Things become more complicated when Jerome goes on a date with Irene, the beautiful GATTACA worker whose only failing — a congenital heart problem — keeps her on the earth. They attend a musical performance by a man born with twelve fingers, whether it was an accident or if he was genetically engineered to be that way, it is not clear — yet this is still a powerful symbol in the film. Afterward they go to a solar farm to experience one of the most moving and spectacular moments in the film. Sunrise over a sea of reflective solar panels. Their relationship is simple and gentle, and their love is sealed after a fateful night. They dine at an elegant restaurant, and get up to dance when it is cut short by a sudden police investigation, set by the Hoovers to catch the suspect invalid. Jerome flees, dragging Irene with him, and they hide in an alley, lit by soft light, the shadows of a chainlink fence playing over their faces.

Eventually his brother, Anton, who is none other than a police investigator assigned to the case, discovers his secret. Anton asks Vincent how he managed to pull off the feat of fooling the tight genetic security at the GATTACA center, and still does not believe that Vincent could have beat him at swimming — or anything, because of Vincent’s "God Birth". They challenge one another to one last swimming contest, and history repeats itself, Anton tiring first and Vincent saving him from drowning again.

At the end Vincent/Jerome fools the system and achieves his dream of going to Titan. Yet as he leaves, so too does Eugene Morrow who, after leaving a vast supply of bodily samples, commits suicide in the incinerator that Jerome uses to destroy his own loose skin and hair every morning. The ending can be interpreted as sad or happy, yet it is merely what it is. An ending.

 

THE DYSTOPIAN DEPTH

GATTACA is a capitalist dystopia, to apply a broad term. In many ways it could be a utopian world: most people are genetically engineered to be born with no diseases, no afflictions, or tendencies towards disabilities; science and space travel seem to have more of a future in the GATTACA world, as Irene says in the film, "There must be a dozen launches every day," as she stands next to Jerome at the GATTACA center, watching the rocket ships roar upwards. He replies, "Sometimes more." Cars are electrically powered, and it seems that the world envisioned by Andrew Niccol is shiny, scientific, and antiseptic. Yet it is also a dystopia. A perfect world it is, yet only perfect for those who are genetically gifted. People’s success in the world of GATTACA depends not on their resumes and credentials, but a blood test or urine test.

At the workplace the people dress not futuristically, but regressively. Their fashions seem to be reminiscent of the last century, the mid or early twentieth, and not the twenty first. There are numerous checks, every flake of skin, every hair and eyelash left behind is routinely scrutinized. At the door employees must place their fingers over automated DNA samplers which draw blood samples.

"Hello everyone, nice to see you. I am your detective for the evening. Please don't leave the premises. I said please don't leave the premises. Am I  speaking in some kind of strange foreign language?"

The police and detectives are all uniformed in grey trenchcoats and fedoras, ominous, and bring up memories of dark secret police organizations, government entities and others in the same vein. During a scene on the freeway, when Irene and Jerome are driving home, they are stopped at a police checkpoint. The police carry high-tech devices resembling modern Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), that mount small DNA testing systems. Obviously computer technology has advanced so much that a small machine carried in the hand or pocket, could analyse all the thousands of base pairs in human DNA within seconds. The world of GATTACA itself is shown through extensive use of filters. It is yellow, warm and

vapid. Obviously design ethos has gone through some drastic changes. The colours seem to suggest high levels of pollution or smog, perhaps changes suggested by the modern ecological dilemma: global warming. The buildings are large, bare and artificial, almost frightening in their relentless modernism — great artifices of concrete and steel. Jerome and a host of other engineers like him work in a great work theatre, typing away at ergonomically designed workstations with curved privacies made of metal. The surfaces of this world are polished, clean and shiny, almost bleak in their bland antiseptic cleanliness. Almost like that of a hospital, one made of wood and metal, concrete and chrome. There are numerous shots which put the characters against a background of concrete buildings, immense and frightening in their artificiality. The purpose of this is to diminish the individuals, to show their alienation from the world and their tiny size in comparison to the monster engine of society. It is a picture of a world ruled by science. It is a world where an oppressive system has been created, not by intention, but by the simple choices of individuals and their applications of scientific discovery.

The characters, most notably Eugene Morrow, attempt to escape this world. Jerome/Vincent dreams of space. He dreams of escaping into the sky, into the heavens, to explore the vastness of the void. Eugene, on the other hand, suffers from self-accusatory depression. He was stricken when he failed to win a gold medal, and attempted suicide, only to fail at that as well. Thus he escapes from himself through heavy drinking, seeking release at the bottom of a mug or glass. In the end, they do succeed, yet is this really escape? Jerome cannot stay in space forever, his trip will take him only a year, and then the space ship will return in another; Eugene finally left by killing himself, but could that really be a victory? The film does not explain this. The murder is resolved, and Jerome gets to fulfill his dream, but what of later on? It is just an ending to a few questions, and our mind is left to explain what may happen.

 

THE PROBABILITY

Is this world possible? Very. As the 21st century continues on, the pace of scientific discovery shall continue — indeed — not only shall it continue, but it shall increase exponentially. The rate of knowledge increase, riding the waves of the Information Revolution, may undergo an explosion as computing power increases. Just a few years ago scientists have unraveled the Human Genome — future scientists may stand astride the shoulders of these giants and develop ever-higher technologies. But can we be assured that we use these new discoveries for good?

GATTACA brings up first and foremost the issue of genetic engineering and eugenics. Humanity has been tampering with both for countless millennia, through careful breeding of prize animals. In the mid twentieth century, genetic engineering has gone through a veritable explosion of new discovery and application. People in the United States of America now regularly consume large amounts of genetically engineered crops and livestock. Crops have been made to survive in more extreme conditions, produce more, and come to season faster. Animals have been made to be more meaty, and faster to grow up and reproduce. In fact at a certain California salmon farm scientists have created a kind of fish that reproduces and matures at twice or even thrice the rate of normal ones. In the 1960's-80's science gave us the first babies produced from the merging of sperm and egg outside the womb. In 1994-5 the scientific community shook the world as it proudly displayed the birth of the first cloned animal, Dolly the Sheep. In the later years more cloned animals would be produced. Now, in the early 2000's, there has even been talk of cloning a human, and we have extended our grasp of medicine with the first trials of gene therapy, or the use of retroviruses to inject sections of DNA code into mismatched cells. Who can tell what the coming decades will bring?

The world of GATTACA is one where peoples' position in society is not determined by their race or gender or social status, but the purity and "perfection" of their genetic code. Those who can pay to have their children genetically altered have the benefit, as those children have a greater likelihood of success. One could eliminate genes for cystic fibrosis, obesity, myopia, a predisposition towards violence, insanity, mental retardation, and a host of other genetically-induced traits and diseases. As a result people who are born and conceived in the old-fashioned way, the faith births, or God Children, or In-Utero, or Invalid people are treated as a subclass, frowned upon because of their shorter lifetimes and weaker code and genetic imperfections — almost like the untouchables caste of India.

"I not only think we will  tamper with Mother Nature.  I think Mother wants us to." Willard Gaylin

The GATTACA world is a world of in which the pace of scientific discovery has been left unchecked by moralistic and ethical debate — whether that is a good thing or a bad thing is left to debate — nevertheless it has spawned a variety of changes in human behaviour. The workers at the GATTACA center pass through the checkpoints every day, blankly, like a mindless bland mob of diverse cultures and ethnicities — each face a perfect one. The scenes are bland, clean, shining, and polished, as if the GATTACA center and its surroundings are the summation of human science born into the physical realm. The people are almost as purified and polished as the breathtakingly filtered scenes are: all of them resembling the epitome of genetic engineering and eugenics. It is a world of non-clones, of people alike in demeanor — alienated and confident in their genetic superiority — almost like living robots. Might this actually happen? Yes. Indeed, it has already been tried.

During the reign of the Nazis in Germany experiments were carried out to breed the "perfect" human, through selective breeding. The German scientists contrived to create and purify a single "Aryan" strain that they considered the dominant. This artificial selection and breeding of humans for genetic qualities — essentially what we have been doing for millennia for animals, applied to humans — is the basic concept behind eugenics. The Nazis failed in their experiment, fortunately, as their rule lasted no longer than one generation. Yet perhaps in the future, with the deciphering of the Human Genetic Code, perhaps the blueprints for humanity will be open to control. It is foreseeable that the rich will spend their money in granting the most beneficial aspects of their children through genetic engineering, creating a true "ruling class". Those unable to get designer babies, limited by their wealth, would be doomed to suffer forever under the heel of those genetically gifted. In selecting the best aspects of their children before they are born, and possibly even giving them talents wholly non human, it is conceivable that the dream of the Nazis could be achieved in one generation — only this time not by the European race exclusively, but by the affluent and upper-class.

One can only imagine what this might lead to. On one hand, if morality prevails and ethics controls the use of science and not science's direction or speed, then genetic engineering or the advanced forms of DNA reading shown in GATTACA, could be used to filter out the worst of genetic diseases, thereby preventing children to be born with the most life-threatening afflictions. On the other hand, if greed and self-interest gains control of the use of scientific discoveries, then what would stop those who could afford to perfect their children, from doing just that? Many of the most influential scientists and leaders and artisans in history had some sort of genetic imperfection, which could be edited out through genetic predestination — and might not have ever become what they were. Society would stagnate.

 

CONCLUSION

GATTACA is a refreshing and fascinating view into the possibilities which lie ahead, should humanity continue on its present path. On one hand it depicts a clean society: of cars run on electricity, fields of solar energy, and advanced space exploration. Under this thin veneer, however, lies a dark world stagnating under the simple fact of genetic purity and lack of individuality. It ends on an optimistic note, however, quite uncharacteristic of a dystopia. At the end Jerome/Vincent succeeds in his dreams, despite his shortcomings, proving that imperfect humans can succeed in the GATTACA world. The end result leaves us with one question: Who knows what lies ahead? And that is an interesting quandary for us all to ponder and act on — for better or for worse.