While the first trailer for the forthcoming NASA biopic Hidden Figures takes a wide look at how three black female mathematicians launched John Glenn into space, the second trailer tightens its scope, reintroducing you to Katherine G. Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe).
Called the “colored computers” and tucked into a corner of NASA’s offices, these women weren’t given their due—neither within nor outside of NASA’s walls, as everyone from engineers to the police cannot fathom women of color working in the space program. Even after their skills—especially those of Katherine, who understands numbers better than anyone—are employed, the women are still shut out from briefings and white-only bathrooms. “Y’all should be grateful you have jobs at all,” Vivian Jackson (Kirsten Dunst), seemingly their only other female ally at NASA, says. Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons) doesn’t seem too keen on working with them, either, but the head of the space program (Kevin Costner) is the only person who gets what an impossible mission like this requires.
It’s some of the same material we saw in the first preview, but even more crystallized to remind you of the barriers this trio went through, and how they supported one another with their different ambitions: Katherine with numbers, aspiring engineer Mary, and programming whiz Dorothy. Watch the trailer:
Hidden Figures comes to theaters January 13, 2017.
via io9
