David Fincher finally reveals what was in the Se7en box

Do you want to feel old? The acclaimed crime thriller, often styled as “Se7en”, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year in 2025 re-release in IMAX locations which those who have not had the opportunity to enjoy in theaters simply will not want to miss. This milestone also means that those of us of a certain age have spent the better part of three decades reciting one oft-repeated refrain every chance we got: “What's in the box?” If you've never seen David Fincher's influential noir and are somehow blissfully unaware of what's actually going on in the film's jaw-dropping climax, then this is your cue to leave now and not spoil one of the greatest filmmaking milestones. 21st century for yourself.

Still here? Okay. As if having to watch disgraced actor Kevin Spacey play a total sociopath, fans of Fincher's dark tale about a pair of cops hunting down a prolific serial killer had to endure one of the most intense final acts ever put to film. . After spending the entire film vacillating between his commitment to a career in punishment and the peaceful home life represented by his loving (and pregnant) wife Tracy (Paltrow), Pitt's rookie detective Mills sees the two worlds collide in the worst possible way. Killer John Doe, always one step ahead of our heroes, finally manipulates them when he stumbles upon one final tragedy: Tracy's severed head wrapped in a box. Although never shown on screen, this unpleasant ending helped earn “Se7en” its reputation as one of the darkest and most cynical films of the genre. of its time, but it also left a number of questions.

Chief among them has always been whether or not Fincher and his team went so far as to create a prosthetic head (or even a body) modeled after Paltrow to be discovered by Freeman's veteran Somerset. Well, we can consider this one mystery finally solved.

It's fair to say that the success of Se7en has followed David Fincher throughout his career, for better or for worse. On the one hand, his sophomore effort opened up a world of opportunity for a clearly talented and visionary filmmaker to make his mark. On the other hand, it is difficult to consistently live up to such high expectations. However, thirty years after the release of the 1995 classic, Fincher is only too happy to revisit his morality play centered on the Seven Deadly Sins. At the top of the list, of course, remains the topic of what actually was in that fateful box that Morgan Freeman opened in that dry and dusty desert.

Talking to Entertainment Weekly In a recent interview, Fincher put to rest any notion that he stooped to the kind of shock and awe that prompted such a reaction from both Brad Pitt and Freeman during filming. When asked if there was any truth to the rumors about the prosthetic head, he replied:

“No, that's completely ridiculous. I think we had a seven- or eight-pound bag. We had done a study to see if Gwyneth Paltrow's BMI was X, what fraction of that would be attributed to her head? And so we had an idea of ​​what it would weigh and I think it had weight.

And we put the wig in there so that when Morgan rips the box open, if there was some of that tape that was used to seal the box—I think it was the shot bag and the wig, and I think the wig had a little bit of blood, so some hair sticks together. Remember, I mean Morgan opened 16 or 17 of these things (during filming). But as I always say, you don't have to see what's in the box when you have Morgan Freeman.”

So there you have it. Case closed. In the end, Fincher decided that realism only went so far and simply let his stars create the magic of the movies. Based on the end result, we'd say he made the right choice. Be sure to check your local listings for the IMAX re-release of “Se7en” this weekend at a theater near you.