Study Guide to Gattaca

Director: Andrew Niccol

Screenplay: Andrew Niccol

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Jude Law, Uma Thurman, Gore Vidal

Distributor: Columbia Tristar

Release date: 20 March 1998

Certificate: 15

Running time: 106 minutes

Key Concepts

Genetics, genetic engineering, determinism, freedom, identity, discrimination

Summary

As soon as Vincent (Ethan Hawke for the adult version) is born, his DNA is analysed and his future capabilities are predicted—including the fact that he has a 99% chance of dying of a heart disorder when he is 30 years old. As a result, he is doomed to a life of menial labour.

However, he is determined to get to Gattaca Space Academy and so join space missions. Through his sheer determination—and the use of someone else’s very superior DNA which he buys illegally—he manages to achieve his ambition.

The film ends with him taking off in a rocket for Titan: he has overcome his genetic limitations and is free.

Cultural significance

Hardly a week passes without claims by scientists that they have isolated the gene for some particular disease or trait. Increasingly we are told that mental and emotional characteristics (a religious susceptibility for instance) can be attributed to our DNA. Insurance companies are wanting to increase genetic testing in order to identify high-risk applicants for life-insurance. More and more we are being defined by our genetic make-up. Gattaca explores these issues.

Biographical background

Gattaca is New Zealander Andrew Niccol’s second major screenplay and was his debut as a director. He says, ‘My genes made me do it. I don’t know when I first thought of it, but you can open a newspaper today, and I’m certain that you’ll read something about a new gene, and it became inescapable for me as a story idea.’ He had earlier written the screenplay for The Truman Show which opens later this year (in the UK).

Other films by Andrew Niccol

The Truman Show starring Jim Carrey, dir. Peter Weir, prod. Scott Rudin (Paramount Pictures, 1998)

Other resources on these ideas, reviews, etc.

Stephen Rose, Lifelines (Penguin, 1998)

Ben Elton, Popcorn (Simon and Schuster, 1996): a very different kind of look at the issue of human freedom and responsibility

Columbia Tristar Official Gattaca website (A very swish and informative site which includes ‘Gen-Ethics’ discussions and ‘Design-A-Child’)

Review by John Wirt (Advocate Online)

Review by Donna Bowman (Nashville Scene)

Deep Focus Movie Review by Bryant Frazer

Review by Ray Pride (New City Net)

Interview with Ethan Hawke (Mr Showbiz)

ELSI – Human Genome Project

Genomics

The Center for Bioethics

Genetics and Ethics

Biomedical Ethics Resources

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?” It continues to tell how our civilisation may, in the not too distant future, attempt to do this.

This is a world in which women take swabs of their lips to catch the saliva from a potential husband’s kiss in order to have the DNA analysed – to assess their positive and negative attributes. It is a world in which pianists are genetically engineered so that they can play pieces “that can only be played with 12 fingers”. It is a world in which police and security checks are carried out by immediate DNA analysis from blood samples.

Vincent, the main character, was conceived by a young couple in love – in the back of a car rather than in a laboratory. Thus he was destined to be a second class citizen along with others born in the same way – and called “faith births” or “degenerates” or “invalids”. Within seconds of his birth his DNA was analysed and his parents were told that he had a 99% chance of a heart disorder and should die when he was 30.2 years old.

His parents decided to have a second son through “natural birth” as it was called – a process involving careful genetic selection and manipulation. This carefully engineered the child from the best bits of the father and mother, producing a child that (this time) was good enough to take the father’s name – Anton.

The struggle between the two brothers, with their regular swimming competitions, illustrates the struggle between “faith births” and “natural births”.

No matter how hard he works Vincent is rejected by schools and then by employers. He observes “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.

But then Vincent decides to make the impossible become possible by “borrowing 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. Thus, whenever he gives a sample, it is Jerome’s DNA which is identified.

Vincent applies to train at Gattaca and finds that 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 also falls in love with Irene, another trainee – who’s DNA is good, but sufficiently flawed 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 in Gattaca. The police are called and the building is swept for human hairs, skin and saliva. One of Vincent’s hairs 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.

Ideas for discussion

• What do you think Andrew Niccol is trying to say by using the quote from Ecclesiastes 7:13 at the beginning of the film?
• How does Andrew Niccol seem to view developments in our understanding of genetics?
• How does the film handle the tension between human freedom and being determined by our genes?
• How would you describe the relationships between:
  • Vincent and his brother?
  • Vincent and Jerome?
• How should Christians view increased genetic testing by insurance company and other developments that lead in the Gattaca direction?
• What would you say to a friend who believed themselves to be solely a product of their DNA and with no true freedom?