One of the most frightening climaxes ever, because we wanted to know what was in the box, but at the same time, we didn't ... after two hours of gruesome deaths, the one that horrified us the most is the one we don't see, we don't see what's in the box ... which makes it all the scarier.

Interestingly enough, it only happened this way because Fincher got sent an early draft of the script by mistake, originally the studio had a more conventional ending to it ... Fincher got a draft with this ending, called his agent and said, "are they really gonna let me end with her head in a box? If so, count me in!" and he got Pitt to champion the ending, too.

Great film, a really great film.

Wasn't the original ending Somerset killing John Doe to keep Mills from doing it? I thought I saw that as an extra on the DVD.

Great film. I was at USC when it came out. I wasn't a film major, but my work study job was with the school. I sat in on a cinematography class where the teacher was complaining that students only wanted to learn how to do the grity style Fincher used.

Steve is right. I have a draft of Se7en with Somerset killing Doe and sacrificing the rest of his life to "save" Mills.

I remember reading it soon after seeing the movie in theaters and being caught completely off guard by the different ending as the rest of the script was almost identical to the theatrical release.

Funny story -- I saw Usual Suspects the week before seeing Se7en and when I saw the shot of the cops holding up the police artist's sketch of John Doe, I turned to my buddy and said, "John Doe is Keyser Sose, " as the suspect sketches from the two movies look EXACTLY alike.

We both burst out laughing when it's revealed that Kevin Spacey IS John Doe. We got dirty looks from the crowd around us.

Ah, good times! I love Se7en.

Interesting re Somerset shooting Doe: And I can see how that works in its own way. But not as strong as Mills, conflicted as he is (and Pitt does a great job conveying those combative waves of emotions crashing back and forth across him), blowing away Mills.

I think I like the scripted version of the ending better than the movie. First off, the music is too intense. Hell, I would've preferred no music, just these guys screaming at each other, the wind, the helicopter in the b.g., the enormity of shifting emotions as each revelation gets laid out - one by one. Then blam!

Second, in the movie they drop the last two lines of the scene: Somerset: Feel better? Pause. Mills: No. It might have come off as OTT, but man, I would have liked to have seen that moment.