3. Detective David Mills - Se7en
Se7en is a seriously depressing movie, what with all the rain and the apathy - not to mention the fact that it contains one of the bleakest endings ever committed to celluloid. The story concerns two detectives, Mills (Brad Pitt) and Somerset (Morgan Freeman), who - over the course of a week - must investigate a series of increasingly grisly killings, committed by a murderer who offs his victims in ways inspired by the seven deadly sins. Oooh. The movie eventually comes to a climax when the killer is exposed and arrested, though there's still one murder left unresolved. The serial killer, known only as John Doe, offers to drive the detectives out to where the last body is hidden, though this is just a ploy he has mustered up to complete his complicated plan: a van arrives at the remote location on the outskirts of the city, and a guy gets out and says he has a package for Mills. Somerset opens the package and it is revealed that Mills' wife's head is instead. John Doe has worked Mills into his plan since he started investigating the case, you see, and the act of killing his wife has been made to goad Mills into becoming the last deadly sin - wrath. Mills kills John Doe as planned, John Doe wins, and that's the end of that movie. Oh, I forgot to say that Mills' wife was pregnant at the time of her death. Thing is, despite Mills good intentions, he actually creates a set of circumstances which lead to the death of his wife and unborn child, just by being so damn enthusiastic about solving the case. The point of the movie, is, as you'll likely agree, that John Doe does win because Mills tries to argue throughout that apathy can be countered. Somerset disagrees with this. Mills constantly urges Somerset to allow him to investigate the case, and it results in a diaster. You'll see, then, Mills and Somerset hadn't investigated John Doe, the killer's plan would have either a) resulted in 7 deadly killings instead of 9 (including the unborn child) or b) failed entirely. Mills sets up a perfect scenario for John Doe to exploit: in fact, what had John Doe planned
before Mills started investigating him? He couldn't have known that this particular detective was on the case until at least mid-week, which means that he adapted his plan to fit around Mills and threw out whatever it was he had planned before. That's to say, Mills doesn't just allow John Doe to win, he also gives John Doe the opportunity to tweak his murder spree into something that would likely read as the greatest Wikipedia article ever conceived, had any of this occurred in real life. You admire the kids' gusto, but the film would've been far less depressing had John Doe just killed 7 people in gruesome ways and left it at that. As a result of the young detective's (admirable) gusto, we can only presume that more people ended up dead than the nutbag originally planned.