Thematic Concern of the movie Gattaca and one deep reference to the film

In a world where one’s genetic script can dictate his or her life, one must have determination and willpower, when not fortunate enough to be born genetically superior. The film Gattaca explores the significance of human will and the possible impacts of Genetic Engineering. Specifically, the persistence and dedication that is demonstrated by the protagonist ‘Vincent’ in his journey to transcend the limited future society have decided for him.

In the film, Gattaca Vincent, the protagonist and the narrator, said that "Jerome had been engineered with everything he needed to get into Gattaca, except the desire to do so". The quote depicts the sad truth behind society in the movie Gattaca, how only the genetically superior can succeed and how only the Genetically superior can concede. ‘Valids’ like Gerome, who are born to succeed, generally don’t have the desire, ambition or drive to overcome hardship. In life, all decisions are a result of motivation. In addition to biological motives, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is key to success. Intrinsic motivation is caused by the will to improve in a certain area while extrinsic motivation can originate from others and events that transpire. “Jerome Morrow was never meant to be one step down on the podium." In this quote, Gerome spoke of his hardships and his unfortunate fate in second place in the swimming cup. The only motivation that Gerome had was the expectations from his parents and also his ambition for first place and when he didn't achieve this his will to succeed or do anything was reduced. What Gerome has experienced is called the overjustification effect, and was first discovered in 1971 by Edward Deci,—intrinsic motivation is diminished when extrinsic motivation is given. Thus after his loss, Gerome was unmotivated since his only motivation was extinguished by his loss in the tournament. "This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything from the swim back." In this quote, Vincent explained how he beat Anton, his brother, in chicken, a game where they swim as far as possible before one of them chickens out and swims back to shore. The reason why Vincent could do this was thanks to his intrinsic and extrinsic motives. His drive for self-transcendence and ambition of winning was the combination of both intrinsic and extrinsic motives. Vincent wasn/t perfect and because he wasn’t perfect he had the drive to self improve. Besides the will to improve he also had ambition, the ambition to win, and unlike Gerome, Vincent had balanced his will to win with his will to improve. This ultimately led Vincent to achieve his goal and overcoming his Hardships. The first deep reference behind the film was motivation. The ability to balance both motives for your own gains and not be dependent on one side.