Ah, the twist ending.
There’s nothing like watching a film, thinking you’ve got the whole thing figured out, only to have the rug pulled out from under you in the final moments with a revelation that nothing has been quite as it seemed. Not by a long shot.
That was the case when Seven, the psychological thriller from director David Fincher, arrived in theaters 25 years ago on Sept. 22, 1995. The film followed detectives David Mills (Brad Pitt) and William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) as they tracked down a killer who was drawing inspiration from each of the seven deadly sins as he carried out his string of heinous murders, leaving behind a tableau at each crime scene more depraved than the last.
By the time the two are able to track down their John Doe (played by Kevin Spacey), the killer has only two sins left. Little did the detectives (or the audience) know, he’d already put a plan into motion that all but guaranteed their completion. Within minutes of arriving in a remote field with Doe, a delivery van approaches, handing off a box to Somerset.
In it? The head of Mills’ pregnant wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), killed by Doe out of envy over Mills’ life. And the last sin? Wrath, which Doe accurately predicted Mills would carry out on his behalf upon the delivery of the box, turning cop into killer.
