But just as Henrietta Lacks never got to see the impact she had on science and medicine, Hedy Lamarr was cheated out of her legacy. Dean's documentary does an amazing job of telling her story in her own voice, using newly discovered tapes from a 1990 interview with journalist Fleming Meeks. These show that, though Hedy was proud of her invention, she never fully grasped the full impact she'd had on the world. Nor did she ever get compensated for her contributions. In a post-screening panel with Dean, co-producer Susan Sarandon, and Diane Kruger (who is interviewed in the film), among others, patent lawyer Patricia Rogowski explained that, according to U.S. patent law, inventors have 20 years to make money on their inventions, after which their patent expires and the invention falls in the public domain. If they aren't properly recognized, they have 6 years after the patent expires to sue. It turns out that that Hedy's invention was used as the basis for something called a sonobuoy in the years following World War II — so she should have been paid. The end credits of the film state that her invention is worth an estimated $30 billion today. Hedy Lamarr died living on social security.