America 250th: A Look Back at “Hidden Figures”

For this week’s America 250 slate, I took a look at a film that is not only loosely based on a true story but is also nearing its 10th anniversary this year (the film technically opening in limited release Dec. 25, 2026 and wide release January 2017) - the film “Hidden Figures”.

Three brilliant African-American women at NASA - Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson - serve as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence, turned around the Space Race and galvanized the world.

The 2016 film “Hidden Figures” is a very inspiring, untold true story of the three African-American women who broke major racial and gender barriers at NASA during the Space Race. Not only is this film an entertaining watch, it's also quite moving as well.

The primary draw for myself is that the revelation of the film’s true story had been largely left out of standard history textbooks. I’ve seen this film a couple times and I still enjoy learning more about this story and the brilliant black mathematicians (a.k.a. “human computers”) whose calculations were very vital to NASA’s success during the Space Race, including John Glenn’s historic orbit.

While the film doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of segregation, it deliberately leans into an uplifting feel-good tone. Another aspect of the story that I also liked is that “Hidden Figures” isn’t just a story of struggle, but a triumphant celebration of brilliance, sisterhood and resilience. The film also manages to be highly educational without feeling like a dry, boring history lecture.

“Hidden Figures” also delivers some really crowd-pleasing moments featuring the three women that really stand out, such as Katherine’s powerful confrontation about having to run a half a mile from her new job to use the colored bathroom, Dorothy taking the initiative to teach herself and her team a program to master the new IBM mainframe (and ultimately finally being named Supervisor) and Mary cleverly using precedent to convince a judge to let her attend night classes at an all-white high school.

“Hidden Figures” received widespread critical acclaim and a strong audience reception

for its uplifting crowd-pleasing approach to illuminating the overlooked black female mathematicians during the Space Race. Since its initial release, many viewers have praised its balance of historical education and mainstream entertainment.

This film is a perfect watch for America’s 250th anniversary because it captures the true essence of the American Dream: the power of marginalized individuals to drive the nation forward. It masterfully intertwines two of America’s greatest mid-century milestones - the Civil Rights movement and the Space Race. “Hidden Figures” also reminds us that some of America’s greatest achievements can come from those whose contributions weren’t fully recognized at the time.

MPA: Rated PG for thematic elements and some language   (runtime 127 minutes)

Initial release date: January 6, 2017

Streaming services: HBO Max/various PVOD services   (as of writing this review)

https://youtu.be/5wfrDhgUMGI?si=14mCH9GeRm86V6_g

• When Taraji P. Henson signed on for the lead role, she met with Katherine Johnson, who was 98 years old, to discuss the character she was about to portray. Henson learned that Johnson had graduated from high school at age 14 and from college at age 18 and was still as lucid as anyone years younger. After the film was screened for Johnson, she expressed her genuine approval of Henson's portrayal but wondered why anybody would want to make a film about her life.

• Astronaut John Glenn did specifically request that Katherine Johnson review all of the calculations for the Friendship 7 mission - (his dialogue in the film based on NASA transcripts*) - before he could be confident enough to proceed, but which in reality occurred a few weeks before launch: not as depicted in the film whilst awaiting the launch. And Katherine Johnson's calculations (more realistically) took (just!) three days to confirm. (*Director's own DVD commentary information.)

• Katherine Johnson passed away on February 24, 2020 at 101 years old.

• The issue with the bathrooms was not something Katherine Johnson personally experienced. It was encountered by Mary Jackson instead. In fact, it was this incident, as a result of Jackson ranting to a colleague, which got her moved to the wind tunnel team. Johnson was initially unaware that the East Side bathrooms were even segregated, and used the unlabeled "whites-only" bathrooms for years before anyone complained. When she simply ignored the complaint, the issue was dropped completely.

• Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons) and Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst) are not based on real people. Instead, both characters are composites of different team members who worked at NASA, intended to represent the dismissive attitudes held by some of the white co-workers during this period.

• Before presenting the award for Best Documentary Feature at The Oscars (2017), the film's stars, Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe, introduced Henson's counterpart, 98 year old Katherine Johnson, to the stage, where she received a standing ovation from the audience.

• The person communicating directly with John Glenn in the Freedom 7 capsule is fellow Mercury astronaut Deke Slayton. It was decided by the astronauts themselves that lead verbal communication with the control center be handled by one of their own, as they spoke the same language, had similar training, and would be the most effective persons for the job. This became the standard practice for all future manned missions from NASA.

• The film rights to this movie were bought while Margot Lee Shetterly 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 itself takes place from the 1930s through the 1960s. The story chronicles the intersectional discrimination Black women face: first as women and then also for their race. Shetterly also served as one of the executive producers of the film as well.

• Katherine Johnson also helped to calculate the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon. When the mission the Apollo 13 was aborted, her work on backup procedures and charts helped set a safe path for the crew's return to Earth, creating a one-star observation system that would allow astronauts to determine their location with accuracy.

• Gus Grissom's capsule, the Liberty Bell 7, was eventually recovered from the ocean floor on July 20, 1999, the 30th anniversary of the first lunar landing (Apollo 11). It had sunk to a depth of approximately 16,000 ft (4,900 m). Over 50 Winged Liberty Head dimes (aka Mercury dimes) meant to be souvenirs of the flight were found inside.

• The term "Hidden Figures" alludes not only to the women involved, but also to extra digits in a calculation that are used to improve accuracy but are not displayed in the final results.

• In reality, John Glenn was much older at the time of the launch than depicted in the film. When the launch went ahead in January 1962, he was almost 41 years old, whereas the actor who portrays Glenn, Glen Powell, was 27 years old during production.

• Several of the control console props in the Mercury Mission Control set were originally built for the Mission Control Room set for Apollo 13 (1995). They were modified for use in the later films, including The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015).