STEM is involved in so many aspects of our daily lives. In fact, it’s even present in the movies we watch! In this blog, I’ll be going over three films that offer a new perspective on what in STEM can achieve with their passion. These films are great to show to students in class, to watch at home, or even to briefly read about.
Hidden Figures (2017)

The first film is Hidden Figures. Hidden Figures is a film based on the real-life achievements of African American women at NASA in the 1950s and ’60s. At NASA, Mathematician Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson calculated the math problems necessary to ensure a safe travel around Earth for the first time. These women, like every black American at the time, were continually obstructed from their work due to segregation and discrimination. Although films can dramatize situations in order to create a more interesting story, this film highlights exactly how racism thrived 60’s and it expresses the importance of representation in the workplace. As a result of the film’s release, conversation started about how to create a more diverse workplace, not only just for people of color, but women as well. In fact, according to the National Science Board, women remain largely underrepresented in the nation’s STEM workforce. We need more budding mathematicians to help us as technology advances and space travel becomes more regular!
The Lego Movie (2013)

This next film is a personal favorite of mine! The LEGO Movie is about an ordinary Lego guy, Emmet, who is mistaken as “The Master Builder”, an extraordinary person, and recruited to work to take down an evil leader in the Lego world. This plot, though, is just a fictional scenario created by a real-world character in the film, Finn. Finn’s father is intended to be the “evil leader” of the Lego world; he superglues his sets together to prevent Finn from mismatching the pieces. In the Lego world, this means that those super glued pieces are stuck forever. Engineering is expressed through the Legos themselves through their creations of weapons and a robot that helps combat the evil tyrant and save the Lego world.
While this movie is so fun and entertaining on the surface, when you investigate how exactly it was made, you can start to be inspired with how talented the engineers who worked in this movie are. This film shows the product of virtual engineering with its use of CGI. It reminds me of the Lego club in my intermediate school that allowed students to get involved in beginner engineering skills though building Lego creations!
Back To The Future (1985)

The final film to highlight is Back to The Future. While time travel isn’t exactly a reality yet, this film still shows the amazing work of Scientist Doc Brown and his hilarious yet nail-biting adventure of making sure to correct wrongs in his world through time travel without changing the path for everyone else. Within the film, it features so much futuristic technology created by Doc. For example, the DeLorean Doc used to travel in time was created from a train engine. Also, this isn’t addressed in the first film, but Doc used components of the hoverboard from 2015, which gave him access to technological inventions in the future. In real life, the DeLorean was also considered way ahead of its time! John DeLorean, owner of DeLorean Motor Company, created the car with the intention of it being an “ethical sports car that would be durable, fuel-efficient and safe”, according to Volocars. The current CEO of this company even considers the DeLorean car to be the “Tesla of the past.” Knowing this, it shows that even the most out-of-this-world inventions or ideas, can become a reality. Although it’s not a moral touched on within the film, looking at the technological concepts this film introduced, it shows that someone with the time and knowledge, could create new technology that some may overlook or judge, but later on they appreciate. This classic movie is way ahead of its time with its futuristic technology, and who knows, maybe someone reading this will become the first scientist to successfully achieve time travel?
There you have it, three inspiring films that feature the amazing things possible in the world of STEM. If you enjoyed this blog, you can read more at: https://www.nstem.org/blog/!
Written By: Kathryn Cottingham
November 12, 2021