Gattaca Page #2

In the bedroom JEROME removes a shirt from a drycleaning bag.

Printed on the bag - "Confidentiality Guaranteed". He emerges

from his bedroom, dressed in a smart albeit unconventionally cut

suit. He adjusts his tie in the mirror, careful not to disturb

the sachets attached to his fingertips.

INT. INVESTIGATOR'S POOL. MORNING.

A lone MAN swims a ferocious lap of freestyle in what appears to

be a pool of enormous length - yet he never reaches the pool's

end. We pull wider to reveal that the man is swimming against

an artificial current in a pool barely larger than himself.

Abruptly, the man stops and stands up - the fast-flowing current

instantly stilled. We glimpse the face of INVESTIGATOR LUCAS.

Thirties, he has a youthful yet rigid face. We have the

impression that he does not swim for pleasure.

EXT. CONDOMINIUM COMPLEX. MORNING.

It is still early as JEROME exits the building's underground

parking garage in an immaculate Studebaker Avanti and proceeds

down the long straight driveway. He exchanges a wave with a

GARDENER trimming a lawn.

The whir of the car's electric powered engine belies its

conventional appearance.

EXT. GATTACA AEROSPACE CORPORATION. DAY.

JEROME's car exits a highway and turns up the sweeping road

leading to the parking lot of "GATTACA AEROSPACE CORPORATION".

A sleek, modern, low-rise industrial compound boasting perfectly

manicured landscaped gardens.

INT. GATTACA AEROSPACE CORPORATION. DAY.

JEROME strides purposefully up to the entranceway with hundreds

of other GATTACA EMPLOYEES. He carries himself with a certain

arrogance, a cool detachment. All employees wear similarly

unconventionally-cut suits, short coiffed hair and robust tans.

The Gattaca employees are a seemingly equal split of men and

women and a diverse range of ethnicities.

They filter through a row of channels supervised by SECURITY

GUARDS. Each channel contains a computerized security device,

featuring a slim groove in which the employee places a finger

under the watchful eye of a Security Guard.

Jerome gives a polite nod to a Guard as he places his index

finger in the groove. His fingertip is jabbed with the

finest of needles and a minute blood sample taken.

The blood specimen confirms Jerome's identity - an ID photograph

appearing on a computer screen.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jerome spies a young woman

entering through the adjacent channel. She is also sneaking a

glance in his direction - IRENE. Catching each other looking,

they both quickly avert their eyes.

As Jerome enters the computer facility of Gattaca Aerospace

Corporation he furtively glances at the pin-prick puncture in

his fingertip sachet.

SOMEWHERE IN DEEP SPACE.

A GATTACA spacecraft skirts an asteroid. Taking advantage of

the rock's gravitational pull, the craft slingshots deeper into

the black void. Then abruptly the craft and the asteroid freeze

in mid-space, suddenly reverse direction and proceed forward

again - the spacecraft taking a slightly adjusted course.

We pull back to reveal that the journey is merely a highly

realistic graphic representation on a GATTACA computer screen

operated by JEROME.

Appearing simultaneously alongside the computer animation is a

seemingly never-ending column of computer instructions for this

celestial navigation - the incomprehensible language of the

computer programmer.

140 #x20x08x$$x20x08x$$x20x08x$$x20{

150 #x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00x00

160 #xfexfexfexfexfexfexfexfexfexfe

Jerome is transported - plotting a path through the heavens.

As his fingers fly across the keys he does not once take his

eyes from the screen.

His is one of hundreds of ergonomically designed work stations,

arranged in ever-widening circles in a huge, curcular, well-

appointed if antiseptic room. Each curved desk contains a

computer terminal consisting of a keyboard and a slim,

transparent screen behind which is seated a PROGRAMMER,

designing software for the aerospace agency. At the center of

the room is a donut-shaped command console, chairs facing

outwards, from which operations are monitored.

Floor to ceiling smoked-glass curved walls offer the only

concession to nature - a tinted view of a man-made, meticulously

landscaped garden.

Jerome tears himself away from his screen and picks up a

discreet mini-vac. He vacuums between the keys of his keyboard.

DIRECTOR JOSEF, 50's, a shorter, official-looking man

approaches. His assistant IRENE stands at his shoulder.

DIRECTOR JOSEF:

You keep your work station so clean, Jerome.

JEROME:

--Next to Godliness, isn't that what they say?

The Director smiles at the notion and places a computer disc

on Jerome's desk.

DIRECTOR JOSEF:

I reviewed your flight plan. Not one error

in a hundred thousand keystrokes. Phenomenal.

(placing a hand on Jerome's shoulder)

It's right that someone like you is taking us

to the Belt.

(glancing to notification on Jerome's screen)

You have a substance test.

The Director briskly departs, Irene in tow. At a nearby work

station, a painfully thin programmer, NAPOLEON, perks up at

the mention of the test.

Jerome merely shrugs and pretends to reach down and scratch his

ankle. However he surreptitiously produced one of Eugene's

transparent specimen bags from his sock. An EXTREME CLOSE UP

reveals the bag's contents - flakes of skin, hair follicles,

eyelashes, a fingernail. Cupping the bag in his hand to avoid

detection, Jerome sprinkles the fraudulent body matter over his

keyboard, desk surfaces and the floor around his work station.

He opens his desk drawer and casually scatters the remainder of

the bag. Finally he inspects a comb already laced with two

hair follicles.

Jerome rises from his work station and makes his way towards the

testing lab.

INT. GATTACA AEROSPACE CORPORATION - TESTING LABORATORY. DAY.

White-coated LAMAR, forties, buzzcut, a man's man, checks

JEROME's eyes with an instrument. Satisfied with his

examination, he passes a transparent plastic container to

JEROME. Standing directly in front of the technician with his

back to camera, Jerome opens his fly. A steady stream of urine

begins to flow into the container from Jerome's hidden pouch.

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