Probably because it doesn’t seem worth the effort.
The discrimination is de facto. It’s explicitly stated that there is no law against being an “In-valid” (a term breathtaking in its awkwardness and completely tone-deaf). So why does everyone act like it is? If there is no law against being In-Valid, why don’t the In-Valids protest their condition? It’s set in the future, after all. Did all records of the civil rights movement mysteriously vanish?
It’s a caste system.
The Gattaca Corporation is right not to give Vincent a job. He has a heart condition. Not just a potential heart condition; something that will show up if checked (see the scene on the treadmill). Space exploration is stressful and that last place you want someone to get a heart attack is a few thousand miles from Earth. Why is it wrong to protect Vincent from that? Ultimately, not wanting Vincent to be working there is perfectly reasonable. This is by far the most blatant example of how little thought was put into the scenario.
This misses the point entirely. Of course they’re “right,” but this doesn’t make the story stupid. Much like how Rudy isn’t a stupid story despite the fact that Rudy did not, in fact, belong on the field for Notre Dame.
*Everyone spends time and effort supporting a system they don’t believe in. The most obvious case is the doctor, who knows Vincent is an In-Valid, but keeps his secret. So why does he go along with the system? More importantly, why doesn’t he tell Vincent he knows earlier? If he sympathizes, then wouldn’t he tell Vincent he does, just in case Vincent needs help? And the end makes it clear that no one is particularly upset that Vincent fooled the system; they just shrug it off. But if it’s not that important to them, why do they accept it? (Consider what would happen in the segregated south if a Black man was discovered to be passing for white.) *
Again, this is a caste system. And not “everyone” can be characterized as not believing in the system. The director certainly believed in it. I’d also bet Uma Thurman’s character still believes in the system, though she’s come to realize that there can be exceptions.
*The constant genetic testing is pointless and expensive. Why does anyone bother? It would make sense under the system to check when hiring someone, but every day? Every time someone enters the building? It takes time and costs money to make genetic tests; why bother? Because the guy who was OK yesterday might change his genes today? Spot checks, maybe, but checking every person every single day? How many people are you tying up to do all this testing? How much money do you tie up in equipment to do the testing? How often are you going to find anything from it? And, finally, what does it matter if you do, since there is no explicit ban on In-Valids? *
This objection is one you made up. Who says that the testing is expensive? You? It looks pretty automated to me. Automated=cheap. Also, the daily blood check is specific to that office, and it is presented as a security check. Surely the cleaning staff can’t just walk in without passing through security, and they are in-valids. Think of it like a fingerprint check to get into the Pentagon. In the Gattaca world, DNA testing is more routine and ubiquitous than fingerprint checking is in our real world.
*Genetics can only do so much. Everyone seems surprised that the head of Gattaca could commit murder. But there is no “murder” gene. Similarly, there is no gene that makes you a better worker. All you can test for is physical traits. And Vincent fails on that count due to his bad heart. *
People are surprised that the guy they’ve known and worked with committed murder, much like anyopne would be. The only one who seems surprised in a “he couldn’t genetically do it!” way is Vincent’s brother, who has some serious mental hangups about what genes control due to growing up with an In-Valid older brother.
*Why go through all that rigmarole to make yourself a Valid? Vincent has to keep track of every piece of stray skin, bring sacks of urine and blood and spend hours trying to “prove” he was Valid. Why do it? Couldn’t someone hack into the database and change Vincent’s records? Better yet, pay someone who works in the records department to make the change (you can bet there would be people who’d do it). Viola – no need to go to all that trouble. No need to worry. Oh, yeah, that heart condition. *
Presumably, the central database through which everyone is identified is difficult to hack into, much like someone in our world trying to change the contents of their FBI file if they were on the FBI watch list. (And thus had an FBI file to change.) Note how Vincent’s identity comes up both at the DNA check at Gattaca and also at that independent testing place Uma Thurman took his hair to for testing. So everyone must plug into a central database, which we can safely assume is held pretty securely.
Huh? There are many little things that just don’t work. For instance, there are records that have everyone’s genetic profile. Yet they leave out important facts like someone is paralyzed in a car accident. Why? How was that little detail missed?
I don’t see the connection. The genetic records are only that: genetic records. They aren’t medical records, or prison records, or school records. They are only a measure of potential.
There you go. Now someone has refuted every point in your article.
