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Gattaca draft script (1997)
- block_dagger 4y agoA marvelous story - the height of great naked scifi.
- greggman3 4y agoI'm going to take the inevitable downvotes, especially by people who don't want to engage and discuss, and say I wasn't a fan of Gattaca. In particular the story gets muddled for me because they made the poor choice of choosing a space mission as the background for the story. NASA and the Air Force already have (had) a "you must have perfect genes or you don't get to be an astronaut / fighter pilot" so that part of Gattaca was not sci-fi, it was just repeating what was already true. One of my best friends in high-school, his dream was to be a fighter pilot, but he had bad vision (bad genes) and knew that was an instant "no". In terms of the movie, the main character wants the government to risk billions of dollars on a space mission on him and he selfishly doesn't care that they're trying to lower the risk of failure by selecting only people less likely to have issues on the mission. Real space missions do the same. You aren't going to send someone who genes suggest the mission may fail. They may not give you a DNA test, but they will test tons of other things that all basically test your things you got because of your genes. I get the movie is about trying harder than anyone else, taking risks, not letting others tell you your limits. All of that is great. But, because of the poor choice of context (billion dollar space missions) it didn't work for me because that is how billion dollar space missions are run and it made the main character kind of a jerk for risking the mission and every one else's lives.
- camjohnson26 4y agoMy opinion is that the movie is trying to show that genes have less predictive power than most assume. Administrators love easy measures that simplify decisions, but real life is way more complicated than that. So the protagonist in the movie has been able to beat his genetically superior brother and thrive academically by being creative and finding ways around his natural limitations, and that scrappiness is the core feature of humanity that makes someone successful.
- greggman3 4y agoI got all that. They're still going to look at statistics to decide how who to risk billions of dollars on a space mission. This is no different than say insurance companies charging more for people under 25. You might be 19 and the safest driver in the world. Doesn't matter, the statistics say, people under 25 get in accidents. Same with all kinds of things. It's not like a space program has infinity money and sends up a rocket to Saturn every day. So, they have to lower the risks and one of the ways they do that is by trying to select extremely healthy people to be astronauts. Sure, one person how's genes say they are unhealthy might happen to outlive everyone how's genes say they are healthy but that's not how it works. They're still going to use some form of selection by genes (health, body size, eye sight, hearing, etc...) so select people they feel give the mission the highest chance of success. If you're blind, deaf, have missing or deformed limbs, a "bad" heart, etc... you aren't going to be selected.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- px43 4y agoThe movie also did a lot to turn the public against the emerging field of genetic engineering, and science in general. Even 25 years later, people cite GATTACA as a reason to avoid vaccines. It seems to me that the overwhelming takeaway from that movie was more science is always bad, and leads to suffering and human misery. I think there were some good messages in there, but most people who I have talked to about the movie seem to have missed them, and focus entirely on how we need to outlaw any form of research into human genetics.
- jecel 4y agoEveryone I have talked to that remembers the movie as well as reviews I have seen think it is about genetic engineering. The only thing the movie actually shows is genetic selection. The scientist tells Vincent's parents that only their genes will be used, though selected such that if they tried millions of times they would be unlikely to naturally get such a good combination.
- px43 4y agoYup, I remember that line "Remember, the child is still you, simply the best of you."
- atombender 4y agoThis made me look up what Andrew Niccol has been up to since. He had a terrific start to his career, writing and directing Gattaca and also writing The Truman Show. But since then he seems to have fallen into a slump, directing just a handful of poorly reviewed movies in the span of 26 years. (The exception is Lord of War, which, while not a masterpiece, was quite enjoyable at the time, and has one of the most memorable opening sequences of any movie.) This also made me think about what people like him do in the time in between. How are they earning a living? Some directors and screenwriters have gaps lasting 5-10 years between each movie they make. Much of the time must be spent trying to get projects off the ground, but who's footing the bill?
- kqr2 4y agoNot sure if this is accurate: https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/directors/andrew-niccol-net-worth/ https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/direct... But claims his net worth is $14 million.
- Sebguer 4y agoThese sites are complete dross.
- pmoriarty 4y agoHis film In Time[1] was also pretty decent, though not as good as Gattaca, imo. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Time
- TigeriusKirk 4y agoThey're largely living off money from past films. Residuals help, but it's mostly the paychecks. Screenwriting is somewhat unusual, though, in that the official credits for a film don't always represent every writer who got paid for the project. There's a whole complicated thing with establishing who gets credit and who doesn't. Union arbitration can be involved, and so on. There's often a lot of intermediate drafts that don't lead to credit but nonetheless earn big paychecks for the writers. And of course writers are often paid for scripts that never get made at all. The big win is writing a huge hit that earns substantial residuals for years, but there's a lot of money made at levels below that too. As for who is footing that bill, it's the producers/studios.
- kqr2 4y agoFor those in the SF bay area, you can also check out the Marin Civic Center where many scenes were shot: http://modernistarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-visit-to-gattaca.html http://modernistarchitecture.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-visit-to... https://www.marincounty.org/depts/cu/tours https://www.marincounty.org/depts/cu/tours
- fuzzythinker 4y agoThe futuristic building is CalPoly Pomona's CLA building. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLA_Building https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLA_Building
- Vecr 4y agoOne thing I've never understood is the statement (in the movie and this script) "Only minutes old, the date and cause of my death was already known." The rest of the movie (and even what the nurse is saying) only talk about life expectancy, so I can't tell how he would know that. I suppose he's exaggerating, but it's kind of weird anyway.
- fabiensanglard 4y agoA movie that inspired me to keep on going for many years.
- zxcvbn4038 4y agoAgreed, one of those rare sci-fi films that does it all without green screens or rubber suits, an actual story that you care about, and want to see the ending.
- ramraj07 4y agoImportantly, it’s one of the rarest sci fi films where there’s no “supernatural” element whatsoever- no force, no Q, no monolith. Just man against nature. Only three movies I know doing this are gattaca, Martian and the moon.
- ShannonLimiter 4y agoI’d add Gravity and Ad Astra to that list.
- Jare 4y agoI would say Ad Astra is filled to the brim with fantastic and implausible elements. The visual design is very realistic, and this contrast adds to the movie's sense of disconnect (which is great it you like it, and a movie killer if you don't).
- ShannonLimiter 4y agoSo is The Martian. The physics in the movie and book are absolutely magical: windstorms powerful enough to impale people but not enough air pressure to require a top to the spacecraft. Toxic, perchlorate soil growing potatoes… Both the book and movie are wonderful, but have huge gaps of implausibility.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
- neilv 4y agoI really like the punchline message of "Gattaca", and that alone is reason for kids and others to watch it. (If you haven't watched it yet, watch it without spoilers.)
- neilv 4y agoIf you can't access: https://web.archive.org/web/20221226071056/https://sfy.ru/?script=gattaca https://web.archive.org/web/20221226071056/https://sfy.ru/?s...
- walrus01 4y agoIf anyone still hasn't seen Gattaca. Seriously, go buy it, rent it, pirate it, whatever in 2160p quality and sit down in a dark quiet room and watch it without interruption or distraction.
- bambax 4y agoI saw it like a million years ago, I don't remember much of it. Given the enthusiasm here I'm going to watch it again this week!
- phist_mcgee 4y agoIt's a classic for a reason.
- pram 4y agoThe one thing that always bothered me in Gattaca: discrimination was supposedly illegal, but the police had the same scanners the corporation did to see if people were 'valid' or not. Seems like that would be inadmissible evidence!
- SilverBirch 4y agoEver seen a black man pulled over by police? It’s never “oh we noticed <protected characteristic>” it’s “you were driving erratically”
- Taywee 4y agoMost white people won't have experienced that, because we're not ever in a situation where we can personally see a black person be pulled over by the police.
- kadoban 4y agoDiscrimination based on race is illegal, but police still care about race in both official and unofficial ways. And for example, witness testimony of "I saw a white man leave the scene of the crime" would be completely admissible testimony in a trial. So this doesn't seem like a mistake of worldbuilding to me. The way it's used in the story, it probably says some unflattering things about the police force and the society, but that seems entirely intentional.
- cjbgkagh 4y agoPretty sure ‘valid’ was about registration; a valid entry in the database not a aspersion on the DNA. In the movie they state they’re looking for someone who is smart enough to have avoid registering all of these years. To avoid registration Vincent would have had to take even worse jobs than otherwise would have been afforded to him, similar to undocumented immigrants in the US today.
- ehecatl42 4y agoOrg mode + fountain + olivetti If you are writing a screen-play.
- keepquestioning 4y agoWhat's another underrated SciFi?
- defrost 4y agoDark City (1998) It was a box office bomb but a real sleeper classic, it's highly rated in some circles, unknown in others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_City_(1998_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_City_(1998_film) There are others.
- oboes 4y agoBe sure to watch the director's cut with that one. The original theater version has an opening narrative (added by the producers) which spoils much if the plot.
- tigerlily 4y agoAt the risk of courting downvotes, Brazil from 1985. Not 100% sci-fi, as there are some comedy/fantasy/horror elements, but boy is it just wild. I don't know where Terry Gilliam gets his inspiration from.
- nullify88 4y agoI'd say its a fine suggestion. A dystopian movie portraying a futuristic, overly bureaucractic government which is highly dependent on unreliable whimsical machines paired with a hyper consumerist society. Robocop and Running Man portray similar scifi futures / society.
- rzzzt 4y agoThey each have a big corporation pulling the strings, OCP and ICS.
- rzzzt 4y agoReal-life bureaucracy?
- 4y ago
- TacticalCoder 4y agoThat that movie was named using only the letters G, A, T and C is what prompted my wife and I to give four given names to our daughter, starting each with one of these letters (in the order G, A, T and C). Geeky enough I'd say : )
- ix101 4y agoI hope for her sake they're not long names... The number of issues I've had due to too given names being too long has been quite frustrating. E.g. banking systems that can't fit my full name into their systems.
- Mountain_Skies 4y agoAfter moving into my current house, I about kicked myself because the street name has an apostrophe in it. Luckily pretty much every system now simply filters that out but there was a time when having SQL characters in your name or address could cause all kinds of havoc, not just because of Bobby Tables but also because some simply escaped the characters while others filtered them, leading to mismatches.
- spookthesunset 4y agoYou are just doing their testing in production!
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- raphar 4y agoI'm sure you already know but just in case.... The four DNA nucleotides or bases are: adenine (A) cytosine (C) guanine (G) and thymine (T)
- sourcecodeplz 4y agoI've watched it at least 3 times. Great movie.
- ggambetta 4y agoIs that a lot? :P I watch movies I like any number of times. In the tens of times over the years. I don't even keep count. Yes, I know the ending, but that kind of thing never stopped people from listening to their favorite song on repeat...
- makach 4y agoOne of the best sci-fi movies out there, science is everything but chance and sheer willpower is its own force that can change everything. Believe in yourself.
- quelsolaar 4y agoI named my son Vincent after the lead character. "You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything for the swim back."
- ljw1004 4y agoI got into ultramarathon swimming because of that movie. I've since done numerous unaccompanied 12mile swims in nearby Lake Washington (Seattle), several accompanied sea crossings, and one 24mile swim. On every swim I think of Vincent and that phrase. How it started -- I was swimming along the shore of the lake, figured that if I saved nothing for the journey back then the worst that could happen is I run out of energy and have to haul myself into someone's back yard and ask them for help. That wouldn't be too bad, so I might as well. It's amazing how much I can trick my brain+body into going further than it otherwise would.
- Waterluvian 4y agoI used to feel eye-rolly about people giving their kids’ names based on an interest. But I later realized that this has always been how many parents name kids, at least since religion was a thing. I think this is a really cool etymology!
- ralusek 4y agoLove the score during that scene.
- annadiru 4y agoGattaca is a good movie. I can't wait to read this. I'd also suggest William Gibson (of neuromancer fame)'s Alien script. Lots of good suggestions in this thread. Dark City's aesthetic and story-telling style made it one of the most impactful movies I've ever seen. You are in the dark most of the movie, both in aesthetic of the film and metaphorically in the sense that you don't know what is going on, but discover it slowly, and along the way you are lead to reach premature conclusions that turn out later to be false. I haven't watched this movie in years, but it's been permanently seared into the deepest darkest corners of my mind. Another excellent sci-fi i came across earlier this year, from the late 70's early 80's is a polish film On The Silver Globe. The special effects are nothing more than lighting, photography, writing, costumes, set design, and excellent acting, but I can still say that it's psychadelic in the way it provokes the mind, the senses, and the emotions.
- v64 4y ago>Dark City's aesthetic and story-telling style made it one of the most impactful movies I've ever seen. You are in the dark most of the movie, both in aesthetic of the film and metaphorically in the sense that you don't know what is going on, but discover it slowly, and along the way you are lead to reach premature conclusions that turn out later to be false. I'll add that if you haven't seen Dark City and are going to watch it, you must seek out the director's cut. The theatrical cut basically ruins the plot up front assuming the audience won't get it and it changes the film dramatically.
- gfxgirl 4y ago?? I saw it in the theater when it opened. nothing was ruined. maybe there is a second cut I'm unaware of. Certainly the cut Roger Ebert gave 4/4 stars, which is the original theatrical cut, isn't the one with spoilers
- v64 4y agoFrom the Wikipedia entry: "A director's cut of Dark City was officially released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 29 July 2008. The director's cut removes the opening narration, which Proyas felt explained too much of the plot, and includes approximately eleven minutes of additional footage, most of which extends scenes already present in the theatrical release with additional establishing shots and dialogue." I originally saw the director's cut, then went back and watched a video with the opening narration. I felt that my viewing of the movie was improved having seen it originally without.
- foobarbecue 4y agoLove this movie so much, especially the music.
- pavlov 4y agoA beautifully shot movie, in the era when Hollywood had perfected its film craft just before digital post production techniques started ruining it (because today it’s far too easy to do a sloppy shoot and say “we’ll fix it in post.”) Gattaca’s cinematographer Slawomir Idziak worked with famous director Krzystof Kieslowski and shot some of his most striking films.
- kranke155 4y agoYou’re cherry picking. If you look at the average film shot in the 70s, they were terribly lit and shot. The same thing happened then - we started having widely available cheap color film stock, and the result was a flood of poorly lit and framed films. Lots of those people got way better tho. Hopefully the same will happen now.
- GenerocUsername 4y agoNo one said every film was perfect. But that this was an example of a very well done, non-digital film
- pavlov 4y agoI’m not talking about the 1970s. Gattaca was made in 1997 and was a major production with a famous foreign cinematographer at the helm.
- kranke155 4y agoI was responding to your sentiment about how digital ruined Hollywood or whatever. It really didn’t. It just made it easier to produce things. That’s happened a few times before in film history, and the result was always an explosion in poorly lit, poorly shot films, and then slowly a filtering out that results in the next decade or two when the good people who started then become masters. You have this in the 1960s when the French New Wave starts using the recently invented 16mm and portable film cameras to make their films, and they make a bunch of movies which don’t look that good (for my money ‘Breathless’ has some terribly lit shots). The same thing happens in the 1970s when cheap color film stock arrives and you have an explosion of films in general, giving birth to exploitation and drive in films, many of which are again, terribly lit and sometimes poorly shot (‘Rolling Thunder’, a lot of Sam Peckinpah) The digital revolution didn’t “ruin things” it just made it easier. And whenever that happens you often get a glut of poorly made films, and then the best people who work on those films get better, and then the films they make in the next decade or two are astonishing and amazing. Just saying this isn’t new. It’s a phase.
- benreesman 4y agoAny time I’m seriously tempted to give up at anything important, a 100th re-watch of Gattaca tends to set me straight.