Gattaca
A Screen Play
by Andrew M. Niccol
FADE IN
A white title appears on a black screen.
"As night-fall does not come at once, neither
does oppression...It is in such twilight that
we all must be aware of change in the air
- however slight - lest we become victims of
the darkness."
Justice William O. Douglas
The title fades off, replaced by a second title.
"I not only think that we will tamper
Barely audible, an organ plays a haunting theme. The title credits appear. They are simple green lettering on a black background.
BLACK
TV MONITOR
Point of view from inside a small medicine cabinet. The door is opened creating a low hum, and throwing light on THX 1138, a man about thirty-five years old. He has a closely shaved head: which makes him appear bald. The image is distorted as seen over
TRACKING DOWN the line of empty, open capsules. Frozen twilight. The final four capsules are sealed, lids in place.
ANGLE - INSIDE CAPSULE
NEWT, then RIPLEY. HICKS next, his head and chest bandaged. Then BISHOP in his caul of plastic. But the lid of Bishops capsule is misted with hothouse condensation.
CLOSER
A tear of fluid streaks the condensation.
An alarm SOUNDS.
A monitor begins to scroll da
Silent and endless. The stars shine like the love of God... cold and remote. Against them drifts a tiny chip of technology.
CLOSER SHOT
It is the NARCISSUS, lifeboat of the ill-fated star-freighter Nostromo. Without interior or running lights it seems devoid of life. The PING of a RANGING RADAR grows louder, closer. A shadow engulfs the Narcissus. Searchlights flash on, playing over the tiny ship
Of glowing honey-colored stones. Their shapes ABSTRACT as THE CAMERA EXAMINES air bubbles and crystalline patterns.
MOVING UP AND OVER this amber abstraction, the CAMERA FINDS unusual shapes and imperfections caught in the glassy stone: flecks of dirt, hairs, cracks. STILL MOVING. STARBURSTS OF LIGHT ricochet off the different surfaces of the stones.
CAMERA TURNS along a creamy stretch of amber.