Gattaca Movie Questions

BIOLOGY The Future of Genetics? GATTAC A 1. What four letters are highlighted in the beginning credits and why? The four nitrogen bases in DNA 2. How long is Vincent supposed to live? What would be the probable cause of his death? 30.2 years, heart disorder is his cause of death 3. According to the geneticist, we have enough of this built in already. What is it? Imperfection 4. Genetically, what is the difference between Vincent and Anton? Anton was built scientifically, and Vincent was made with love 5. What is Vincent’s and his brother’s favorite “game”? Chicken 6. What career does Vincent want to be? What characteristics are keeping him from achieving his dream? An astronaut and his cells are keeping him from achieving his dream 7. What was Vincent’s first job at GATTACA? A custodian 8. “after all there is no gene for …” What? fake 9. What physical changes did Vincent make to “become” Jerome? Give at least 4. He met this dude that will change his identity He gets eye surgery, a haircut, and becomes taller with surgery 10. List at least three ways that Vincent tricked the people at GATTACA into believing that he was Jerome. He used the real Jerome’s pee Fingertip blood thingies Used his own hair DNA to sample him 11. What was found that lead investigators to suspect Vincent of the murder? Eyelash 12. How did they test the workers at GATTACA for a match of what was found at the crime scene? How did Vincent get past this test? They vacuumed every inch in the place, and he puts Jerome’s hair in a comb because he knew he would be targeted; also, he switched the blood vials 13. How does the staircase in the apartment relate to this movie? Vincent being able to walk and get on with Jerome’s life, Jerome will always be down because he is in a wheelchair and that’s not accepted by society 14. Who is the younger detective? Anton 15. Why does Eugene (real Jerome) think that he got the better end of the deal? He got the better end of deal because Eugene lent Vincent his body but Vincent lent Eugene his dream 16. At the end, what happen to … Vincent: He got into space, followed his dreams of becoming an astronaut Jerome: He killed himself 17. Were Vincent and Jerome friends by the end of the movie? How do you know? Yep, because by the end of the movie Vincent had two lifetimes worth of human material 18. Give a definition of each word below based on how it’s used in the movie. a. De-generate: Describes a god child b. Valid: Someone born scientifically c. In-valid: A God child d. Faith baby/God child: someone born not scientifically e. Genetic engineering: Scientifically engineer a baby f. Borrowed ladder: Used to describe how Vincent barrowed germs GATTACA Discussion Questions On a separate sheet of paper in complete thoughts and sentences answer the following discussion questions: 1. Vincent exceeded all of the expectations his DNA indicated. How is that possible? He was taken for granted 2. If we were able to exclude the eccentric, the different, the misfits, and the weak, what would happen to society? It would crumble apart because without them a lot of things would be different about society 3. Why is there such a resistance to the new order imposed by society? (E.g., Vincent’s girlfriend, the lab technician) There is such a resistance to the new order imposed by society because their DNA is supposedly perfect 4. What do you think is wrong with the society portrayed in GATTACA? It pity’s people who are probably too poor to get their children scientifically made 5. Wouldn’t every parent want to ensure that their child was perfect and had attributes of physical attractiveness, intelligence and athletic prowess to be able to do whatever s/he wanted in life? If so, why is the society portrayed in this film so devoid of happiness, vitality and fun? 6. If you were the president of a corporation that could hire genetically enhanced individuals, would you do so? If you didn’t, how could you compete with corporations that did hire only the genetically improved? What are the implications of this for our future? 7. The character of the Director (the murderer) told the investigators that there was no indication of violence in his genetic make-up. What is this scene trying to tell us? 8. What is the scene with the 12 fingered pianist trying to tell us? What is wrong with engineering children to have 12 fingers if, as a result, they will be able to make extraordinarily beautiful music? 9. Should life/health insurance companies, employers and the government have access to our personal genome to predict our future health? Is this too much information? 10. Unhealthy individuals are costly both in money for medical services and in productivity. Is this a valid reason for screening a person’s genome? 11. What limits should be placed on genetic engineering? 12. Should people be permitted to make a clone of themselves? What about someone who cannot have a child? 13. Should we permit people to make human clones of other people? 14. If you would permit human cloning, would the clones have all the rights of “natural” people? 15. Is it true that you are more than the sum of your genes? 16. What attributes did Vincent have that made him rise above his sub-par DNA? Do you have any of these? What are Your Thoughts??? Would you consider this type of life to be possible in the future? How would your life be different than it is today? Think about dating, having children, employment, pre-diagnosis of disease, and date of death.