10 Secret Worst Movie Heroes

10. What€™s In The Box?

David Fincher€™s Seven (or Se7en, if you€™re feeling fancy) is a serial killer thriller that delights in playing with genre tropes. Somerset is the world-weary detective on the verge of retirement, forced to take on an idealistic rookie partner in Mills, recently transferred to his department. The pair investigate a series of macabre deaths which are eventually hypothesised to be the work of the same man: a serial killer, patterning high concept, elaborately executed murders after the €˜seven deadly sins of early Christian doctrine. So far, so conventional. Throughout, we€™re presented with the contrast between the cynical way Somerset views crime in their unnamed city, and the more doggedly optimistic worldview presented by Mills. Somerset doesn€™t believe anyone can make a difference, to the extent that he€™s remained alone and childless and is leaving the city upon retirement, while Mills and his wife have actually moved to the city because of his transfer, and are (unbeknownst to him) about to start a family. Meanwhile, the unknown killer strikes again, and again, filling the pair with dread. The climax comes after the killer turns himself in, and his master plan finally reaches fruition. Our expectations are horribly subverted; the narrative follows through the oppressive, nihilistic mood the film has carefully set up, and the detectives, far from stepping in, ending the bloodshed and punishing the perpetrator, are revealed to have been unwitting parts of the killer€™s plan all along. It tends to be forgotten about in the sheer writhing empty horror of the ending, but the detectives we€™ve been following throughout aren€™t the protagonists of the film. The film€™s not really about them. They€™ve never had agency or power, just the illusion of it. Somerset was right: he and Mills aren€™t the engine of the narrative, driving the story and the conflict forwards€ they€™re just witnesses, and unknowing accomplices.