Gattaca (1997)

Andrew Niccol's first feature as director imagines a world where your genes write your resume before you are born. Ethan Hawke's Vincent, an "In-Valid" in a system obsessed with genetic perfection, borrows the identity of Jude Law's Jerome to reach a job he was never meant to have, and the whole film runs on the fear of being betrayed by his own biology. Even the title is spelled from the letters of DNA's four bases. It cost $36 million and took roughly $12.5 million in American theaters, a flop at the time. Today it plays as the calmest, most elegant film here about identity as paperwork, and the one most likely to win over a viewer who usually avoids science fiction.