Gattaca Comparison Essay

Gattaca is a science fiction film written and directed by Andrew Niccol. It is about a man's struggle to follow his dream despite being pre-determined by the society in which he lives to not be able to achieve it. Gattaca shows that people can in fact exceed the potential that society and their genes place on them. This is seen in the characters of Vincent and Director Joseph who both exceed their expected potential.

Director Joseph's claim that humans cannot exceed their potential when referring to the navigators at Gattaca is clearly false because Vincent and has infact exceeded his potential. Vincent is concieved naturally without the help of genetic engineering technology which gives geneticists the ability to choose, what genes they want to keep in the fetus and what genes they want to eliminate based on the parent's choice and budget. Because he is concieved naturally which is considered an unorthodox form of reproduction by Vincent's
However Vincent's hope shatters as his application is declined, and is forced to work as a cleaner at Gattaca.
An example of this is depicted vividly in the movie when Vincent's eyebrow sample containing invalid genes is found near the crime of the murderer mission director. Vincent is quickly regarded as the main suspect in the crime simply because is an invalid - a person born naturally through sexual intercourse. The assumption that is made is that people who are valids or people who have "perfect" genes cannot commit an imperfect immoral act such as murder and therefore the main suspect has to be by definition an invalid. This assumption however is false because the person responsible for the murder turns out to be Director Joseph