Present Future(s)

The representation of futuristic society through the use of existing buildings

GATTACA (1997), Andrew Niccol

GATTACA is a 1997 science fiction film directed by Andrew Niccol.

The baseline of its plot draws on characteristics of biopunk, the subgenre of cyberpunk, as it describes a society in which humanity is divided into two groups: invalids, or individuals conceived through traditional means and valids, “superior beings” conceived through genetic manipulation.

The story follows the character of Vincent, an in-valid, who dreams of entering the space program, to become an astronaut. Although law forbids genetic discrimination, a person’s genotype will be responsible for his social integration and professional success. Naturally, Vincent is forbidden from entering the space agency GATTACA, and decides to become a “borrowed ladder”, the name given to in-valids who use the identity of “valid” members of society, in order to achieve his dream.

In the film, the description of futuristic society is done through the creation of an introvert society. A microcosm, making use of very few main locations:  

The Marin County Civic Center, in San Rafael, by Frank Lloyd Wright  (GATTACA space agency)

the Otis College of Art and Design, in Los Angeles, by Eliot Noyes (parking lot)

the CLA Building, in Pomona, by Antoine Preock (Vincent Freeman’s house).  

The Sepulveda Dam and the solar power plant at Kramer Junction Solar Electric  Generating Station are two additional locations used in the story to create some sense of an ‘outside world

What we can first see is that no architectural spaces or horizons are creating through CGI. The realism is therefore unquestionable, and yet the spaces themselves are deeply awesome. Quite like Godard’s 1965  Alphaville, Niccol decides to film a future that is already happening, as the notion of ‘building a future’ is alien to him. Vivian Sobchack refers to the dilemma that is central to the genre of science fiction as “a tension between those images which strive to totally remove us from a comprehensible and known world into a romantic poetry and those images which strive to bring us back into a familiar and prosaic context”.

Interestingly enough, it appears that the locations of GATTACA play a double role of launching us off into an alien and astonishing world and yet also bring us back into a familiar context due to their real existence.

The architecture in GATTACA is of a timeless nature. Indeed, the dominating styles are post-modernism and brutalism. It is the absence more than the presence of materials that make architecture timeless. It is the time in which one lives that will attribute its own meaning to architecture that appears somewhat uncorrupted. It is for such a reason that the Marin County Civic Center by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Sepulveda Dam can be used for any time period. It is worth mentioning that George Lucas also used the County Civic Center when filming THX 1138 due to its sterile nature and highly organised layout. The geometry of the buildings in GATTACA is also used for symbolic value. Indeed, the helix staircase spells out the main theme of the film: the DNA strain.  

The continuous corridors, curved barriers, circular structures reveal the perfection of man’s ‘hand’. 

The question of whether or not we are seeing a utopic or dystopian society is regularly challenged in the film. Indeed, in science fiction cinema, futuristic society has often been portrayed as a closed space, normally due to a limited production budget. However, one may suggest that the limited space of the futuristic ‘world’ has much in common with the original 1516 description of ‘Utopia’, by Thomas More. He described a closed fictional island society, composed of 54 identical cities. Perhaps it is therefore not interesting to argue whether or not GATTACA is placed in a utopic or dystopian world, but rather how Niccol creates its boundaries.

Unlike Eon Flux (2005) , where the Eden-like city is limited by a giant concrete wall, the boundaries in GATTACA are much more obscure. The reoccurring similar screen shots on locations augment our sense of closed space, but it is ultimately the actions of the characters that make us understand. Similarly to the Truman Show (1998), the sea is the first limit to the world of GATTACA; space also appears to be a limit that Vincent ultimately breaks through. The character of Jerome Morrow, the handicapped ‘valid’ who sells his identity to Vincent, finds his escape from the world through death.

The notion of purity and sterile environment is what seems to best characterize the story in GATTACA. It is also one of the main characteristics we associate with an ideal futuristic society, questionably in regards to the desire to sterilise human nature:

Director Josef: You keep your work-station so clean, Jerome.

Vincent: It’s next to godliness. Isn’t that what they say?