alt title(s): Seven
There are seven
deadly sins, captain. Gluttony; Greed; Sloth; Wrath; Pride; Lust; and Envy. Seven. You can expect five more of these
~ Det. William Somerset
Se7en (or
Seven) is an American crime/drama/horror/thriller film, directed by David Fincher of
Fight Club fame. It stars Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt as detectives investigating a serial killer whose "work" is inspired by the seven deadly sins. Distinctinve atmosphere and a skillful balance of
Gory Discretion Shots ends up creating a far more disturbing product than the
Gorn films that try and emulate it. Often ranked with
The Silence Of The Lambs and
Psycho as the pinnacle of serial killer fiction.
Tropes:
- Alternate Character Interpretation: William Somerset and John Doe are the only really sane men.
- And I Must Scream Oh god, Sloth)
- Asshole Victim (The victims are chosen based on their negative traits)
- Better Than It Sounds Film
- Chekhovs Skill: Actually Subverted with Somerset's knife-throwing practice. It's seen several times in the movie, but never given practical application.
- Complete Monster (Oh god, John Doe.)
- Subverted if you read the graphic novel, a semi-prequel largely from his and the victims' points of view.
- Crapsack World (A main point of the film, though half-subverted at the end when Somerset states that the world is still worth fighting for, even if it is a shithole.)
- Death By Disfigurement
- Deadpan Snarker (David Mills, so very much.)
- Despair Event Horizon
- Downer Ending
- Although, when you think about it from a Law & Order perspective, Mills could have argued for Extreme Emotional Disturbance - and seeing his wife's head in a box would definitely give some credence to that.
- Although-er, Fridge Brilliance dictates it wouldn't really matter (see below).
- Empathic Environment: It's raining during most of the movie.
- Film Noir
- Fridge Brilliance (John Doe's message seems to be lost when you realize he murders a totally innocent woman who had not committed any deadly sins.)
- Not so fast—his murder of Tracy is because he is guilty of Envy and is also the linchpin of his Xanatos Gambit to turn Mills into Wrath and make his plan complete.
- Not all the victims were the sinners. Lust - sinner was trick and victim was hooker. Envy - sinner was John and victim was Tracy. Wrath - sinner was Mills and victim was John.
- Note also that the others die of self-inflicted (albeit coerced) injuries: the Gluttony victim overeating, the Greed victim cutting himself and the Pride victim taking pills. John Doe is forcing his victims to become killers, not unlike The Joker's efforts to prove that Humans Are Bastards. The only one who doesn't quite fit is Sloth.
- Tracy wasn't the victim of the Envy murder. John was when he got a bullet in the head. Tracy was the victim of John's ENVY. Her place in the scheme is equivalent to the food the Gluttony victim gorged himself on or the underage girls the Sloth victim had sex with.
- Actually, given that John Doe was heavily inspired by Dante (duh), the fate of the Wrath victim makes perfect sense. In Dante's time, killing a man's wife and children was legally equal to killing him. In other words, a man sentenced to death could have his wife and children killed instead of himself. The idea was that taking away a man's family was as horrible a punishment as killing him. Therefore Brad Pitt's character is sentenced to death the same way the other six are, only in his case his wife and child are killed and he gets to live. When you look at it that way, John Doe's scheme was actually kind of brilliant.
- Fridge Logic (Doe is arguably more guilty of Pride than that sin's victim)
- The Sloth victim may be a monster, but is there anything to suggest that he was actually a sloth before John Doe got to him?
- Cheated his way through life by dealing drugs for money, using children for sex, and taking his own drugs to brush off any pain in-between. The original definition, when it's called "Acedia", makes this clearer.
- Gorn (Although it's mostly limited to Gory Discretion Shots)
- Hannibal Lecture ("It's more comfortable for you to label me insane")
- Karmic Death ( what the serial killer is aiming for, at least in theory)
- Knight In Sour Armor ((William Somerset's last line in the movie is the page quote))
- My Death Is Just The Beginning, by extension of the above.
- Letters 2 Numbers
- Narm (A lot of people have trouble taking the moments leading up to Doe getting shot seriously, between his Anvilicious speech to make Mills shoot him and the latter's whining ["WHAT'S IN THE BOOOOOX?!"] and how he switches between "crying" and "straight" faces about five times.)
- Nightmare Fuel Unleaded (All of the murders)
- Oh God With The Troping (this very page)
- One Hundred Scariest Movie Moments (Number 26)
- Sir Not Appearing In This Trailer (John Doe is played by Kevin Spacey)
- Serial Killer (John Doe is an extremely disturbing example)
- Some Anvils Need To Be Dropped ( According to John Doe, part of his motivation)
- Somerset And Mills (The Trope-Namer)
- Stuffed Into The Fridge ( Mills' wife)
- The Bad Guy Wins
- Red Oni Blue Oni (William Somerset and David Mills of Se7en, somewhat subverted in that the Blue is a fatherly mentor trying to harden the Red's heart to the harsh realities of life, and in a further, darker subversion; the young and emotional Red loses EVERYTHING to Big Bad and Complete Monster John Doe.
- World Half Empty
- Wretched Hive (The massive city where it takes place is a rainswept hell of apathy and suffering)
