FYeah Gattaca!

The Whatnauts is a weekly podcast about all sorts of cool things from comic books, manga, anime, movies and TV.

This week we discuss the movie, Gattaca!

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Genre: sci-fi, dystopia,

Year: 1997

Directed by: Andrew Niccol

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law

Notes: Title based on the beginning of the DNA sequence.

The story is set in a not so distant future. Eugenics is very common and is used to determine everything. Children are rarely conceived without eugenics, and those who are so, are considered to be easy pray to diseases and are heavily discriminated. In a world where your DNA matters more than your cv, a young man named Vincent Freeman dreams of working for Gattaca Aerospace Corporation and, eventually to go to space. But he is an in-valid, since he was conceived “naturally” and is forbidden to take such a job. Vincent is still a brilliant man and decides to prove that he can fool the system and obtain what he wants. He finds a donor, a now wheelchair-bound ex-swimmer named Jerome Eugene Morrow and he uses his dna and samples to get hired by Gattaca and to evade the continuous testings while he proves to be incredibly competent and physically fit in a way nobody would expect from an invalid. Things start to get problematic when one of Gattaca’s higher-ups is found murdered just a week before Vincent’s space flight.

Besides the stellar cast, this movie has many merits and details that make it worth watching. Let’s start with the theme, which is compelling and interestingly developed. The plot is well handled: it’s nothing groundbreaking, to be honest, but it does not make the movie boring, because the most interesting elements rely on character interactions and suspence, as we await for the moment in which, we fear, Vincent’s truth will be unveiled. The relationship between Vincent and Jerome is interesting, as they both depend on each other. And of course Vincent has a younger brother, Anthony, who was eugenetically conceived and therefore, the confrontation between the two is unavoidable. The genetically perfect Jerome is a wreck of a person, now a reject of society for not being perfect anymore (remember the wheelchair?). All the names have some reference to their status, Vincent meaning “victorious” and Eugene meaning “born well” (with good genes), and that without considering the obvious ones like Vincent’s last name (Freeman).

The whole aesthetic of the movie has been prepared with extreme care. Cars, buildings and clothes are reminiscent of a retro, ‘60s aesthetic, but with a futuristic spin that make this movie visually unique. The technology used by the characters feels modern and old, in a sort of uchronic feel. Everyone is impossibly beautiful - again, genetics - to the point of looking like propaganda. Thus, looking like a dystopia. The story told by this movie is a good example of why dystopias are possible, but utopias are not possible (and by definition). Any utopia would be based on the exclusion of someone deemed unfit to be part of it, and would therefore not be an utopia. Which is always an interesting lesson to remember.

Unfortunately Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is conceived naturally and winds up facing genetic discrimination and termed an ‘in-valid’. He mops floors at the Gattaca Aerospace Centre and watches rockets take off everyday, carrying his dream along with them into the dark skies, the dream to perhaps one day travel into space, beyond this world that has been nothing but unfair to him. He has a brother Anton, who is a product of eugenics- healthy, strong and wonderfully arrogant with the knowledge that he is superior to his older brother.

Seems I’m rambling too much about the plot so let me start getting to my point.

So there’s this game that Vincent plays with his brother Anton called ‘Chicken’ where they keep swimming out to the sea and whoever decides to turn back first, loses. Vincent always loses. Except for one day, when he just keeps going on and on. Anton comes close to drowning and Vincent saves him.

Years later, when the stakes are higher, they play again. We get to see a determined Vincent plunge his arms through the dark blue waters.

An exhausted Anton trailing behind finally asks him, “ Vincent! How are you doing this Vincent? How have you done any of this? We have to go back.”

Vincent replies, “ You wanna know how I did it? This is how I did it Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back.”

Isn’t that just incredible? I’ve watched this movie at least ten times and each time this damn scene hits me so hard. Imagine the courage it takes, to go all in, not knowing if you’ll have the strength to make it back. Imagine the potential in each of us, lurking behind caution and insurance and other safety nets we weave to stay secure. Imagine, imagine, imagine!