Thanks to the likes of A Beautiful Mind and Good Will Hunting, we’re used to movies featuring dudes scratching out incomprehensible equations on chalkboards. And frankly, that portrayal of white guy genius is getting old. That’s why the trailer for Hidden Figures teases a movie that features a refreshing and necessary counter to that oh-so-familiar image. Right off the bat we’re introduced to a black woman who has remarkable abilities with numbers. She’s Katherine G. Johnson, played by Taraji P. Henson. Johnson, along with Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), were mathematicians who worked at NASA (and NACA, the agency that came before it). The first look at the film finds these women facing and defying their doubters. When Mary is asked, “if you were a white male, would you wish to be an engineer?” She responds: “I wouldn’t have to. I’d already be one.”
Mahershala Ali, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner also star in the film, which is directed by Theodore Melfi. It’s based on a book by Margot Lee Shetterly. Hidden Figures is set to debut January 13, 2017.