What's In The Box In Se7en, According To Director David Fincher

There are few crime thrillers that culminate as powerfully as the ending of "Se7en." This David Fincher-directed detective drama is most famous for that horrifying moment when Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) discovers that the head of his partner's pregnant wife, Tracy Mills (Gwyneth Paltrow), has been sent to them by the vile John Doe (Kevin Spacey). Part of the serial killer's twisted "sermon," Doe uses this moment to get in David Mills' (Brad Pitt) head, leading him to embrace wrath and finish his message.

But what was really in the box when Morgan Freeman opened it and looked inside? According to Fincher, it was nothing but a wig and some weights.

When speaking with Entertainment Weekly about remastering "Se7en" 30 years later, the director dispelled the longtime internet urban legend that the Gwyneth Paltrow severed head used in "Contagion" was originally created for his 1995 thriller. "No, it's entirely ridiculous. I think we had a seven- or eight-pound shot bag," Fincher explained, adding that they had done the math to figure out just how much Paltrow's head would weigh. "I think it was a shot bag and a wig, and I think the wig had a little bit of blood in it, so some of the hair would stick together." The director recalled Freeman opening over a dozen boxes while filming, noting that with an actor of his caliber, it didn't matter if we saw the severed head or not.

As pivotal as the head-in-the-box is to the ending of "Se7en," it almost didn't happen at all. Evidently, the studio thought that severing Tracy's head was a bit too much and considered cutting it from the film entirely. However, after having one of his favorite moments scrapped from a previous picture, "Legends of the Fall," Brad Pitt fought tooth-and-nail to keep this ending intact. "With 'Se7en,' I said, 'I will do it on one condition: the head stays in the box,'" the actor recalled while speaking with Entertainment Weekly in 2011. "'Put in the contract that the head stays in the box.'"

Additionally, the studio tried to make David Mills more of a hero by not shooting John Doe afterward, but Pitt fought against that too. "He's got to shoot the killer in the end," he emphasized. "He doesn't do the 'right' thing, he does the thing of passion."

This was the right call, and David Fincher knew it. In fact, Fincher wouldn't have done the film without that ending, either, and only took the gig after receiving an old draft of Andrew Kevin Walker's screenplay. Everything in "Se7en" boils down to how visceral and harrowing that final scene is, and both Pitt and Freeman offer the performances of a lifetime. Even without seeing Tracy's actual head in the box, the way Somerset and Mills respond to the horrors they've witnessed, now culminating in a far more personal hell, shatters audience expectations and reminds us of the depravity of man. This is why "Se7en" never got a sequel — because after this, there's not much more anyone could say.