Gattaca - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Gattaca or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Gattaca

[gerald]

The Twelve-Fingered Pianist performs on stage with a dozen red roses next to him.

[beth]

The most sci-fi part of the movie: "genome editing" seems possible with CRISPR-Cas9 which was invented by two women scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna in 2012; and they had the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 2020.

[oscar]

Vincent's car is a 1963 Studebaker Avanti.

[richard]

Film debut of Maya Rudolph.

[carla]

Jerome claims a crime scene will be 'crawling with Hoovers' to which Vincent claims he will handle the J. Edgars. This is a reference to 'hoover' being the word for vacuum cleaner in Britain and the name of the FBI director in the US.

[carl]

Many of the cars in the movie are electric, a premise that is widely accepted now as inevitable, but was only conjecture when the movie was made.

[francisco]

Uma Thurman's character is named Irene Cassini. Cassini is the surname of the seventeenth century Italian astronomer, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who discovered the prominent gap in Saturn's main rings, as well as the icy moons, Iapetus, Dione, Rhea, and Tethys. The space mission, in this film, is destined for Saturn. In 1997, NASA launched the Cassini space probe, bound for Saturn. It carried the Huygens space probe, which was dropped into Titan in early 2005, and discovered ground under the clouds.

[kim]

As Vincent explains at the beginning of the film, "I was conceived in the Riviera. Not the French Riviera, the Detroit variety." He narrates over the shot of his parents laying in the oddly shaped, rear windshield of a Riviera - a 1971 Buick Riviera.

[ava]

In the opening minutes, Loren Dean is shown swimming in an Endless Pool (swimming treadmill) to help establish the swimming theme and futuristic setting.

[jessie]

Many character names are symbolic. "Vincent" = "He shall conquer," which is what a "Freeman" does. Detective Hugo Coldspring = Human Genome Organization, which operates out of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. "Caesar" = Julius Caesar, who suffered from epilepsy. Ernest Borgnine typically plays strong leader roles, but here is limited to being a cleaner. "Cassini" = Cassini's division in the rings of Saturn, the destination of Vincent' flight. "Josef" = Josef Mengele, an SS doctor responsible for 'medical experiments' (Might this be a mistake for 'Gregor' = Gregor Mendel, Father of Genetics). "Eugene" = Eugenics, a program to 'improve' humans by selective breeding. "Flatfoot", used as an insult for a policeman, is also a genetically influenced condition. When Marie and Antonio consult the genetic counselor, they specify 'blue eyes, brown hair, and fair skin." The dark-eyed, head-shaved black counselor repeats these back, with a slight smile of condescension.

[dustin]

To fully assume Jerome's identity, Vincent (at 5' 11") undergoes extension surgery in his legs to match Jerome's recorded height of 6' 1". In reality, Jude Law and Ethan Hawke are both 5' 11".

[nora]

The Marin County Civic Center, filming location of the Gattaca Corporation, was also used in George Lucas's THX 1138 (1971).

[francisco]

As Irene and Anton drive up at Vincent and Jerome's home at 01:20:29, a 1956/57 Continental Mark II coupe is parked in the background. It is a very rare classic car that was exceptionally expensive when new, almost $10,000. Already loaded with every conceivable standard feature of the time, the only option offered was air conditioning for about $800. It was made by the short-lived Continental division of the Ford Motor Company.

[bernice]

Actress Maya Hawke, known for her role in season 3 of Stranger Things (2016), was born as a result of her parents, Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, meeting while shooting this film.

[brent]

Was voted by NASA scientists the most accurate science fiction film ever made.