Se7en

Seven (also marketed as SE7EN) is an American 1995 Academy Award, BAFTA nominated crime film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The story follows two detectives, one retiring (Morgan Freeman) and one his replacement (Brad Pitt), jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.

• Director : David Fincher
• Release Date : 22 September 1995
• Genre : Crime | Mystery | Thriller
• Tagline : Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to light.
• Runtime : 127 min

Cast

• Brad Pitt : Detective David Mills
• Morgan Freeman : Detective Lt. William Somerset
• Gwyneth Paltrow : Tracy Mills
• R. Lee Ermey : Police Captain
• Andrew Kevin Walker : Dead Man

Official Site : -

• New Line

In an unidentified city of constant rain and urban decay, Detective William Somerset is preparing to retire and leave the horrors of the city. Before he does he is partnered with Detective David Mills, a cocky, young and short-tempered cop from a small town. The two investigate the murder of a highly obese man who was fed spaghetti until his stomach burst from a kick. Somerset investigates the murder while Mills is given the murder case of Defense Attorney Elliot “Eli” Gould, with GREED written in Gould’s blood on the floor. Soon after, Somerset finds GLUTTONY written behind the obese man’s fridge and theorizes that a serial killer is basing his crimes on the Seven Deadly Sins, with five more to go.

To give Mills and Somerset a chance to get along, Mills’ wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) invites Somerset over for dinner. After Tracy goes to bed, Mills and Somerset examine case evidence from the two scenes. They find a picture of Gould’s wife with blood painted around the eyes. The Detectives have a distraught Mrs. Gould look at the pictures in a safe house and she notices an abstract painting that is upside down. Brushing powder on the wall behind the painting, Somerset finds fingerprints outlining the words “Help Me.” Read more

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Se7en Trivia

• While filming the scene where Mills chases John Doe in the rain, Brad Pitt fell and his arm went through a car windscreen, requiring surgery. This accident was worked into the script of the film.
• The autopsy of the first killing, as originally scripted, was incorrect according to the research of makeup man Rob Bottin (who viewed a real human autopsy as part of his prep work). The scene was truncated from the original script and shows only the sewn-up corpse of Gluttony, not the actual autopsy.
• The victim tied to the bed for a year was not an animatronic model, but a very skinny actor made up to look even more corpse-like. Rob Bottin used a set of exaggerated teeth to make the head look smaller and more shrunken from malnutrition.
• Originally, Morgan Freeman drew his pistol with his finger on the trigger. Police officers that were on the set as technical advisors quickly corrected him, as that is not correct police procedure.
• Somerset’s office number, 714, is also Joe Friday’s badge number as shown in the background of the opening and closing credits in the old TV series, “Dragnet” (1951).
• The prison jumpsuit John Doe wears at the end of the film has the words “Bardach County Jail” written on it. Elinor Bardach was the costume supervisor for this movie.
• One version of the script contained a few scenes following the final confrontation between the detectives and John Doe. In one, Somerset is recovering in the hospital after being shot by Mills, and the captain delivers a letter to him from Mills which reads, “You were right. You were right about everything.”
• The original script had a strange, dwarf-like woman as part of the forensics team, appearing in every one of the “cleanups” after a murder and hurling foul language and epithets at Somerset and Mills.
• An edited-out sequence near the beginning had Somerset looking over the country home he’s planning on moving into. He uses his switchblade to cut loose a rose on a fragment of silk wallpaper and carries it with him throughout the movie. The rose falls out of his jacket as he is taking off his gun before eating with the Mills family. (This touch was edited out, too. Both sequences are in the supplementary section of the Criterion laserdisc.) The rose is briefly visible in the opening scene, sitting atop a handkerchief on Somerset’s dresser.
• The screenplay had references to a partner Mills had when he still lived in the country, named Parsons. Parsons was shot and killed while on a bust with Mills, and consequently Mills is overprotective of Somerset in some scenes. All references to Parsons were deleted before shooting began.
• A rejected version of the credits had the same scratchy handwriting and Coil-remixed “Closer”, but used static images instead of the jumpy, blurred footage used currently. (This credit sequence is in the Criterion laserdisc supplement section.)
• Mills and William Somerset discuss the book “Of Human Bondage”, which was written by W. Somerset Maugham.
• In one scene, Mills belittles Doe as a “Movie of the Week”. When this film was shown on network television, the line was changed to “Book of the Month”. (The line has since been restored in subsequent showings on Cable television.)
• All the building numbers in the opening scene start with 7. The climactic delivery was scheduled for 7pm.
• New Line executives originally balked at the film’s ending, but Brad Pitt refused to make the film if the ending were changed.
• The “Platinum Series” DVD of Se7en by New Line is mastered from a new HDTV transfer which was made directly from the camera negative. This required that the whole film had to be re-graded digitally, applying color and contrast correction to every shot under the director’s supervision. The resulting HDTV master is now the official master of the film. The digital corrections are quite extensive in some shots as the DVD supplements demonstrate in detail.
• Charles S. Dutton has a cameo as the cop who keeps the press out of the Greed crime scene.
• Cameo: [Andrew Kevin Walker] The writer of the film appears as the first corpse.
• When Somerset is in his apartment, he can be heard listening to a radio broadcast of John McClellan. McLellan was a Boston disc jockey (among other things) who did live Tuesday night broadcasts from the Boston club Storyville, on WHDH radio in the early 1950s. In the clip in the movie, you can hear McLellan’s voice announcing some of the members of the band at Storyville that night, including Charlie Parker with Herb Pomeroy on trumpet.
• All of John Doe’s books were real books, written for the film. They took two months to complete and cost $15,000. According to Somerset, two months is also the time it would take the police to read all the books.
• Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the script over a two year period while working at a branch of Tower Records.
• R.E.M’s Michael Stipe was once considered for the role of John Doe.
• As preparation for his traumatic scene in the interrogation room, Leland Orser would breathe in and out very rapidly so that his body would be overly saturated with oxygen, giving him the ability to hyperventilate. He also did not sleep for a few days to achieve his character’s disoriented look.
• The film was the subject of a lawsuit brought by a photographer whose work was used in the background of John Doe’s apartment. The case was decided in the filmmakers’ favor. Sandoval v. New Line Cinema Corp., 973 F.Supp. 409, 412-414 (S.D.N.Y 1997).
• In the scene where Somerset and Mills enter Mills’ apartment and are welcomed by Mills’ wife, during the second frame, on the right side there can be seen a large poster for Pyshka (1934) directed by Mikhail Romm. Andrei Tarkovsky was under Romm’s instruction in VGIK film school.
• Morgan Freeman’s son, Alfonso Freeman, played the part of a fingerprint technician.
• Denzel Washington turned down the part that went to Brad Pitt.
• When looking for the part of Victor, David Fincher stated that he wanted to find someone who was incredibly skinny, around 90 lbs. Michael Reid MacKay auditioned, and at the time weighed 96 lbs. Fincher gave him the part and jokingly told him to lose some more weight. Much to his surprise, MacKay turned up to filming having lost another 6 lbs.
• The song “6ix” from the Evan Dando album “Car, Button, Cloth” gives away the ending of the film.
• This was voted the eighth scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
• The word “fuck” and its derivatives are said a discernible 74 times throughout the movie, mostly by Brad Pitt.
• According to earlier versions of the script, the unspoken name of the police captain is Captain Lucas.
• David Cronenberg was offered a chance to direct this but he turned it down.
• The box full of photographs at the “Sloth” scene has written on the side “To the World, from Me.”
• Before Kevin Spacey was set to shoot his first scene, he asked director David Fincher if he should shave his head for the role. David Fincher replied “If you do it, I’ll do it.” Both Fincher and Spacey were bald for the remainder of the movie production.
• This was regarded as the first “A” production for New Line Cinema, proving that they could attract “A-list” directors and cast.

Se7en Mistake

• In the scene where Somerset goes back to the fat man’s house alone, he cuts a sticker on the door with his switch-blade to get in. The first error is the sticker is on the inside and it says “Keep Out.” The best part about it is the door opens inward. How did they put the sticker on the inside and then exit?
• When they are in the car with heavy rain, you can see the pedestrians are NOT using umbrellas or wearing raincoats. It’s also raining far harder on the left of the car than the right. In addition, Somerset is turning the wheel to the right, and yet they’re driving in a straight line
• When Somerset is in the taxi on his way to the Library, he is wearing a blue and white shirt, yet when he arrives at the Library, his shirt is completely white.
• The amount of the name that is left on the door when the janitor is scraping it off changes – it goes from being Some…. to Somerset
• In the scene where Mills hears the phone ring while they are investigating the killer’s house Mills runs down the hall way and slides on his knees to get the phone. You can clearly see the knee pads on his right knee.
• The phone on Brad Pitt’s desk changes position (parallel to the desk, then angled towards Brad Pitt, then angled away from him) several times when he first goes into his new office.
• In the scene where Det. Mills is chasing John Doe through the streets they end up in an alley, and Doe knocks Mills down with a crowbar. As Somerset runs up, Doe runs off and Mills drops back down to the ground and rolls off his side onto his stomach. As he does so you can see a red colored tube running from the back of his jacket/collar, across the back of his head to his forehead, supplying “blood”.
• At the beginning, Brad Pitt gets out of bed and we see it’s got a quilted cover on it. Then when he goes to answer the phone it’s got a plain sheet.
• When the “lust” guy is being interviewed, Morgan Freeman throws a photo down on the table. He throws it such that from the interviewee’s point of view it should be angled with the top side to the left, or fairly straight, but when we see a close-up of it landing it’s angled with the top to the right.
• When Freeman “slaps” Spacey in the desert, he misses his face by about an inch.

Se7en Quotes

• David Mills (picks up the phone): Hello?
  John Doe: I admire you. I don’t know how you found me, but imagine my surprise. I respect you law enforcement agents more every day.
  David Mills: Well, I appreciate that, John. I tell you …
  John Doe: No, no, you listen, all right? I’ll be re-adjusting my schedule in light of today’s little … setback. I just had to call and express my admiration. Sorry I had to hurt … one of you, but I really didn’t have a choice, did I?
  David Mills: Hm.
  John Doe: You will accept my apology, won’t you? I feel like saying more, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise. [Hangs up]
• David Mills: Hey, loser.
  Tracy Mills: Hi, idiot.
• David Mills: Do you like what you do for a living? These things you see?
  Man in Massage Parlour Booth: No, I don’t. But that’s life.
• William Somerset (to Tracy): Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable. Just ask your husband.
  David Mills: Very true. Very, very true.
• William Somerset: This guy’s methodical, exacting, and worst of all, patient.
  David Mills: He’s a nut-bag! Just because the fucker’s got a library card doesn’t make him Yoda!
• David Mills: Yeah, a landlord’s dream: a paralyzed tenant with no tongue.
  William Somerset: Who pays the rent on time.
• William Somerset: I just don’t think I can continue to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was virtue.
  David Mills: You’re no different. You’re no better.
  William Somerset: I didn’t say I was different or better. I’m not. Hell, I sympathize; I sympathize completely. Apathy is the solution. I mean, it’s easier to lose yourself in drugs than it is to cope with life. It’s easier to steal what you want than it is to earn it. It’s easier to beat a child than it is to raise it. Hell, love costs: it takes effort and work.
• John Doe: It’s more comfortable for you to label me as insane.
  David Mills: It’s very comfortable.
• David Mills: Wait, I thought all you did was kill innocent people.
  John Doe: Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny? An obese man, a disgusting man who could barely stand up, a man who if you saw him on the street, you’d point him out to your friends so that they could join you in mocking him, a man, who if you saw him while you were eating, you wouldn’t be able to finish your meal. After him, I picked the lawyer, and I know you both must have been secretly thanking me for that one. This is a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath that he could muster to keeping murderers and rapists on the streets!
  David Mills: Murderers?
  John Doe: A woman …
  David Mills: Murderers, John, like yourself?
  John Doe: A woman, so ugly on the inside she couldn’t bear to go on living if she couldn’t be beautiful on the outside. A drug dealer, a drug-dealing pederast, actually! And let’s not forget the disease-spreading whore! Only in a world this shitty could you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face. But that’s the point: we see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it’s common, it’s trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night. Well, not anymore. I’m setting the example. What I’ve done is going to be puzzled over and studied and followed … forever.
• John Doe: Realize, detective, the only reason that I’m here right now is that I wanted to be.
  David Mills: No, no, we would have got you eventually.
  John Doe: Oh, really? So, what were you doing? Biding your time? Toying with me? Allowing five innocent people to die until you felt like springing your trap? Tell me, what was the indisputable evidence you were going to use on me right before I walked up to you and put my hands in the air?
• David Mills: I seem to remember us knocking on your door.
  John Doe: Oh, that’s right. And I seem to remember breaking your face.
• [William Somerset looks at an object in the road]
  David Mills: What do you got?
  William Somerset: Dead dog.
  John Doe: I didn’t do that.
• John Doe: She begged for her life.
  William Somerset: Shut up …
  John Doe: She begged for her life and …
  William Somerset: Shut up!
  John Doe: She begged for her life and the life of the baby inside her.
  William Somerset: Shut up! [Punches him]
  John Doe: Oh … [smiles] he didn’t know.
• John Doe: Don’t ask me to pity those people. I don’t mourn them any more than I do the thousands that died at Sodom and Gomorrah.
  William Somerset: Is that to say, John, that what you were doing was God’s good work?
  John Doe: The Lord works in mysterious ways.
• Police Captain (to Mills): What do you think?
  David Mills: I’m in.
  Mark Swarr: It has to be both of you.
  William Somerset: If he were to claim insanity, this conversation is admissible. The fact that he’s blackmailing us with his plea …
  Mark Swarr: And my client reminds you, two more are dead. The press would have a field day if they found out the police didn’t seem too concerned about finding them, giving them a proper burial.
  William Somerset: If there really are two more dead.
• David Mills: Why us?
  Mark Swarr: He says he admires you.
• David Mills: How is it working for a scumbag like this? You proud of yourself?
  Police Captain: Ease back, Mills.
  Mark Swarr: I’m required by law to serve my clients to the best of my ability, and to serve their best interests.
• William Somerset: We’ll just talk to him.
  David Mills: Uh-huh. Yeah. “Excuse me, sir. Are you, by any chance, a serial killer?” Okay.
  William Somerset: You do the talking. Put that silver tongue of yours to work.
  David Mills: Have you been talking to my wife?

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