Gattaca Page #30

LAMAR:

(cutting him off)

--Unfortunately my son's not all that they

promised. But then, who know what he could do.

Lamar takes the cup from Jerome in his gloved hand. Jerome

anxiously watches his sample poured into the analyzer.

Confirming Jerome's worst fears, the face of 20-YEAR-OLD VINCENT

appears on the computer screen. However Lamar does not look at

the screen. He stares Jerome in the eye.

LAMAR:

For future reference--

(a brief glance to where

Jerome has just zipped his fly)

--righthanded men don't hold it with their

left. It's just one of those things.

Never lookig at the screen, Lamar presses a button marked,

"VALID".

LAMAR:

(knowing smile)

Have a safe trip, Vincent.

Jerome exits up a long enclosed escalator, realizing that Lamar

has known all along.

INT. EUGENE'S CONDOMINIUM. NIGHT.

EUGENE knocks back a vodka. With a certain reverence he places

his silver medal around his neck.

INT. ESCALATOR. NIGHT.

At the top of a long escalator, the door to a craft is secured.

INT. EUGENE'S CONDOMINIUM. NIGHT.

Eugene's wheelchair, empty, sits beside the door of the

incinerator, also secured.

EXT. LAUNCHPAD. NIGHT.

A CLOSE UP of the flame of a rocket's engines igniting - the

ball of fire engulfs the launchpad - filling the screen.

INT. EUGENE'S CONDOMINIUM - INCINERATOR. NIGHT.

Inside the incinerator another ball of fire - this time

engulfing the unseen figure of EUGENE. We glimpse the medal

around his neck, melting in the fierce blaze.

EXT. GATTACA - LAUNCHPAD. NIGHT.

As we have seen so often in the past, a rocket launches into

the sky over Gattaca - however on this occasion it carries

Jerome.

INT. SPACECRAFT. NIGHT.

We focus on JEROME's face - seeing little if any of the craft.

Jerome's eyes are closed. His head is still - alarmingly still.

Could the launch itself have been too much for him? He hear the

thoguhts in his head.

JEROME (VO)

We came from the stars so they say, now

it's time to go back. If I was conceived

today, I would not get beyond eight cells,

and yet here I am. In a way they were

right, I don't have the heart for this world.

(pause)

The question is, why am I having so much

trouble dying?

Jerome's eyes blink open. He holds the letter from Eugene in

his hand. It contains no words, merely a lock of EUGENE'S hair

- for once preserved solely for its sentimental value. The

hair, weightless, floats off the page.

We focus on a porthole looking out upon a starscape.

A STARSCAPE:

As we pan across the constellations, a title is superimposed

upon the starscape:

In a few short years, scientists will

have completed the Human Genome Project,

the mapping of all the genes that make

up a human being.

After 4 billion years of evolution by the

slow and clumsy method of natural selection,

we have now evolved to the point where we

can direct our own evolution.

The first title is replaced in the heavens by a second title.

If only we had aquired this knowledge

sooner, the following people would never

have been born:

A succession of portraits and photographs of RENOWNED and

HISTORIC FIGURES fades in and out of the constellations - the

accompanying titles list their affliction rather than their

accomplishments.

HOMER:

Blind from birth

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

Epileptic

COLETTE:

Arthritic

LOU GERHIG:

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

(Lou Gerhig's Disease)

RITA HAYWORTH:

Alzheimer's Disease

HELEN KELLER:

Blind and deaf

STEPHEN HAWKING:

Lou Gerhig's Disease

JACKIE JOYNER-KERSEE

Asthmatic

CHARLES DARWIN:

Chronic invalid

The face of Charles Darwin fades off and another title appears

out of the stars.

Even Charles Darwin, the man who told of

the survival of the fittest, numbered

amongst our frailest.

The title fades off and is replaced by one final title in the

night sky.

Of course, the other birth that would

surely never have taken place is your own.

CUT TO BLACK:

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