60 free Se7en trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Se7en trivia quiz covers David Fincher's 1995 thriller from the gluttony crime scene on Monday to the delivery van on Sunday evening. The easy questions are for anyone who has seen it once: who plays Mills, Somerset and Tracy, which sin each victim represents, how the detectives find John Doe's apartment, and whose words Somerset borrows for the final line. The harder half is about how the film got made and very nearly didn't: the thirteen drafts, the studio's push for a happier ending, the ending Brad Pitt made a condition of signing, the actors who turned down John Doe, the injury written into the script, the bleach-bypass print process, the $50,000 title sequence, the box-office run, the one Oscar nomination and the sequel that became a different film entirely. Expert questions go into the cinematographer's influences, the composer, the comic-book prequel and the prop that was actually in the box. Every answer was checked against the film's Wikipedia article and its cited sources before publishing, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Se7en released in theaters?
1995
It premiered on September 19, 1995 in Beverly Hills and went wide three days later, topping the box office in its first weekend.
Q 02Who directed Se7en?
David Fincher
His only previous feature was a studio-mangled Alien 3, and he later said he was mistakenly sent the writer's original, bleaker draft of the script.
Q 03Who plays the young detective David Mills?
Brad Pitt
He cut his hair and lost the muscle he had built for Legends of the Fall to look less like a romantic lead.
Q 04Who plays Detective Lieutenant William Somerset?
Morgan Freeman
The role was written with William Hurt in mind, and Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman and Al Pacino all turned it down first.
Q 05Which actor plays the killer, John Doe?
Kevin Spacey
He insisted his name be left out of the marketing and opening credits so audiences would not guess who the killer was.
Q 06Who plays Tracy, Mills's wife?
Gwyneth Paltrow
Robin Wright auditioned and Christina Applegate turned the part down; Pitt suggested her after seeing her audition for Legends of the Fall.
Q 07John Doe's murders are patterned on which idea?
The seven deadly sins
Somerset works it out at the sloth scene and sends Mills off to read Dante, Chaucer and Milton.
Q 08The obese man forced to eat until his stomach burst represents which sin?
Gluttony
The word is written on the wall behind the refrigerator; the 480-pound actor Bob Mack made his film debut face down in a plate of spaghetti.
Q 09The victim forced to cut a pound of flesh from his own body was marked with which sin?
Greed
He was a criminal attorney; the filmmakers cast Gene Borkan partly because he looked like the lawyer Robert Shapiro.
Q 10According to the photographs at the scene, how long was the sloth victim kept restrained to his bed?
One year
Actor Michael Reid MacKay weighed under 100 pounds during filming and spent up to 14 hours in prosthetics for the part.
Q 11Which sin does John Doe claim to embody himself at the end?
Envy
He says he coveted Mills's ordinary life with his wife, which is why she became the final target.
Q 12Which sin is Mills goaded into completing in the final scene?
Wrath
Pitt insisted that Mills be the one to shoot Doe, believing the character had to act out of passion rather than morality.
Q 13Who wrote the screenplay for Se7en?
Andrew Kevin Walker
He wrote it while working as a Tower Records sales assistant, drawing on a miserable stretch living in late-1980s New York.
The older detective is named after which writer?
Q 21Which studio produced and released Se7en?
New Line Cinema
At $33-34 million it was the most expensive film the studio had made to that point, after the director talked them into $3 million more.
Q 22Which actor turned down John Doe, calling the script "the most evil thing I've ever read"?
Ned Beatty
The filmmakers wanted a face like the 1969 Zodiac Killer composite sketch, someone who could "look like a poster".
Q 23Which rock frontman was considered for John Doe but was unavailable because his band was touring?
Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
W. Somerset Maugham
The film's own literary streak runs deep: Somerset's library reading list includes Dante, Chaucer's Parson's Tale and Milton.
Q 15Before Se7en, the director's only feature film was which one?
Alien 3
He disowned that film after the studio recut it, saying he would rather die of colon cancer than make another movie.
Q 16The film's city is never named on screen. Where was location filming actually done?
Los Angeles
Constant rain was kept in deliberately, partly to make the city look less like sunny California and partly to avoid continuity headaches.
Q 17Which song, in a remixed version, plays over the opening title sequence?
"Closer" by Nine Inch Nails
Coil and Danny Hyde remixed it, replacing Howard Shore's more upbeat opening cue "The Last Seven Days".
Q 18Which David Bowie song plays over the end credits?
"The Hearts Filthy Lesson"
Like "Closer", it was left off the 11-track soundtrack album released that November.
Q 19Who composed the score for Se7en?
Howard Shore
He was hired on the strength of his music for The Silence of the Lambs and used an orchestra of up to 100 musicians.
Q 20Which designer created the film's scratched, hand-made title sequence?
Kyle Cooper
The New York Times later called it one of the most important design innovations of the 1990s, and it cost about $50,000.
Christopher Guest was also considered, and Val Kilmer declined outright.
Q 24How did Pitt injure his hand during production, an injury then written into the script?
Crashing through a car windshield in the chase
He insisted on his own stunts, slipped on a rain-slicked hood and cut tendons and nerves; the cast on his forearm is real.
Q 25Pitt was only available for 55 days because he was due to start shooting which film?
12 Monkeys
That squeeze is one reason the director shot in the rain rather than waiting for it to stop.
Q 26Roughly how much did Se7en gross worldwide?
$327 million
That made it the seventh highest-grossing film of 1995, a sleeper hit for a movie the studio expected to struggle.
Q 27Which studio production president sided with the director in keeping the original ending?
Michael De Luca
The two agreed to start shooting within six weeks so no other executive had time to interfere.
Q 28Se7en opened at number one with $14M, beating the debut of which notorious film?
Showgirls
It was the biggest September opening to that point, overtaking Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
Q 29Who was the cinematographer on Se7en?
Darius Khondji
He shot warm Chinese lanterns for the past and present and cold Kino Flo tubes for the future, and refused to print the dailies brighter when the studio complained.
Q 30The cinematographer named which 1971 thriller as a major visual influence?
Klute
The director singled out a scene from it lit only by a flashlight, disliking films where characters say it is dark but the audience sees everything.