Five Science Fiction Movies That Get the Science Right

Unfortunately, there are a couple of pretty dubious points. First, the adult somehow manages to grow from about 30 centimetres to 2 metres in a matter of hours. The alien is also equipped, throughout its life, with very strong acid for blood. For that to work, the rest of it must be made of Teflon, as conventional organic tissue would obviously be destroyed.

Gattaca (1997)

"We now have discrimination down to a science."

Andrew Niccol's film is noteworthy for its grimly plausible vision of a society dominated by genetic prejudice.

The majority of babies are conceived using IVF, following a process of preimplantation genetic diagnosis that weeds out all genetic imperfections. As a friendly geneticist explains to worried parents, "This child is still you, simply the best of you." Everyone's identities, and their genetic status, are also continuously monitored by biometric ID systems.

The central character, Vincent, is an "in-Valid" – he was conceived naturally, and consequently is short-sighted and has a heart defect. Debarred from all but the most menial jobs, he pays a crippled "Valid" to lend him his genetic identity – in the form of urine samples and the like – so he can pursue his dream of becoming an astronaut.

The society depicted in Gattaca is intentionally dystopic, sometimes to the point of parody. Most notably, Vincent's job interview at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation consists entirely of a urine sample. However, genetics can only give statistical predictions, and rarely delivers 100% certainty. So the company would be well-advised to put him through a real interview as well.

Nevertheless, it is one of the few films to tackle the issue of genetic determinism: how much are we really controlled by our genes? Vincent out-competes genetically-superior characters mostly through sheer strength of will. Does that mean that genetic testing really cannot predict how people will perform – or does it just mean we haven't found the genes for willpower yet?

Solaris (1972 and 2002)