Se7en
Seven deadly sins. Seven ways to die.
Two detectives hunt a killer who stages his murders as sermons on the seven deadly sins, in a city where the rain never stops.
- Director
- David Fincher
- Signature
- Mystery · Darkness · Suspense
- Worldwide
- $327M
Who's in it
Cast
The billed ensemble, with character names. Open any performer for their Nutevio filmography.
20 billed performers
The Nutevio profile
Movie DNA
How Se7en actually feels to watch, measured on the twelve traits our editors track across every Nutevio title.
Perfect if you enjoyed
Story overview
What It's About
Spoiler-free. Read the analysis below for the full argument.
Two detectives hunt a killer who stages his murders as sermons on the seven deadly sins, in a city where the rain never stops.
Nutevio Editorial Analysis
Why Se7en works
Fincher's second feature is a procedural with the solution withheld and the weather turned up. It rains for almost the entire film, and the city is never named, because the point is that this could be the ordinary condition of things.
Darius Khondji's photography, processed with a silver-retention technique, gives the blacks a physical density. You are always looking slightly too far into shadow.
The screenplay's real subject is exhaustion versus outrage: Somerset wants to leave, Mills wants to fight, and the ending punishes them both for being exactly who they are.
New Line wanted a different ending. The one that survives is the reason the film is still argued about thirty years later.
By The Nutevio Editors
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
Checking regional listings…
Why We Recommend It
Why It's Ranked
Se7en appears in 7 Nutevio collections. Here is the argument behind each placement.
- Movies With Incredible Endings Ranked #1
Ranked #1 because it commits absolutely to its own logic when every instinct says not to.
A drive into the desert that the genre never recovered from.
- Best Psychological Thrillers Ranked #2
Ranked #2 because atmosphere as an active antagonist.
A procedural where the detectives are always one sermon behind.
- Best Detective Movies Ranked #2
Ranked #2 because procedure staged as descent.
A partnership at the end of its rope.
- Top 100 Crime Movies Ranked #3
Ranked #3 because it refuses the catharsis the genre usually promises.
Two detectives, seven sermons, one unbroken downpour.
- Mystery Movies Ranked #3
Ranked #3 because rated 9.1 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest mystery titles in the catalogue.
Two detectives hunt a killer who stages his murders as sermons on the seven deadly sins, in a city where the rain never stops.
- Thriller Movies Ranked #4
Ranked #4 because rated 9.1 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest thriller titles in the catalogue.
Two detectives hunt a killer who stages his murders as sermons on the seven deadly sins, in a city where the rain never stops.
- Crime Movies Ranked #8
Ranked #8 because rated 9.1 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest crime titles in the catalogue.
Two detectives hunt a killer who stages his murders as sermons on the seven deadly sins, in a city where the rain never stops.
The record
Awards
1 win · 1 nomination
One Academy Award nomination, and an outsized influence on every thriller since.
Academy Awards
No wins yet · 1 nomination
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Film Editing
MTV Movie Award for Best Villain
1 win
- WinnerMTV Movie Award for Best Villain
The numbers
Box Office & Release
Se7en returned 9.9× its budget worldwide.
- Budget
- $33M
- Opening weekend
- —
- Domestic gross
- —
- International gross
- —
- Worldwide gross
- $327M
- Release date
- Sep 22, 1995
- Runtime
- 2h 7m
- MPAA rating
- R
- Language
- English
- Country
- United States of America
Figures from the verified production record. Fields we cannot source are left blank rather than estimated.
Watch
Official Trailer
How it was made
Behind The Scenes
Production facts, technique and the decisions that shaped what ended up on screen.
The title sequence
Kyle Cooper's scratched, hand-made main titles changed the language of credit design overnight.
Silver retention
The bleach-bypass process gave the film its dense, grainless blacks.
In their words
Iconic Quotes
“What's in the box?”
“Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part.”
