Well, let’s see…
A decent plot twist is very hard to come by, nowadays. It is one of the most precious of literary gems and, if executed properly, can make a film all the more engrossing.
It will undoubtedly have been brought up many a time, but that doesn’t mean Se7en doesn’t deserve another lauding of its magnificent and memorable narrative shocker.
(Warning: major spoilers for the ending of Se7en. If you haven’t seen it, turn away now).
David Fincher’s neo-noir psychological thriller depicts the world in the shittiest extreme.
Overworked police force, rampant crime, rubbish-laden alleyways and everlasting grim skies build up the world magnificently as retiring detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is partnered with rookie hothead David Mills (Brad Pitt) to solve the mystery of a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as a motif for his murders.
The film progresses as you would expect. Detectives find the latest killing, killer remains one twisted step ahead, detectives keep tabs on potential clues and leads, usual stuff.
Until a blood-splattered John Doe (Kevin Spacey) - all ten of his fingers bandaged - walks right into the police station and yells “DETECTIVE!”
Remember that blood for later…
John Doe has committed five of the sins at this point. Envy and Wrath remain.
He promises to turn himself in to the police if he has Somerset and Mills drive him out to the country to the site of his next two victims.
After they arrive at the location, a delivery van soon arrives. Mills holds Doe at gunpoint as Somerset intercepts the driver. The driver tells him he was supposed to deliver a package to them at this location.
Please handle with care. Fragile.
Somerset bends down and opens up the box with his pocket knife. He sees stains of blood. Then he looks inside…
He backs away immediately. He worriedly tells the overhead police chopper that “John Doe has the upper hand.”
He rushes back to Mills, frantically shouting out his name.
Doe then starts taunting Mills, monotonously sinister in his tone, as he admits his admiration of Mills… and his pretty wife, Tracy.
He says that he visited Mills’ wife earlier that morning, wanting to taste the “life of a simple man.”
Apparently, it didn’t work out, so he took a little souvenir: “her pretty head.”
Remember all that blood on Doe’s shirt earlier that day? What if it was Tracy’s blood, while he was cutting her head off?
Cogs start turning in Mills’ head as he grows closer to putting the pieces together.
Mills becomes increasingly erratic and demands that Somerset tells him “what’s in the box?” as his rage intensifies.
Doe admits to himself - almost to the wind - that he is envious of Mills’ life. Envy is his sin.
Mills bellows at Doe that he is lying, unwilling to let his horrifying imagination become reality: that Tracy’s decapitated head rests several hundred meters away inside of that cardboard box.
Somerset urges Mills to put his gun down. Doe - with silent glee - wishes him to become vengeance.
To become Wrath.
Mills screams out in unbearable emotional pain as Doe applies more verbal pressure, citing the death of Tracy’s unborn child.
Even though Mills didn’t know that Tracy was pregnant…
Torment and unfiltered anger crosses Mills’ face, fleeting images of Tracy flashing before him, before he finally pulls the trigger and finishes Doe’s ‘masterpiece’.
So the elaborate twist in the end that makes this climax so enthralling is the fact that the detectives thought they had finally outsmarted the criminal John Doe.
However, it was all part of his plan all along; to die so that the law (and the genre’s tropes) couldn’t win.
Few films end with a victory for the villain. Ever fewer end with a villain’s triumph that cannot be undone. Considering the studio wanted to rewrite the ending for fear that it was too bleak, and Pitt and Freeman fought to keep it in, demonstrates the commitment to constructing a memorable addition to cinema.
And that background score… both the booming horns and the oscillating strings still chills the bone to this day, adding weight to the suspense and inviting the imagination to be intoxicated with horror.
The scariest thing of all?
We never see what’s inside the box at all. We are never shown how the other victims were killed off, either. The graphic nature of this film is what you didn’t see.
We didn’t see the execution of Greed, the set design was enough. We didn’t see the execution of Lust, the man’s explanation was enough.
We didn’t see what’s inside the box, yet we knew instinctively, and not seeing makes it even worse.
The fact that this is a murder-mystery movie and there’s only one on-screen murder and it’s done by a cop is truly brilliant.
Peace and Love.
A short life and a merry one.
Image source Google
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