The film, Gattaca shows us a society where people have lost the belief that they have the power to create their own futures.

In this society, individuals are increasingly the products of genetic engineering, and their worth is measured solely by the “quality” of their DNA. Everyone from prospective employers, to school admission directors, to insurance providers consider only a person’s DNA when deciding whether to accept him or her into their organizations. As a result, more and more families feel pressured into cooperating with geneticists to have genetically engineered children. People lose the belief that it’s possible to overcome personal flaws or environmental adversity through the power of their will. This society no longer recognizes the power of the individual will, as it believes an individual’s future and fate is determined at birth by his DNA. As a result, we see that the characters in this society are emotionally flat, as their “personal will” no longer animates them.

When the film opens, the main character, Vincent, is narrating the story of his life. Vincent is one of this society’s rare individuals who is not a product of genetic engineering. The society refers to such people as “invalids” or “faith births’ and discriminates against them. Vincent’s DNA shows that he has some congenital weaknesses, including a heart condition that reduces his life expectancy.

Vincent has a very hard time as he grows up in his society. To make matters worse, he feels greatly inferior to his genetically engineered brother, Anton. Anton is physically bigger and stronger than Vincent even though he is several years younger. Throughout their childhood, Vincent and Anton play a game called “chicken”. In this game, they swim as far out into the ocean as they dare; the one who gets scared and turns back first is the loser or the “chicken” (coward). For years, whenever the two brothers play this game, Anton is always the winner.

One day, however, when Anton and Vincent are teen-agers, the “impossible” happens; Vincent wins the game of chicken. Vincent swims so far out into the ocean that Anton nearly drowns when he tries to keep us with his brother. Vincent has to rescue Anton from drowning. Vincent, the film narrator tells us that this event was a great turning point in his life. As he says, “It was the moment when my brother was not as strong as he believed, and I was not as weak as I believed. It was the moment that changed everything.”

After this event, Vincent begins to believe that he has the power to overcome his fate – the fate dictated by what he is told is his “inferior” DNA. As Vincent says, he realizes that “There is no gene for fate.” Vincent begins to believe that he can even realize his dream of becoming an astronaut and enter the famed ‘Gattaca’ Insititute. We learn that Vincent developed his strong desire to become an astronaut just because of all the difficulties of his life and his desire to find a better world.

In order to gain entrance to Gattaca, Vincent exercises and studies hard. However, since Gattaca considers only the quality of an applicant’s DNA, Vincent realizes he has no chance of being admitted. He wants so much to realize his dream—but it becomes clear that the only way he can do it is by pretending to have another man’s “superior” DNA. Vincent arranges to buy the DNA of a man named Jerome through an agent on the black market.

Jerome is considered to have top-quality DNA. Vincent pretends to have Jerome’s DNA by attaching a false fingertip with a sample of Jerome’s blood to his own finger in order to “pass” the frequent DNA identification checks at Gattaca. He also uses other samples of Jerome’s “superior body matter”, such as strands of his hair, which he leaves at his workstation to prepare even for the ‘secret’ DNA checks.

Jerome sells his DNA and his identity to Vincent because he, himself, can no longer benefit from it. Jerome has become paralyzed in an accident. In the society shown in Gattaca, there is no place for a “physically imperfect”, handicapped person. The only way that Jerome can survive “in the manner to which he has become accustomed” is to sell his DNA to an “invalid” like Vincent.

The scheme works: Vincent, taking on the “DNA-identity” of Jerome becomes very successful at Gattaca. The quality of his work at the Institute is impeccable, so, for a long time, no one suspects his false identity. Jerome also benefits from the arrangement, not only because of the support he receives from Vincent’s high salary at Gattaca, but also because, for the first time in his life, he knows the exhilaration of having a dream and struggling to realize it. He begins to understand this, vicariously, through his relationship with Vincent, who is trying so hard and risking everything to make his dream a reality.

For most of his life, we are told that Jerome “labored under another burden—the burden of perfection”. But because Jerome had never had the experience of struggling to overcome adversity, he never learned to struggle against the odds. Because he did not know how to struggle or to make an effort, he never lived up to the “DNA-potential” he was said to have. Jerome also never developed coping skills that may have helped him deal more positively with his paralysis. Instead, he sinks into alcoholism and a state of bitterness.

The message of the film is that human beings develop their desire to triumph over adversity and realize dreams by believing it is possible to battle and overcome obstacles in the environment. By so doing, they develop qualities that help them to be successful in the battle. Such qualities also help them cope with adversity throughout their lives. If everything comes too easily to persons (as it did to Jerome), or if they lose their belief in the power to change their circumstances, this can work against human beings, as they may never learn to develop their capacities.

We learn of Jerome’s frustration because before his accident, he was always number two, never number one. As Vincent, the narrator, tells us, “Jerome was engineered with everything he needed to get into Gattaca except the desire to do so.” Because the society believed that all of a person’s traits are genetically determined, it does not allow the belief that some traits can be developed through life experience.

Because Vincent demonstrates that through the power of belief, will, and effort, a person can transform his life circumstances, he represents hope for two of the characters in the film, Irene, his colleague, and Lamar, the doctor at Gattaca. Because both Irene and Lamar’s son are also victims of “flawed DNA”, they try to protect Vincent when they suspect he is assuming a false DNA identity. Vincent represents hope for these characters – the hope of recovering the human qualities of desire and will.

In the end, Vincent is “saved” in the way human beings have always been saved – through the good will and humanity of fellow human beings and through his own belief in himself and willingness to act on it.