Summary
- Real-life women & their achievements influenced the fictionalized film Hidden Figures, highlighting their pivotal roles in NASA during the space race.
- The movie addresses race, gender, and scientific progress through memorable quotes, showcasing the struggles and accomplishments of Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy.
- The cast of remarkable women, led by Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe, and Octavia Spencer, won an award for their portrayal of these groundbreaking figures.
Hidden Figures is a film about groundbreaking women and there are a lot of memorable Hidden Figures quotes within the story. The central characters are played by actresses who are remarkable women in their own right, so much so that the film won an award for best cast. Hidden Figures stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson, and Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughn.
The movie itself is partly fictional in terms of the narrative, but the bulk of the major details are based on the real-life hard-won achievements of these three women. Hidden Figures marks an important moment in the history of America. The space race captured the attention of the world, but so did the Civil Rights Movement, and the story of the real-life women in the middle of both historical moments is a compelling one. Race, gender, and scientific progress are all addressed in some of the best Hidden Figures quotes.
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Like Cillian Murphy's portrayal of Oppenheimer, there are many films where perfectly cast actors transformed into the historical figures they played.20 “Mary, It’s Sunday. Please Have Some Shame.”
Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson
When Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy attend a local picnic after church services on a Sunday, Katherine meets her future husband. Before she can even get up the courage to speak to him, however, Dorothy waves him over and Mary makes a few suggestive comments. Katherine tries to shame Mary into stopping her commentary, but it doesn’t work.
Hidden Figures is a movie about three women who take on astronomical challenges and make huge strides not just for themselves, but for people of color as a whole. Sometimes, it’s easy to see them as larger than life. Moments like this in the movie remind the audience that these women were real people.
19 “You Could Fly Up To Space If You Wanted To, Mama. You Could Be An Astronaut.”
Zani Jones Mbayise as Kathy Johnson
Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy are very much aware of the limitations placed on them because of the society they live in. Each barrier they break is one they hope their children don’t have to. The movie doesn’t spend a ton of time with the children of these women, but this is one of the Hidden Figures quotes from Katherine’s daughter that makes it clear that boundary-breaking is working.
Kathy firmly believes that her mother could become an astronaut and that there shouldn’t be anything stopping her from going to space. For Kathy, there isn’t an invisible line between her mother and the men who are going to space, which is a sign that the world is changing.
18 “Any Upward Movement Is Movement For Us All, Just Isn’t Movement For Me.”
Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughn
Though Mary and Katherine both end up with surprising opportunities to advance in their careers, Dorothy finds herself consistently passed over for a promotion. This particular Hidden Figures quote is the result of Dorothy venting to Katherine and Mary in the car on their way home. Dorothy understands how unfair it is that white women keep being named supervisors when she’s doing all the supervisory work herself.
She amends all of her venting with this line to show that she isn’t ungrateful for the opportunities her friends have gained. Dorothy, however, wants an opportunity as well. She eventually finds a way to make that happen for herself, but this line is a reminder of the people left behind in the changing world.
17 "If She Says [The Numbers] Are Good, Then I'm Good To Go."
Glen Powell as John Glenn
The astronauts being sent into space on test flights had to have complete faith in the people sending them there. John Glenn, however, didn't have faith in the team of men sitting in the conference room. Instead, he had faith in Katherine Johnson after seeing her work out the math first-hand.
He refused to launch until Katherine double-checked everyone else's math, including the actual computer brought in to eliminate all the handwork. His trust in her in the movie is the same as it was in real life, which was monumental at the time. It might have angered some of the men on the team, but helped Glenn feel secure to have Katherine running the numbers.
16 "We All Get To The Peak Together, Or We Don't Get There At All."
Kevin Costner as Al Harrison
Al Harrison might initially be blind to the way Katherine is treated by the other men in the office, but once his eyes are open, he doesn't have time for the pettiness the scientists and mathematicians throw her way. He makes it very clear that everyone on the team has to work together in this Hidden Figures quote.
As he points out, they can't send men into space safely if their work isn't flawless. For that to happen, they have to work together and trust one another to do their best job. His team doesn't openly defy him after that.
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Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughn
If there's one character who is always looking ahead, it's Octavia Spencer's Dorothy. She understands that progress can be a double-edged sword. Dorothy is the one who has the vision to understand what the IBM means for her "computers."
Dorothy is the supervisor of the women of color in charge of computing mathematical equations for NASA, though it takes a long time for her to get any kind of supervisor credit. When she learns that IBM can do thousands of calculations in the time it takes women to do one, she declares that they all have to study up on the new machine. Without Dorothy's understanding of what's coming, her entire department would have been out of a job.
14 "We Go From Being Our Fathers' Daughters To Our Husbands' Wives To Our Babies' Mothers."
Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson
Katherine, Dorothy, and Mary are women who have their intelligence and their careers in mind. They want to provide for their families, but they're all hampered by the way the world sees them. Mary has to deal with the surrounding men not believing a woman can be an engineer; Katherine gets off on the wrong foot with her future husband when he thinks working at NASA would be too taxing for a woman. The women are used to being defined by the men in their lives, as Mary points out, and they work incredibly hard to change it.