‘Hidden Figures’ Trailer: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae Win the Space Race
It’s still not easy for women in the STEM industry, and it was even harder in the 1960s. It’s rare to get a glimpse behind the scenes of auspicious historical events like the success of Project Mercury, and even rarer for the movie to look like so much fun. The new trailer for Hidden Figures gives us just that, with Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe portraying the real-life women who helped NASA get ahead in the Space Race that seems as honest to history as it is entertaining.
Henson, Spencer, and Monáe play Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, three of the brains behind the operation to launch astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) into space in 1962 for the first successful manned orbit around the Earth. They weren’t just women working at NASA, they were black women, and even though they were more than up to the task of calculating wind resistance, trajectories, and all the other ridiculous math that goes into what has to be incredibly exact rocket launch calculations, there were still plenty of obstacles standing in their way. With women in STEM as hot a topic as its ever been in the fields of education, Hidden Figures comes at just the right time to showcase three incredibly intelligent individuals who would not let racism or sexism get in the way of their dreams.
Hidden Figures is the incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe)—brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served 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 visionary trio crossed all gender and race lines to inspire generations to dream big.
Hidden Figures is directed by Theodor Melfi (St. Vincent), also stars Kevin Costner, Jim Parsons, Kirsten Dunst, and Mahershala Ali, and hits theaters January 13, 2017.