He says "This is how I did it Anton! I never saved anything for the swim back!".....If that were true, how could he not only save himself but also his brother.......twice?
We also saw his heart pounding like a race horse while he was on the treadmill......How could he ever physically beat the odds?
Heart.
The irony that his imperfect heart was stronger than a healthy one.
His adrenaline kicked in. He pushed himself past his limits and was able to do what seemed impossible.
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If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.
Willpower. There's a great quote from Will Smith about personal health on the matter - I know it sounds contrived but roll with me here.
He said the difference between himself and other people, is that they might be smarter, faster, physically more able, but get them on a treadmill and I will win. The reason is, I am not afraid.... to die.... on a treadmill.
Anxiety, fear, feelings of inadequacy, despair, anger... these things absorb resources in your body. They change your breathing, they change you, they make it easier to give up and it makes it harder to break through to the other side.
Vincent says, "We're closer to the other side now" when they get really, really far out there. He's not afraid to die out there - he will never be outdone, he has lived his entire life making sure nobody could tell him what he could and could not do. Most of all himself and his body - he sets the sails and he turns the clock.
He also wouldn't give up. You see his brother start to drown, calmly disintegrating from a swim to accepting his fate of drowning - he let the world take over. Vincent has to save him because his brother is drowning in more than just the ocean. It's also that Vincent loves him that he will save him - something his brother may not even understand as a concept.
There's a lot in a person that people don't understand, there's a lot more you can go when you overly exert yourself. A poster above said adrenaline, which is a good point, but on a different level...
Vincent has been running on treadmills just risking a heart attack everyday. His entire life he's been afraid of having an heart incident - at some point along the way he decided to put that fear away completely. He has no fear of dying, just being outdone because he's afraid. He can't harbor the same fear everyone else has for his kind - he rebels, it embodies him. Your brain has tons of bells and whistles that tell you you should stop - and he's spent his entire life learning to shut that *beep* off and keep going.
His brother is physically more capable, but he lacks the resolve because there isn't the same meaning for him in it. There isn't the same meaning in life for him - when Vincent beats him he falls into despair so fast and hard because he's defined his life by the externally inserted notion that he is superior. And he is, physically, but it's made him lackadaisical and unable to cope with the stress and failure's that occur in life. Ironically Vincent's weakness made him stronger, it took away his fear of it and gave him reason to risk more - and after a lifetime of risk, he has more fortitude to withstand its harsh nature.
To put it another way - he became a cop. A good cop. Because his search for meaning and sense of superiority are fed by it - it's why he has such a hard time believing an invalid could even be in Gattaca in the first place. It's why it takes him so long to recognize his own brother.
If you want a simpler answer - Vincent wasn't afraid to die swimming. His brother was and turned back because he was a chicken. His brother could have outswam him - he chose not to because he assumed he'd need more to get back. He gave up way before his potential was being pushed. Vincent just poker-faced him the entire way.
He nearly drowns on the way back because the brother realizes his entire life he's been a chicken and has something akin to an anxiety attack. He's not sure how far out they are, he loses sight of the shore, he's having a personal crisis having been beaten again. It's not physical - it was a mental deterioration. Swimming's a delicate rhythm - and the first time they raced, they probably didn't go out as far and in night conditions. This time they both exerted themselves much more, which the brother wasn't as well-versed in. Combine emotional trauma and physical exertion, bam, drown.
too much
shareI disagree. It's very well-explained by the poster.
Vincent made it back every time because of something beyond black and white, beyond the physical and into the mind, the will, the spiritual being. He lived because he willed it. He won because he would not accept any other outcome. It's a viable POV and provable in human history. I love the way the movie included it here.
(Meanwhile, general note: Don't want a complex answer? Make sure you ask for single sentences or syllables next time. Sheesh.)
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I keep thinking I'm a grownup, but I'm not.
I agree. Was a little drunk when I made that post. Reread, my apologies to the OP.
share[deleted]
I always thought this was a weak explanation and still don't understand it. It's not like Anton also wasn't using up his energy to swim back... he never saved anything for the way back either, he kept swimming until he couldn't swim anymore and started to drown.
They should have just shown Vincent secretly sneaking off to a neighborhood pool and spending more time training than his brother. And then the explanation would have been that he just worked harder, like he did to teach himself everything he needed to get into Gattaca... hard work over pure genetics.
It's simple really. Vincent was prepared to die to beat his brother. Adversity had also made Vincent tough and resilient while Anton had everything handed to him. Vincent had the mental edge, and he used it to beat his brother.
There are allegories in our own society. Everyone knows beautiful or extremely talented people that are stunted because the world came to easy to them. They never had to develop character or resiliency. They are often bested by others who are less gifted but more determined.