I found Theodore Melfi’s 2016 Hidden Figures by chance as I was scrolling through Disney+ on a rainy Friday night. And I am so glad I found it. This American biographical drama is loosely based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s book bearing the same name about three female African American mathematicians who worked at NASA during the Space Race: Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson. Although the film is not entirely historically accurate, I do recommend you give it a watch.
There are some of those spoiler-things below!
The Mathematician
The film takes place during 1960. The name of the film itself may be a reference to the status of African Americans in America, the ‘hidden figures’ in society with the ability to achieve great things. We begin with a scene of a young Katherine Goble proving that her mathematical talent was worth a scholarship, something that could change her life for the better in a world where African Americans would not be given a chance. The colours for this scene in the past are muted, a common way to show flashbacks. However, I also think it represents the lack of opportunity for African Americans, the muted colours being a representation of a lack of hope.
Katherine receives the scholarship, and the film transitions to 1961, where the colours slowly brighten, landing on a scene of three women, Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy, whose car has broken down. Dorothy is repairing the car, Katherine is staring wistfully out the window, and Mary is applying lipstick. This scene is incredibly important for giving personality to the women and showing them as capable, normal members of society: a female mechanic, a dreamer, and the fashionista. When a policeman arrives, wielding a baton, to assess the scene, he immediately shows aggression and suspicion towards the women. He’s surprised that African Americans, and women at that, could be part of NASA.
The women are nervous but use their job with NASA to their advantage. They relax the policeman by moving the conversation towards the white male astronauts being sent up to space before the Russians. Patriotism favours the women. He even offers them an escort, forgetting their skin colour and gender in the face of the love for his country.
Space Race
The entire film is about NASA’s determination to get an American into space, racing the Russians the entire way. When the 1961 Russian orbital mission, Vostok I, is successful, the pressure is on for NASA to do the same. A line of dialogue said by one of the men at NASA, “inaction and indecision will end the world”, perfectly describes the stress those at NASA felt in trying to win the Space Race, forcing them to adopt an unforgiving attitude.
The men especially acted unforgiving to the women at NASA, specifically the African Americans, one of whom, Katherine, joins the team as a specialist in analytical geometry, looking to send a man into space to orbit the Earth. For instance, when she first enters the room where the Space Task Group toil away, the men in the office pause and stare, silence settles in, and the whole office feels supressed and hopeless.
Katherine
Katherine’s character, played by Taraji Henson, is so endearing and likeable. Her little ticks of fiddling with her hands in anxiety, raising her eyebrows when she’s perplexed, and pushing her glasses up her nose gives the character and intelligent, humble, and shy personality. She is a very real, relatable character, which makes one scene, repeated five times throughout the film, as impactful as it is.
Katherine’s search for a bathroom she could use, one reserved for black people, was a real challenge for her. She literally must run to get to the bathroom, which isn’t even in the same building she works in, and then run back, through the rain and heat. This gets her into trouble with her colleagues, believing her to be tardy and unprofessional.
They then become suspicious when Katherine proves her worth by completing a calculation that solved one of the numerous issues with the orbital mission, assuming she was a Russian spy because she couldn’t have possibly solved the calculations without all the information, which they denied her by blacking out huge chunks of text in the same documents she needed to help with the mission.
It is bathroom trip number five, which occurred on an especially rainy day, that Katherine’s time spent away from her desk to go to the bathroom is called up. She explains during a truly passionate and goosebump-inducing speech that her bathroom isn’t close to her workspace. Surprisingly, her boss, Al Harrison, played by Kevin Costner, takes action by ripping the label off the coffee pot, declaring coffee is for everyone, and then tearing off the sign to the coloured ladies’ room, as a testament that segregation should not occur at NASA. Al concludes the bathroom saga by saying “Here at NASA, we’re all the same colour.” Although this single sentence doesn’t solve nor forgive the numerous cases of racism seen not just in the film but in the era itself, it is a hopeful sign that equality can start becoming more prevalent.
Mary and Dorothy
Mary is a practical and stylish woman. She wants to be an engineer and look good whilst doing it. She has the belief that freedom is never granted to the oppressed, that it must be taken, demanded. Mary appeals her case to go to engineering classes at court, as an African America women wouldn't be allowed to attend such a class. She appeals to the judge’s egotism, applauding him for his achievements, explaining that he would be representing his county by allowing her to be the first black woman engineer, and he will be remembered for it. Even though it is sad she must resort to ‘bigging up’ a white man, her intelligence in appealing to the judge’s patriotism, which she was also seen to do during the car scene at the beginning of the film, represents her as a clever and practical woman, a true go-getter.
Dorothy’s skills with computers and her leadership and supervisor skills, are overlooked. She speaks up for the African American women at NASA and is never compensated for it. She repeatedly asks a white colleague, Vivian Mitchell, and a woman at that, to consider her as a supervisor, wanting both the money and recognition she deserves. She is denied several times in the film, until she gets her chance. She is brought onto the team to monitor a supercomputer, its ability to create mass calculations due to revolutionize the speed at which calculations are made for NASA and all their future missions. She accepts the position, but only if all the ladies at the West Computing Group are allowed to join her. The entire team are warmly invited into the computer room, and Dorothy gets the promotion she has long been due.
At the end of the film, a homage is paid to Mary and Dorothy for their achievements. Mary graduated from college and became America’s first female African American aeronautical engineer. Dorothy became NASA’s first African American supervisor.
The Astronaut
John Glenn, played by Glen Powell, is treated as a superstar in the film, the pinnacle of American patriotism. He is handsome, young, white, and a man – the ideal face for a NASA mission meant to put America ahead of the game, and specifically ahead of Russia.
However, he is one of the few men in the film who shows awareness at the inequality the women face at NASA, describing NASA as “Fast with a rocket ship [but] slow with advancement.” He goes out of his way to greet each woman when he arrives at NASA, ignoring the fact that the other men didn’t like his actions.
One of the issues NASA was faced with the orbital mission was getting John home safely. His survival was important for America’s morale, as well as for getting American ahead of Russia. There are many conferences during the film, which Katherine is not allowed to attend due to her gender and ethnicity. However, Al decides that Katherine would be the best person to be in the conference so that she can listen in and know and correct all calculations or decisions made, so that her work could be more meaningful. One of Katherine’s colleagues, Paul Stafford, who has repeatedly shown himself to be against a black woman working on the mission, is seen to be embarrassed and frustrated when Katherine is final let into the conference room. He is further humbled when she proves her worth when she completes an equation in person, live, in front of the other men.
This is a parallel to the first scene of the film where Katherine is trying to earn her scholarship. In both scenes, Katherine must perform well to be seen as worth other people’s times. John is also attending this conference, happily greeting Katherine, and showing his confidence in her when he seems to be proud at Katherine’s mathematical abilities. On one hand, John may have been trying to show kindness simply because he wanted to get home from the orbital missions. On the other hand, perhaps he felt it was only right that for a space mission to be successful, everyone capable had to be involved and applauded.
The Launch
The day of the launch cometh. Tensions are high. NASA is biting its nails. And Katherine is relieved of her job. It was decided that she was not needed now that the mass computer system, IBN, was doing all the numbers she was previously doing by hand. To an extent, Dorothy’s success with the computer was to Katherine’s detriment. Katherine returns to the West Computing Group. However, the IBN numbers seemed to be incorrect, moments before John was due to be launched into space. He asks NASA to check with Katherine, calling her “the girl”, as her mathematical skills were unmatched. I found it interesting that John doesn’t use Katherine’s name in this request, perhaps a testament to his initial kindness being a façade. But the point of this scene was to flip the bathroom saga seen before in the film on its head.
A white man must run from the mission room, across the entire NASA base, to reach the West Computing Group, where Katherine has returned to work. It was a perfect parallel, and I found myself laughing at the irony of it all. The man reaches Katherine, who checks through the numbers, and runs back to the office with the man. Once back to the mission room, the man holds the door open for Katherine, but she is barred entry, and the door is shut on her face. The film reached its climax, solving it with Katherine’s intellect, to then cast her down once more to a place of inequality. Katherine’s walk-of-shame away from the room was gut-wrenching, until the door opens once more as Al requests that Katherine joins them, giving her a badge to have access. Finally, Katherine gets the badge of approval, gaining a few more steps forward towards a place of equality.
The launch begins. Old, recorded footage, live footage, of the original rocked going into orbit, was used in the film, crossed with the acted footage of those inside the mission room. For the first time in the film, the viewer can feel like they are part of the events. This serves to highlight the importance and high emotions of the orbital launch, but also to translate to the viewer the importance of everyone in NASA. But then, John’s orbit travel starts to go wrong. The heat shield may have come loose. The silence is deafening as everyone awaits John’s possible tragic re-entry into Earth’s orbit. But the mission was a success because Katherine’s numbers for John’s landing was perfect.
Katherine gets a personal well done from Al Harrison. She even says to him when asked if she thinks they can go to the moon that “we’re already there” - her sense of determination is truly inspiring. Katherine’s numbers allowed John to complete 3 orbits. And Katherine gets given a coffee from Paul. How poignant. She was involved in the Apollo II mission to the moon and the space shuttle. At the age of 97, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A Not So Hidden Conclusion
Through powerful performances and poignant storytelling, the film sheds light on the struggles these women faced as they navigated systemic racism and gender discrimination while making invaluable contributions to the Space Race. From Katherine's battle for access to a bathroom to Dorothy's fight for recognition and advancement, each character's journey is a testament to the strength of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
As the credits roll, we are left with a profound sense of admiration for Katherine, Dorothy, Mary, and countless others whose stories have too often been overlooked or marginalized. Their legacy serves as an enduring inspiration for future generations, a reminder that with perseverance, determination, and solidarity, even the most formidable obstacles can be overcome.
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