by Deanne E. Durrell

Created on: April 21, 2008

In countless films, the entertainment industry explores the wonderful advances of science along with its dark side. For every cure for disease, there is a weapon of mass destruction. For every cloned sheep, there is a monster lurking in the sewers.

The recent film, I Am Legend, is a perfect example. In the film, a cure for cancer is discovered, but mutates into a virus that wipes out the vast majority of the human beings on earth, leaving most of the remaining human population sun-fearing, animalistic monsters that prey on the remaining healthy humans. Will Smith's character is a scientist who spends the remainder of his life trying to find a cure for the vampiric folks who are left. This and many other films have been created, whether consciously or unconsciously, as an expression of society's ambivalence about continuing advances in scientific research. This is, after all, the same society that has been locked in debate about stem cell research and about what limits governments should put on cloning.

Some films tackle these particular questions head on. In The Island, Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johansson play two people who live in a controlled environment, waiting to win a trip to "The Island." What they discover is that they are really clones who have been created merely to be around to donate organs if the original should need them. As it turns out, these clones have a spirit and a life of their own and they aren't too keen on donating organs that they're still using. Is this not the very scenario that is the central conflict we all wrestle with in respect to cloning?

Gattaca, with Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, is a film that explores what might happen if we developed the capability to genetically engineer "defects" (like needing glasses) out of people. In Gattaca, this creates a category of second-class citizens who are like you and me, but who live on the fringe of society, never able to get ahead. This creates a black market in identities, so that some of these people can become "broken ladders", impersonating someone who is part of the genetic mainstream, but who has fallen on hard times. This is, in essence, the classic nature vs. nurture debate. In the end, the film takes pains to affirm the value of individuality, perseverance and force of will over mere genetics.

Films about scientists and their work ultimately turn into films about the sticky areas of ethics and morality. In Gattaca, we have to decide if genetics really do determine our life's path. In The Island, we have to decide if cloned human beings have all the rights of the originals. In I Am Legend, we have to face that wonderful discoveries can have dire consequences. In each, we grapple with what it means to live in a post-modern world.

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