10 Movie Plot Twists That Will TRAUMATIZE You
3. Seven - What's In The Box?
Seven is - with apologies to The Silence of the Lambs - quite arguably the greatest serial killer movie of all time, and one of the keys to its brilliance is that it contains one of cinema's greatest finales, orchestrated by one of cinema's greatest psychopaths.
After carrying out five sadistic murders themed to the Seven Deadly Sins, serial killer John Doe (Kevin Spacey) inexplicably hands himself into investigating detectives David Mills (Brad Pitt) and William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and asks them to escort him into the desert, where they will find his last two victims, representing 'Wrath' and 'Envy'.
Doe has already carried out some of the nastiest murders in film history and yet, as it turns out, he's saved the most devastating crimes for last. A delivery van drops off a box which, as Somerset discovers, contains the severed head of Mills' pregnant wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow). Doe was envious of Mills' marriage, and encourages Mills to punish him for the sin of envy, thus becoming 'Wrath'.
Despite Somerset's pleas, Mills indeed kills Doe and has his life and career destroyed. It is a film where evil wins, and the film's finale, elevated by Howard Shore's chill-inducing soundtrack and the astounding performances from all three actors, is one of the most intense and haunting endings of them all.