Genetic Discrimination — Gattaca
I’ve just seen a 1997 “sci-fi” movie starring Ethan Hawk, Jude Law and Uma Thurman, and was quite suprised to find out that the term “sci-fi” can strech so much that it overlaps with family drama. Therefore, instead of expecting an action-packed science fiction, I’ve seen a heartbreaking story about competetion between brothers.
It is a theme as old as life. It all started out with Kain and Abel, therefore, in that terms nothing new was seen. On the other hand, there was this “Genetic discrimination” which was a really interesting thing that movie covered.
Namely, one of the two brothers, starred by Ethan Hawke is concieved in a natural way. In other words, his genetic code was not premodified which was the case of his brother who, with the help of genetic engineers, turned out to be a real deal — tall, strong, smart, healthy.
Vincent (Ethan) has a dream to travel to space, but his health issues forbid him to do so. He was not a genetic perfection, but rather a “degenerate” as his kind is called in this not-so-distant “utopian” society.
And then…Jude Law comes on stage. He was an athlete, but now is paraplegic who agreed to almost completely give his identity to Vincent, so that Vincent would get hired by the company named Gattaca and travel to space.
Each workday, Vincent takes Judes blood samples, hair samples and piss in order to trick the authorities that he is genetically superior.
I will not tell you the rest of the movie. If you liked the plot so far, I suggest you watch it, but do not expect a Sci fi move. Expect mistery and drama covered with a veil of sci-fi.
As I have mentioned, the most interesting question that this movie rises is: “Will there be such thing as genetic discrimination in the future?” Genetic modification is rapidly becoming omnipresent but it still sounds like a nice story to us. However, we still hear stories every day about sheep being replicated and improved genetically but we don’t turn on our light bulb above our head to think deeper about this topic.
Therefore, my question is — did this movie prophesize a thing called genetic discrimination? Is that going to happen to us if science further progresses in this area?
Man, I have no effin idea.
