15 Great Movie Villains Who Totally Stole The Show
1. John Doe - Se7en
Responsible for everybody you know shrieking "What's in the BOX!?" whenever presented with a closed container, David Fincher's Se7en is a critically acclaimed psychological thriller revolving around a string murders based on the Seven Deadly Sins. The plot follow detectives Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Mills (Brad Pitt) as they attempt to track down a religiously motivated killer who revels in creating murderous tableaux and always seems to be two steps ahead of them.
It is a testament to Kevin Spaceys acting ability that he completely owns the finale of Se7en with such a comparatively short time on-screen, instantly overshadowing the performances of Freeman and Pitt with a sinister malevolence usually only recorded in people who have found themselves stuck in a lift with Gwyneth Paltrow.
Se7en's ending is suitably nihilistic in that, by coaxing Pitt's character to empty a whole handgun magazine into him, the killer achieves his end goal and becomes his own seventh victim. It's a brave conclusion in that nothing is really resolved, even Detective Somerset's retirement plans are cancelled because of the film's events. Sure there's a folksy monologue about morality but viewers are left wondering if good men really can do anything in the face of such towering evil.
Well played John Doe, even if just for giving struggling philosophy students something to talk about.