8 Brilliant Movie Plot Twists (That Don't Make Sense At All)

6. How Did John Doe Suddenly Work Mills Into A Meticulous Scheme He'd Been Planning For Years? - Se7en

seven movie
New Line Cinema

The Plot Twist: Se7en tells the grim tale of a serial killer who murders his victims according to the seven deadly sins over the course of a single week, whilst detectives David Mills and William Somerset - new partners - investigate. At the end of the movie, with just two victims and two deadly sins to go, the killer, John Doe - who hands himself in and demands to be driven out to the desert where he'll disclose the place where he buried the last bodies - unveils his masterstroke: he has murdered Mills' wife, and intends for Mills to become "wrath" by killing him, whilst he - as somebody who tried to taste life of a normal man - assumes the role of "envy." Mills, distraught, executes Doe. Doe wins, his plan completed.

But Wait... The movie seems so tight and complex at first, to the point that all seems to fit together... well, perfectly. Upon closer inspection, though, the plot of Se7en - beautifully constructed as it is in many ways - doesn't make sense, exactly. That's to say, how did John Doe know that Mills would come into his life, bringing the exact right circumstances with him, at that specific point in time? He simply couldn't have done - and remember, given the nature of the "sloth" death, which Doe prepared a year before the events in the film, we know that he's been planning it all for ages.

Okay, so, technically, the movie still makes sense, given that it was possible for John Doe to improvise this part of his plan. But does it seems at all plausible that he could come up with something incorporating "envy" and "wrath" on such short notice, with limited information, with just a few days to go? What would he have done originally, before Mills came into the picture? Who were the original "envy" and "wrath" deaths? Was it always going to be the investigating detective and his wife? For someone as meticulous as Doe, it seems a little... on the fly, don't you think?

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