TRIVIA

• While filming the scene where Mills chases John Doe in the rain, Brad Pitt fell and his arm went through a car windscreen, requiring surgery. This accident was worked into the script of the film.
  
• The autopsy of the first killing, as originally scripted, was incorrect according to the research of makeup man Rob Bottin (who viewed a real human autopsy as part of his prep work). The scene was truncated from the original script and shows only the sewn-up corpse of Gluttony, not the actual autopsy.
  
• The victim tied to the bed for a year was not an animatronic model, but a very skinny actor made up to look even more corpse-like. Rob Bottin used a set of exaggerated teeth to make the head look smaller and more shrunken from malnutrition.
  

• Originally, Morgan Freeman drew his pistol with his finger on the trigger. Police officers that were on the set as technical advisors quickly corrected him, as that is not correct police procedure.
  
• Somerset's office number, 714, is also Joe Friday's badge number as shown in the background of the opening and closing credits in the old TV series, "Dragnet" (1951).
  
• The prison jumpsuit John Doe wears at the end of the film has the words "Bardach County Jail" written on it. Elinor Bardach was the costume supervisor for this movie.
  
• One version of the script contained a few scenes following the final confrontation between the detectives and John Doe. In one, Somerset is recovering in the hospital after being shot by Mills, and the captain delivers a letter to him from Mills which reads, "You were right. You were right about everything."
  
• The original script had a strange, dwarf-like woman as part of the forensics team, appearing in every one of the "cleanups" after a murder and hurling foul language and epithets at Somerset and Mills.
  
• An edited-out sequence near the beginning had Somerset looking over the country home he's planning on moving into. He uses his switchblade to cut loose a rose on a fragment of silk wallpaper and carries it with him throughout the movie. The rose falls out of his jacket as he is taking off his gun before eating with the Mills family. (This touch was edited out, too. Both sequences are in the supplementary section of the Criterion laserdisc.) The rose is briefly visible in the opening scene, sitting atop a handkerchief on Somerset's dresser.
  
• The screenplay had references to a partner Mills had when he still lived in the country, named Parsons. Parsons was shot and killed while on a bust with Mills, and consequently Mills is overprotective of Somerset in some scenes. All references to Parsons were deleted before shooting began.
  
• A rejected version of the credits had the same scratchy handwriting and Coil-remixed "Closer", but used static images instead of the jumpy, blurred footage used currently. (This credit sequence is in the Criterion laserdisc supplement section.)
  
• Mills and William Somerset discuss the book "Of Human Bondage", which was written by W. Somerset Maugham.
  
• In one scene, Mills belittles Doe as a "Movie of the Week". When this film was shown on network television, the line was changed to "Book of the Month". (The line has since been restored in subsequent showings on Cable television.)
  
• All the building numbers in the opening scene start with 7. The climactic delivery was scheduled for 7pm.
  
• New Line executives originally balked at the film's ending, but Brad Pitt refused to make the film if the ending were changed.
  
• The "Platinum Series" DVD of Se7en by New Line is mastered from a new HDTV transfer which was made directly from the camera negative. This required that the whole film had to be re-graded digitally, applying color and contrast correction to every shot under the director's supervision. The resulting HDTV master is now the official master of the film. The digital corrections are quite extensive in some shots as the DVD supplements demonstrate in detail.
  
• Charles S. Dutton has a cameo as the cop who keeps the press out of the Greed crime scene.
  
• Cameo: [Andrew Kevin Walker] The writer of the film appears as the first corpse.
  
• When Somerset is in his apartment, he can be heard listening to a radio broadcast of John McClellan. McLellan was a Boston disc jockey (among other things) who did live Tuesday night broadcasts from the Boston club Storyville, on WHDH radio in the early 1950s. In the clip in the movie, you can hear McLellan's voice announcing some of the members of the band at Storyville that night, including Charlie Parker with Herb Pomeroy on trumpet.
  
• All of John Doe's books were real books, written for the film. They took two months to complete and cost $15,000. According to Somerset, two months is also the time it would take the police to read all the books.
  
• Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker wrote the script over a two year period while working at a branch of Tower Records.
  
• R.E.M's Michael Stipe was once considered for the role of John Doe.
  
• As preparation for his traumatic scene in the interrogation room, Leland Orser would breathe in and out very rapidly so that his body would be overly saturated with oxygen, giving him the ability to hyperventilate. He also did not sleep for a few days to achieve his character's disoriented look.
  
• The film was the subject of a lawsuit brought by a photographer whose work was used in the background of John Doe's apartment. The case was decided in the filmmakers' favor. Sandoval v. New Line Cinema Corp., 973 F.Supp. 409, 412-414 (S.D.N.Y 1997).
  
• In the scene where Somerset and Mills enter Mills' apartment and are welcomed by Mills' wife, during the second frame, on the right side there can be seen a large poster for Pyshka (1934) directed by Mikhail Romm. Andrei Tarkovsky was under Romm's instruction in VGIK film school.
  
• Morgan Freeman's son, Alfonso Freeman, played the part of a fingerprint technician.
  
• Denzel Washington turned down the part that went to Brad Pitt.
  
• When looking for the part of Victor, David Fincher stated that he wanted to find someone who was incredibly skinny, around 90 lbs. Michael Reid MacKay auditioned, and at the time weighed 96 lbs. Fincher gave him the part and jokingly told him to lose some more weight. Much to his surprise, MacKay turned up to filming having lost another 6 lbs.
  
• The song "6ix" from the Evan Dando album "Car, Button, Cloth" gives away the ending of the film.
  
• This was voted the eighth scariest film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
  
• The word "fuck" and its derivatives are said a discernible 74 times throughout the movie, mostly by Brad Pitt.
  
• According to earlier versions of the script, the unspoken name of the police captain is Captain Lucas.
  
• David Cronenberg was offered a chance to direct this but he turned it down.
  
• The box full of photographs at the "Sloth" scene has written on the side "To the World, from Me."
  
• Before Kevin Spacey was set to shoot his first scene, he asked director David Fincher if he should shave his head for the role. David Fincher replied "If you do it, I'll do it." Both Fincher and Spacey were bald for the remainder of the movie production.
  
• This was regarded as the first "A" production for New Line Cinema, proving that they could attract "A-list" directors and cast.
  
• Brad Pitt earned $7 million for this film.
  

>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Trivia items below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.

• SPOILER: R. Lee Ermey originally auditioned for the part of John Doe. After the part was given to Kevin Spacey, Ermey was offered, and took, the part of the police captain.
  
• SPOILER: Shortly before shooting John Doe, a flash of Mills' wife's face appears on the screen, a technique that David Fincher uses again in Fight Club (1999).
  
• SPOILER: The producers intended that Kevin Spacey should receive top billing at the start of the movie but he insisted that his name not appear in the opening credits, so as to surprise the audience with the identity of the killer. To compensate, he is listed first in the closing credits.
  
• SPOILER: Another advantage from Kevin Spacey's point of view, as he saw it, was that he was excluded from the film's marketing during its release, meaning he didn't have to make any public appearances or do any interviews.
  
• SPOILER: Even though he's probably one of the most horrifying and sadistic killers in cinematic history, John Doe isn't seen killing anyone on screen.
  
• SPOILER: To appease the producers, who wanted to soften the dramatic ending a bit, an alternate version of the ending was storyboarded, with Somerset saying that he "wants out", and killing John Doe, thereby preventing Doe from winning, and Mills from ending up in jail. In the mean time, the crew shot a test ending, which is basically the theatrical ending without some of the dramatic shots. This finale was so well received in screenings that it convinced the producers to go along with it, and not even film the alternate ending.
  
• SPOILER: The ending in the movie is the ending in the original draft of the screenplay. Producer Arnold Kopelson had it rewritten and the ending became a race to save Tracey's life. When David Fincher, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman read the new ending, they all demanded the that original ending be put back in or they wouldn't do the movie. (From the Platinum Series DVD).