GATTACA

One of my longest lasting interest, other than Sammi, was the movie GATTACA. It followed the typical underdog, one man against the world story, but the premise and the setting captivated me for many years.

In the not-so-distant future, when genetic engineering made it possible for parents to engineer their ideal children, Vincent Freeman, the new underclass discriminated down to science, took over the identity of Jerome Eugene Morrow. Eugene had everything, but the desire to succeed. After losing a swimming competition, in which he was relegated to 2nd place, he lost his spirit. His failed suicide attempt left him paralyzed from waist down, thereby opening the premise of Vincent borrowing his identity to fulfill his dream: Work as an astronaut at GATTACA Corp.

The movie followed Vincent, now Jerome, on his last week before his mission to Saturn commences, in which a murder of the Director who threatened to cut his mission posed more threat to Vincent than when he was alive. Anton, Vincent’s brother, was now the detective determined to find his brother and ‘stop’ him from going down the slippery slope. Interspersed within the story was the love connection between Vincent and Irene. Irene was a mix of Vincent and Eugene, better than most, but not as good as some. The story, of course, ended with Vincent reaching the stars.

I first watched the movie back when it opened, but that first screening did not register much in my mind. The 2nd time I watched the movie was when I was in the library committee in JC; there was a screening for the movie in one of the LTs, but it seemed that the committee members were the only ones present. That very time, when I was more aware of the practical environment I was in, how difficult it was for me to get out of my circumstances, was when I got hooked to the movie. Since then, I’ve been researching on the movie, on the philosophical and literal meaning of it.

There were many good quotes in the script, much of it were encouraging words for one to fight on. The mantra that I had followed, but picked up only when I was in university, was this:

“I’ve never saved anything for the trip back.”

This post was re-published from my old blog.