51 Fun Facts About Se7en

Which 1995 film won Se7en's killer an Oscar?

The Usual Suspects reached US cinemas about a month before Se7en, so in the autumn of 1995 audiences could watch the same actor as the hidden villain of two thrillers within weeks of each other.

Who directed Se7en?

David Fincher directed Se7en, only his second feature; he was mistakenly sent the writer's original, bleaker draft of the script and fought to keep its grim ending.

In Se7en, what secret does Mills's wife confide to Somerset when they meet alone?

She is pregnant, and afraid to raise a child in so violent a city; she has not told her husband, who learns of it only from John Doe in the final scene.

Who plays Detective Lieutenant William Somerset in Se7en?

Morgan Freeman plays Somerset. He favoured an ending that let the younger detective keep his career, but his co-star argued it would never ring true, and the bleaker version was filmed.

Which actor plays the killer, John Doe?

Kevin Spacey plays John Doe; at his request his name was kept out of the opening credits and the advertising so audiences would not guess the killer's identity.

Who plays Mills's wife in Se7en?

Gwyneth Paltrow plays Mills's wife. In the studio's rewritten draft her character survived, with Mills racing home in time to save her, but the director refused to make that version.

How is John Doe finally taken into custody in Se7en?

He walks in and surrenders, covered in blood, with half an hour of the film still to run; the killer gives himself up because his arrest is part of the plan, and two of the seven sins are still to come.

In Se7en, the first of John Doe's victims to be found represents which sin?

Gluttony is scrawled on the wall behind the dead man's refrigerator. Bob Mack played the victim, and said he was told the part was a very heavy guy face down in spaghetti.

In Se7en, the victim forced to cut a pound of flesh from his own body was marked with which sin?

Greed marks the scene where defense attorney Eli Gould was made to cut off a pound of his own flesh, a punishment the killer borrowed from Shylock's bond in The Merchant of Venice.

In Se7en, how long had the sloth victim been strapped to his bed when the police found him?

One year: John Doe strapped the man to his bed, kept him barely alive for twelve months and left photographs to prove it, so what looks like a corpse when the police arrive is still breathing.

At the end of Se7en, which sin does John Doe claim to embody himself?

Envy: only after the box is delivered does John Doe say he coveted Mills's ordinary married life and killed for it.

Which sin is Mills goaded into completing in the final scene?

Wrath: Doe has the head of Mills's wife delivered in a box, and Mills completes the final sin by shooting him despite Somerset's pleas.

Who wrote the screenplay for Se7en?

Andrew Kevin Walker wrote Se7en while working behind the counter at a Tower Records in New York; he has said the idea came from walking the city and seeing a deadly sin on every street corner.

What do the police find filling the shelves of John Doe's apartment in Se7en?

Handwritten notebooks line the killer's shelves. The designers filled real prop books with tiny, dense writing, and footage of those books being written became the film's opening title sequence.

Before Se7en, the director's only feature film was which one?

Alien 3 (1992) was the director's only earlier feature; the studio recut it, he disowned the result and was reluctant to direct again until Se7en's script reached him.

Se7en's unnamed city was shot on location in which real city?

Los Angeles stood in for the unnamed city. Real storms kept interrupting the shoot, so the director had the remaining exteriors drenched with rain as well, simply so that the footage would match.

Which song, in a remixed version, plays over Se7en's opening title sequence?

"Closer" by Nine Inch Nails, in a jagged remix by Coil and Danny Hyde, runs under the titles; the director's first choice to make the sequence was the man who had shot the song's music video.

Which singer's single "The Hearts Filthy Lesson", made with Brian Eno, plays over Se7en's end credits?

David Bowie closes the film. The song began as a group improvisation during his sessions with Brian Eno, and its video, directed by Samuel Bayer, stages a grotesque ritual of its own.

Who composed the score for Se7en?

Howard Shore composed Se7en's brooding orchestral score; he had already scored several David Cronenberg films and later wrote the music for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Which designer created Se7en's scratched, hand-made title sequence?

Kyle Cooper designed the titles at R/Greenberg Associates. He said the director wanted them to tell anyone expecting a glossy star vehicle that they were in the wrong theater, and to send them out screaming.

Which studio produced Se7en and first released it in cinemas?

New Line Cinema, the studio behind the Nightmare on Elm Street films, made Se7en. Its director has said that shooting a grim little serial-killer picture there meant far less oversight than he had known at a major studio.

Which actor turned down John Doe in Se7en, calling the script "the most evil thing I've ever read"?

Ned Beatty was the director's first thought because he resembled the 1969 police sketch of the Zodiac killer, a face that looked like a wanted poster. He read the script and refused.

Which rock frontman was considered for John Doe but was unavailable because his band was touring?

Michael Stipe of R.E.M. had to pass because the band was leaving on tour for its album Monster as filming began. The net for John Doe was cast wide: the director was also keen on the comic actor Christopher Guest.

How did Pitt injure his hand while filming Se7en's rain-soaked chase?

Going through a car windshield: he slipped on a rain-slicked hood and severed a tendon. He was back within days, the cast was written into the story, and in scenes set earlier he hides the hand in a pocket.

Roughly how much did Se7en take at cinemas worldwide?

$327 million, about ten times what it cost. Few expected much of so grim a film, yet it opened at number one in the US and stayed there for four straight weeks.

Which studio executive backed Se7en's director in keeping the script's original ending?

Michael De Luca, the studio's president of production, told the director he had liked the head-in-the-box ending too, and stayed behind the film even when it ran about $3 million over budget.

Se7en opened at number one with $14M, beating the debut of which notorious film?

Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven's NC-17 drama, arrived on a wave of publicity and took about $8 million; the grim thriller few had expected much from beat it, then stayed at number one for four weeks.

Who was the cinematographer on Se7en?

Darius Khondji, the Iranian-French cinematographer of Delicatessen, shot Se7en. He won the job through Nike commercials he had made with the director, and an Oscar nomination for Evita followed a year later.

Se7en's cinematographer named which 1971 thriller as a major visual influence?

Klute, photographed by Gordon Willis, taught him to light from overhead and to use the wide frame for intimacy rather than big vistas; he called it a major discovery that stayed with him for the rest of his career.

Se7en's only Academy Award nomination came in which category?

Best Film Editing was Se7en's lone Oscar nomination, and it lost to Apollo 13. Its cast did better elsewhere: that night two of its stars were up against each other for Best Supporting Actor, each for another film.

Which director was originally hired to make Se7en, before being replaced?

Jeremiah S. Chechik was coming off the comedy National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and wanted something more serious, though not this serious: he had the bleak ending rewritten, then left before filming began.

Se7en's screenwriter originally pictured which actor as the veteran detective Somerset?

William Hurt was the face the writer saw while drafting. The studio wanted Al Pacino, who said no, and Gene Hackman passed as well before the producer suggested the man who finally played him.

Which actor auditioned for Se7en's John Doe and ended up playing the police captain instead?

R. Lee Ermey, the drill instructor of Full Metal Jacket, read for the killer. The director found his version flatly unsympathetic, with no grey area, and cast him as the detectives' captain instead.

What cameo does Se7en's screenwriter make in the film?

The corpse in the opening scene is the man who wrote the film. He lies on the floor as the first body Somerset walks in on, before any of the murders he invented begin.

Which reality TV series inspired the over-the-shoulder camera style of Se7en?

Cops was the model: the camera lurks just behind the two detectives' shoulders, like a bystander riding along in the back seat, rather than watching them from a safe distance.

Which lab process was used on some prints to keep the blacks deeper and darker?

Bleach bypass skips the bleaching step of processing so silver stays in the print, deepening the blacks and draining colour; the costly treatment went on only a limited number of prints.

In Se7en, Somerset's closing voiceover quotes which author on the world being "worth fighting for"?

Ernest Hemingway's line from For Whom the Bell Tolls was added late, as a compromise, after preview audiences found the ending too horrifying. Somerset says he agrees only with the second part.

Which publisher launched a Se7en comic in 2006, told from John Doe's point of view?

Zenescope Entertainment ran the series for seven issues, one deadly sin apiece, each from a different creative team. Its pitch was the question the film leaves open: what drove John Doe to do it?

What was the rumoured title of the Se7en sequel its studio briefly tried to develop?

Ei8ht was the rumoured title when the studio briefly reworked an unrelated thriller script around Somerset. It never came together, and the director said he would sooner have cigarettes put out in his eyes.

The thriller script once reworked as a Se7en sequel was eventually filmed as which 2015 film?

Solace began as an original script about a psychic helping the FBI hunt a serial killer. After the brief attempt to rebuild it around Somerset, it was made on its own, with Anthony Hopkins as the psychic.

The restored Se7en returned to cinemas in 2025 in which premium format?

IMAX screens showed the new restoration in January 2025. The director left the story alone but quietly fixed background flaws that the far sharper picture had exposed for the first time.

In Se7en, what leads the detectives to John Doe's apartment door?

Library borrowing records do it: a list of who checked out books on the seven deadly sins points to one reader. When the detectives knock on his door, he appears down the corridor and opens fire.

After Se7en tested badly, what was pitched to go in the box instead?

The head of Mills's dog was the pitch after a horrendous test screening. The director and his star both refused, and what is in the box stayed as scripted.

In Se7en, which actor plays California, the SWAT leader who finds the sloth victim alive?

John C. McGinley, later Dr. Cox of Scrubs, plays California. The corpse he leans over was a living actor in makeup, who insists McGinley's jump was real shock; McGinley remembers acting it.

Pitt says he made Se7en's ending a contract condition after a favourite scene was cut from which earlier film?

Legends of the Fall lost his favourite scene after audiences responded badly to it, and he had no power to stop that. On Se7en he had it written into his contract that the head stays in the box.

Se7en's test-screening flyer named which film to sell Somerset's actor?

Driving Miss Daisy was the film named on the recruiting card, which promised a new movie from its star. The crowd that came for that got Se7en, and the director still calls the screening horrendous.

Se7en's composer had already scored which 1991 thriller when he joined the film?

The Silence of the Lambs was already on the composer's CV. The filmmakers watched it while preparing, and the cinematographer recalls wondering how anyone could shoot a serial-killer story after it.

In Se7en, what does Somerset keep on his nightstand to help him fall asleep?

A metronome ticks beside his bed each night, a steady beat to drown out the sirens and shouting outside. Late in the film the city wins: he grabs it and hurls it against the wall.

Which live creatures did Se7en's crew let loose by the hundred around the body of the force-fed man?

Cockroaches were tipped onto the set to scatter across the floor, with a wrangler on hand to manage them. The man playing the body says he learned of it from the words "cockroach wrangler" on the call sheet.

Which star turned down the part of Mills in Se7en as too dark?

Denzel Washington passed on the young detective, finding the script too dark. Asked years later which refused roles he regretted most, he named two: this one and Michael Clayton.

Who was the film editor on Se7en?

Richard Francis-Bruce says every cut needs a motive. In the finale he holds long on each face during the drive, then cuts faster and faster once the box is opened.