Gattaca is a 1997 science fiction film which presents a society driven by genetic engineering.The story centers on Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), who was born naturally but has a younger brother who was optimized. Vincent has poor eyesight and a heart defect, but wants to work on the space program at the eponymous agency. He joins forces with Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law), 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 Love Interest Irene Cassini (Uma Thurman).Compare and contrast Brave New World.
Auto Erotica: The main character was conceived this way.
Badass Normal: Through sheer training and determination, Vincent becomes almost equal to any of the * Designer Babies he works with.
Badass Boast: "If the glass is clean it'll be easier for you to see me on the other side of it."
Bigger Is Better in Bed: Despite his overall genetic inferiority, Vincent is mentioned to be superior in one notable area. The doctor reveals at the end that he knew it 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.
Blind Without 'Em: Vincent is myopic, and wears contact lenses to fake perfect eyesight. In one scene he has to ditch the lenses to duck a police inspection. Then he has to cross a busy highway. Yikes.
Born Winner: Played straight and subverted throughout the movie.
Bury Your Disabled: Jerome, Type 3, although his suicide is presented as strong and noble, rather than pathetic and induced by Wangst.
Days of Future Past: Specifically, a blend of early '60s' style and 30s noir. The plot and theme has a very '50's Science Fiction feel, actually.
Particularly, there are a lot of notable similarities and parallels in both atmosphere, setting, and characterization to indie and/or sci-fi works by Philip K. Dick (very much so, especially those written in the 60s), and 90s movies by the Wachowski Brothers and Darren Aronofsky, all of which reflected a similar stylised dystopian bent with works set Twenty Minutes into the Future.
Designer Babies: This film is the former Trope Namer. The embryo products of in vitro fertilization are screened for genetic predispositions for unwanted traits. Embryo without genetic defects are brought to term and these children are considered superior to children born by random chance. Whether they actually are or not is played with—Vincent has a high probability for developing a heart condition, but his heart is fine. Despite this, he can't match Jerome even with his training.
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.
In a bit of a subversion, the genetic engineering doesn't always work exactly like it should. Irene has heart problems, and 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.
Everybody Smokes: Which seems strange given the vision of the future presented.
Failed a Spot Check: Whenever they check Jerome's blood, his name and photo show up on a computer screen with the word "VALID". That said, the guy giving the sample is Vincent, who looks nothing like Jerome. People have grown so complacent in depending on the DNA checks that they commit the first-week-of-basic-training mistake of not comparing the ID to the ID holder.
Somewhat downplayed as it was necessary for Jerome to dye his hair the same color as Vincent and it was necessary for Jerome to "stretch" both of pairs of his tibia/fibula in order to be the same height as Jerome.
Also subverted by the doctor. He knew full well that Vincent wasn't Jerome, he just didn't care.
Future Slang: Derisive terms for non-engineered people abound: Godchild, faithbirth, etc.
In the Blood: The true murderer isn't even considered a possible suspect for most of the investigation, on the dubious grounds that his genotype contains no markers for violent behavior.
Ironic Echo: After Irene mentions her heart condition:
Irene: (handing Vincent a piece of her hair for a DNA test) Here. If you're still interested [after finding out the truth], let me know.
Vincent: (drops hair) Oops. The wind caught it.
Later, after Irene discovers Vincent isn't actually Jerome:
Vincent: (hands Irene a strand of hair) Here. If you're still interested, let me know.
Irene: (drops hair) Oops. The wind caught it.
I Want My Jet Pack: Now that the scientists have finished the Human Genome project, no one knows what exactly to do with it. We still don't have Gattaca Babies yet.
Though, arguably, we're a lot closer to being able to do a lot of what was done in the movie, what, with medical technology having come as far as it has now. We can screen for all sorts of things with prenatal testing and it is possible to create "designer babies". Ethics, of course, are heavily involved in all this, which may explain why we don't live in Gattaca world yet.
Invitro Fertilization already is using the technique of identifying the most optimal embryos as canidates for uterine implantation and it is already possible (for an exhorbitant sum of money) to clone your favorite cat for the next generation.
Lamp Shaded Double Entendre: Vincent's excuse to weasel out of getting his mouth swabbed at a checkpoint. He nods in Irene's direction and says they'd just get a contaminated sample.
Also, the title of the movie and eponymous agency is spelled using the initials of the four DNA bases (the parts that define genes).
Also, "Vincent" means "winner" in Latin.
Also, Jerome may suggest "genome".
Also, Eugene means "well-born"
Also, Morrow suggests "Tomorrow"
Also, Cassini from the Cassini Space Probe
Also, in science the prefix "eu" means "real" (eukaryote=real nucleus), so Eugene means "real gene"...
In the Greek from which it comes, "eu" means "good" - so we get the incredibly blatant Jerome Good-Gene Morrow.
Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Why does nobody figure out that Vincent is not Jerome when the real Jerome has a British accent and Vincent never even tries to fake it?
One-Scene Wonder: Tony Shalhoub has a few minutes as the underground contact who brings Vincent and Jerome together, helping and lending the equipment necessary for the fraud, and is brilliant as a genetic profile carsalesman.
Planet of Hats: With the planet in question the future Earth, of course.
As Jerome burns himself in the furnace, his silver medal he's wearing turns gold.
Zeerust: The movie focuses its future speculation on genetic engineering, so it's natural that other aspects of the film's future would be less well thought out. Still, it can be a bit odd watching the movie and wondering why the televisions and computer monitors look like they're stuck in The Nineties.
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