Seven, Part Two
by Bill Johnson

Cut to Mills and Sommerset discussing the Gould case. We learn Gould was forced to cut a pound of his own flesh off - a Merchant of Venice reference. Mills has found this reference. Being around Sommerset is influencing him.

"His task done, he would go free."

Sommerset, "Which part of your body is expendable?"

This is the choice the killer forced the victim to make. But note the design of the story also allows the audience to ask themselves the same question. Again, we're being drawn into and through this world. We're asked to be participants.

Sommerset is intrigued, hooked. He wants to know more.

Sommerset, "He's preaching." The killer is using the murders as a tool to teach.

The two start working together for the first time. Sommerset realizes the killer is on some perverted moral crusade - the murders are a form of "forced attrition."

Sommerset, "When you regret your sins but not because you love God."

We also learn there are never any fingerprints. Mills remembers the photo of Gould's wife, with the blood around her eyes. Sommerset conjectures there's something she should be able to see.

Sommerset talks about how people now are trained to mind their own business. Sommerset, "They teach women to not cry for help when being raped, but to cry 'fire.' People will come running."

Mills talks about the bloody spectacles.

Sommerset, "What if it isn't something she has seen, but something she's supposed to see but hasn't been given the chance?"

We're being drawn into this question.

Sommerset doesn't know the answer, but we can tell now he wants to know the answer.

Cut to Tracy, who discovers the men gone. We make this discovery with her. Knowing what she feels about the city, we have a sense that this would be upsetting to her.

Cut to Sommerset and Mills out at night, arriving at the safe house to talk with Mrs. Gould. Mills shows her pictures with her husband's body covered up.

Mrs. Gould, "I don't understand."

She insists she "doesn't see anything."

Mills wants to end the interview, but Sommerset quietly suggests it continues.

She does notice an abstract painting is upside down.

Cut to Gould's office. They examine the painting. Nothing.

Nothing is given to Mills and Sommerset. They must search for meaning.

Mills, "He's fucking with us."

He's speaking a deeper truth here than he realizes. The storyteller can write this kind of dialogue that echoes with later elements of the story from a knowledge of where the story is going.

Sommerset brushes dust on the wall and discovers finger prints. "Call the print lab."

Cut to a print technician works on the wall. He mumbles, "Oh man."

Mills, to Sommerset, "Have you every seen anything like this?"

This pulls us in to what to know what he sees. Even Mills has to turn away. At last we see "HELP ME" written on the wall in finger prints. The technician declares they are not the victim's prints.

Cut to a computer running matches for print ID. The Tech tells Sommerset and Mills it could take up to three days to get a match and would they cross their fingers somewhere else?

Cut to Sommerset and Mills lounging on a couch in the hall. Sommerset refers to Mills' assurance to Mrs. Gould that they will catch this guy and comments he wishes he still thought the way Mills does.

This is a quiet, intimate moment. We're shown these two men drawing closer together. It's movement.

Mills says, "Why don't you tell me what the hell it is you think we're doing here?"

Sommerset, "Picking up the pieces. We're collecting all the evidence, taking all the pictures and samples. Writing everything down. Noting the time things happen."

Mills, "That's all?"

"That's all. Putting everything in a neat little pile and filing it away, on the off chance it will ever be needed in the courtroom. Picking up diamonds on a deserted island. Saving them, in case we get rescued."

Mills, "Bullshit."

Sommerset, "Even the most promising clues usually only lead to others. So many corpses roll away unrevenged."

Sommerset is speaking here to what weighs on him. He has not been able to avenge the evil he sees; merely collect details about it.

Mills, "Don't try and tell me you didn't get that rush tonight. I saw ya. We're getting somewhere." Mills lies down to sleep.

This dialogue points out the deep divide still between the two men. Sommerset knows where he is; Mills doesn't. And neither knows where this story will ultimately take them.

Cut to Thursday. Sommerset and Mills asleep on the couch, with Mill's head on Sommerset's shoulder. The Captain wakes them with the news, "We've got a winner."

Cut to Captain briefing a large group about the murderer as revealed by the fingerprint ID. "Theodore Allen, a.k.a. Victor. Long history of mental illness. Strict Southern Baptist upbringing but... Drugs, robbery, jail time for attempted rape etc. His lawyer got him out; his lawyer was Eli Gould. We're gonna wrap this up today, ladies and germs. Victor's been out of circulation for a while but there's still a residence in his name."

The troops file out. Mills says to Sommerset, "You're not buying this, are you?"

Sommerset, "Doesn't seem like our guy, does it?"

Mills: "You tell me."

Sommerset, "Our killer seems to have more purpose."

Mills is getting more in tune here. More movement. He's reflecting on what he hears.

Cut to Swat team departing. Half the department's involved. This is exciting physical movement.

Cut to Mills and Sommerset in a squad car. Mills asks Sommerset if he ever took a bullet. "Never in my 34 years, knock wood. I've only taken my gun out three times with the intention of using it. Never pulled the trigger. You?"

Mills shot his gun once. Mills, "I was a rookie, then."

He still is.

A cop died. Mills can't remember his name and it bugs him.

The backdrop of moving to capture the suspect gives this conversation a more dramatic backdrop.

>Cut to Swat team arriving outside an apartment building. They swarm, enter building., break in apartment, it's incredibly seedy and dark. They bring in more people, it's just more people in the dark. Exciting stuff. Very visual and gripping. The audience is drawn in here to feel the action, the adrenaline.

The Swat people come to a room hung with air fresheners, then point their guns into another room.

"Good morning sweetheart. Get up now, mother fucker, NOW!"

We're being drawn forward, wondering who's in the room.

There's a bed, a body in it covered by a sheet. The sheet is pulled back- it's a scabby, emaciated corpse. Sommerset calls for an ambulance. A hearse is more like it. One hand is cut off. Mills tells everyone to leave, not to touch anything. He's learned.

Sommerset sees SLOTH written on the wall. They find pictures of Victor - the corpse in the bed -- taken each month starting one year ago today, along with body and tissue samples.

A cop leans over Victor and mumbles, "You got what you deserved." The corpse moves and coughs; Victor's alive!

This is brilliant and scary. The storyteller masterfully staged this moment. It's one of the most frightening moments I've ever experienced in a film. Note how deeply we're drawn in to fully believe this is a corpse, a dead man, before the shocking revelation.

Cut to ambulance arriving outside.

Cut to Sommerset and Mills in the hall.

Sommerset, "He's playing games."

Mills, "No shit."

They are moving back to being adversarial.

Sommerset, "But we have to divorce ourselves from our emotions, no matter how hard it is, we have to stay focused on the details."

Mills is angry, pacing, nearly out of control. "Hey man, I feed off my emotions, how's that?"

Again, he's a contrast to Sommerset. We're not told they are a contrast. We're shown this. Everything about the two men is a contrast.

A light bulb flashes. It's a reporter. Mills jumps all over the guy, cursing him out and telling him "to get the fuck out of here, it's a crime scene.'

"I've got your picture" the reporter yells. Mills even spells his name for the guy as he departs down some stairs.. Sommerset watches in dismay.

Mills, "How do they get here so fucking quick."

Sommerset, "They pay police for the information. And they pay well."

Mills apologizes, they just piss him off.

Sommerset, "It's OK. It's impressive...to see a guy feeding off his emotions."

This scene is so quick and naturalistic, it doesn't register at all what just happened here. The photographer was the killer getting pictures of Mills. When this is realized later, it will again show the depth of planning of the killer and the storyteller.

Note also the comment about 'feeding off his emotions." The audience is feeding off the emotions generated by this story. But is this a good or a bad thing, considering the nature of this story? This film, via its climax, forces the viewer to ask that question.

Cut to Hospital and cloaked bed. Doctor tells Sommerset and Mills Victor's brain is mush and "he chewed off his own tongue long ago."

Sommerset, "There's no chance of his surviving?"

Doctor, "Detective, if you were to shine a light in his eyes right now he'd die of shock."

The doctor talks about how he's been through more pain than anyone he's ever encountered and "he still has hell to look forward to."

Cut to Sommerset at home. He gets a call from Tracy asking him to meet her tomorrow. The question is, why?

She tells him she needs someone to talk to, and he's the only one she knows.

He doesn't understand. A man who understands so much, and this leaves him clueless.

She finally convinces him to meet her.

Note again how this scene is played out to draw us closer to Tracy and her issues; to lead us to have feelings about her; to let us feel that we know her, that we have a place in her life. When a storyteller can draw in their audience to care about their characters and their issues, that audience will go to great lengths to see how a story is resolved and fulfilled.

Cut to Friday at a grill. Sommerset and Tracy talking. She's so unhappy in the city, but doesn't want to burden David. She'll get used to it. "But the conditions here are...horrible."

Sommerset, "Why don't you tell me what's really bothering you, Tracy?"

She's pregnant.

This sets up one of the more brutal plot events of the story. It seems like background information here, another opportunity for Sommerset to talk about life. But we're being drawn in to have feelings about him as a human being.

He still isn't sure why she's talking to him.

Sommerset relates his past, about his own aborted child, a decision he still feels was right but not a day goes by he doesn't regret it. He didn't want to bring a child into our world, that he told his lover he didn't want a child, that he 'wore her down.'

He tells her not to tell David if she chooses not to keep it. But if she does choose to have the baby, spoil it every chance you get.

She cries.

Sommerset, "That's about all the advice I can give you, Tracy."

His beeper goes off. The camera holds on her while she cries. We're being allowed to feel this moment with her.

Tracy, "Thank you."

We're allowed to hold on his face while he looks at her.

Cut to chalk board with Seven sins listed, the first three crossed out.

Sommerset talks about how a landlord found Victor to be his "best tenant" because the killer always paid his rent on time.

Mills, "Why are we sitting here, rotting, waiting for the lunatic to do something."

Mills is impatient. Sommerset warns him not to make the mistake of dismissing the murderer as a lunatic. Sommerset reiterates how controlled, intentional, methodical the murderer is.

Mills will pay for his impatience, his lack of understanding.

"We walked into that apartment exactly one year after he tied Victor to the bed. One year to the day. He wanted us to." Sommerset refers back to the first note "Long is the way and hard that out of hell leads to the light."

He ponders the will of such a man, to keep a man bound for a year, to sever his hand to use it to plant finger prints, to insert tubes into his genitals. Mills insists the killer is a nut bag.

"Just because some nut's got a library card doesn't mean he's Yoda." This gives Sommerset an idea.

"How much money you got?"

He hurries out.

They have to make a list - any book the murderer might study.

Sommerset, "What would he study?"

Cut to library. Sommerset does a lit search, copies the list. Mills eats potato chips. He's reverting back to his old style.

Cut to Cafe. Sommerset and Mills are at a booth. Mills holds up a soggy piece of pizza and Sommerset refers to the 50 health violation this place has had. Mills is impatient, worries people will think they're "dating."

A seedy guy arrives, sits across from them, refers to a "menage a trois", takes Mills' money from Sommerset, and the pizza, and leaves.

We're pulled in here to want to know the purpose of the exchange.

Cut to Mills stewing. Sommerset offers to tell him what's going on.

Sommerset, "I'm trusting you more than I trust most people."

Mills, "Good, because I'm about to punch you."

Again, we're shown the two men drawing closer even as they spar.

The pizza guy is a friend from the library. They monitor reading habits. He'll give them names of people who've signed out Seven deadly sin-type books from the library. It's illegal, so they can't use the info directly.

"If you want to know who is reading Purgatory, Helter Skelter and Paradise Lost...the FBI can help."

The pizza guy comes in and hands off an envelope.

> Cut to car.

Mills, "Of Human Bondage. Bondage?"

Sommerset, "It's not what you think.

Mills brutally mispronounces the name of the Marquis de Sade. Corrected, he says, "Whatever."

They get a name: Jonathan Doe, a.k.a. John Doe.

They, and the audience, are being played with.

>Cut to stairs. They knock on a door. No answer. A guy comes around the corner down the hall. Shoots at them.

This is dramatic and unexpected. The pace of the story just leapt to a higher level.

It's also a payoff to the earlier scene about guns.

Mills first concern is that Sommerset is okay.

Long chase scene. Every time someone turns a corner, we don't know if there will be more gunshots. And there are enough gunshots to keep Mills and us revved up.

Mills is relentless in his chase. He physically risks himself to catch this man who keeps just ahead of him.

Mills, to someone who opens a door, "Get out of the fucking hall, please."

We almost see the man on the fire escape.

The killer runs across a busy street and is knocked down. All is chaos. Mills runs over the tops of cars.

Mills runs into an alley and sees someone run behind a truck.

He cautiously goes around the truck, then is knocked down from above and loses his gun.

What will happen now?

The shadowy figure of the man approaches. He puts his gun to Mills' head. The moment is fully extended to let us feel every beat of the drama.

The scene ends with the guy disappearing.

Sommerset catches up. He's truly concerned about Mills. It's another advance in their relationship.

Cut to the apartment door. Mills wants to break in. Sommerset warns they can't go in, their lead is off the record, they can't prosecute and the guy will walk if they break in.

The two characters are back in open conflict.

"We need a reason to knock on this door. Think about it."

Because the used the library system, they can't acknowledge legally what brought them to this apartment.

Mills, "You're right, I'm all fucked up."

He kicks in the door.

Sommerset is angry, calls him stupid and walks away.

Mills thinks, then calls out, "How much money do we have left?"

Cut to alley. A woman is telling a cop a clearly bogus story, blatantly coached by Mills, about how she suspected John Doe of the murders and called Sommerset. Mills rushes her away from the cop and Sommerset, pays her off and tells her to eat something.

Cut to John Doe's apartment. Dark and weird. Neon cross over bed. Multiple locks on door. A cupboard of spaghetti sauce.

Again they are in the dark, searching for clues. The audience searches with them.

Sommerset finds Victor's hand in a jar. A receipt for Wild Bill's Leather Shop is taped over a faded picture of a blonde. Who is she? We'll find out later.

Mills enters a dark room.

Sommerset enters a study/library-type room.

Mills sees pictures of the murder victims.

Sommerset finds journals which have odd markings, which sets up the question, why the markings?

Mills sees something, screams for Sommerset. Sommerset rushes in. Mills says they had him.

Set up, what does he mean?

It was the photographer on the stairs. There are pictures of an angry Mills developing in a bath tub.

Mills, "We had him and we let him go."

Cut to aerial view of police cars with lights flashing outside apartment building.

A policewoman flashes a drawing in front of Mills, who agrees it looks like the murderer. Another woman shows Mills a shoebox full of money, and tells him they haven't found a single finger print.

We now know why we saw the man cutting off his fingertips as the movie opens.

He tells them to look harder. Sommerset's reading the voluminous journals. No dates, no order. "Just his mind poured out on paper."

The man talks about throwing up on a stranger and laughing.

Mills, "His life's work."

A phone rings. It's the killer. He just wanted to tell them he's impressed.

We now hear his voice for the first time in the film.

"I respect you law enforcement agents more every day."

He talks about needing to redo his schedule for the murders.

And, "I would say more but I don't want to spoil the surprise."

Again, the storyteller is allowing the audience to track the story and the question, what surprise?

Sommerset, "He's preaching to us. The murders are a sermon to us."

Cut to Mills and Sommerset examining the photographs. Mill's points to the ones they know. "Who's the blonde?"

Sommerset, "She looks like a pro."

Mills, "A prostitute that caught John Doe's eye."

Cut to Saturday. Wild Bill's Leather Shop. Wild Bill remembers John Doe. Shows them a picture of a leather device he made for the killer. Mills passes it to Sommerset, who says, disbelieving, "You made this for him? We don't see it. Sommerset gets a call. They found the blonde in the photo. Mills and Sommerset leave with the picture.

The set up, what did Wild Bill make for the killer?

Cut to Mills and Sommerset outside, in the rain, going down some stairs.

The go past a guy in a ticket booth yelling at a cop. Down into the bowels of a hellish place. A cop stops them at a door, then lets them in. They see LUST on the door.

A dead woman is on the bed. Two cops are with a man in a chair screaming to "get this off of him."

We don't see what is on him.

Cut to Police station interrogation rooms. Intercut Mills questioning the guy who rented the room; Sommerset is questioning the hysterical man from the room.

The Booth guy saw nothing strange.

The 'trick' talks about a man with a gun. Sommerset throws down Wild Bill's picture and we see the contraption for the first time. It is a kind of strap with a hook coming out of it. A brutal way to kill a woman while having sex with her. A brutal way to die.

The Booth guy says he doesn't like what he does, what he sees. "But that's life, ain't it?"

Mills here is being philosophical. More movement for his character.

The Trick says the man forced him to have sex with the woman wearing the device. He put the thing on him and put his gun in his mouth and made him do it.

Later, Mills and Sommerset are alone.

Sommerset, "You know this isn't going to have a happy ending."

"Hey, man, we catch him, I'll be happy enough."

This is another line of dialogue that explodes at the end of the film.

Sommerset, 'If he turns out to be... Satan himself that might live up to our expectations... but he's just a man."

Mills, "You tell me these things... you think you're preparing me for hard times."

Sommerset, "You want to be a champion, but... people don't want that. They want to eat cheeseburgers."

Mills, "How did you get like this?"

Sommerset, "It wasn't one thing... I just don't think I can live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was a virtue."

Mills, "You know... better."

They are 'naming' the story here, not just for the characters but the audience.

Sommerset, "Apathy is a solution... love costs. It takes effort and work."

Mills, "We are talking about people who are crazy."

Sommerset, "No. We are talking about everyday life here... you can't afford to be this naive."

Mills thinks he'll make a difference. He doesn't believe Sommerset. He won't agree with him.

Mills, "I don't agree with you."

These characters are again shown to be in conflict around who they are. Each has a different view of life rooted in who they are, arising from who they are.

Mills leaves.

He's at home. He snuggles up to his sleeping wife. It is a tender moment. He tells her, "I love you... so much."

Tracy, who we thought asleep, "I know."

Again we're drawn in here to feel something, to feel enmeshed in the world of this story. We're also drawn in to feel we're watching something; we're drawn in to be aware that we're viewing something.

Then we see Sommerset trying to sleep by listening to the metronome. He finally throws it down and breaks it. He's being eaten up inside by this case.

Next we see him throwing a switchblade at a dart board on a wall. He's thinking.

We cut to our mystery man calling 911 and saying, "I've gone and done it again."

Now we see Mills over a dead body; Sommerset comes in.

There's a dead woman on a bed slashed up and bandaged. Sommerset reads a note, "Call for help and you'll live, but you'll be disfigured. Or you can put yourself out of your own misery."

It turns out he cut off the woman's nose to "spite her face" as Sommerset adds. Her sin was Pride.

As they leave the building, Sommerset tells Mills he's decided to stay on the case. Otherwise, there will be seven killings.

Sommerset is being affected by the events of the story. A story struggles to ring true when its events seem to have no impact on its characters. When they aren't changed in some way by what's happening in the story.

Sommerset asks Mills to keep him on as his partner, that "you'd be doing me a favor." This is a concrete manifestation of his change.

As they walk into the precinct, another man gets out of a car. We see him from behind. The set up, who is he?

We then see them walking through the precinct. A man shouts, "Detective." They pause on a stairwell. Then, "DETECTIVE."

They turn. It's John Doe, wearing a bloody shirt. He holds out his hands and announces, "You're looking for me."

Mills pulls his gun and orders the man with crude language to get face down.

John Doe, "I know you."

Mills, "What is this?"

John Doe, "I'd like to speak to my lawyer, please."

We end the scene looking at Sommerset, who appears to realize something. Why is John Doe here if he hasn't reached seven? Who's dead out there?

Next scene opens with John Doe calmly making tea while in the background the police try to track down his background. All they know is that he's well educated and wealthy.

Mills, "His actions don't make sense."

Captain, "They aren't supposed to."

Sommerset, "He's not finished."

Mills thinks he's simply trying to make the police look like idiots, which Sommerset agrees with.

We then cut to Doe's attorney saying they will find the other two bodies at six o'clock, but the bodies will only be revealed to Mills and Sommerset.

Sommerset, "It's part of the game."

Mills complains that John Doe will go to prison and be taken care of while his wife "doesn't have cable t.v." Again, a line of dialogue that has a deeper purpose.

Mills, "Something stinks."

He verbally goes after Doe's attorney, who suggests that Doe will go for an insanity defense... unless Mills and Sommerset do what he wants. If he does, the killer will offer a full confession.

Sommerset questions the deal. He's still thoughtful.

The attorney suggests the press would have a field day if they don't find the two missing people. It also comes out that Doe had the blood of one of the victims on his clothes.

Mills, "Let's finish it."

Sommerset and Mills prepare for this journey in a bathroom.

Sommerset, "If John Doe's head comes open and a UFO flies out, I want you to have expected it."

The truth will be even stranger and more brutal.

Mills, "If I shave off a nipple, will it be covered by workman's comp?"

They laugh.

Mills, "If I keep coming home late, my wife's going to think something's up."

Another brutal line of dialogue, but it also ties back into Tracy's suggestion that Mills has a sense of humor.

Mills, "You know."

Sommerset, "What?"

Mills doesn't answer. It makes the moment more dramatic.

We have many close ups of the tense men preparing for this mission.

We see Mills 'tie' a tie, not use a fake one. It shows us his movement as a character, makes it concrete.

We see Sommerset check his gun.

They put on bullet proof vests.

A helicopter on the roof prepares to take flight.

They get into a car with John Doe and drive out onto a street.

The helicopter follows.

Sommerset, "Who are you, John? Who are you, really?"

He wants to know the 'truth.' He'll be getting to a deeper truth.

John, "Who I am means absolutely nothing."

Mills, "Where we heading."

John, "You'll see."

We'll see along with Mills and Sommerset.

Mills, "We're not just going to pick up two bodies. That wouldn't be shocking enough."

John, "Wanting people to listen, you can't just tap them on the shoulder any more. You have to hit them with a sledge hammer."

John feels that what he's doing is special, that it's his work.

Mills tells John that nothing about this is special. Mills taunts him that people won't remember what's happened.

John, "People will barely be able to comprehend it, but they won't be able to deny it."

Mills, "You be sure and let me know...because I don't want to miss it."

John, "Don't worry, you won't miss a thing."

More brutally 'true' dialogue.

They drive through an arid, barren area.

Mills, "When a person is insane... do you know that you're insane?"

John, "It's not something I would expect you to accept... but I did not chose, I was chosen."

Sommerset, "You're overlooking a glaring contradiction."

John, "What?"

Sommerset, "You enjoy torturing those people. Doesn't seem in keeping with martyrdom."

John counters with the idea that he's no worse than Mills, who would hurt him given the opportunity. Mills denies this.

Again, we have another powerful, brutal set up here.

Mills, "I thought all you were doing was killing innocent people?"

John, "Is that supposed to be funny?" He runs down the list of sinners and their sins and why they deserved to be tortured and killed.

"Only in a world this shitty could you even try and say these were innocent people and keep a straight face... We see a deadly sin on every street corner... We tolerate evil morning, noon, and night. Well, not anymore. I'm setting the example. What I've done will be puzzled over, studied, and followed... forever."

Mills, "Delusions of grandeur."

John, "You should be thanking me. You'll be remembered after this."

This sets us up to want to know what John is talking about?

John and Mills get into an escalating verbal conflict until John says, "I spared you... for the rest of what life I've allowed you to have."

He's gotten to Mills.

Mills, "You're a fucking t-shirt... at best."

John sees himself as an agent of God.

The helicopter trailing the car has to rise higher to get away from some electrical pylons.

They see a trailer in the distance and park nearby.

It looks abandoned.

Mills brings John out of the car. We "see" the scene from the helicopter, then back to the ground.

This makes the point again about our being observers.

John, "What time is it?"

John leads them across a field. The question, where are they going? What will they find? The moment is shaped for drama.

Sommerset sees a vehicle approaching. Sommerset returns to the car to intercept the approaching van. He forces it to a stop and tells Mills, "Wait for my signal."

He orders the guy out of the van.

We see the scene from the helicopter.

Guy, "I have a package for a guy... David Mills."

Sommerset gets the package.

We see the box from the helicopter. They think it's a bomb.

In a way, that's the truth.

Sommerset tells the guy to leave on foot.

He looks at the box.

Cut to John looking at Mills.

Sommerset, "I'm going to open it."

John, to Mills, "When I said I admired you, I meant what I said."

Sommerset uses his knife to open the box. When he opens it, he gasps.

Then we view the scene from the helicopter.

Then at Sommerset looking over at Mills holding the gun on John Doe.

He backs away, saying, "John Doe has the upper hand."

Brilliant writing. How can it be true?

He begins shouting at Mills to drop his gun, which confuses Mills.

John Doe, "I'm trying to tell you how much I admire you and your pretty wife."

Mills, "What you'd say?"

It comes out that John violated Tracy and took a souvenir, "Her pretty head."

It's Tracy's head in the box.

Sommerset comes up and demands the gun.

Mills, "What's in the box."

John, "Envy is my sin."

Sommerset, "He wants you to shoot him."

Mills, "Tell me she's all right."

Mills screams in agony.

John, "She begged for her life and for the life of the baby inside of her."

This is a revelation for Mills. He looks down at John with his gun.

John, "He didn't know."

Mills cries silently in anguish and keeps his gun pointed at John.

Sommerset, "If you kill him, he will win."

What will Mills do? In this moment, we're being asked what we would do in his situation.

The moment is drawn out.

Then, Mills shoots John Doe. A plume of blood flies out from his body.

We see the scene from the helicopter.

Then, the POV from John's body as Mills stands over him and shoots him repeatedly. Sommerset cannot look at him.

Sommerset walks away, seen from the helicopter.

Man in helicopter, "Somebody call somebody."

There is no one to call. It's a profound statement about the underlying context of this story. By accepting this kind of action story, by letting ourselves into this kind of violent world, we now have a storyteller who forces us to confront our values about what we find entertaining. That's why at this moment, there's no one to call here.

Next scene, Mills, in shock, in the back seat of a police car.

Captain, "Well take care of it."

Mills is driven away. He is clearly out of his mind, in a profound state of shock.

Sommerset, "Whatever he needs."

Captain, "Where you gonna be?"

Sommerset, "Around. I'll be around."

As Sommerset and the Captain walk away, we have Sommerset's voice over.

"Hemmingway once wrote, 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' (beat) I agree with the second part."

Sommerset has been moved to have some of the feelings of Mills. This thoughtful man has been transformed by the action of the story.

Again, Seven is a rare thriller that pushes its audience into a place where they think about the action of the story. Whether this story was written through a process of intuition or a deep understanding of the craft of storytelling, it is a masterful piece of work.

Every time I've spoken with others who've seen this film, a debate arises over the ending, whether Mills should have shot John Doe. Whether, even, Sommerset should have shot him instead. Or no one shot John Doe. It's part of the beauty of the film that it compels this debate. What would you do in this situation? The film makes you ask this question. It also asks you to think about the dark things that happen in our world and your personal response to them.

Powerful, powerful work.

A masterful example of the craft of storytelling, of an action film designed to not only move it audience to feel, but to think as well.

©2000 Bill Johnson