Gattaca (1997) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vincent / Jerome

Vincent/Jerome (Ethan Hawke) was referred to twice (by himself and by his bother, Anton) as a "borrowed ladder" - someone who passed off another person's genetic identity as his own. The use of the word "ladder" gave the term a double meaning, as it called to mind the concept of achieving height or altitude to attain social status or success, and also referred to the structure or appearance of an uncoiled DNA strand.

The movie utilized other terms with double meanings. For instance, cops were referred to as "Hoovers"; a reference to both J. Edgar Hoover (the first Director of the FBI) and the handheld vacuum cleaners carried by each of them. In another example, the term "in-valid" was used to distinguish natural births from genetically engineered births, or "valids", and was also a play on the word "invalid".

Answer: His accent (speech)

Vincent wore contact lenses to correct his eye-color and myopia, learnt to write with his right hand (because "no one orders southpaws anymore") and underwent painful surgery to make himself two inches taller. However, he kept his American accent, even though Jerome/Eugene (played by Jude Law) had a British accent.

The transformation was sufficient, and Vincent managed to successfully impersonate Jerome during his time in Gattaca, although the ruse became harder to maintain after the mission director's murder brought a full-fledged police investigation into the heart of the Aerospace Corporation.

Answer: His eyelash

Vincent was usually meticulous about cleaning up after himself so that he left no trace of his true self in Gattaca, but on the day the police arrived to investigate the murder, he carelessly left behind a single eyelash. The police recovered it and identified it as belonging to Vincent Freeman, an in-valid who no longer worked at Gattaca, which led Detective Hugo to immediately suspect Vincent of committing the murder.

Answer: Michael Nyman

The haunting score for "Gattaca" was composed by Michael Nyman, who also wrote the music for "The Piano", "The End of the Affair" and many of Peter Greenaway's earlier films.

The other choices composed the music used in other films written by Andrew Niccol (the writer and director of "Gattaca"). Carter Burwell wrote the music for "S1M0NE", and "The Truman Show" used original music by Burkhard Dallwitz and pre-existing music by Philip Glass.

Answer: Alan Arkin

Alan Arkin, well known for his leading roles in older films like "Wait Until Dark", "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" and "Catch-22", has probably been better known for his strong supporting performances in movies, like his appearances in "Get Smart" and "Marley & Me", and his Oscar-winning turn as the foul-mouthed grandfather in 2006's "Little Miss Sunshine". In "Gattaca", Arkin gave a short but memorable performance as Detective Hugo, the investigator who allowed his prejudices to cloud his judgment in the murder investigation, but who eventually came through to find the real murderer.

The other choices played other minor roles in "Gattaca". Elias Koteas played Vincent's father, Antonio. Xander Berkeley played Dr. Lamar, who helped keep Vincent's secret. Tony Shalhoub (the award-winning actor from television's "Monk") played German, the black market dealer who sold Vincent his new genetic identity.

Answer: He was hit by a car

Jerome/Eugene (Jude Law) was a swimming star who won the silver medal in an important swimming competition. However, he couldn't handle being "one step down on the podium", so he tried to kill himself by stepping out in front of a car, but only succeeded in becoming paralyzed from the waist down.

The incident illustrates one of the many dangers of the brave new world envisioned in "Gattaca" - everyone may be engineered for greatness, but someone still has to end up in second-place. As Vincent put it in the film, Jerome/Eugene was suffering under the "burden of perfection".

Answer: Schubert

The classical piece was Franz Schubert's "Impromptu in G Flat Major, Op. 90, No. 3", which also featured in "The Portrait of a Lady" starring Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich.

In "Gattaca", the piece was adapted for the recital that Vincent and Irene attended during their date. After Vincent discovered that the pianist had twelve fingers, he said to Irene, "Twelve fingers or one, it's how you play", prompting Irene to respond, "That piece can only be played with twelve". Interestingly, the piece used in the film was actually performed by two pianists (Ryan Dorin and Michael Lang), so it seems that you actually need 20 fingers in order to play it.

Answer: Both of them

When Irene (Uma Thurman) gave Vincent/Jerome a strand of her hair for genetic sequencing, he deliberately let go of the hair and said the line to her, indicating that he was not bothered about her (perceived) genetic shortcomings.

Towards the end of the movie, after Irene discovered that Vincent was really an in-valid, he gave her a strand of his hair and told her to let him know if she was still interested in him. Irene also let the hair slip through her fingers, and delivered the same line back to Vincent, indicating that she too had accepted Vincent for who he was, and possibly that she no longer lent so much weight to genetic determinism.

Answer: From saliva found in the victim's eye

The murder was solved after Detective Hugo swabbed a spit sample from the murder victim's eye, and traced it to Director Josef (Gore Vidal). The Director had killed the mission director because he had threatened to call off the mission to Titan, and the Director wouldn't have lived to see the next launch window. Once it was too late to stop the launch, Director Josef confessed to the crime.

Answer: A lock of his hair

Eugene was planning to kill himself, so he gave Vincent a lock of his hair as a memento. Throughout the movie, Eugene's skin, hair and other body matter had been employed in a clinical and impersonal way to enable Vincent to escape detection as an in-valid. So it was quite touching to see his hair being preserved for purely sentimental reasons, for once.