Line #18 Fridge/Gattaca


1	!FridgeBrilliance
2	* Early in the film, Dr. Lamar waxes poetic about Vincent's impressive equipment, wishing that ''his'' parents had though to order him one like that. This serves a dual purpose: It highlights that a natural-born human can excel over their genetically-engineered rivals, and also ensures that the audience knows that Lamar ''is'' paying attention when Vincent is peeing in the cup. As we learn by the end of the film: Lamar knows that Vincent is cheating the test.
3	** Pay attention to Lamar throughout the film: When the investigators are standing around his workstation while the candidates are on the treadmills, he makes a point of talking about how reliably regular Vincent's heart is, as if to remind them that he can't possibly be an Invalid. And then when Vincent's heartrate spikes, Lamar takes a quick look at his station, making it clear that he noticed, but does not mention it to anyone.
4	* The lead investigator spends most of the film going unnamed, because learning his name would spoil his identity as Vincent's brother Anton. Having said that, notice how much effort he puts into trying to direct the investigation away from the Invalid at Gattaca and towards anyone else who might have a motive in the murder. Even though he is eventually proven right, Anton is implied to be working purely to protect his brother the whole time, since he saw his face on the screen when they tested the eyelash and he would recognize his own brother.
5
6	!FridgeHorror
7	* The murderer the detectives are seeking turns out to have been someone genetically engineered to be calm and even-tempered; which means that the murderer must have been [[TranquilFury very calm and rational]] even while ''brutally smashing the guy's skull''. The murderer was also very likely aware that making the crime look like it had been done in a fit of rage would shift suspicion onto any "invalid" in the company. That's a pretty solid case for convicting the culprit of "cold and premeditated" murder in the first degree in court.
8	** Just because he was ''designed'' to be calm and even tempered doesn't mean he would never lose his temper, just that he'd need to be well and truly pushed over the edge to go into a rage. In any case, the film has a running theme of the DesignerBabies not living up to the expectations their engineered perfection placed before them.
9	!FridgeLogic:
10	* Why does Gattaca (the facility) keep testing its employees' genetic material once they've been certified as genetically pure? This wouldn't be a problem if they did it to catch Vincent, but they've never had this problem before.
11	** Maybe they wanted to make sure something like this could never happen again?
12	** The fingertip blood checks seem to be the new high-tech version of a company requiring you to scan an ID badge to enter the workplace. The urine testing is a drug test (certainly necessary at a place like Gattaca) that has an ID check as a simple side effect.
13	* Jerome must have been quite famous in his time. So how come nobody seems to know that he ended up in a wheelchair after his suicide attempt, and it's absolutely okay and not questionable to see him (or Vincent, actually) walk?
14	** Do you know about the life after sports of an athlete who won a silver medal then didn't compete again? All his competitors would care is that he stopped competing and therefore is out of their way.
15	* The 'Geneticists' would eventually put themselves out of business because the 'Valid' children would produce 'optimum' children thus removing the need for them.
16	** Why settle for 'optimum' when you can have a child engineered to be 'perfect'? Besides, there may still be the chance of recessive genes even with engineered parents.
17	* The reason Vincent couldn't be an astronaut. While the film shows the predictions for genetic problems or potential can be inaccurate, with Vincent noting his supposed time of death has long since past, the exercise scenes do show his heart problem ''is'' real, which brings a few nasty implications. In the words of [[http://www.cracked.com/article/232_6-movies-with-uplifting-messages-that-can-kill-you_p2/ Cezary Jan Strusiewicz of Cracked]]:
18	-->"If you have a condition that can kill you at any moment, common courtesy dictates you do not sneak into a profession where you're responsible for keeping a whole bunch of people alive. Whether it be here ''or'' on a super long flight through the cold, unfeeling vacuum of space... If Ethan slips away mid-flight to take a dump and his heart fails while he's sitting on the toilet, you've got a rocket ship full of future people that's going to smash into the nearest celestial body at about 15,000 miles per hour... There are some jobs you just shouldn't have, you selfish fuck. [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU]]".

Context Fridge / Gattaca