Se7en
Two detectives, a nameless city where it never stops raining, and a killer working his way through the seven deadly sins. David Fincher's 1995 thriller ends with a box, and with an ending the studio fought to change and lost.
Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the script on spec in 1991 while working at a Tower Records, drawing on the shock of his 1986 move from the Pennsylvania suburbs to New York City. An Italian company, Penta Film, optioned it and then collapsed; producer Arnold Kopelson picked up the rights and took it to New Line Cinema, which demanded changes. Walker wrote thirteen drafts with alternative endings before David Fincher, signing on to direct, secured the original dark conclusion.
Brad Pitt plays detective David Mills, Morgan Freeman his partner William Somerset, Gwyneth Paltrow Mills' wife Tracy. Kevin Spacey joined late, after executives balked at his price, filmed his part in twelve days and asked that his name be left off the opening credits so the killer's identity would stay a surprise. Shooting ran from December 12, 1994 to March 10, 1995, entirely in downtown Los Angeles; Fincher shot in continuous rain to dodge continuity problems and to fit Pitt's fifty-five-day window before 12 Monkeys. Pitt did his own stunts in the chase and hurt his hand badly enough for stitches and a cast.
The ending was the fight. Tracy's fate arrives in a box, Mills shoots John Doe and completes his design, and the studio wanted an alternative in which she survived or died differently. Fincher and Pitt refused, and producer Kopelson came around once he was assured the contents of the box would never be shown. Test audiences reacted badly, one woman telling Fincher that the people who made the film should be killed. Released September 22, 1995 on a budget of $33–34 million, Seven grossed $327.3 million worldwide, the seventh-highest total of the year.
Critics praised Freeman and Spacey, split on Pitt, and some found the violence excessive. It earned an Oscar nomination for Richard Francis-Bruce's editing, a BAFTA nomination for Walker's screenplay, and MTV Movie Awards for Best Movie, Best Villain (Spacey) and Most Desirable Male (Pitt). Kyle Cooper's title sequence, made for $50,000, revived interest in title design, and the stylized "Se7en" spelling became the name most people use.
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