50 Fun Facts About Gattaca

Which actor plays Vincent Freeman, the man who fakes his genetic identity, in Gattaca?

Ethan Hawke called the Gattaca script one of the more interesting he had read in years. He later made two more films with its writer-director.

In Gattaca, Vincent Freeman spends years faking his identity to join a crewed mission to which moon?

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, and the flight there gives the film its deadline: a murder at Vincent's workplace comes one week before launch.

Gattaca's title uses the initials of four DNA bases: guanine, thymine, cytosine and which other?

Adenine supplies the title's three A's: the name is spelled only with G, A, T and C, the letters used to write out a genetic sequence.

Gattaca's headquarters was filmed at a Marin County civic center designed by which architect?

Frank Lloyd Wright's building was leaking and neglected by the mid-1990s, and the Gattaca crew cleaned up parts of it while filming there in 1996.

Which US senator's 2013 speech lifted lines nearly verbatim from Wikipedia's Gattaca plot summary?

Rand Paul gave the speech at Liberty University while backing a candidate for Virginia governor, using the film to warn against genetic selection.

Which actress plays Irene, the Gattaca co-worker Vincent Freeman falls in love with?

Uma Thurman met her future husband on the Gattaca set. The film itself fell flat in cinemas, then found its audience on home video.

Which English actor plays Jerome Morrow, the paralysed former swimming star, in Gattaca?

Jude Law reached cinemas in Gattaca the same year as Wilde, the biopic that won him a Most Promising Newcomer award in Britain.

Which engineered trait sets apart the concert pianist Vincent and Irene watch in Gattaca?

Twelve fingers let the pianist perform a classical impromptu in a new arrangement written by the film's own composer.

Which actor, far better known for comedy roles, was a producer of Gattaca through his own company?

Danny DeVito's company was Jersey Films, which also produced Pulp Fiction, Get Shorty and Erin Brockovich.

Gattaca's writer-director earned an Oscar nomination for writing which film released a year later?

The Truman Show also won him the BAFTA for original screenplay, though Peter Weir directed it rather than the man who wrote it.

In Gattaca, what do Vincent and Anton Freeman call their boyhood contest of swimming far out to sea?

Chicken has one rule: whoever turns back to shore first loses. The genetically favoured Anton wins every time, until the day he doesn't.

In Gattaca, which Olympic result leaves the engineered swimmer Jerome Morrow feeling like a failure?

A silver medal was not enough for a man designed to be the best, and Jerome puts it on one last time in the film's final scene.

In Gattaca, which stray trace of Vincent Freeman do police find near the murder scene?

An eyelash is enough to tell the police that an unregistered, naturally conceived person has been inside the building, which starts the manhunt.

How was the former swimming star Jerome Morrow left paralysed before the events of Gattaca?

Hit by a car, yes, but not by accident: Jerome later admits to Vincent that he stepped in front of it on purpose.

Gattaca's leading lady played which Batman villain in another film released the same year?

Poison Ivy was her role in Batman & Robin, a big-budget sequel often ranked among the worst films ever made.

Loudspeaker announcements at Gattaca's headquarters are in English and which constructed language?

Esperanto lines were handled by a member of the Esperanto League of North America, who went to the recording studio for the job.

The genetically enhanced pianist in Gattaca plays an arrangement of an impromptu by which composer?

Franz Schubert wrote it as the third of his Opus 90 impromptus, in G-flat major. The film's own composer made the new arrangement heard on screen.

In Gattaca, a raised risk of failure in which organ bars Irene from deep-space missions?

Heart trouble marks Irene as second-class even though she was genetically selected, and Vincent is secretly hiding the same kind of flaw.

Which crew position is Vincent Freeman assigned for the space mission he trains for in Gattaca?

Navigator is the post he wins using another man's blood and urine samples, after his own genes had shut him out of professional work.

Which New Zealand-born filmmaker wrote and directed Gattaca as his first feature film?

Andrew Niccol won the Special Jury Prize at France's Gérardmer film festival for his debut, even though it was not a box office success.

In Gattaca, who turns out to have murdered the administrator found dead a week before launch?

Director Josef is unmasked only after the police spend most of the film chasing Vincent, an innocent man with a secret of his own.

Which Gattaca character alters Vincent Freeman's final genetic test so he can board the rocket?

Lamar, the company doctor, reveals he already knows the truth, and that his own son looks up to Vincent.

In Gattaca, what does Vincent Freeman find inside the envelope Jerome tells him to open in flight?

A lock of hair is Jerome's parting gift. He has also stored enough samples to keep Vincent's disguise going for two lifetimes.

What label does Gattaca's society give to people conceived naturally, without genetic selection?

In-valids are protected from discrimination on paper, yet routine gene profiling steers them into menial jobs.

In Gattaca, what is the slang for a person passing as genetically elite on donated samples?

Borrowed ladder describes Vincent, who scrubs away his own skin cells each morning and carries a donor's blood and urine to beat the daily tests.

How does Vincent Freeman explain finally outswimming his genetically superior brother in Gattaca?

He saved nothing for the return swim, he tells Anton during a final night-time race between the two as adults.

Before he poses as an elite employee, what job does Vincent Freeman hold at the Gattaca building?

Cleaner is as close as his genes are meant to let him get: he tidies the offices of the aerospace firm he dreams of flying for.

Why is a Gattaca administrator murdered a week before the launch?

He planned to cancel the mission, and the police inquiry into his death is what puts Vincent's assumed identity in danger.

In Gattaca, Irene shares her surname with which Italian-born astronomer of the 1600s?

Cassini is also the name of the space probe launched in October 1997, the same month Gattaca opened in American cinemas.

Jerome Morrow's middle name in Gattaca comes from the Greek for 'well-born'; what is it?

Eugene suits a man engineered to be flawless: the Greek word behind it joins the roots for 'well' and 'kin'.

Which American novelist and essayist plays the mission director at the aerospace firm in Gattaca?

Gore Vidal had form as a screen actor: he took a cameo in Fellini's Roma and a part in the political satire Bob Roberts.

Which veteran Oscar-winning actor appears in Gattaca in the supporting role of Caesar?

Ernest Borgnine had won the Best Actor Oscar back in the 1950s for Marty, a film that also took Best Picture.

Which veteran actor plays Detective Hugo, an investigator on the murder case, in Gattaca?

Alan Arkin went on to win an Academy Award as the foul-mouthed grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine.

Which actor has a small role in Gattaca as a character known only as German?

Tony Shalhoub went on to win three Primetime Emmys as the title character of the series Monk.

Which future Saturday Night Live cast member has a small part as a delivery nurse in Gattaca?

Maya Rudolph did not join the sketch show until 2000, three years after Gattaca reached cinemas.

Which future Breaking Bad cast member appears in Gattaca as a cop on the beat?

Dean Norris later became famous as another lawman, the DEA agent Hank Schrader.

Which English composer wrote the score for Gattaca that earned a Golden Globe nomination?

Michael Nyman was already famous for his soundtrack to The Piano, an album that sold more than three million copies.

Gattaca was shot under which working title, a reference to the Bible's creation story?

The Eighth Day had to go because a Belgian film had already reached American cinemas under the same English name.

The electric cars in Gattaca were based on real 1960s models, including which classic French design?

Citroën DS bodies shared the screen with a British Rover P6 and an American Studebaker Avanti, all presented as electric vehicles.

What did Gattaca's director spend more than ten years making in London before his feature debut?

TV commercials were his trade from the age of 21, and Gattaca became the first feature film he both wrote and directed.

Which 2011 sci-fi film by Gattaca's director did he describe as that film's illegitimate child?

In Time repeats the earlier film's trick of putting classic cars in a dystopian setting, and again pits its hero against a privileged caste.

Gattaca's one Academy Award nomination, shared by Jan Roelfs and Nancy Nye, came in which category?

Best Art Direction had also brought production designer Jan Roelfs his earlier Oscar nomination, for the 1992 film Orlando.

Gattaca lost the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation to which other 1997 science fiction film?

Contact was based on a novel by Carl Sagan. A year later the same prize went to a film scripted by Gattaca's own writer.

Gattaca lost the Golden Globe for best original score to the music of which other 1997 film?

Titanic composer James Horner took the prize, in a field that also included Philip Glass, Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams.

Which TV company developed a Gattaca series in 2023, then abandoned the project three months later?

Showtime's version was to be set one generation after the film, with one of the original producers returning as an executive producer.

A deleted Gattaca scene names famous people deemed genetically flawed, including which US president?

Abraham Lincoln is named alongside Albert Einstein in the scene, which was left out of cinemas but included on the 2008 DVD and Blu-ray.

Which design style marks Gattaca's production design, seen in its electric cars with 1960s bodies?

Retrofuturism runs through the director's later work too: one of his films again drops vintage cars into a dystopian tomorrow.

Which costume designer earned a Saturn Award nomination for dressing the cast of Gattaca?

Colleen Atwood went on to win Academy Awards for films including Chicago and Alice in Wonderland.

Which California university's pointed tower appears in Gattaca and was demolished in 2022?

Cal Poly Pomona took the tower down after a fault line was found beneath it. The building had leaked water ever since it opened.

In Gattaca, what happens to Anton Freeman both times Vincent beats him in their sea-swimming dare?

He nearly drowns and has to be pulled back to shore by the brother whose genes were supposed to make him the weaker one.