The opening title sequence of GATTACA begins with a very soft “white-noise” soundtrack and displays two short quotes one at a time in a white serif font on a black background. The first quote stating “Consider God’s handiwork; who can straighten what He hath made crooked?” (Ecclesiastes 7:13); and the second saying “I not only think that we will tamper with Mother Nature. I think Mother wants us to.” (Willard Gaylin) Opening with these two contradictory quotes immediately puts the reader into a questioning mindset. The first one, from the bible, presenting the idea that God’s creations shouldn’t be tampered with. The second quote, on the other hand, states that not only should we attempt to “tamper” with nature but that it wants us to. Even without knowing the plot of the movie is about genetic/human modification; the viewer is immediately pondering the morality behind it this idea through the quotes.

The quote fades away and the black background begins to fade into a blurry, dark/light blue gradient filter as the sound of white noise grows louder. The opening credits begin to be displayed in a white serif font in uppercase, although the majority of the “A”s “C”s “G”s and “T”s are replaced with a slightly bolder serif font. This small detail is symbolizing and foreshadowing the act of mutating something older by replacing parts of it with something new. About half way through the opening credits the title GATTACA is displayed fully in the white uppercase serif font.

Behind the credits in the blurry, blue background is a slow motion video of things falling to the ground; it’s tough to make out what exactly they are at first glance. The filter on the background video and slowly building soundtrack makes the opening feel very intense and sort of ominous. The background video fades from one thing to another falling to the ground and then pans to more detailed close up shots of objects. Eventually, the background video fades into a few shots of a man shaving his face with a straight razor and then using a dry skin brush on his stomach. This is when I realized that the previous close up shots of things falling were the hairs, nail-clippings, and skin particles falling to the ground as the man grooms himself. I think this sequence is meant to symbolize the diligence of the man’s grooming habits; showing how long and tedious a process it must be. While this is going on, opening credits are continuing to fade in and out on top of the shots; the music has turned to a softer, elegant ensemble of instruments.

The opening continues with the man taking a shower, and as he exits in his robe you can see that he is not in a bathroom, but in a science laboratory of sorts. Now the opening scene has moved from less artistic/detailed shots and moved to normal shots similar to the movie. The soundtrack remains the soft, elegant music creating a calm atmosphere. The man grabs a bag of urine and straps it to his leg. Then he is seen injecting what appears to be blood into a synthetic finger pad that he proceeds to glue onto his finger. The opening scenes end with a car driving down the road, presumably the man going about his day. This sequence gives the viewer a “behind the scenes” of what the man does before going out in public; and the viewers aren’t even sure what he is going to do. Finally, the entire opening scenes have prepared the viewer for the film as they have, one, been questioned regarding the morality of human mutation/altering; and two, know that man is altering himself for some unknown purpose.