1. Gattaca Dystopic elements in Andrew Niccol’s 1997 film Gattaca

2. Polarity

3. Segregation of society – ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. In Gattaca, this is seen with the distinctions between ‘Valids’ (Jerome Morrow, Gattaca staff) and ‘Invalids’ (Those of natural birth, Vincent Freeman) In this particular shot, Vincent is working with other invalids in the lower, downstairs of Gattaca while above them, valids work. Invalids are dressed in blue uniforms, much like the lighting of the scene in which Vincent removes his skin and hair to become Jerome, thereby washing away his invalid self. This is in a contrast to the valids, who are essentially void of colour, dressed in stark, crisp black-and-white suits. The obvious differences between the uniforms shows the audience that valids are supposed to be more worthy of their position and hence reinforces the idea of polarity within Gattaca’s society.

4. Dehumanisation

5. Dehumanisation is prevalent within Gattaca. It is integrated in every day life by means of instant valid/invalid blood tests in order to access Gattaca or other places of power and Hoovers sweeping the area around Gattaca for any minute trace of skin flakes/hair. This idea is further enforced by Vincent, who is forced to remove any and all traces of his natural DNA every day before and after entering Gattaca to maintain his false persona of the valid Jerome Morrow. In the scene pictured, he does this by scrubbing excess skin flakes off his body and scalp. He then incinerates this DNA to ensure there is no chance of his natural self being found. He also has to be extra cautious of the Hoovers, and goes so far as to place the real Jerome Morrow’s skin flakes in his keyboard and hair in his comb. Valids are also dehumanised, seen as DNA with preordained fates as opposed to individual people. The real Jerome Morrow (Eugene) feels so pressured by his ‘fate’ that he stands in front of a car, intending to commit suicide.

6. Anti-Hero

7. Vincent Freeman was born an ‘invalid’ member of society because he was born naturally, or out of ‘love’. He was not genetically perfected before birth like his brother Anton and as is the societal norm, and so carries imperfections such as a life expectancy of 30.2 years and 99% chance of heart failure. This means that Vincent is stratified into the dystopian pole of the film’s society, forced into menial labour as an ‘invalid’. Vincent reveals the hierarchy of the film’s world: “I belonged to a new underclass, no longer determined by social status or the colour of your skin. No, we now have discrimination down to a science.” In order to escape his position as an untermensch, he is forced to become a ‘borrowed ladder’. This means he is required to see a local illegal DNA dealer, who finds a ‘valid’ that as an unuseable identity. Vincent is given Jerome Morrow’s persona, that of a top-class athelete who succumbed to the pressures of Gattaca’s society and attempted suicide by means of an automobile collision, resulting in his paralysis from the waist down and thus loss of his high status. Vincent takes on Jerome’s genetic identity in order to fulfil his lifelong dream of interplanetary travel via Gattaca’s space program. He becomes the film’s anti-hero by taking on Jerome’s identity by illegally subverting the dystopian society, but with harmless intentions.