Gattaca

The dystopian science-fiction thriller movie Gattaca was released in 1997 and was written and directed by Andrew Niccol. In addition to Jude Law, Loren Dean, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal, and Alan Arkin playing supporting roles, the film also stars Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. The movie offers a biopunk vision of a eugenics-driven future society in which children are created through genetic selection so that they inherit their parents' greatest features. The main character of the movie is Vincent Freeman, played by Hawke, who was born outside of the eugenics program and battles genetic prejudice in order to fulfill his ambition of going to space.

The movie makes reference to worries about eugenics-supporting reproductive technology and the potential social repercussions of such technological advancements. The idea of fate and the ways in which it might and does rule lives are also explored. In Gattaca, characters are always at war with themselves and society to find their place in it and to become the people their genes have predestined them to be.

The letters G, A, T, and C, which stand for guanine, adenine, thymine, and cytosine, the four DNA nucleobases, are used as the basis for the title of the movie. Both the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and the Academy Award for Best Art Direction was nominated for it in 1997.

• Actors: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman
• Directed by: Andrew Niccol