In January 2017, Hidden Figures was released into the world for all eyes to see. The success of this movie was quite phenomenal, as it was nominated for three Academy Awards and has made a worldwide gross amount of about $165 million.

To summarize, the movie in its entirety is solely based on a true event that everyone knows about; however, no one knows about the women behind the success of this mission. The characters involved in this storyline were Katherine G. Johnson, a genius mathematician, Dorothy Vaughan, an unofficial supervisor, and Mary Jackson, an aspiring engineer. In the movie, they were given the immensely important task to calculate the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit while also making sure of his safe return. The white people in the movie simply had no faith in these women to help do such a task. Specifically, many doubted Katherine as she got asked to join the Space Task Group for the important mission and was exposed to the whites in the group first. Whilst throughout the movie, Katherine proved the white workers in the office wrong by putting her math skills to great use. As well, Dorothy and Mary taught the men a couple a things they were unable to do before. Towards the middle, there was a dilemma with the calculations of the orbit mission, and the whites were desperate for these aspiring women of color to help them out. In the end, they all realized how helpful the women were to them and how big of an accomplishment these women achieved.

As this movie took place in the sixties, it was not completely normal to let women do much of anything, let alone women of color. Furthermore, the film covered almost all the problems that women and people of color faced back in the days, while also providing examples of the treatment of the minority and the oppression of women. Consequently, Hidden Figures was both heart-warming and touching to the souls, but as well, it provoked laughter from the audience with small, yet noticeable, witty jokes thrown all around.

Although the run time was quite lengthy sitting at two hours, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie from start to finish. It is significant to understand the plot of the story as it serves a huge and somewhat missing part of our history. Additionally, the climax was not quite suspenseful and it was pretty predictable as well. Even Mary Liu (10) explains that “the movie was a tad bit overrated and somewhat predictable, but I enjoyed it either way.” Other than that, the storyline was well put together and the acting was simply captivating. The cast was also more diverse in this movie, of course.

This film will not only give one empowerment, but will also incite inspiration. All in all, Hidden Figures is a must-see as it informs the uneducated and is a historical drama, yet still makes everyone in the theater stifle out a chuckle or even shed a few tears.