Directed by David Fincher, ‘Seven’ is a magnificent film with a hard ending. However, it’s also an unusual ending, and many movies would never risk having it for fear it would scare off viewers. In fact, Arnold Kopelson, one of its producersremember that he was very afraid that it could be a disaster because it had a somewhat poor reception during the test passes with the public.
Kopelson himself points out in an interview that, of the two screenings they carried out, only 70% of the attendees gave their approval to the footage, when just two years earlier an extraordinary 98% had been achieved with the test screenings of ‘The Fugitive ‘ (‘The Fugitive’), a film for which Tommy Lee Jones even ended up winning an Oscar. For this reason, they began to shuffle Different alternativesmost discarded, although Yes, something of what was discussed was added.
Do you remember the last scene of ‘Seven’ with voiceover by William Somerset (the character played by Morgan Freeman)? He clarified that he would take care of David Mills (Brad Pitt’s character) in the future. That it was not in the original script and Kopelson insisted that it be included. The truth is that, if it had been up to Fincher, the film would have ended with a cut to black right after seeing how Mills (Pitt) pulls the trigger to end the life of John Doe (Kevin Spacey).
Fincher himself has not hesitated to comment that he he was not satisfied with that additionbut what is really important is that he managed to keep what was written by Andrew Kevin Walker instead of being forced to include some of the alternatives that were developed to a greater or lesser extent. We review them below.
The alternative endings of ‘Seven’
1- Brad Pitt commented at the time that the idea that inside the box was the head of his dog instead of his wife’s so that he would never get to kill Doe. In fact, he pointed out that it was the studio’s idea, but Kopelson clarifies that he never heard of that possibility, pointing to the possibility that it was simply an informal chat between the actor and Fincher that never went beyond that.
2- somerset preventing Mills from executing Doe, either by completely preventing his death or by being him who pulls the trigger. This last option was the one that was worked on the most, getting to carry out the stotyboard of the entire sequence, but it was finally discarded, but not before considering other options such as Mills shooting Somerset to avoid being arrested and thus being able to deal with the murderer.
3- During the first moments of development, the producers believed that the ending was too dark, going so far as to propose that Tracy Mills, the character of Gwyneth Paltrowout only kidnapped and that Somerset and Mills managed to rescue her in time. Pitt and Fincher were strongly opposed to shuffling that or any ending that didn’t end with Tracy’s head in the box, and they managed to avoid it.
4- The action took place in a burning church in which Doe ended the life of Mills, before dying at the hands of Somerset. A bit nonsensical, thus nullifying all the evil charm of Doe by turning the character played by Kevin Spacey into a simple villain, instead of that being as twisted as brilliant.
Finally, the proposals for change did not stand up to comparison with what Walker wrote and the producers gave up their attempts. Fincher acknowledged in the audio commentary he made for the domestic edition of ‘Seven’ that the argument of not giving Doe the pleasure of dying as he wished after what he had done made sense. However, that solution was just too good, giving audiences their long-awaited revenge but also explaining that there aren’t enough bullets for Mills to match the things Doe has done.
‘Seven’ was ultimately a huge success grossing over 327 million dollars especially when it had meant a disbursement of just 33 million. A round business that (almost) did not have to touch its controversial end.
In Espinof | The 11 Most Ridiculous Twist Ends In Movie History