This is a movie I was shown in high school as part of a discussion on genetics. It was a non-standard interdisciplinary class in literature and science that used sci-fi as a jumping off point to discuss scientific concepts and ethical dilemmas, and one of my favorite classes even before factoring it that it was taught by a teacher I already knew and liked well.

In a future where genetic engineering and sequencing are commonplace, few are conceived naturally, without the opportunity to screen candidate embryos for genetic diseases and make enhancements for superior abilities. Vincent Freeman was conceived the old fashioned way, and his genes mark him as an incredibly fragile and deficient “in-valid”, projected to die of a heart defect in about 30 years. Ubiquitous genetic testing and identification means that he’ll never be allowed to pursue his dream of going to space on his own identity, but a black market dealer in “borrowed ladders” connects him with Jerome Morrow, an English swimming champion now paralyzed from the waist down, who looks similar enough that, with help from daily samples of bodily fluids and studious replacement of any of Vincent’s own dropped hair and skin cells with Jerome’s, Vincent is able to fake his way into Gattaca as a mission navigator for an upcoming flight to Titan. Then, a week before launch, an administrator is murdered in the offices and the police find a hair on the scene that identifies as belonging to Vincent, an In-Valid unauthorized to be there, leading the police to start combing the facilities for an impostor among the Gattaca elite.

What stayed with me the most the first time around was how mundane the space travel was. These astronaut candidates are working at a desk in suit and tie jockeying in the bureaucracy until the launch day. I don’t really understand how Gattaca works as a business either, as it’s not clear why they do what they do. They just send rocket after rocket every few hours and I don’t think it’s ever explained. The focus is meant to be on the total genetic surveillance, but as a certified Space Kid, I just had questions about the space program, and I still do.

What struck me this time is how all of the Valids are always wearing immaculate suits, except for when doing the physical training for missions. I suppose this is meant to visually signal class, since most In-Valids we see are in coveralls even when not working, but it seems a bit silly to me that we never see the real Jerome wearing anything other than a perfect three-piece suit even though there’s only one scene where he’s left the house. By all means, his attire is justified when Vincent takes him to the speakeasy for people involved in black market genetics, but most of the time he’s just collecting samples of himself and generally living as much of a leisurely life as he can from a wheelchair, hiding from the world because he’s renting his identity to someone else and ashamed of his lost potential.

It is altogether very striking now, the retro design of the movie. The clothes lend a Film Noir feel, even though the cars are more based on midcentury models, with electric motors dubbed over. The detectives pursuing their hunt for the impostor at Gattaca is even more Noir.

However, I also have much more perspective on the discrimination shown. The warnings of a divide between the technological haves and have-nots I encountered in the 90s and early 2000s seemed academic at the time, but the realities are becoming clearer as we become more connected and more aware of what we’ve given away to big companies, in the technology sector and otherwise. I see that a lot of the criticism directed at the movie by geneticists is that Gattaca has a right to screen astronauts for perfect health, and that’s fair. It’s even reasonable for Gattaca to use genetic samples to identify who is and isn’t authorized to be in certain areas (this surveillance seems omnipresent, but I think that’s because we only see Gattaca and the police). But it’s missing that the only jobs that people without flawless genes can get are unskilled, low-paying labor because every single company wants to use genetic screening to deny jobs for the slightest flaw, and will flout privacy laws by quietly stealing samples from licked envelopes, doorknobs, handshakes, anything they can get.

It doesn’t matter if geneticists say that markers of likelihood for abnormalities are not guarantees, it matters that the employers and insurance companies believe in genetic determinism, or at least find it convenient for the discrimination they want to justify. Throwing away perfectly good applicants based on bad genes isn’t much different than throwing away resumes that were only evaluated by an algorithm or refusing to allow good people without the right government documents to enjoy the full opportunities of the society they live in and contribute to. The ingrained prejudices in the world presented are enabled by genetic technology, not created by them, much like how the disaster of Jurassic Park is caused by hubris and greed that happened to allow resurrected dinosaurs to escape their containment.

This movie is visually striking, narratively compelling, and obviously opens doors to conversations, making it a clear choice for my ethics class. This fully realized vision is probably going to be the definitive take on genetic dystopia for a long time.