Hidden FiguresThree women standing in the foreground In the background a rocket Free Essay Example

Hidden FiguresThree women standing in the foreground. In the background a rocket is launching.Theatrical release posterDirected by Theodore MelfiProduced by Donna GigliottiPeter CherninJenno ToppingPharrell WilliamsTheodore MelfiScreenplay by Allison SchroederTheodore MelfiBased on Hidden Figuresby Margot Lee ShetterlyStarring Taraji P. HensonOctavia SpencerJanelle MoneKevin CostnerKirsten DunstJim ParsonsMusic by Hans ZimmerPharrell WilliamsBenjamin WallfischCinematography Mandy WalkerEdited by Peter TeschnerProductioncompanyFox 2000 PicturesChernin EntertainmentLevantine FilmsDistributed by 20th Century FoxRelease dateDecember 10, 2016 (SVA Theatre)December 25, 2016 (United States)Running time127 minutes[1]Country United StatesLanguage EnglishBudget $25 million[2]Box office $236 million[3]We ask you, humbly, to help.

Hi reader in Australia, it seems you use Wikipedia a lot; that’s great! It’s a little awkward to ask, but this Thursday we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We’re not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $16.31 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $3, the price of your coffee this Thursday, Wikipedia could keep thriving. Thank you. MAYBE LATER CLOSE Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by Theodore Melfi and written by Melfi and Allison Schroeder.

It is loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly about black female mathematicians who worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Space Race. The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who calculated flight trajectories for Project Mercury and other missions. The film also features Octavia Spencer as NASA supervisor and mathematician Dorothy Vaughan and Janelle Mone as NASA engineer 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 had a limited release on December 25, 2016, by 20th Century Fox, before going wide in the United States on January 6, 2017. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed 6 million worldwide. It was chosen by National Board of Review as one of the top ten films of 2016[4] and was nominated for numerous awards, including three Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Spencer), and two Golden Globes (Best Supporting Actress for Spencer and Best Original Score). It also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.Contents1 Plot2 Cast3 Production4 Historical accuracy5 Release5.1 Charity screenings5.2 Merchandising5.3 Home media6 Reception6.1 Box office6.2 Critical response6.3 Accolades7 See also8 References9 Further reading10 External linksPlotIn 1961, mathematician Katherine Goble works as a human computer in the gender and racially segregated division West Area Computers of the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, alongside her colleagues, aspiring engineer Mary Jackson and their unofficial acting-supervisor Dorothy Vaughan.Following the successful Soviet launch of Yuri Gagarin, pressure to send American astronauts into space increases. Supervisor Vivian Mitchell assigns Katherine to assist Al Harrison’s Space Task Group, given her skills in analytic geometry. She becomes the first black woman on the team.Katherine’s new colleagues are initially dismissive and demeaning, especially head engineer Paul Stafford. Meanwhile, Mitchell informs Dorothy that she will not be promoted, as there are no plans to assign a “permanent supervisor for the colored group”. Mary is assigned to the space capsule heat shield team, and immediately identifies a flaw. With encouragement from the team leader, a Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor, she submits an application for an official NASA engineer position and begins to pursue additional engineering coursework, as she already has a mathematics and physical science degree, but needs additional certification courses offered only through the all-white nearby Hampton high school. First, Mary successfully petitions a local judge to grant her legal authorization to attend the segregated all white school.Katherine meets National Guard Lt. Col. Jim Johnson at a barbecue, but she is disappointed when he voices skepticism about women’s mathematical abilities. He later apologizes, and begins spending time with Katherine and her three daughters.When Harrison invites his subordinates to solve a complex mathematical equation, Katherine develops the solution, leaving him impressed. The Mercury 7 astronauts visit Langley and astronaut John Glenn is cordial to the West Area Computers.Harrison is enraged when he finds out that Katherine is forced to walk a half-mile (800 meters) to another building to use the colored people’s bathroom. Harrison abolishes bathroom segregation, knocking down the “Colored Bathroom” sign. Harrison allows Katherine to be included in their meetings, in which she creates an equation within that meeting to guide the space capsule during re-entry. Despite this, Katherine is forced to remove her name from the reports, which are credited solely to Stafford. Stafford said that computers cannot author such things. 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 human computers. She visits the computer room to learn about it, 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. She stole that book and began studying on her own. After teaching herself programming and training her West Area co-workers, she is officially promoted to supervise the Programming Department, bringing 30 of her co-workers with her. 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 reassigned back to West Area Computers. Harrison told her that they no longer needs computer in their department and it’s beyond his decision. As a wedding and farewell gift from her colleagues (Katherine is now married to Jim Johnson), Katherine is given a pearl necklace, the only jewelry allowed under the dress code.The day of the launch, discrepancies arise in the IBM 7090 calculations for the capsule’s landing coordinates, and Astronaut Glenn requests that Katherine be called in to check them. She quickly does so, only to have the door slammed in her face after delivering the results to the control room. However, Harrison gives her a security pass so they can relay the results to Glenn together. After a successful launch and orbit, the space capsule has a heat shield problem. Mission control decides to land it after three orbits instead of seven. Katherine suggests that they leave the retro-rocket attached to the heat shield for reentry. The instructions prove correct, and Friendship 7 successfully lands.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 and gains employment at NASA as an engineer. At the end of the film, we see Stafford, showing a change of heart, bringing Katherine a cup of coffee and accepting that her name is included on the report.An epilogue reveals that Katherine calculated the trajectories for the Apollo 11 and Space Shuttle missions. In 2015 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The following year, NASA dedicated the Langley Research Center’s Katherine G. Johnson Computational Building in her honor.

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