GATTACA
Director: Andrew Niccol
Composer: Michael Nyman
Actors: Ethan Hawke (Vincent/Jerome), Jude Law (Eugene), Uma Thurman (Irene)
Genre: Science fiction
Release date: 1997
The voice-over at the start of the film announces:
“The most unremarkable of events. Jerome Morrow, navigator first class, is about to
embark on a one-year manned-mission to Titan, the fourteenth moon of Saturn. A
highly prestigious assignment. Although for Jerome, selection was virtually guaranteed
at birth. He's blessed with all the gifts required for such an undertaking. A genetic
quotient second to none. No, there is truly nothing remarkable about the progress of
Jerome Morrow. Except that I am not Jerome Morrow.”
As soon as Vincent is born his blood is tested and it is announced that he has a 99% chance
of dying of a heart condition by the time he is 30. From that moment on his prospects are
limited by his physical imperfections.
Despite this he is determined to join Gattaca Space Academy and take part in space
missions. He trains both physically and mentally for the day he can interview for a place.
However, he is doomed to fail, as the interview consists only of a DNA sample which will
show him to be ‘invalid’, this future world’s term for anyone born other than through IVF.
Through sheer determination, and by using Jerome Eugene Morrow’s DNA, Vincent
not only joins Gattaca, he is chosen to go on a year long mission around Titan.
The film begins when a murder inside Gattaca sets in motion a train of events which
threaten all that Vincent (and Jerome) have worked so hard to achieve.
Overview
The film opens with a text from the Bible – Ecclesiastes 7:13 "Consider what God has done:
Who can straighten what he has made crooked?" In the “not too distant future” it would
appear than Man has indeed perfected God’s work.
This is a world in which a woman can take a swab of her lips to catch the saliva from
a man’s kiss in order to have his DNA analyzed to assess his potential as a husband and,
presumably, as father of her children; where a pianist has been genetically engineered to
have 12 fingers so that he can play pieces of music that can “only be played with twelve
fingers”; where police and security checks are carried out by immediate DNA analysis from
blood samples or saliva; and where DNA tests are a regular part of everyday life.
Vincent, the main character, was conceived by a young couple in love – in the back
of a car rather than in a laboratory. He, and those like him, are considered second-class
citizens and are called "faith births" or "degenerates" or "invalids".
His parents decided to have a second son through "natural birth" as it was called – a
process involving careful genetic selection and manipulation. Vincent’s younger brother was
therefore good enough to take the father’s name – Anton.
Throughout the film, the struggle between the two brothers, with their regular
swimming competitions, illustrates the struggle between "faith births" and "natural births".
(The brothers swim against each other three times in the film.)
No matter how hard he works, Vincent is rejected by schools and then by employers.
He says: "My real resume is in my cells. They have discrimination down to a science." In
time Vincent becomes a cleaner at Gattaca, a space exploration centre, where he watches the
rockets take off and longs to be able to fly one - a dream made impossible by his genes.
In order to make the impossible become possible, Vincent "borrows a ladder". He
teams up with Jerome Morrow, a competition swimmer with excellent genes, who had
broken his back when hit by a car and who now needs money to pay for his excessive
drinking. Vincent dyes his hair, has coloured contact lenses fitted, has an operation to
lengthen his legs and assumes Jerome’s identity.
Each morning Vincent scrubs off all his loose skin and hairs before sticking on his
finger tips small patches containing Jerome’s blood and strapping to his legs a bag of
Jerome’s urine. Whenever he gives a sample, it is Jerome’s DNA which is identified.
When Vincent applies (as Jerome) to train at Gattaca the interview process is nothing
but a quick analysis of his urine. With genes like that he is immediately accepted and is soon
scheduled for a flight to Titan.
During his training he falls in love with Irene, another trainee, whose DNA is good,
but sufficiently flawed (she has a minor heart defect) that she is told that she will not be
allowed to fly any long missions.
The flight is nearly cancelled by the mission director – but someone murders him
inside Gattaca. The police are called and the building is swept for human hairs, skin and
saliva. One of Vincent’s own eyelashes is discovered and the police set out to track down
this "invalid" who is their most obvious suspect. They eventually discover the real murderer
to be another of Gattaca’s directors (someone who had earlier thrown the investigators off
by saying "Look at my DNA profile, I don’t have a violent bone in my body").
The film ends with Vincent taking off in the rocket on his flight to the stars.
Important scenes:
The credits and opening scene
The swimming sequences
The flashbacks – in sepia
The blood test
The climbing of the staircase
When first Irene and later Vincent give each other a hair for DNA sampling
The final scenes where the action shifts between Vincent and Eugene
(You may wish to add more to this list.)
The tagline of the film is : "There is no gene for the human spirit." This is a film about one
man’s determination to rise above the limitations that society has placed upon him. Through
his determination he achieves his dream and frees himself both literally and figuratively
from the constraints placed upon him within this world of the ‘not-too-distant future’.
The relationship between the two brothers is strained from the beginning. Vincent’s father
does not want his ‘imperfect’ son to be named after him. His second son, thanks to the help
of the geneticist, is worthy of the name Anton. In flashback, we see Anton being measured
and compared favourably with his shorter, older brother who by this time is wearing glasses
– another sign of genetic weakness. In the first of the swimming sequences, we see Anton
refuse to play ‘blood brothers’ and then beat Vincent easily. That is what makes the second
swimming sequence so important as Vincent beats his ‘superior’ brother and he realizes that
anything is possible. Significantly he tears his picture from the family photograph.
When the grown-up brothers meet again, Anton is leading the murder investigation
that threatens to expose Vincent. Vincent is not guilty of the murder but it is illegal to
‘borrow’ someone else’s DNA.
In the third swimming sequence it is Anton who is angry and puzzled. How did his
‘inferior’ brother beat him in their earlier swim? How has he been able to do what he has
done? Again, Vincent beats Anton. As Vincent rescues Anton from drowning, the clouds
part and he looks up at the stars – this is symbolic of his own struggle and of their struggle as
brothers where DNA defines who you are and what you can and cannot be.
Swimming as a recurring motif, is also important as a symbol of Eugene’s failure to
live up to the promise of his near-perfect genetic profile. His unsuccessful suicide attempt
which left him in a wheelchair was the result of his being unable to accept being secondbest. (The medal he won was silver not gold.) Vincent, meanwhile, through his
determination and force of will is able to fulfill his dream of going to the stars. That Vincent
is a symbol of hope in this bleak future is underlined in the scene near the end of the film
when the doctor taking Vincent’s final and unexpected urine sample falsifies the results. The
doctor tells Vincent about his less than perfect son. Vincent is proof for both father and son
that anything is possible.
The name "Gattaca" is made up of the letters used to label the nucleotide bases of DNA. The
four nucleotide bases of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) are adenine, thymine, cytosine, and
guanine.
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The winding stairs in Jerome's apartment have the structure of a double helix, like
DNA.
Jude Law's character asks to be called by his middle name, Eugene. "Eugene" comes
from the Greek for "well born," which Jerome is. "Eugenics" (the science of improving
the hereditary qualities of a race or breed) is the central theme of the film.
The FBI agents are called "Hoovers," a reference to J. Edgar Hoover, but also a
reference to a vacuum cleaner brand. There are numerous shots of vacuums being used
to gather DNA evidence.
Quotations
“Jerome Morrow was never meant to be one step down on the podium.”
“When they look at you, they don’t see you any more, they see me.”
“They've got you looking so hard for any flaw that after a while that's all you see.” (Jerome
to Irene)
“No, no. I got the better end of the deal. I only lent you my body …you lent me your dreams.”
Jerome: “What about the interview?” Lamar: “That was it.”
“Each day I would …limit how much of my IN-VALID self I would leave in the VALID world.”
“No one exceeds their potential. If they do it just means we didn't judge it accurately in the first
place."
"Yeah, but if the glass is clean, it'll be easier for you to see me when I'm on the other side of it!"
“They used to say that a child conceived in love had a greater chance of happiness. They don’t say
that anymore”
“Manic depression, 42% probability, attention deficit disorder 89% probability, heart disorder 99%
probability.”
“You want to give your child the very best start… this child is still you, simply the best of you.”
(Geneticist)
“With all I had going for me, I was still second best. Me.”
"What about you, your majesty? You're dreaming of space? Come here. You can start by cleaning
this space right here!"
“It was the one moment in our lives that my brother was not as strong as he believed, and I was not
as weak. It was the moment that made everything else possible.”
“Ten fingers, ten toes. That's all that used to matter. Not now. Now, only seconds old, the exact time
and cause of my death was already known.”
“For the genetically superior, success is easier to attain, but it's by no means guaranteed. After all
there is no gene for fate.”
“I was now a member of a relatively new and particularly detested segment of society; one of those
who refuses to play the hand that he was dealt. I am most commonly known as a borrowed ladder, or
a de-gene-erate.”
“You know I wasn't drunk …When I walked in front of that car…I stepped right out in front of it. I'd
never been more sober in my life…Couldn't even get that right could I? If at first you don't succeed,
try, try again.”
“By the time we were playing at being blood brothers I understood that there was something very
different flowing through my veins. And I'd need an awful lot more than a drop if I was going to get
anywhere.”
“I belonged to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the colour of your skin. No,
we now have discrimination down to a science.”
Choose a film with an opening sequence which captures your interest.
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film as a whole.
OR
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Describe the relationship and show how the filmmakers use the techniques of film to keep you
interested in the relationship.
Identify the key points of the question.
Use your opening paragraph to identify the focus of your answer.
Choose a film with an opening sequence which captures your interest.
Say what interests you in the sequence and show how the sequence made a good beginning to the
film as a whole.
OR
Choose a film which deals with at least one important relationship.
Describe the relationship and show how the filmmakers use the techniques of film to keep you
interested in the relationship.
Identify the key points of the question.
Use your opening paragraph to identify the focus of your answer.
Choose a film with an opening sequence which captures your interest.
Say what interests you in the sequence and show how the sequence made a good beginning to the
film as a whole.
OR
Choose a film which deals with at least one important relationship.
Describe the relationship and show how the filmmakers use the techniques of film to keep you
interested in the relationship.
Identify the key points of the question.
Use your opening paragraph to identify the focus of your answer.
Choose a film with an opening sequence which captures your interest.
Say what interests you in the sequence and show how the sequence made a good beginning to the
film as a whole.
OR
Choose a film which deals with at least one important relationship.
Describe the relationship and show how the filmmakers use the techniques of film to keep you
interested in the relationship.
Identify the key points of the question.
Use your opening paragraph to identify the focus of your answer.