''Gattaca'' is a 1997 science fiction film which presents a society driven by liberal eugenics.

The story centers on Vincent, who was born naturally but has a [[SiblingRivalry younger brother]] who was optimized. Vincent has poor eyesight and a heart defect, but wants to work on the space program at the titular agency. He joins forces with Jerome Eugene Morrow, who has perfect genes but was crippled when he attempted to commit suicide by jumping in front of a car. Using contact lenses and copious amounts of Eugene's hair and blood while being careful not to lose a trace of his own genetic material, Vincent manages to pass himself off as a Valid and get a job at Gattaca, where he succeeds by hard work and determination despite his inferior genes.

However, a week before Vincent is scheduled to leave Earth on a mission to Saturn's moon Titan, the Missions Director is murdered and one of Vincent's in-valid eyelashes is found on the scene. He must now avoid being discovered despite intense police scrutiny and his progressing relationship with his LoveInterest Irene.
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!!This Movie Contains Examples of:
* {{Anvilicious}}: A borderline case already. ''Definitely'' so had the director included the postlude included in the deleted scenes on the DVD.
* AssholeVictim: The Mission Director.
* AutoErotica: The main character was conceived this way.
* BadassNormal: Through sheer training and determination, Vincent becomes almost equal to any of the GattacaBabies he works with.
* BiggusDickus: Despite his overall genetic inferiority, Vincent is mentioned to be superior in one notable area. The doctor [[spoiler:reveals at the end that he knew Vincent was fake all along, and is literally complimenting Vincent on the ''equipment'' he used to pull off the scam, which would by necessity require a fake phallus to cover the delivery system from the urine pouch]].
* BlindWithoutEm: Vincent is myopic, and wears contact lenses to fake perfect eyesight. In one scene [[spoiler:he has to ditch the lenses to duck a police inspection. Then he has to cross a busy highway.]] Yikes.
* BornWinner: Played straight and subverted throughout the movie.
* ChekovsGun: The incinerator.
* [[{{CrowningMoment/Film}} Crowning Moment of Awesome (Film)]]: Paraplegic Eugene's stair-climbing scene.
* DaysOfFuturePast: Specifically, a blend of early '60s' style and 30s noir. The plot and theme has a very '50's ScienceFiction feel, actually.
* EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage: All public address announcements are in Esperanto.
* EverybodySmokes: Which seems strange given the vision of the future presented.
** Well, they all have zero risk of cancer...
*** Zero genetic risk, that is, smoking can still do terrible damage to your health.
*** This troper suspects that this has more to do with the Days Of Future Past motif than anything else.
* FridgeLogic: 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.
** They're actually drug tests, but the movie's AppliedPhlebotinum is [[YouFailBiologyForever ubiquitous instant genetic screening]] - the computers analyze genetics at the same time just as a matter of fact.
** There's also the drop of blood employees have to give via finger prick upon entering the building, which replaces photo IDs.
*** Exactly: in the world GATTACA sets up genetic material is used as the primary form of identification. The daily drops of blood are equivalent to the access cards used by some secure buildings, while the more intrusive blood and saliva testing seems roughly equivalent to looking at a driver's license.
* FutureSlang: Derisive terms for non-engineered people abound: Godchild, faithbirth, etc.
* GattacaBabies: This film is the Trope. Births via gene manipulation are considered superior to children born the natural way.
** Which, to be fair, in this movie they are. Vincent is inferior to the GattacaBabies and really doesn't have what it takes to be an astronaut. With that heart condition he probably couldn't be an astronaut in the real world either.
*** Actually, the heart condition is 99% probability - this troper always thought that Vincent was just lucky
**** It's repeatedly established throughout the movie that Vincent has a perfectly sound heart--- its merely that he has ''a high genetic likelihood'' of developing a heart condition (which is enough in the eugenic society to damn him as defective.) It's also implied that Irene's heart condition is largely, if not entirely, psychosomatic-- she was told she was defective, and so she is.... or at least experiences enough symptoms to believe she is.
***** Although there is no indication of imminent heart failure, the movie shows that Vincent's heart, despite his obsessive training, has trouble handling the strain of intense exercise--something which would be unheard of for a fit [[GattacaBabies Gattaca baby]] like Eugene. That is why Vincent must use Eugene's recorded heartbeat to mask his own.
** In a bit of a subversion, the genetic engineering doesn't always work exactly like it should. Irene has heart problems, and [[spoiler:the doctor who tests Vincent for his genes has a son who "Wasn't everything they promised." This is also why he lets Vincent pass right before he gets on the shuttle when he forgot his bag of urine.]]
*** [[spoiler: it's implied that Vincent didn't forget the bag, as he was reminded just before he left for Saturn about the blood and thought that he wouldn't need it on the trip. Also, the doctor is implied to have suspected the deception the entire time, because "Jerome," a right-handed man, takes a urine test with it in his left hand, which he points out in a throwaway line just before Vincent gets on. He also mentions that his son was a huge fan of Jerome Morrow, meaning he would have known about the real Jerome's injury.]]
**** I think it's clear that he didn't bring the bag, as he's shown to be worried, and says "just remember I was as good as anybody" *while* taking the test.
*** It's not genetic engineering, it's explicitly stated to be genetic screening - they don't modify the genes, they just select the one from many potential children that happens to have all the perfect ones. There are still lots of things that can go wrong with a child selected in this way as they're still a normal human - which is kinda the point of the film; the discrimination would be slightly more justified if they were actually superhuman.
**** It is implied that Jerome ''is'' engineered; "Possessing a genetic profile second to none". But he falls short of his goals over and over again because he lacks Vincent's determination - which is implied to be a ''result'' of challenging the limitations of a flawed genetic profile.
**** And there is the talented pianist who has 12 fingers. Rather a case of genetic engineering than of genetic screening.
***** I don't know if they said it was engineering. Polydactyly is a natural mutation, that someone could have selected for.
* GeniusCripple: Mostly subverted with Eugene.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Averted, which is probably the point.
* HoYay: Vincent and Eugene. To an extent, Vincent and his brother, too.
* LocardsTheory
* MeaningfulName: Vincent ''Freeman'' and Jerome ''Eugene'' Morrow.
* NoSexAllowed: The prevalence of eugenics implies that most people of any worth were grown in a test tube. Faith babies made the old-fashioned way are an underclass.
* ParanoiaFuel
* PlanetOfHats: With the planet in question the future Earth, of course.
* ScrewDestiny: a biological take on this
* SecondPlaceIsForLosers
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
* YouFailBiologyForever: Current SOTA genetic testing takes ''weeks'' to identify specific genetic factors - primarily because the genetic material has to be replicated several million times with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCR PCR]], a process that amplifies ''errors'' as well. Yet TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture we will have gizmos that completely decode a person's genetic material in ''seconds''? That's [[TheSingularity post-Singularity]] MagicFromTechnology.
** Genomics has actually been benefiting from Moore's Law in a huge way: consider how much earlier than planned the Human Genome Project was done. Cost's been dropping like a stone, too. SNP fingerprinting would still be more plausible instantaneous analysis than full-genome sequencing on the fly (is that explicitly what they were doing?) but it's not "Fail Biology Forever" territory.
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