Getting your questions ready
Getting your questions ready
Beat the crowd
9 questions No timer
52 free Se7en trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Se7en trivia quiz covers David Fincher's 1995 thriller from the gluttony crime scene on Monday to the delivery van on Sunday evening. The easy questions are for anyone who has seen it once: who plays Mills, Somerset and Tracy, which sin each victim represents, how the detectives find John Doe's apartment, and whose words Somerset borrows for the final line. The harder half is about how the film got made and very nearly didn't: the thirteen drafts, the studio's push for a happier ending, the ending Brad Pitt made a condition of signing, the actors who turned down John Doe, the injury written into the script, the bleach-bypass print process, the $50,000 title sequence, the box-office run, the one Oscar nomination and the sequel that became a different film entirely. Expert questions go into the cinematographer's influences, the composer, the comic-book prequel and the prop that was actually in the box. Every answer was checked against the film's Wikipedia article and its cited sources before publishing, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 52 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was Se7en released in theaters?
1995
Se7en was released in 1995, opening wide in the United States on September 22, 1995, and topping the box office in its first weekend.
Q 02Who directed Se7en?
David Fincher
David Fincher directed Se7en, only his second feature; he was mistakenly sent the writer's original, bleaker draft of the script and fought to keep its grim ending.
Q 03Who plays the young detective David Mills?
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt plays David Mills, the hot-headed young detective newly transferred to the city; Pitt cut his hair short and slimmed down so he would look less like a romantic lead.
Q 04Who plays Detective Lieutenant William Somerset?
Morgan Freeman
Morgan Freeman plays Lieutenant William Somerset, the methodical veteran detective who is days from retirement when he is paired with the newly arrived Mills.
Q 05Which actor plays the killer, John Doe?
Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey plays John Doe; at his request his name was kept out of the opening credits and the advertising so audiences would not guess the killer's identity.
Q 06Who plays Tracy, Mills's wife?
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Paltrow plays the detective's wife, who confides in Somerset over coffee that she is pregnant and unhappy in the city.
Q 07John Doe's murders are patterned on which idea?
The seven deadly sins
John Doe's murders follow the seven deadly sins; Somerset recognises the pattern after the first two killings and gives Mills Dante and Chaucer to read.
Q 08The obese man forced to eat until his stomach burst represents which sin?
Gluttony
Gluttony: the word is written in grease on the wall behind the victim's refrigerator; Bob Mack played the man force-fed until his stomach burst.
Q 09The victim forced to cut a pound of flesh from his own body was marked with which sin?
Greed
Greed is written in blood on the floor beside defense attorney Eli Gould, who was made to cut a pound of his own flesh, echoing The Merchant of Venice.
Q 10According to the photographs at the scene, how long was the sloth victim kept restrained to his bed?
One year
One year: the dated Polaroids beside the bed show the killer photographed Victor, the sloth victim, over exactly twelve months; Michael Reid MacKay played him.
Q 11Which sin does John Doe claim to embody himself at the end?
Envy
Envy: in the car John Doe admits he envied Mills's ordinary life with his wife, so he killed her and made himself the envy victim.
Q 12Which sin is Mills goaded into completing in the final scene?
Wrath
Wrath: Doe has the head of Mills's wife delivered in a box, and Mills completes the final sin by shooting him despite Somerset's pleas.
Q 13Who wrote the screenplay for Se7en?
Andrew Kevin Walker
Andrew Kevin Walker wrote Se7en while working at a Tower Records store in New York, channelling his dislike of the city into the screenplay's nameless, rain-soaked setting.
Q 21Which studio produced and released Se7en?
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema produced and released Se7en on a budget of about $33 million; the studio wanted a less bleak ending, but the director and stars held firm.
Q 22Which actor turned down John Doe, calling the script "the most evil thing I've ever read"?
Ned Beatty
Ned Beatty declined the part, calling the script the most evil thing he had ever read; the role went to an actor kept out of the film's marketing.
Q 23Which rock frontman was considered for John Doe but was unavailable because his band was touring?
Michael Stipe of R.E.M.
Q 14The older detective is named after which writer?
W. Somerset Maugham
Somerset is named after W. Somerset Maugham, the British novelist the screenwriter admired; the detective's own reading list in the film runs to Dante, Chaucer and Milton.
Q 15Before Se7en, the director's only feature film was which one?
Alien 3
Alien 3 (1992) was Fincher's only earlier feature; the studio recut it, he disowned the result and was reluctant to direct again until Se7en's script reached him.
Q 16Se7en's unnamed city was shot on location in which real city?
Los Angeles
Los Angeles stood in for the unnamed city; constant rain was kept in to hide the California sunshine and to dodge continuity problems between takes.
Q 17Which song, in a remixed version, plays over the opening title sequence?
"Closer" by Nine Inch Nails
"Closer" by Nine Inch Nails, in the Precursor remix by Coil and Danny Hyde, runs under the opening titles; the remix appears on the band's Closer to God single.
Q 18Which David Bowie song plays over the end credits?
"The Hearts Filthy Lesson"
"The Hearts Filthy Lesson", the lead single from David Bowie's album 1. Outside, plays over Se7en's closing credits.
Q 19Who composed the score for Se7en?
Howard Shore
Howard Shore composed Se7en's brooding orchestral score; he had already scored several David Cronenberg films and later wrote the music for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Q 20Which designer created the film's scratched, hand-made title sequence?
Kyle Cooper
Kyle Cooper designed the jittery, hand-scratched title sequence while at R/GA; The New York Times later called it one of the most important design innovations of the 1990s.
Michael Stipe of R.E.M. was considered for John Doe, but the band's Monster tour made him unavailable; the part went to a then little-known actor.
Q 24How did Pitt injure his hand during production, an injury then written into the script?
Crashing through a car windshield in the chase
He insisted on his own stunts, slipped on a rain-slicked hood and cut tendons and nerves; the cast on his forearm is real.
Q 25Pitt was only available for 55 days because he was due to start shooting which film?
12 Monkeys
12 Monkeys, Terry Gilliam's time-travel thriller, was due to start shooting in Philadelphia, limiting Pitt to 55 days on Se7en; the crew filmed through the rain rather than wait it out.
Q 26Roughly how much did Se7en gross worldwide?
$327 million
Se7en grossed about $327 million worldwide on a $33 million budget, with roughly $100 million coming from North America, a huge return for the studio.
Q 27Which studio production president sided with the director in keeping the original ending?
Michael De Luca
Michael De Luca, the studio's president of production, backed the director's insistence on the original head-in-the-box ending against executives who wanted something more conventional.
Q 28Se7en opened at number one with $14M, beating the debut of which notorious film?
Showgirls
Showgirls, Paul Verhoeven's NC-17 drama, opened the same September weekend, taking about $8 million while Se7en debuted at number one.
Q 29Who was the cinematographer on Se7en?
Darius Khondji
Darius Khondji, the Iranian-French cinematographer of Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, shot Se7en and later earned an Oscar nomination for Evita.
Q 30The cinematographer named which 1971 thriller as a major visual influence?
Klute
Klute (1971), Alan J. Pakula's thriller shot by Gordon Willis, was the visual touchstone for Se7en's murky, underlit interiors and deep shadows.