Gattaca Page #9

Vincent smiles.

INT. HOUSING PROJECT - APARTMENT. NIGHT.

EUGENE turns his nose up at the plate of boiled meat and

potatoes that VINCENT puts in front of him. Vincent catches the

look.

VINCENT:

What's wrong with it?

EUGENE:

I think I'd better choose the menu. After all,

you're learning how to be me, I'm not learning

how to be you.

VINCENT:

(shrugs)

Suit yourself.

EUGENE:

(trying to be more diplomatic)

Listen, I don't want you to think I'm ungrateful

--I know you and that little broker--what do you

call him?

VINCENT:

German.

EUGENE:

You're both going to a lot of trouble--

(trying to be tactful)

Maybe you can con somebody into believing

you're me to get your foot in the door--but

once you're inside, you're on your own. I'm

sure you're sincere...

(glancing to the space paraphenalia)

...but I was being groomed for something like

this myself. Even without the accident I don't

think I would have made it. My point is--how the

hell do you expect to pull this off?

Jerome merely stares back as if the thought of failure has never

occurred to him.

VINCENT:

(shrugs and states it simply)

I don't know exactly, Jerome.

EUGENE:

(laughing)

At least you're honest.

(a thought occurs)

Call me by my middle name--Eugene--If you're

going to be Jerome, you may as well start

getting used to it.

NB:
FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SCREENPLAY "VINCENT" IS REFERRED

TO AS "JEROME".

INT. HOUSING PROJECT - APARTMENT. NIGHT.

JEROME looks through Eugene's personal effects, including a

photograph album. He is drawn to a swimming medal inside the

album at a page displaying a photo of a wealthy, austere

MOTHER - Eugene evidently comes from money.

Even as he wheels into the room in his rickety wheelchair we see

that EUGENE has the bearing of someone of good breeding. He has

a bag of blood on his lap. More blood is being drawn from his

arm through an IV. Eugene catches Jerome looking at the album.

JEROME:

(guiltily closing the book)

I have to know where you come from.

EUGENE:

If anybody asks, tell them the truth--

your family disowns you. You are a

disappointment, Jerome.

JEROME:

(referring to Eugene's medal, impressed)

What about this?

EUGENE:

Wrong color. It's silver.

(tossing the bag of blood to Jerome)

It's not easy living up to this.

Eugene wheels away.

INT. HOUSING PROJECT - APARTMENT. DAY.

JEROME practises writing with his right hand, trying to

replicate Eugene's signature.

EUGENE:

(wheeling by, looking over Jerome's

shoulder at the signature)

It needs work.

JEROME:

(rueful)

You had to be a right-hander.

EUGENE:

Noone orders southpaws anymore.

INT. HOUSING PROJECT - APARTMENT. DAY.

A pair of spectacles lie on the bed. JEROME, still wearing his

twin casts, sits behind an optometrist's portable examining

device. GERMAN hovering in the background, an OPTOMETRIST

custom-fits JEROME with gossamer thin contact lenses.

JEROME (VO)

Myopia is a dead giveaway - one of the earliest

and most justifiable of the quality-of-life

corrections. Anybody with impaired vision is

certain to be suffering from all the other

deficiencies of a "nonadvantaged" birth.

GERMAN:

(inspecting the lens in Jerome's eye)

It's no good. I can see an edge. He may as

well walk in there with a cane.

INT. HOUSING PROJECT - APARTMENT. DAY.

The Optometrist has been replaced in the living room with a

BLACK MARKET DENTIST who bonds JEROME's small, gapped teeth to

match EUGENE's perfectly straight, white picket fences.

INT. HOUSING PROJECT - APARTMENT. DAY.

Hair already bleached and cut to match Eugene's hairstyle,

JEROME sits in a chair against a hastily erected white paper

backdrop. From his wheelchair, EUGENE puts the finishing

touches to Jerome's hair. He wheels himself out of the way.

The final accomplice in Jerome's deception, a BLACK MARKET

COMPUTER GRAPHICS DESIGNER, takes Jerome's photo with a video

camera. Manipulating the captured image, the Designer morphs

Jerome's face into the face of Eugene. The resulting photo that

spits out of a printer is neither one nor the other but an

acceptable combination of the two.

INT. HOUSING PROJECT - APARTMENT. DAY.

EUGENE is starting to prepare Jerome's specimen bags for the

first time. He winces in pain as he plucks several hairs from

his head. JEROME, now out of his casts, prepares job

applications.

EUGENE:

(still grimacing, referring to the follicles)

You really need that much?

JEROME:

More than that. You'll get used to it.

EUGENE:

(yanking out another hair)

God, what wouldn't you do to leave the planet?

JEROME:

(inspecting a hair follicle)

Leave? Just a few million years ago every atom in

this hair--in our bodies--was a part of a star.

I don't see it as leaving. I see it as going home.

EUGENE:

(marvelling at Jerome's earnestness)

God, you're serious, aren't you?

Jerome ignores him. Having learnt his lesson, he hands the

envelopes to EUGENE to lick the flaps.

INT. HOUSING PROJECT - APARTMENT. DAY.

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