20 Secret Movie Sub-Plots You Didn't Notice
16. A Mentor's Past - Hidden Figures (2016)
Hidden Figures is a charming, affecting look at the lives of unsung NASA heroes Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae), and Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer), three Black women who fought prejudice and made landing on the moon a possibility.
It's a straightforward film, sure, but it leaves plenty of subplots on the table, such as astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) and his acceptance of the women's role in the space program, but perhaps the most affecting and subtle comes courtesy of Jackson's engineering mentor, Karl (Olek Krupa).
Based on real-life engineer Kazimierz Czarnecki, Karl offers a throwaway line about how he's a "Polish Jew whose parents died in a Nazi prison camp", now he's an engineer for the greatest space exploration ever undertaken.
It's a great line, allowing Jackson to find common ground with her new superior, but also a moving one showing there were so many other NASA heroes who fought adversity so we could finally touch the stars.