Film / Gattaca

3 Following

×

WHERE TO WATCH

SUBSCRIPTION

fuboTV

Stream

Tubi TV

Stream

PURCHASE

Amazon Video

RentBuy

Fandango At Home

RentBuy

Google Play Movies

RentBuy

YouTube

RentBuy

Apple TV Store

RentBuy

Powered by JustWatch

Gattaca is a 1997 Science Fiction film written and directed by Andrew Niccol, in his filmmaking debut, which presents a biopunk vision of a futuristic society driven by genetic engineering. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, with Jude Law, Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal, and Alan Arkin in supporting roles.

The story centers on Vincent Freeman (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 (Law), who has perfect genes but was crippled after being struck by 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 Mission Director is murdered in his office 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 (Thurman), while discovering who the real killer is.

Compare and contrast Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

This movie contains examples of:

• 0% Approval Rating: One of the detectives notes that he sees "a lot of dry eyes" around the place after Gattaca's director is murdered.
• 20 Minutes into the Future: The beginning of the movie actually notes it being "The Not-Too-Distant Future". The year is kept vague, and much of the style we see is based on the 1950s and 1960s to make the setting seem timeless.
• The Alcoholic: Jerome. He is drowning his sorrows after his accident and dealing with all the other problems his failing to live up to his "perfection" brought.
• Alleged Lookalikes: The fact that DNA samples are more noticed than faces is mentioned. Vincent is initially skeptical, as he and Jerome look almost nothing alike, but is convinced that nobody looks at ID photos anymore. The photo on Jerome that comes up on the ID is actually a blend of Ethan Hawke and Jude Law's faces, making both of them using it at one point slightly more believable. The only person who notices that Vincent and Jerome look different is Irene—and, it's heavily implied, Vincent's brother, Anton.
• Almost Kiss: During Vincent and Irene's dance at the club, they begin to inch closer for a kiss only to be interrupted by the entrance of Detective Hugo.
• Always Someone Better:
  • The reason Jerome is so disillusioned with himself.
  • For Vincent, this is his brother. See Sibling Rivalry.
• Ancestral Name: Vincent's parents initially planned to name him, their firstborn son, Anton after his father, but after said father learned of the bad genetic hand his son had been dealt, he abruptly changed his mind and decided to give him a different name (he did keep Anton as the middle name, but the meaning of his choice was clear). To add insult to injury, when his second, genetically optimized son was born, he decided to name him Anton instead, which really put an edge on the Sibling Rivalry.
• Anti-Villain: The actual killer. While Director Josef is a believer in the genetic caste system, he's a Benevolent Boss towards Vincent, has a sympathetic motive -the Mission Director was looking to kill a project he'd been waiting most of his life for and was too old to have another chance at- and he's willing to confess once the success of the mission has been assured.
• Artistic License – Biology:
  • Unless there's blood or other stuff that's not supposed to be in there in it, urine doesn't contain genetic material. There will almost certainly be shed epithelial cells from the urethra in there though.
  • There's also considerable debate about how much DNA is in hair. Most sources say it's just in the root, but others say that fragmentary DNA can still be found in the strand.
  • The title is made from the four nitrogen bases "letters" (GCAT). The complementary strand would be CTAATGT. The mRNA strand would be CUAAUGU.
• Artistic License – Space:
  • Barring some amazing propulsion system they didn't mention it would take far longer than a year to get to Titan.
  • Titan is not transparent by a long shot, but it's not completely opaque, as Vincent tells Jerome. However this was the common perception back in the 1990s when this was filmed and before the Cassini-Huygens probe got to Titan in 2004. Also given near-future engines, it would be possible as well. In real life, they're still in the research phase...
• Asshole Victim: The Mission Director. No one mourns him, at least not at work, and the only concern is how his murder will affect the upcoming missions.
• Auto Erotica: Vincent was (accidentally) conceived this way. Deconstructed, because this prevents him from being born as a designer baby and essentially renders him an outcast to society, consequently driving much of the film's plot.
• Back-Alley Doctor: Tony Shalhoub's character in addition to dealing in genetic profiles, also seems a skilled surgeon, dentist, and optician to make the identity swaps to work. Justified due to likely being one of the genetically perfect elite himself.
• Badass Boast: "If the glass is clean it'll be easier for you to see me on the other side of it".
• Badass Normal: Through sheer training and determination, Vincent becomes almost equal to any of the Designer Babies he works with.
• Becoming the Mask: Vincent is terrified his past will catch up with him but Eugene points out that society is so wrapped up in thinking about people on a genetic level that they've started to ignore their faces and that Jerome has already become the mask.
  Eugene: You still don't understand. When people look at you, they don't see you anymore. They only see me.
• 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.
• Bilingual Bonus: The public address announcements are given in both English and Esperanto. The Esperanto League of North America is credited for its translation assistance.
• Bittersweet Ending: Vincent achieves his dream of flying on the mission to Titan and wins the love of Irene, but Jerome commits suicide as the rocket takes off.
• Blasphemous Boast: Implied with the fantastic slur "Faith-birth" for the in-valids. As in, their parents decided to put their genetic future in God's hands and He failed.
• 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.
• Bookends: There are quite a few mostly inconsequential moments early in the film that are paralleled during and around the climax in ways more meaningful to the plot. Vincent and Anton's swimming races, the urine test, "Oops, the wind caught it"...
• Born Winner: Played straight and subverted throughout the movie.
• Borrowed Biometric Bypass: In this setting, a person's ID is their DNA, so someone with inferior genes can potentially trick the system by carefully using samples of a Born Winner's DNA while concealing their own. Vincent borrows Eugene Morrow's DNA with his consent so he can follow his dreams, which would be inaccessible to him otherwise.
• Burning the Ships: Invoked: When they were kids, Vincent and Anton would play a game of "chicken" where they would swim out to sea as far as possible with the loser being the one who turns back first. Anton would always win until Vincent beat him by deliberately not saving energy for the swim back, mirroring how Vincent got to where he is in life: by never considering a way back.
• Bury Your Disabled: At the very end, although Jerome's suicide is presented as strong and noble, rather than pathetic or induced by Wangst.
• Career-Ending Injury: Jerome Morrow was once a champion swimming star with a genetic quotient "second to none", until a traffic accident left him paraplegic. He later confesses to Vincent the injury was no accident; it was from a failed suicide.
• Casual Interplanetary Travel: Gattaca is a space agency that performs several launches a day, and space travel has become so common that Vincent is thought to be unusual for wanting to watch the takeoff every time (since his dearest dream is to travel in space himself). When he finally gets to go on the mission to Titan, he and his fellow astronauts don't even wear space suits.
• Cassette Futurism: In addition to the Zeerusty anesthetics, the world of Gattaca features several elements from the 90s, specifically the computers and the Magne Charge inductive chargers the electric cars use, the latter of which was only used with 90's electric cars like the General Motors EV-1.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Vincent's brother the cop, and Director Josef, who killed the Mission Director.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Back-Alley Doctor in charge of helping Vincent impersonate Jerome vanishes from the plot entirely after his first few scenes, with little mention of him thereafter.
• Crapsaccharine World: Despite looking pristine and well-organized, the world of Gattaca is not a nice place to live for anyone with less than perfect genetics. And even the latter can come up short.
• Cure Your Gays: In a deleted scene, when the geneticist asks Antonio and Marie if he had forgotten anything, they mention that they want Anton to marry and give them some grandchildren. As he has already taken care of any genetic diseases that would inhibit reproduction, it seems clear that they don't want Anton to be gay. We are then told that the doctors had done this before they had even asked.
• Dark Horse Sibling: Vincent was always shunned compared to his brother Anton, but in the end, Vincent's the one who's an astronaut while compared to that, Anton is just a detective.
• Darwinist Desire: On the one hand, parents wanting their children to be better led to a generation of Designer Babies. 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.
• Deadpan Snarker: Eugene, from the first words we hear him speak.
  Vincent: Who lives up there?
  Eugene: Well I certainly don't.
  —-
  Vincent: How tall are you?
  Eugene: Four foot six.
  Vincent: ...how tall were you before the accident?
• Designer Babies: This film is the former Trope Namer. The embryo products of in-vitro fertilization are screened for genetic predispositions to unwanted traits. Embryos 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 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.
  • The doctor who tests Vincent for his genes has a son who "Wasn't everything they promised".
• Determinator: Vincent. Everything he accomplishes is through hard work, unlike everyone else who gets ahead by superior genetics and discrimination.
• Driven to Suicide: Jerome's backstory; he attempted to kill himself after coming in second during one race, because of the intense pressure upon him to succeed (thanks to his supposedly perfect genes) and was left disabled.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • After finding another sample from Vincent at Gattaca, Hugo correctly deduces that he's using someone else's genetic profile to secretly work as an astronaut and surmises that he murdered the Mission Director because he found out about it. A logical, but incorrect, conclusion.
  • After witnessing "Jerome's" odd and suspicious behavior around the detectives, Irene eventually concludes he had something to do with the Mission Director's murder, though she still refuses to rat him out.
• Everybody Smokes: Which seems strange given the vision of the future presented. Possibly justified - at least societally - because if you're Valid and believe you have no risk of cancer or other health conditions, you probably won't see any related risk in smoking on ones personal health. Whether that's actually true...
• Extra Digits: Vincent and Irene attend a concert by a twelve-fingered pianist during one of their dates. Vincent asserts that the man had skill regardless of his genetic gifts, but Irene counters that the piece he performed could only be played with twelve fingers.
• 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. Vincent himself brings this up the moment he meets Jerome; the forger explains that photo ID is so outdated Vincent could use the forger's photo (played by Tony Shalhoub) and people wouldn't notice. 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.
  • They do make something of an effort, though. Vincent dyes his hair and matches his hairstyle to that of the photo. He also has to undergo surgery to "stretch" both pairs of his tibia/fibula in order to be the same height as Jerome.
  • Additionally, the photo itself is actually a blend of Vincent's and Jerome's faces which is close enough that both of them could use it if necessary (this is confirmed in the screenplay).
  • It also serves to highlight the importance of those who do notice; such as showcasing Vincent's bond with Irene and Foreshadowing that the lead investigator is Anton, who can recognise Vincent, as he still appears unconvinced by the performance and the results in the scene where he tests the real Jerome.
  • Also subverted by the doctor. He knew full well that Vincent wasn't Jerome, he just didn't care.
• Fantastic Noir: Once the murder subplot is introduced. Long coats, hats, and retro cars for everyone!
• Fantastic Racism:
  • The main theme of the film. Although discrimination based on genetics is supposed to be illegal, Vincent says "no one takes the law seriously", because it's laughably easy to check somebody's DNA, sometimes under legitimate pretenses such as a drug test, without their consent. Thus, like all In-Valids, he's effectively barred from getting into a good school or finding a good job despite his hard work and intelligence. Which is why he decides to impersonate someone else to work at Gattaca.
    Vincent: I belonged to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the color of your skin. No, we now have discrimination down to a science.
  • Even Valids can be discriminated against by those with "superior" genetics. Irene for example is treated with subtle disdain by Director Josef because she has a "likelihood of heart failure" and she's already resigned that she'll never actually be selected to become an astronaut despite still being good enough to have a prestigious position within Gattaca. She also automatically assumes someone with an impeccable profile like Jerome would never be interested in her.
• Fantastic Slurs:
  • Derisive terms for non-engineered people abound like "Utero", "Faithbirth", "Godchild", "In-Valid", etc. In contrast, engineered folk are given complimentary nicknames such as "Vitro", "Valid" or "Made-Man".
  • 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".
• Fantastic Underclass: Naturally-born individuals are barely trusted with janitorial duties, segregated to poor neighborhoods, and easily picked on by the police. Plus, with DNA scanners everywhere in this society, certain doors will always remain closed to the new underclass.
• Feigning Healthiness: Vincent takes on Eugene's identity because the high probability of him having a heart condition precludes him from being an astronaut.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Director Josef is very uncooperative with the investigation, saying that his company's time is more valuable that investigation of the lower-birth detectives. Turns out he's the killer.
  • Vincent is left-handed and has to practice using the other hand. He makes a mistake during the urine examination, which Dr. Lamar cites as when he has figured it out.
  • Jerome shows his silver medal and implies that it was the reason for his attempted suicide. When Jerome commits actual suicide in the incinerator to hide evidence against Vincent, his medal shines like gold for moment.
  • There are a few hints that the lead investigator is Vincent's brother Anton. He's shown in a pool with an artificial current, showing that he's never got over his prior loss. He reacts negatively to Director Josef looking down on inferior Valids, and Anton has an unresolved inferiority complex. He insists that the check for suspect's relatives didn't reveal anything, as he himself would have likely shown up. He investigates the In-Valid as the prime suspect despite having no evidence to the crime. At one point he uses an argument that the suspect could have been an In-Valid who has exceeded his potential to hide himself, as he knows Vincent as one example. When he checks Jerome's ID photo and finds it odd, he invites himself to his apartment and double-checks what's inside.
• Future Slang: Genetically-engineered folk are given complimentary nicknames such as "vitro", "valid" or "made-man".
• Genre Throwback: The plot and aesthetics invoke 40s and 50s noir movies.
• Gilligan Cut: When it becomes clear that Vincent will need surgery to match Jerome's height. "I'm not doing it!"
• Guilty Until Someone Else Is Guilty: Vincent is suspected of murdering his mission director until another party is found to be the culprit.
• Handshake of Doom: Most employers will only hire "Valid" individuals for the truly desirable jobs, with any "In-valids" applying for the positions being weeded out in advance through DNA tests. As Vincent notes, even if you don't disclose your status in the interview, it's possible for the prospective boss to get a DNA sample from something as innocuous as a handshake.
• Hard Work Hardly Works: Averted, which is the point of the movie. Despite being genetically "inferior", Vincent is able to prove himself and achieve his goals despite his disadvantages.
• Hated by All: Absolutely no one seems to have liked or respected the Mission Director; when he's murdered, people are generally only concerned with how his death will affect the mission.
• Inspector Javert: Averted with the older detective. At first he fixates on the In-Valid angle despite being told by Anton it's likely unrelated to the murder, but it turns out that's only because it was the only viable lead they had. When other leads present themselves much later in the film the detective pursues them just as diligently and ultimately ends up (correctly) solving the case.
• 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 Designer Babies yet, though we're a lot closer to being able to do a lot of what was done in the movie, with medical technology having come as far as it has now. In-vitro fertilization already uses the technique of identifying the most optimal embryos as candidates for uterine implantation and it is already possible (for an exorbitant sum of money) to clone your favorite cat for the next generation. Ethics, of course, are heavily involved in all this, which may explain why we don't live in Gattaca yet.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Anton isn't exactly pleasant to Vincent, but is shown to care for him deep down. This is especially seen when he is horrified at the possibility of Vincent being a murderer and won't rat him out despite his fraud scheme.
  • Jerome. Even though he's a jerk to Vincent at times, he still comes through for him when needed and leaves enough genetic samples to last Vincent a lifetime before committing suicide.
• Lampshaded 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.
• The Law of Conservation of Detail: A lot of the space issues and program in this movie don't make a lot of sense, and understandably so because the movie is about Sci-Fi genetics, not Sci-Fi space.
• Locard's Theory: The reason the era's investigators are called "Hoovers" — not just for J. Edgar Hoover, but because they spend a lot of time simply vacuuming crime scenes for genetic evidence. They don't even bother with dusting for fingerprint evidence because fake fingertips like Vincent's are so easy to make.
• Match Cut: Between Jerome flipping the switch of the incinerator and the spaceship engines firing.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The title of the movie and eponymous agency is spelled using the initials of the four DNA bases (the parts that define genes).
  • Vincent "Freeman" has liberated himself from the confines of genetic persecution.
  • Eugene means "well-born" and relates to "eugenics" as practiced too. In the Greek from which it comes, "eu" means "good" - so it literally means the incredibly blatant Jerome Good-Gene Morrow.
  • Morrow suggests "tomorrow".
  • Cassini from the Cassini Space Probe (or its namesake Giovanni Cassini, a 17th century Italian astronomer known for his studies of Saturn).
• Meaningful Echo:
  • After Irene mentions her heart condition:
    Irene: [handing Vincent a piece of her hair for a DNA test] Here. Take it. If you're still interested [after finding out the truth], let me know.
    Vincent: [drops hair] I'm sorry. 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] Sorry. The wind caught it.
• Meaningless Meaningful Words: When the Director at Gattaca is asked if it's possible for someone to "exceed their potential", he replies that it isn't, because that's what the word "potential" means. If someone is apparently exceeding their potential, it simply means their potential hadn't been measured correctly.
• Missed Him by That Much: Vincent and Anton conveniently never come properly face to face until the very end, keeping them from recognising each other. While Anton knew Vincent was there and was actively looking for him, Vincent has no clue who Anton truly is until the very end.
• Neat Freak: Vincent has this reputation, as he's constantly cleaning his desk; however, he's actually trying to make sure that none of his genetic material remains, and he systematically plants DNA from Jerome after cleaning his.
• No Name Given: The Mission Director is just referred to by his title.
• No New Fashions in the Future: This movie is a Genre Throwback to Film Noir movies of the 1940s/50s, so everyone has old-timey cars and clothes despite being 20 Minutes into the Future.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Nobody ever figures out that Vincent is not Jerome despite the real Jerome having a English accent which Vincent never even tries to fake. Vincent actually brings up the fact that Jerome is a foreigner in the initial introduction but the black-market dealer brushes the point aside.
  Blood has no nationality. As long as it's got what they're looking for, it's the only passport you'll need.
• Nothing Left to Do but Die: Eugene kills himself in the end by activating the incinerator while he's inside so that Vincent can continue to live under his name, leaving enough samples that Vincent can continue to use his identity. Having helped Vincent achieve his dream, Eugene apparently feels there's no point in continuing as Vincent's goal gave him purpose as well.
• Oblivious Mockery: There's a while-you-wait DNA testing lab used by women to test their dates. When Irene drops off Vincent's sample (unaware it's a hair from Jerome) she's told, "Congratulations" on being handed the result. Irene however is upset because she assumes Vincent is too perfect to want her.
• Old Cop, Young Cop: The two policemen investigating the murder. Both are fairly tenacious and savvy, but there's at least twenty years between them.
• Oppose What You Suffered: Vincent allows the wind to carry away a genetic sample given to him by Irene when she is clearly afraid he will reject her because of her imperfect genes. Actually having used bought genetic samples to assume another man's identity after having been discriminated against because of his own imperfect genes all his life, Vincent knows exactly how Irene feels.
• Orange/Blue Contrast: Common cinematic device through the movie. See page image, for example.
• Our Graphics Will Suck in the Future: Despite having Holographic Terminals and Casual Interplanetary Travel at Gattaca, their handheld testers are fairly simplistic. See Zeerust.
• Pass Fail: Vincent is an In-Valid passing himself as a Valid with the help of Jerome. There is in fact an entire black market in "borrowed ladders" such as Vincent.
• Perma-Shave: Justified; Vincent meticulously removes all of his body hair to ensure that none of it can shed and reveal his true identity.
• Pet the Dog: The first thing Vincent's brother Anton does when they meet up again is hug him. He is clearly uneasy with the idea that Vincent could be a murderer and is visibly relieved when this is proven false. And even though he warns Vincent that what he is doing is legally fraud, he does not expose his brother in the end.
• Planet of Hats: With the planet in question being the future Earth, of course.
• Police Are Useless: The police constantly focus on Vincent, assuming that the In-Valid must be responsible for the murder at Gattaca. If not for the combination of the fact that Anton refuses to accept the assumption that 'the invalid' aka his brother is automatically the murderer, regularly trying to redirect the investigation to other possibilities, and his older partner's dedication to searching every nook and cranny for evidence, the murder case might never have been solved.
• Precision F-Strike: Jerome does this at least twice.
• Prenatal Gender Picking: A more realistic example. Vincent's parents went for an In-Vitro facility that successfully inseminated four of Vincent's mother's ova and got two boys and two girls, plus removed all inherent diseases and modified the genetics for maximum potential. Vincent's parents then chose to carry one of the boys to term.
• Prim and Proper Bun: Irene's default hairstyle.
• Properly Paranoid: Vincent regularly shaves and exfoliates his entire body to avoid leaving behind loose hairs and skin particles, and still regularly sanitizes his workspace just in case. He even goes so far as to plant Jerome's skin cells and hairs at his desk, just in case anyone checks. Fortunately there's a whole industry in maintaining your privacy so this doesn't stand out, but a stray eyelash still almost brings him down.
• Rapid DNA Test: The key technology of the whole premise, instant and ubiquitous DNA readers make the laws against genetic discrimination impossible to enforce.
• Readings Are Off the Scale: Jerome's superior genetics are described this way.
• Retro Universe: Possibly the Trope Codifier (well, along with its 1990s contemporary Batman: The Animated Series). The production design blends early 1960s fashions and "futuristic" vehicles from the period with 1930s noir and the setting, plot and theme has a very 1950s Science Fiction feel. Everyone drives retro or period cars, but with nifty glowing green headlights. There are a lot of notable similarities and parallels in both atmosphere, setting, and characterization to works by Philip K. Dick (his 1960's work in particular. Contemporary (1990s movies) by the Wachowskis and Darren Aronofsky, also reflected a similar stylized dystopian bent in works set 20 Minutes into the Future.
• The Reveal:
  • The young detective is really Vincent's brother, Anton.
  • The killer of the Mission Director is Director Josef, head of the space program that Vincent infiltrated, who killed the Mission Director for holding the mission back with constant cutbacks.
  • Lamar, the person that runs background checks, actually knew Vincent was an In-Valid the whole time and didn't rat him out because he gives him hope that his son—who was genetically selected but "not all that they promised"—might also become something more.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Anton keeps trying to subtly lead the investigation away Vincent, looking out for him as his older brother even as mounting evidence increasingly points to him as the culprit. It's ultimately found that Director Josef was the murderer all alone, which the older detective ironically attributes to Anton for his instincts, clearing Vincent's name and leading to the detectives dropping their search for him.
• Scenery Censor: Every time Vincent strips nude to shave all of the stray hairs off his body, he's always contorted in such a way that the camera doesn't show any of his intimate bits. The most blatant moment of this is when he cleans himself at the beach after sleeping with Irene.
• Screw Destiny: A biological take on this.
• Second-Act Breakup: Downplayed, both in terms of breakup and reconciliation. Vincent's romantic relationship with Irene falls through when she visits his home and pieces together his identity scheme with Jerome. She forgives him before the end, but he leaves for outer space and it's unlikely they'll be able to see each other again.
• Second Place Is for Losers: Played with. The reason for Jerome's attempted suicide and paralysis is that when he placed second in a swim meet, he jumped in front of a car. However, by the end of the movie, Jerome finally "accepts" second place, so to speak, by committing suicide and allowing Vincent to live on under his name. This is symbolically represented by Jerome's silver swimming medal appearing to turn gold as he burns in the incinerator.
• Secret-Keeper: Lamar, Irene and Anton at the end of the movie. Deleted scenes show that both The head janitor and Anton's partner are also aware of Vincent's identity but chose not to reveal it.
• Self-Immolation: Jerome locks himself inside his incinerator after he successfully helps Vincent pull off his identity and get himself a spot on a space mission. The flames around Jerome are even deliberately Match Cut with the rocket backwash as Vincent lifts-off.
• Shown Their Work: The process used to lengthen Vincent's legs involves breaking his lower legs and placing spacers inside the break to force the bone to grow back longer. The actual process involves removing part of the tibia and putting a rod inside the bone to force it to grow across the gap.
• Sibling Rivalry: Vincent is shown to have been jealous of his brother since childhood, which is then played with as his brother turns out to be just as insecure as he is in adulthood.
• Southpaw Stigma: Vincent is left-handed, which he references as being rare among Valid people. "I guess no one orders southpaws anymore."
• Spiteful Spit: What ends up giving away Director Josef as the murderer. After beating the Mission Director to death, he spat on his corpse in contempt. The detectives missed the specimen the first time and were too distracted by Vincent's eyelash to give the cadaver another comb over at first.
• Spot the Imposter: Vincent spends the entire film trying to avoid being outed as an In-Valid.
• Stealth Insult: When the detectives ask Director Josef about what qualifications you need to become an astronaut at Gattaca, he goes on about their recruitment philosophy and how they only select those with the absolute highest genetic potential, before adding how sometimes the lack of recruits that meet such a standard had occasionally necessitated they accept "lesser" Valids as candidates; such as those merely qualified for law enforcement.
• Super Doc: German, the genetic identity trader who introduces Vincent to Jerome. Besides finding and selling genetic profiles, he also dabbles as an optometrist, an orthodontist and a surgeon to help Vincent look more like Eugene; somewhat justified by him likely being a Valid and needing to do all the work himself since his trade is illegal.
• Symbolic Baptism: The protagonist competes routinely with his genetically superior younger brother in swimming races out to the furthest possible point. A pivotal moment in his childhood and resolving to lie about his genetic status comes when he finally wins a race against his brother, proving that he could do anything he set his mind to, genetics be damned. When the stunt is repeated late in life and he once again triumphs, he reveals his secret to success with his brother he never planned to make the return trip and was determined to swim out as far as he could, return trip be damned. He was counting on his brother calculating for the return trip.
• Villainous Breakdown: Anton experiences this when Vincent tells him that his real motivation is to deal with his own jealousy and insecurity.
• Villainous Lineage: 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.
• Who Murdered the Asshole?: Though the police are inclined to focus on Vincent as the primary suspect in the murder case at Gattaca, Anton points out that a random invalid has no motive to kill the Director (who was trying to kill a project everyone was deeply invested in and apparently acted as if the universe revolved around him), whereas just about everyone at Gattaca did. As it turns out, he was right.
  Anton: I look around, I see a lot of dry eyes. The mission director was not, uh, universally loved.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: 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. Still, it is possible that Vincent was just pulling a number out of the air to be dramatic.
• You Keep Using That Word: Director Josef denies that people can "exceed their potential". Of course they cannot — that's what "potential" means. What they can do is exceed the measurement of their potential and show they had been misjudged.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Irene takes the hair she thinks is from Vincent to a DNA testing clinic used for checking potential suitors. The person doing the testing congratulates her on having picked up someone with such a high score; Irene however is devastated as she now thinks Vincent won't be interested in her.
• 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 '90s, why Pluto is still a planet, and why nobody knows what Titan's surface looks like. Vincent also narrates that the identity broker isn't "someone you find in the Yellow Pages." The aesthetics of the film also deliberately invoke this. The fashion and cars look like they're out of the 50s.