se7en - "what's in the box!?"

the scene i choose for my analysis is from the very end of the film "se7en", directed by david fincher. (major spoilers ahead for anyone who hasn't seen it before) the scene in question is moments after john doe has told detective mills that... (here's that spoiler we talked about)

...the box that was just delivered to the random desert they're in contained the severed head of his wife, tracy. mills is, understandably, a little upset about this. the shot above provides such a great silhouette of mills in this dramatic moment

john doe goes on to inform mills that his wife was also pregnant at the time. john doe's callous composure is particularly unnerving as he's framed dead center of the screen staring almost directly into the camera.

detective somerset, having remained relatively cool-headed throughout the film, now has his one moment of anger slip out as he slaps john doe in the face.  

there's a great little switch of viewpoints right at the moment of impact. 

it's after the slap that things get particularly tense. john doe's plan here is to motivate mills into killing him, thus completing his seven deadly sins killing spree. once again, worth noting how dark mills appears in contrast to his bright background. 

the anguish on mills as he has to find out not only did he lose his wife, but he also lost his unborn child he was previously unaware of. for once in the course of the movie, he doesn't have anything to say.

john doe taunts mills; "he didn't know"

at this moment you can see the panic in somerset. like mills, there's such a stark contrast with their lighting and the light behind them. almost as if the darkness on their faces is coming directly from john doe. 

mills wants so desperately to be told it isn't true.

for whatever reason, when i try to add a caption or center the picture of mills above this one, it screws up all of my other ones, so i'm going to mention both here: "give me the gun, david" mills has his moment when he doesn't lie to somerset, essentially confirming john doe's story. mills, at this point, has lost all hope.

"david, if you kill him..."

"...he will win." and he knows it, too. it's only in his last moments that we see john doe's farming shift away from the creepy centering to a more traditional look, but with the majority of his face now covered in darkness.

mills is doing all he can not to pull the trigger.

one of the most important shots of the film, also the shortest. most people probably don't even realize it's there it's so short. i've seen this movie three or four times and i've been aware there was a moment where i thought i saw tracy in this scene, but could never actually describe what i saw it was so quick. this is essentially how it works for mills. he has a flash of seeing his wife's face, and that's what seals the deal for him. 

the contentment of knowing he has won.

by pulling out at the moment of the shot, it makes it feel a little less personal. in this shot,  it looks less like the result of two minutes of intense buildup and more like an execution. 

longer than the shot of tracy, but still a very quick cut here. 

anddddd back to the execution where you can still see a cloud of john doe's blood as it exits his head. 

oh, and a police chopper is watching the whole thing. they freak out. 

with john doe clearly dead, mills continues to shoot him multiple times, alleviating his wrath.

this final shot is mills and somerset walking in opposite directions, as seen by the police chopper. another instance of seeing the situation through a less up close and personal viewpoint. mills and somerset understand what happened, but to others, mills killing john doe will never be justified.