The final image of Gattaca is a bottle of nail clippings, a vial of urine, and a single hair taped to a mirror. The tools of the "borrowed ladder."

The film argues that while genes set the baseline, they do not define the destination. The society in Gattaca has committed a logical fallacy: confusing probability with inevitability .

Jerome, the Valid, has the body of a god but the soul of a broken man

Jerome’s fingers are too thick to play a complex note, but his "inferior" fingers hit the right keys. The Gattaca director watches, unaware he is applauding the Invalid.