While filming the scene where Mills chases John Doe in the rain, Brad Pitt fell and his arm went through a car windscreen, requiring surgery. This accident was worked into the script of the film. Coincidentally, the original script did call for Pitt’s Det. Mills character to be injured during this sequence–but to something other than his hand.
Only in the film’s denouement is it not raining.
When filming the ‘Sloth’ scene, the SWAT team were not told that the victim was still alive. The actor’s cough, and SWAT team’s subsequent reaction, are all real.
According to Brad Pitt, there was originally a scene where Mills and Somerset discussed “thumb recall’ (cutting off the thumb of those who commit violent crimes so that they are unable to fire a gun). The scene was cut from the final release out of fear of copycat vigilantes.
The prison jumpsuit John Doe wears at the end of the film has ‘Bardach County Jail’ printed on it. Elinor Bardach was the Costume Supervisor for the film.
When looking for the part of Victor, the man held captive for exactly a year (Sloth), David Fincher stated that he wanted to find someone who was “incredibly skinny, around 90 pounds”. Michael Reid MacKay auditioned, and at the time weighed 96 pounds. Fincher gave him the part and jokingly told him to lose some more weight. Much to his surprise, MacKay turned up to filming having lost another 6 pounds.
The Mills’ apartment was built on a shakeable platform. The crew would trick visitors to the set with “instant earthquakes”.
Brad Pitt purchased his own ties for the film. He wanted Mills to have poor fashion sense.
For the aftermath of the ‘Greed’ murder, the actor who played the victim spent so long in a prone position covered in fake blood that he became physically stuck to the floor.
Ahhh, the glamor of Hollywood!
Make up for the ‘Sloth’ victim took over 14 hours, with oversized prosthetic teeth used to make his skull look even more wasted.
New Line executives originally balked at the film’s ending, but Brad Pitt refused to make the film if the ending were changed.
When Mills and Somerset inspect John Doe’s apartment, they find hundreds upon hundreds of memo books, all completely filled with writing. These were real. They took two months to complete and cost $15,000.
Seven live crates of cockroaches were poured on the ‘Gluttony’ victim during filming. They had to use vaseline to keep the bugs in place and blocked the actor’s orifices to avoid cockroach-based internal odysseys.
During the scene before Pitt and Freeman walk into the district attorney’s office, the camera zooms into a newspaper announcing the murder. A small article in the corner of the front page says that a family were held hostage by their guinea pig for three days…
The only victim the killer directly murders is Gwyneth Paltrow’s character.
Despite the protests of the studio, Kevin Spacey was left out of all the film’s promotional material so as to make his unveil as John Doe even more shocking.
It also meant Spacey didn’t have to do any press for the film, much to his enjoyment.
All of the building numbers in the opening scene start with 7.
Michael Stipe, from REM, was considered for the role of John Doe.
I can see that…
A rumoured sequel would of followed Morgan Freeman while Brad Pitt would have been in a mental facility.
The delivery driver at the end of the film is played by Richmond Arquette, brother to Patricia, David and Rosanna.
When the film was first shown on TV, the line where Brad Pitt refers to the killer as a “movie of the week” was changed to “book of the month”.
An edited-out sequence near the beginning had Somerset looking over the country home he’s planning on moving into. He uses his switchblade to cut loose a rose on a fragment of silk wallpaper and carries it with him throughout the movie. The rose falls out of his jacket as he is taking off his gun before eating with the Mills family. The rose is briefly visible in the opening scene, sitting atop a handkerchief on Somerset’s dresser.
The original script had a strange, dwarf-like women as part of the forensics team. She would appear after every murder and hurl insults at Somerset and Mills. Because why not?
David Fincher told Kevin Spacey and Brad Pitt “this is not going to be the movie that you’re remembered for, but it may be a movie you’re incredibly proud of.”
I beg to differ…
