I always assumed that “INVALID” on the scanner just meant you had provided an invalid sample: It didn’t match anything in their database of genetic samples because they only collected samples from the genetically engineered kids rather than the freeborns.
Something that always amused me about the movie: Whenever Vincent gives his staged sample, the ID scanner pops up “VALID” with ID information, complete with a picture… of Eugene, the originator of the sample. Sure, Vincent has his hair styled a bit to match, but otherwise looks very little like the guy the scanner says he is. He doesn’t even talk with the right accent for being from England!
Why is this funny rather than glaring? When I was in Basic, one of the biggest things that got hammered into our skulls by the TIs was that when we were checking an ID, we had to look at the ID, which a surprising number of mentally disengaged people (like, say, folks on guard duty for several hours) just didn’t do. You might see someone you knew was allowed to be there, such as the instructor, but he’d be holding someone else’s ID card. Or the ID card would have all the right information on it, and a picture of Spider-man. Sometimes the instructor would just be wearing someone else’s nametag, meaning he no longer matched the provided ID. Stupid stuff like that still tripped up people who should have known better.
The folks running the security equipment just simply didn’t put the extra bit of effort to actually look at the ID info rather than just mindlessly accepting the positive ID. It’s only when the scanner gives a “bad” answer when the guy with the scanner starts to pay attention.
So you thought I chose that specific left-handed example by accident, without understanding the significance? No. It tied nicely into everything in this thread, and that’s why I used it. It was intentional, and your pointing out the significance to me, as if I didn’t know it, makes me sad.
If you could pick one point about this movie that makes you think it was a great movie, what would it be?
Why would I have to pick only one? If I had to, I might choose its visual aesthetic, its script, its complex exploration of the idea of predestination versus will, or something else. I’m not sure which I’d pick.
This is unnecessarily reductionist (bordering on a straw man). The axiom isn’t that genetics define a person. The axiom is that good genetics are a necessary component of success. Nowhere is it implied that they are sufficient to guarantee success.
The reason that Jerome can’t get a job as an astronaut is that he can’t walk. It’s not that complicated.
But according to his genetics, he’s a great walker!
But yeah, being wheelchair bound is beyond what they are going to fail to notice when checking his blood sample. It’s entirely possible that he’s qualified for all sorts of great jobs even crippled, but he is either not interested in or aware of those jobs, or he is disqualified because of his being a born-again alcoholic.
Well to be fair I only watched it a few weeks ago!
I’m not sure thats an entirely accurate summary of Jude Law’s character (I kind of liked the guy), I got the impression it wasn’t just coming second in the competition that made him decide to end it all, that was just the final straw, but rather he had a feeling of ennui and discontent throughout his life. He was supposed to be the golden boy with the world at his feet but it never felt like that, he had no goal, no direction, and seemed lonely.
And while he may have been a rather unsympathetic character at the start of the movie he gradually changes as he takes Vincent’s cause on as his own, enabling him to succeed by proxy, his suicide at the end isn’t a selfish act but rather its a noble and even heroic closing of the circle, he’s making sure that there are no loose ends which may expose Vincent further down the line.
As someone pointed out elsewhere there is a nice touch at the end, as he sacrifices himself in the fire his silver medal turns to gold.