engineer Paul Stafford, while Dorothy's request to be officially promoted to supervisor is rejected by Vivian, and 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 United States Army officer Jim Johnson and they are attracted to each other, but Katherine is disappointed when he voices skepticism at the mathematical skills of the female analysts at West Area Computers. Harrison later invites his subordinates to solve a complex mathematical equation, and Katherine steps forward, leaving him impressed. Astronaut John Glenn later visits the facility and is cordial to the West Area Computers employees.

Over time, Katherine becomes better acquainted with her colleagues. Harrison abolishes bathroom segregation (which he had not realized was greatly inconveniencing her) and, despite Stafford's objections, 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 is granted 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 computer that could replace her co-workers. After teaching herself Fortran from a library book (which she had had to take without permission from the segregated library) and training her co-workers, she is officially promoted to supervise the Programming Department and allowed to arrange for her previous co-workers to be transferred there. While congratulating Dorothy on her work, Vivian assures her that she never treated her differently due to the color of her skin, but Dorothy is unconvinced. Meanwhile, Johnson apologizes to Katherine and they ultimately get married.

As the final arrangements for the launch are made, Katherine is informed she is no longer needed at Space Task Group and is being reassigned back to West Area Computers. Her colleagues buy her a pearl necklace as a farewell gift. Prior to the launch, however, discrepancies arise in the electronic calculations for the capsule's coordinates and astronaut Glenn requests that Katherine be called in to check the calculations. Katherine quickly does so and hurriedly delivers the results to Harrison, who brings her into the control room so they can relay them to Glenn together.

After a successful launch, the space capsule has some heat shield problems and they decide to return the capsule after three orbits instead of seven for re-entry. Mary understands the situation and works with NASA to instruct them on how Glenn should operate the controls. Her instructions prove correct and Friendship 7 successfully lands in the ocean as the world celebrates.

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 goes on to obtain her engineering degree.

An epilogue reveals that Katherine calculated the trajectories for the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 space mission. In 2015, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Langley Research Center was renamed the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research Facility the following year.

Historical accuracy

While the film is set at NASA in 1961, segregated facilities, including the West Computing office, were abolished earlier when the NACA made the transition to NASA.

Cast

• Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Goble Johnson, mathematician
• Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, mathematician and supervisor
• Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, who becomes an engineer
• Kevin Costner as Al Harrison, director of the Space Task Group
• Kirsten Dunst as Vivian Mitchell, supervisor
• Jim Parsons as Paul Stafford, head engineer in STG
• Glen Powell as John Glenn, astronaut
• Mahershala Ali as Jim Johnson, military officer who marries Katherine
• Donna Biscoe as Joylette Coleman, Katherine's mother, who helps care for her children
• Rhoda Griffis as White Librarian
• Maria Howell as Ms. Summer
• Aldis Hodge as Levi Jackson
• Paige Nicollette as Eunice Smith
• Gary Weeks as Reporter at Press Conference
• Saniyya Sidney as Constance Johnson
• Kimberly Quinn as Ruth
• Olek Krupa as Karl Zielinski, engineer who encourages Mary Jackson

Production

On July 9, 2015, it was announced that producer Donna Gigliotti acquired Margot Lee Shetterly's nonfiction book Hidden Figures about a group of black female mathematicians who helped NASA win the Space Race. Allison Schroeder wrote the script, which was developed by Gigliotti through Levantine Films. That firm produced the film with Peter Chernin's Chernin Entertainment. Fox 2000 Pictures acquired the film rights, while Theodore Melfi signed on to direct it. Since the film's development was announced, various actresses were considered to play the black female roles, including Oprah Winfrey, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Taraji P. Henson.

On February 10, 2016, Fox hired Henson to play the lead role of mathematician Katherine Goble Johnson. Producers would be Chernin and Jenno Topping, along with Gigliotti and Melfi. On February 17, Spencer was selected to play Dorothy Vaughan, one of the three lead mathematicians at NASA. On March 1, 2016, Kevin Costner was cast in the film to play the head of the space program. Singer Janelle Monáe signed on to play the third lead mathematician, Mary Jackson. Later the same month, Kirsten Dunst, Glen Powell, and Mahershala Ali were cast in the film: Powell to play astronaut John Glenn, and Ali as Johnson's love interest, with Dunst for an unspecified role.

Principal photography began in March 2016. On April 1, 2016, Jim Parsons was cast in the film to play the head engineer of the Space Task Group at NASA, Paul Stafford. In April 2016, Pharrell Williams came on board as a producer on the film. He also would write original songs and would handle the music department and soundtrack of the film with Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began in early March 2016 on the campus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Filming also took place at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics at Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

Release

President Obama greeting Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer, and Taraji P. Henson on December 15, 2016

The film had a limited release starting on December 25, 2016, before a wide release on January 6, 2017.

Box office

During its limited release in 25 theaters from December 25, 2016 to January 5, 2017, the film grossed $3 million. In North America, Hidden Figures had its expansion alongside Underworld: Blood Wars and the wide releases of Lion and A Monster Calls. It was expected to gross around $20 million from 2,471 theaters in its opening weekend, with the studio projecting a more conservative $15–17 million debut. It made $1.2 million from Thursday night previews and $7.6 million on its first day. Initially, projections had the film grossing $21.8 million in its opening weekend, finishing second behind Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($22 million). Final figures revealed the film tallied a weekend total of $22.8 million, beating Rogue One's $21.9 million. In its second weekend the film grossed $20.5 million (a four-day MLK Weekend total of $27.5 million), again topping the box office.

Critical response

Hidden Figures received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 93% based on 160 reviews, with a weighted average score of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "In heartwarming, crowd-pleasing fashion, Hidden Figures celebrates overlooked – and crucial – contributions from a pivotal moment in American history." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 74 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale, one of fewer than 60 films in the history of the service to receive such a score.

Simon Thompson of IGN gave the film a score of 9/10, saying, "Hidden Figures fills in an all too forgotten, or simply too widely unknown, blank in US history in a classy, engaging, entertaining and hugely fulfilling way. Superb performances across the board and a fascinating story alone make Hidden Figures a solid, an accomplished and deftly executed movie that entertains, engages and earns your time, money and attention." Ty Burr of The Boston Globe wrote, "the film’s made with more heart than art and more skill than subtlety, and it works primarily because of the women that it portrays and the actresses who portray them. Best of all, you come out of the movie knowing who Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson are, and so do your daughters and sons."

Clayton Davis, of Awards Circuit gave the film 3.5 stars saying, "Precisely marketed as terrific adult entertainment for the Christmas season, Hidden Figures is a faithful and truly beautiful portrait of our country’s consistent gloss over the racial tensions that have divided and continue to plague the fabric our existence. Lavishly engaging from start to finish, “Hidden Figures” may be able to catch the most inopportune movie-goer off guard and cause them to fall for its undeniable and classic storytelling. The film is not to be missed."

Accolades

Main article: List of accolades received by Hidden Figures

External links

• Official website
• Hidden Figures at the Internet Movie Database
• Hidden Figures at Rotten Tomatoes