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Ultimately, the core of this film is human striving, human imperfection, and personal meaning. No matter where one finds oneself on the bell curve, there is always someone further to the right. If not, every friend, lover, relative and person one will ever know lies somewhere to the left. Only acceptance of this fact, over all metrics, will allow true equity to exist for everyone on the spectrum.
Gattaca is a 1997 film written and directed by Andrew M. Niccol. It was his first feature film -- although he was an accomplished director of commercials -- and was followed by The Truman Show and In Time, among others. It falls into the genre of science fiction, and is set in the near future. Genetic technology is ubiquitous, but was just becoming accepted at the time of the protagonist's birth.
Vincent is conceived and carried to term without intervention via genetic technologies that select or modify zygotes prior to cell division. The original script called this a "faith birth," although the term "IN-VALID," pronounced like the word "invalid" in "an invalid driver's license," is used more prominently in the movie. Vincent has varying propensities for genetically-influenced issues such as aggression, obesity, and attention-deficit disorder, which remain untreatable in an age where the obvious solution is for them to be eradicated by genetically selecting them out of existence. He has a genetic heart condition which results in a 99% chance of a 30.5-year life expectancy. His parents' awareness of this causes them to treat him as an invalid his entire childhood and to stress his limitations instead of his potential.
Vincent's younger brother, Anton, is genetically enhanced, and therefore VALID. The process of his genetic selection is described in more detail in an earlier script, including the fact that his parents had to save every dime for two years in order to afford the process, but were unable to afford enhancements such as the "innate" ability to play the piano or understand higher mathematics.
Anton and Vincent are rivals -- most tellingly at open ocean swimming -- with Anton's enhanced physicality and Vincent's heart condition leading to predictable results, at least during childhood. Anton stands indifferently by as Vincent leaves home at sixteen, disappearing into the genetic underclass of day laborers, housecleaners and sanitation workers.
Anton is a child of privilege and an adult who displays many of the markers of childhood, perhaps because he never had to face adversity in his own life. As lead investigator of a murder committed at the corporation where Vincent, and later Jerome, is employed, these qualities surface. Due to an errant eyelash, Vincent (the IN-VALID) becomes a suspect. Anton searches for him, or any genetic traces of him, without revealing that they are related, and without initially suspecting that Vincent is posing as VALID.
Society is divided into IN-VALIDs and VALIDs. The law outlaws overt discrimination based on genetics, but the reality of society is one similar to the Reconstruction South and Jim Crow. Tacit acceptance of a genetic underclass -- with diminishing demographics (and political power) due to the rapid adoption of genetic intervention -- but with subtle and not so subtle social "selection processes" inevitably at work.
For example, Vincent works hard to improve his skills and knowledge so that he can become a celestial navigator. His attempts at employment are consistently foiled based on drug testing which also reveals his genetic status. A more "qualified" applicant is chosen. His only recourse is manual unskilled labor, thus his short stint of employment as a janitor at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.
Selection occurs not just in employment, but in mate selection as well. Today women will run a background check on potential mates to determine their (criminal?) past or economic prospects. In the film, they do the same for unseen genetic qualities -- thus Vincent's dates eventually migrate to Anton based upon their surreptitious collection and testing of genetic material.
Why would these women ever accept the economic consequences of an IN-VALID's prospects? Why would they opt for a reduced quality of life based on their spouse's potential susceptibility to untreatable ailments or reduced life expectancy? They want a quality partner with a comparable chance for a lengthy high quality life together, similar or better offspring and mitigation of risk. Any reasonable person would desire the same, with the vast majority willing to fudge a little with respect to the "means" in order to maximize the "ends."
Vincent is marginalized in both his professional and personal life -- reduced to the permanent underclass, his dreams of space travel unrealized or unrealizable, alone and without prospects -- yet remains resolved. He is not defeated. He works, saves his money and spends every moment of free time educating himself or working out. He constantly goes without and always pushes himself.
He resorts to a "borrowed ladder" in the form of Jerome Eugene Morrow, a paraplegic willing to provide skin, hair, blood and urine samples to Vincent on an ongoing basis so that Vincent might represent himself as Jerome, a VALID with "Eugene's" genetics and Vincent's hard earned knowledge and skills. Vincent's resolve is further demonstrated by his having both shin bones surgically severed and reset with titanium rods, increasing his height 2" to match Eugene's genetic profile for height. The scars are explained as being exactly the height of the front fender of a '99 Chrysler LeBaron.
Vincent's heartbeat during tests is a recording of Eugene's, resulting in the lab tech Lamar's comment "Six miles later it's still beating like a Goddamn metronome. I could play piano by that heartbeat of his." Meanwhile Vincent's actual heartbeat is over 220 as he masks extreme fatigue, lactic acid buildup and oxygen deprivation by sheer force of will, confident in public but collapsing in private once it is over. Only extremes of discipline and training allow him to pull off this ruse.
However his prowess as a celestial navigator is not faked, as evidenced by this assessment: "I reviewed your flight plan. Not one error in a hundred thousand keystrokes. Phenomenal. (placing a hand on Jerome's shoulder) It's right that someone like you is taking us to Titan." Note the "...like you..." instead of "...someone with your skills..." or "...someone with your knowledge..." This distinction is the critical take away of this exchange. The script is full of undercurrents as subtle and deep as this minor inflection.
However as much as the film is at its surface about big ideas -- about institutional and societal discrimination -- it ultimately reveals itself to be about the relationships between its characters. About Vincent/Anton, Vincent/Irene, Vincent/Lamar, and Vincent/Eugene... and how their relationships are framed by these larger issues.
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