Unorthodox In Gattaca

When society heads into the wrong direction, it may take unorthodox behavior to put it back on course. Gattaca is a dystopian movie, in which the community is separated into two groups; individuals that have been genetically modified to be perfect, called valids, and those that were born without any genetic changes, called invalids. Vincent is an invalid, but wants to be an astronaut, a job reserved only for valids. In order to achieve his dream he assumes the identity of Jerome, who is a valid. As he prepares to go into space, he is constantly trying to cover up his old identity. Vincent is able to evade the police who are looking for him, and go on his mission to one of Jupiter’s moons. In the film Gattaca, directed by Andrew Niccol, the characters Jerome, Vincent, Lamar, and Irene are unorthodox individuals, because their actions do not follow the guidelines of normal society.

One unorthodox character is Jerome, who is the genetically modified individual who allows Vincent to take his identity.

The society does not allow the invalids to hold any important job, so Jerome allowing Vincent to take his identity and go into space is unorthodox. In addition, Vincent is another unorthodox character. He was born an invalid, but has always dreamed of going into space. Vincent is able to successfully cheat the system to get a job as an astronaut, and eventually embarks on a mission into space. Another unorthodox character from the film is Lamar. He works at Gattaca administering blood and urine tests to make sure everyone there is a valid. Lamar is aware that Vincent is using DNA samples from Jerome, but does not say anything. His participation in the schema makes him unorthodox. Irene is another important character who does not follow the norms of society. After spending time with Vincent, he reveals to Irene that he is not actually Jerome, and is an invalid. Instead of turning him in, she keeps the information to herself , enabling Vincent to achieve his dream of space

travel.
The film Gattaca serves as a good warning of what could potentially happen if we continue to genetically modify humans. Many similarities can be found between this film and the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In both the film and the book, the members of the society face some form of genetic modification, and jobs are determined based on these mutations. In the movie Vincent, who is an invalid, works as a janitor for a brief period of time. In both fictional works the lower class individuals hold the menial jobs, with the important roles limited to the upper class. Jerome, Vincent, Lamar, and Irene from Andrew Niccol’s film Gattaca are unorthodox, because they deviate from the mainstream views and behaviors of the society.