The finale of David Fincher’s serial killer thriller Seven is one of the harshest and most heartbreaking in the entire genre. When the unlikely detectives Mills (Brad Pitt) and Somerset (Morgan Freeman) lead the fanatical murderer John Doe (Kevin Spacey) to the scene of his last two murders, a courier comes by with a box.
What’s in the box? Spoiler: The severed head of Mills’ pregnant partner Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow). But what was really in the prop box on set? The filmmaker was recently asked about this question.
Seven director David Fincher clears up a 30-year-old mystery: It was really in the box
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Fincher recently confronted the ongoing rumor that they actually had a prosthetic head made for actress Paltrow, which they decided not to show until the last minute. But was that really the case or are you giving false evidence if you repeat this supposed film fact? Here’s what the filmmaker had to say:
No, that’s completely ridiculous. I think we had a seven or eight pound bag of shot. We had researched to find out what proportion of that would be attributable to her head if Gwyneth Paltrow’s body mass index was X. So we had an idea of how much this would weigh, and I think there was a weight in there.
Additionally I have the prop a blonde wig and some blood placed in the box so that one could only get a glimpse of what terrible thing was inside. And there’s a good reason for that, as Fincher explains:
Don’t forget Morgan opened 16 or 17 of these things. But as I always say, when you have Morgan Freeman, you don’t have to see what’s in the box.
Seven turns 30 this year and is the second highest-rated David Fincher film on Moviepilot with a sizable community rating of 8.2 – just behind Fight Club at 8.5.
Where can you stream the serial killer thriller Seven?
Unfortunately, seven is current not available in any flat ratewhich for some would certainly be seen as a cardinal cinematic sin. But don’t worry: you can get the film as a rental or purchase title on Amazon, Sky, Apple TV, MagentaTV and Co.