Do you really understand the movie "A Thousand Guns"?

When you try your best to achieve your dreams, you find that the world of "equality and freedom" has a new standard of measurement in the dark, and this standard is your genes. At this time, you will find that your dreams are so far away from you, and social class has become a threshold that you cannot cross...

Yesterday, Lao Ge revisited an old 1997 film "A Thousand Guns and a Hair", and when I watched it again, I still have different feelings, so I want to write about this article about the human ethics and new order brought about by future technology.

A Thousand Shots (released in 1997)

Douban score: 8.8 points

Awards: 70th Academy Awards [Best Art Direction (Nominated)], 55th Golden Globe Awards [Film Category: Best Original Score (Nominated)]

Keywords: sci-fi /futuristic world/genetic engineering

Stills from "A Thousand Guns and a Thousand Shots"

The title of the film, "A Thousand Guns and a Shot", is about a future world in which geneticism is pursued. Rich people can screen out the strongest genetic fertilized eggs in the genetic clinic, and can choose the sex, skin color, hair color, eye color, personality characteristics of the offspring, and even avoid the risk of various diseases, after all, it is "a miracle that cannot be achieved by conceiving naturally a thousand times."

Because of the various benefits, it is particularly popular in the circle of rich people, and everyone is customizing the strongest genetic fertilized eggs that belong to their offspring. Therefore, the world's measure is no longer its own efforts and talents, but the string of cold genetic testing data.

The descendants born of rich people through genetic optimization will inevitably cause a new round of resource competition in the limited social resources. As a result, it is conceivable that those natural people who have no money to do genetic optimization can only survive at the bottom of society forever, and then gradually be eliminated by society.

In a world where genes determine dreams and social hierarchies, the male protagonist Vincent, as a natural person born of love by his parents, was accompanied by a series of health risk assessments and estimated time of death from birth:

The father looked at the long list of risk assessment sheets in the nurse's hand and the swaddling Vincent, rejected the mother's proposal to use the father's name (settling) as the son's name, and insisted on naming him: Vincent, from this moment on he was doomed not to be loved by his father. Two years later, the father did give the name representing the glory of the family to the second son born through genetic optimization, which also made the eldest son Vincent feel more and more lonely and lonely.

Vincent：you wanna know how i did it? This is my way, Aton.I never saved anything for swim back That's my way, Ayton. I've never saved anything for a swim back. ”）.

The "Courage Game" of the Brothers

As the brothers grew up, the physical advantages of the younger brother's settlement became more and more obvious, such as height, physical strength, vision, and even resistance. Even the brothers often played the "courage game" at the seaside, and the younger brother always won over his older brother Vincent. Until one day, the brothers began the "courage race" again, as the coastline became farther and farther away, the younger brother watched the brother who was swimming farther and farther away and began to be timid, tried to call the brother's name and began to swim back, and finally was rescued by the brother because of physical weakness and sinking to the bottom of the sea. This made Vincent realize that the height a person can reach is not determined by genes! Therefore, he regained his confidence and chose to run away from home to realize his space dream.

"A Thousand Shots" Vincent's father

Because Vincent is a natural person who has not done genetic optimization, he can only work as a cleaner at "Gatka Aerospace". The company only recruits excellent genetic optimizers, and no matter how knowledgeable he is and is well prepared for interviews, he can't avoid his own DNA (genes).

Later, Vincent found a professional who bought and sold genes through introduction, and met Jerome, an excellent gene provider in a wheelchair. Jerome was originally a strong swimmer with excellent genes, because he only won a silver medal in a swimming competition, and was half paralyzed in a suicide attempt, he began to sell his genes and identity.

Vincent and Jerome

Vincent began all the preparations for changing his identity according to Jerome's physical characteristics and living habits: practicing autographs, changing hair color, straightening teeth, wearing colored contact lenses, even breaking bones... Jerome provided Vincent with everything he needed for his identity: blood, urine, fingerprints, hair, dander...

"When they look at you, they dont see you anymore. They only see me. (From then on, when they see you, they don't see you anymore, they see me.) )"

- "A Thousand Guns and a Shot" line

Vincent successfully entered The Gateca Aerospace through Jerome's body information (genes) and became a top astronaut, while his Titan-4 program was approved and successfully boarded the spacecraft a week later for a one-year space mission.

“I only lent you my body. You lent me your dream

At the end of the film, with the successful ignition of the spaceship, Vincent finally realizes his dream of space. Jerome climbed into the incinerator himself and left the world with his silver swimming medal, a symbol of honor and obsession.

Originally known as GATTACA, it is composed of the base of dna, which is the basic unit that makes up dna (abbreviated as DNA) (the bases of DNA are: Adenine, C-cytosine, G-guanine, T-thymine. ）。 Using this as the title of the film also directly indicates that the film is related to genes.

"A Thousand Shots" hints at the spiral ladder of DNA

In addition to the cast, the whole film looks like a low-budget movie in terms of scenes, props, and costumes, but the essence of the whole film lies in the wonderful conception and concerns about the future application of technology. When all social standards and orders can be determined by genes, and machine data is everywhere, who will insist on using hard work and talent to achieve their dreams? Who will still be hopeful about life?

In October 1997, Sony organized a special audition of the Society of Mammalian Cell Biologists before the release of the film, and at the end of the film, a photo of Einstein, Lincoln and jackie Joyner-Kersee, the most famous female athlete in the United States, appeared, accompanied by the subtitle: If genetic engineering and genetic experiments had become a fact, then these celebrities would not have been born - they had dyslexia, Marfan syndrome and asthma.

Vincent has achieved his dream with his persistence, and has also proved to us that in the face of dreams, genes will not become your threshold!

Playback source: Tencent