Gattaca

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Most sci-fi films tend to glamorize the future, looking forward to a high(er)-tech world that makes life infinitely easier for humans with small yet powerful gadgets. Let's not even get into the big guns. Gattaca imagines a much different world that may well be in the stars. Society is divided into two groups: the Valids, who were created genetically and are the superior race, and In-Valids, who were conceived the old way. Vincent Freeman (Hawke) came into the world the wrong way and as a result works as a janitor at Gattaca Corp., where he dreams of becoming an astronaut. He strikes a deal with a Valid, Eugene (Law), a onetime star swimmer who has become paralyzed after an accident. He uses Eugene's genetic samples, taken from just about every form of human detritus possible, to slip by Gattaca's stringent testing. A murder at Gattaca has the company's security forces on full alert, and a misplaced eyelash could blow the cover-up. Thurman plays Freeman's cool but suspicious girlfriend. Smart and unsettling.