David Fincher’s Seven – or, if you prefer the stylised version, Se7en – has captivated audiences since its release in 1995. Starring Brad Pitt as Detective David Mills, Morgan Freeman as Detective William Somerset and Kevin Spacey as the enigmatic John Doe, the film explores the depths of human depravity through a series of brutal murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.
While the film’s gripping narrative – created by screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker – and intense performances have garnered widespread acclaim, it is the final scene with its infamous “box” that leave viewers haunted and pondering its hidden meaning.
Seven (or Se7en) follows Detectives Somerset and Mills as they investigate a string of grotesque murders orchestrated by the cunning and twisted serial killer, John Doe. Each murder represents one of the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, pride, envy and wrath. As the detectives delve deeper into the case, they begin to unravel John Doe’s grand plan to expose society’s moral decay.
In the climactic final scene, Somerset and Mills confront John Doe in a remote desert location. Holding Mills at gunpoint, Doe forces Somerset to complete his horrifying masterpiece. Somerset pleads with Doe, but to no avail. In an unexpected twist, Mills shoots Doe in a fit of rage, delivering the wrath that Doe desired. The film concludes with an emotionally devastating revelation that shakes the very foundation of Mills’ character.
The pivotal moment of the final scene occurs when Somerset receives a package from John Doe, which he is instructed to open. Inside the box lies a shocking discovery, which we glimpse for a second – the severed head of Tracy, Mills’ pregnant wife, whom we now know Doe has murdered. The revelation forces Mills to confront the destructive force of his own anger and wrath, fulfilling Doe’s vision of a world driven to madness by its own sins.
The symbolism is obvious: The box serves as a metaphor for the Pandora’s Box of evils that exist within society. Opening the box symbolizes the exposure of these deep-rooted sins, the consequences of which are catastrophic.
This ending was controversial from the start. Original director Jeremiah Chechik and producer Arnold Kopelson wanted it removed, and screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker obliged in a version of the script that later made its way to Fincher – but only after he had been sent one with the ‘head in a box’ scene intact. He responded by saying he was only interested in directing the original version and not one in which Mills and Somerset embarked on a formulaic race against the clock to save Tracy’s life.
Before and after filming, Fincher was urged to give the audience a victory by having Pitt’s character refuse to complete the cycle by killing Spacey’s Doe. This may have been accomplished in several ways – an anticlimatic ending in which Doe simply went to jail, another in which Somerset declared he was “tired of this” and killed Doe to let Mills live and yet another in which Doe overpowered and shot Mills before being killed by Somerset. Pitt and Fincher fought against these versions, arguing that Mills had to retain agency by killing the man who killed his wife.
“The issue was always that the studio thought Doe needed to be thwarted some way,” Fincher says on films DVD commentary. “If he was going to take this guy’s wife and kill her and thereby kill the unborn child within her that he needed to not get the thrill of being killed by the person that he wanted to be killed by — which is a compelling argument, but I think you’re splitting hairs at that point. The double-edged sword of the movie is you give the vengeance-crazed audience their blood lust and what they come to movies for but at the same time you’ve spelled it out for them for the three minutes before the trigger gets pulled that [Doe wants to be executed]… and there are not enough bullets — you can’t do enough damage to him for it to ever be even.”
There was some compromise, though. Fincher believed the drama would be heightened still further for the stunned audience by ending the film just as Mills kills Doe, followed by silence and a blank screen betfore the credits rolled. Ultimately this idea was scuppered by the projectionist at the test screening, who put the house lights up immediately, leaving no time for contemplation.
On the DVD commentary, Fincher remembers seeing three women walk past him after the lights went up and one saying, “The people who made that movie should be killed.” He added: “I’m telling you, from the reaction of the people in there, they were bristling. They couldn’t have been more offended.” A well-wisher Scame up to Fincher afterwards and said, “Don’t be depressed. You’ll probably get another job.”
Fincher agreed to add a short coda, and though he has since dismissed it as irrelevant, he says on the DVD commentary: “If movies were just what the director thought it were supposed to be, they’d be fucking boring.”
The final scene and the revelation of the box still leave a profound emotional impact on the audience. It forces us to question the nature of justice and the fragility of the human psyche.
By confronting the darkest aspects of human nature, Seven/Se7en and its ending challenges our perceptions of morality and the potential for evil that resides within us all.