History Film / Gattaca

* FantasticRacism: The entire point of the film. Although discrimination based on genetics is supposed to be illegal, Vincent says "no one takes the law seriously," because they can easily check your DNA to find out, thus it's nevertheless present from birth, preventing him from getting into a good school and finding a good job despite his hard work and intelligence. Which is why he decides to impersonate someone else to work at Gattaca.]

* PoliceAreUseless: The police constantly focus on Vincent, assuming that the In-Valid must be responsible for the murder at Gattaca. If not for the one rational cop on the investigation (old cop, who is clearly In-Valid and yet superior thanks to years of experience), they not only would have failed to find the murderer, they wouldn't even have come close to finding Vincent.

* FantasticRacism: The entire point of the film. Although discrimination based on genetics is supposed to be illegal, Vincent says "no one takes the law seriously," because they can easily check your DNA to find out, thus it's nevertheless present from birth, preventing him from getting into a good school and finding a good job despite his hard work and intelligence. [[spoiler: Which is why he decides to impersonate someone else to work at Gattaca.]]

* ShownTheirWork: The device used to lengthen Vincent's legs? Pretty much completely accurate.

* WritersCannotDoMath: At one point Vincent says that his heart is "already 10,000 beats overdue". So assuming that the average human heart beats around 80 times a minute, that's just over 2 hours.
** YMMY: He could have just pulled the number out of the air to be dramatic.

* DarwinistDesire: On the one hand, parent's wanting their children to be better led to a generation of DesignerBabies. On the other, once they became adults these people still view genetic fitness as the prime reason to enter into a relationship, despite it being pretty much irrelevant to having perfect children and has marriage be based only on the perceived genetic fitness of a potential mate.

* OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture: Despite having {{Holographic Terminal}}s and CasualInterstellarTravel at Gattaca, their handheld testers are fairly simplistic. See {{Zeerust}}.

** Cassini from the Cassini Space Probe.
*** You definitely meant Giovanni Cassini, 17th century Italian astronomer known for his studies of Saturn.

* DarwinistDesire: On the one hand, parent's wanting their children to be better led to a generation of DesignerBabies. On the other, once they became adults these people still view genetic fitness as the prime reason to enter into a relationship, despite it being pretty much irrelevant to having perfect children.
has marriage be based only on the perceived genetic fitness of a potential mate.

** Jerome became disabled because he attempted suicide after failing to meet the high standards expected from his genes, so it seems like at least a ZigZaggingTrope.

** Looks like we're [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19850_5-absurd-sci-fi-scenarios-science-actually-working-on_p2.html already advancing in that direction.]] Of course, arguments that genetically engineering the next generation to be supermen (and women) will be rebutted with the argument that [[LensmanArmsRace if we don't do it, our enemies will]], and no-one wants their future grandchildren at a disadvantage against communist super-soldiers.

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The beginning of the movie actually notes it being "The Not-Too-Distant Future". Whether or not it's [[{{Mystery Science Theater 3000}} next Sunday AD]] is anyone's guess.

** A natural-born individual who assumes the identity of an engineered person was often referred to as a "Borrowed ladder" or, less flatteringly, a "de-''gene''-erate".

* FutureSlang: Derisive terms for non-engineered people abound: Faithbirth, Godchild, In-Valid, etc.

* FantasticRacism: The entire point of the film. Although discrimination based on genetics is supposed to be illegal, Vincent says "no one takes the law seriously," because they can easily check your DNA to find out, thus its nevertheless present from birth, preventing him from getting into a good school and finding a good job despite his hard work and intelligence. [[spoiler: Which is why he decides to impersonate someone else to work at Gattaca.]]

* [[spoiler:[[MurderByCremation Suicide By Cremation]]]]

** Particularly, there are a lot of notable similarities and parallels in both atmosphere, setting, and characterization to indie and/or sci-fi works by PhilipKDick (very much so, ''especially'' those written in the 60s), and 90s movies by the Wachowski brothers and DarrenAronofsky, all of which reflected a similar stylised dystopian bent with works set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture.

** It's 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.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: The staircase in Vincent and Jerome's apartment is twisted and spiraled just like DNA.
** [[spoiler:As Jerome burns himself in the furnace, his silver medal he's wearing turns gold.]]

* PoliceAreUseless: The police constantly focus on Vincent, assuming that the In-Valid must be responsible for the murder at Gattaca. If not for the one rational cop on the investigation ([[spoiler:Vincent's brother]]), they not only would have failed to find the murderer, they wouldn't even have come close to finding Vincent.