title: IP address

text: Computers not connected to the Internet, such as factory machines that communicate only with each other via TCP/IP, need not have globally unique IP addresses. Today, such private networks are widely used and typically connect to the Internet with network address translation (NAT), when needed.


title: IP address

text: Three non-overlapping ranges of IPv4 addresses for private networks are reserved. These addresses are not routed on the Internet and thus their use need not be coordinated with an IP address registry. Any user may use any of the reserved blocks. Typically, a network administrator will divide a block into subnets; for example, many home routers automatically use a default address range of through ().


title: IP address

text: In IPv6, the address size was increased from 32 bits in IPv4 to 128 bits, thus providing up to 2 (approximately ) addresses. This is deemed sufficient for the foreseeable future.


title: IP address

text: The intent of the new design was not to provide just a sufficient quantity of addresses, but also redesign routing in the Internet by allowing more efficient aggregation of subnetwork routing prefixes. This resulted in slower growth of routing tables in routers. The smallest possible individual allocation is a subnet for 2 hosts, which is the square of the size of the entire IPv4 Internet. At these levels, actual address utilization ratios will be small on any IPv6 network segment. The new design also provides the opportunity to separate the addressing infrastructure of a network segment, i.e. the local administration of the segment's available space, from the addressing prefix used to route traffic to and from external networks. IPv6 has facilities that automatically change the routing prefix of entire networks, should the global connectivity or the routing policy change, without requiring internal redesign or manual renumbering.


title: IP address

text: The large number of IPv6 addresses allows large blocks to be assigned for specific purposes and, where appropriate, to be aggregated for efficient routing. With a large address space, there is no need to have complex address conservation methods as used in CIDR.


title: IP address

text: All modern desktop and enterprise server operating systems include native support for IPv6, but it is not yet widely deployed in other devices, such as residential networking routers, voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia equipment, and some networking hardware.


title: IP address

text: Just as IPv4 reserves addresses for private networks, blocks of addresses are set aside in IPv6. In IPv6, these are referred to as unique local addresses (ULAs). The routing prefix is reserved for this block, which is divided into two blocks with different implied policies. The addresses include a 40-bit pseudorandom number that minimizes the risk of address collisions if sites merge or packets are misrouted.


title: IP address

text: Early practices used a different block for this purpose (), dubbed site-local addresses. However, the definition of what constituted a "site" remained unclear and the poorly defined addressing policy created ambiguities for routing. This address type was abandoned and must not be used in new systems.


title: IP address

text: Addresses starting with , called link-local addresses, are assigned to interfaces for communication on the attached link. The addresses are automatically generated by the operating system for each network interface. This provides instant and automatic communication between all IPv6 hosts on a link. This feature is used in the lower layers of IPv6 network administration, such as for the Neighbor Discovery Protocol.


title: IP address

text: IP addresses are assigned to a host either dynamically as they join the network, or persistently by configuration of the host hardware or software. Persistent configuration is also known as using a static IP address. In contrast, when a computer's IP address is assigned each time it restarts, this is known as using a dynamic IP address.


title: IP address

text: Dynamic IP addresses are assigned by network using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). DHCP is the most frequently used technology for assigning addresses. It avoids the administrative burden of assigning specific static addresses to each device on a network. It also allows devices to share the limited address space on a network if only some of them are online at a particular time. Typically, dynamic IP configuration is enabled by default in modern desktop operating systems.


title: IP address

text: The address assigned with DHCP is associated with a "lease" and usually has an expiration period. If the lease is not renewed by the host before expiry, the address may be assigned to another device. Some DHCP implementations attempt to reassign the same IP address to a host, based on its MAC address, each time it joins the network. A network administrator may configure DHCP by allocating specific IP addresses based on MAC address.


title: IP address

text: DHCP is not the only technology used to assign IP addresses dynamically. Bootstrap Protocol is a similar protocol and predecessor to DHCP. Dialup and some broadband networks use dynamic address features of the Point-to-Point Protocol.


title: IP address

text: Computers and equipment used for the network infrastructure, such as routers and mail servers, are typically configured with static addressing.


title: IP address

text: In the absence or failure of static or dynamic address configurations, an operating system may assign a link-local address to a host using stateless address autoconfiguration.


title: IP address

text: "Sticky" is an informal term used to describe a dynamically assigned IP address that seldom changes. IPv4 addresses, for example, are usually assigned with DHCP, and a DHCP service "can" use rules that maximize the chance of assigning the same address each time a client asks for an assignment. In IPv6, a prefix delegation can be handled similarly, to make changes as rare as feasible. In a typical home or small-office setup, a single router is the only device visible to an Internet service provider (ISP), and the ISP may try to provide a configuration that is as stable as feasible, i.e. "sticky". On the local network of the home or business, a local DHCP server may be designed to provide sticky IPv4 configurations, and the ISP may provide a sticky IPv6 prefix delegation, giving clients the option to use sticky IPv6 addresses. "Sticky" should not be confused with "static"; sticky configurations have no guarantee of stability, while static configurations are used indefinitely and only changed deliberately.


title: IP address

text: Address block is defined for the special use of link-local addressing for IPv4 networks. In IPv6, every interface, whether using static or dynamic addresses, also receives a link-local address automatically in the block . These addresses are only valid on the link, such as a local network segment or point-to-point connection, to which a host is connected. These addresses are not routable and, like private addresses, cannot be the source or destination of packets traversing the Internet.


title: IP address

text: When the link-local IPv4 address block was reserved, no standards existed for mechanisms of address autoconfiguration. Filling the void, Microsoft developed a protocol called Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA), whose first public implementation appeared in Windows 98. APIPA has been deployed on millions of machines and became a de facto standard in the industry. In May 2005, the IETF defined a formal standard for it.


title: IP address

text: An IP address conflict occurs when two devices on the same local physical or wireless network claim to have the same IP address. A second assignment of an address generally stops the IP functionality of one or both of the devices. Many modern operating systems notify the administrator of IP address conflicts. When IP addresses are assigned by multiple people and systems with differing methods, any of them may be at fault. If one of the devices involved in the conflict is the default gateway access beyond the LAN for all devices on the LAN, all devices may be impaired.


title: IP address

text: IP addresses are classified into several classes of operational characteristics: unicast, multicast, anycast and broadcast addressing.


title: IP address

text: The most common concept of an IP address is in unicast addressing, available in both IPv4 and IPv6. It normally refers to a single sender or a single receiver, and can be used for both sending and receiving. Usually, a unicast address is associated with a single device or host, but a device or host may have more than one unicast address. Sending the same data to multiple unicast addresses requires the sender to send all the data many times over, once for each recipient.


title: IP address

text: Broadcasting is an addressing technique available in IPv4 to address data to all possible destinations on a network in one transmission operation as an "all-hosts broadcast". All receivers capture the network packet. The address is used for network broadcast. In addition, a more limited directed broadcast uses the all-ones host address with the network prefix. For example, the destination address used for directed broadcast to devices on the network is .


title: IP address

text: IPv6 does not implement broadcast addressing and replaces it with multicast to the specially defined all-nodes multicast address.


title: IP address

text: A multicast address is associated with a group of interested receivers. In IPv4, addresses through (the former Class D addresses) are designated as multicast addresses. IPv6 uses the address block with the prefix for multicast. In either case, the sender sends a single datagram from its unicast address to the multicast group address and the intermediary routers take care of making copies and sending them to all interested receivers (those that have joined the corresponding multicast group).


title: IP address

text: Like broadcast and multicast, anycast is a one-to-many routing topology. However, the data stream is not transmitted to all receivers, just the one which the router decides is closest in the network. Anycast addressing is a built-in feature of IPv6. In IPv4, anycast addressing is implemented with Border Gateway Protocol using the shortest-path metric to choose destinations. Anycast methods are useful for global load balancing and are commonly used in distributed DNS systems.


title: IP address

text: A public IP address is a globally routable unicast IP address, meaning that the address is not an address reserved for use in private networks, such as those reserved by , or the various IPv6 address formats of local scope or site-local scope, for example for link-local addressing. Public IP addresses may be used for communication between hosts on the global Internet.


title: IP address

text: In a home situation, a public IP address is the IP address assigned to the home's network by the ISP. In this case, it is also locally visible by logging into the router configuration.


title: IP address

text: Most public IP addresses change, and relatively often. Any type of IP address that changes is called a dynamic IP address. In home networks, the ISP usually assigns a dynamic IP. If an ISP gave a home network an unchanging address, it's more likely to be abused by customers who host websites from home, or by hackers who can try the same IP address over and over until they breach a network.


title: IP address

text: For security and privacy considerations, network administrators often desire to restrict public Internet traffic within their private networks. The source and destination IP addresses contained in the headers of each IP packet are a convenient means to discriminate traffic by IP address blocking or by selectively tailoring responses to external requests to internal servers. This is achieved with firewall software running on the network's gateway router. A database of IP addresses of restricted and permissible traffic may be maintained in blacklists and whitelists, respectively.


title: IP address

text: Multiple client devices can appear to share an IP address, either because they are part of a shared web hosting service environment or because an IPv4 network address translator (NAT) or proxy server acts as an intermediary agent on behalf of the client, in which case the real originating IP address is masked from the server receiving a request. A common practice is to have a NAT mask many devices in a private network. Only the public interface(s) of the NAT needs to have an Internet-routable address.


title: IP address

text: The NAT device maps different IP addresses on the private network to different TCP or UDP port numbers on the public network. In residential networks, NAT functions are usually implemented in a residential gateway. In this scenario, the computers connected to the router have private IP addresses and the router has a public address on its external interface to communicate on the Internet. The internal computers appear to share one public IP address.


title: IP address

text: Computer operating systems provide various diagnostic tools to examine network interfaces and address configuration. Microsoft Windows provides the command-line interface tools ipconfig and netsh and users of Unix-like systems may use ifconfig, netstat, route, lanstat, fstat, and iproute2 utilities to accomplish the task.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Seven (stylized as Se7en) is a 1995 American crime thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and John C. McGinley. Set in a crime-ridden, unnamed city, "Seven"s plot follows disenchanted, near-retirement detective William Somerset (Freeman) and his new partner, the recently transferred David Mills (Pitt), as they attempt to stop a serial killer before he can complete a series of murders based on the seven deadly sins.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Walker, an aspiring writer, wrote "Seven" based on his experiences of moving from a suburban setting to New York City in the late 1980s, during a period of rising crime and drug addiction. His script was optioned by an Italian film company which underwent financial difficulties and sold the rights on to New Line Cinema. Executives were opposed to the script's bleak ending featuring a decapitated head delivered in a box, and mandated a more mainstream, upbeat outcome. Eager to prove himself after the failure of his first feature film project, "Alien 3", Fincher read Walker's original script which he was sent by mistake and agreed to direct as long as the bleak ending remained. The studio continued its efforts to change the ending, but faced opposition from Fincher and the cast. On a $33–$34million budget, principal photography took place mainly on location in Los Angeles. Rob Bottin helmed the special effects team responsible for realizing the elaborate murders, using makeup and prosthetics.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" received middling test audience results and was not expected to perform well due to its violent and mature content, but it went on to earn $327.3 million worldwide, becoming a surprise success and one of the highest-performing films of the year. Reviews were more mixed, with critics praising Freeman's performance, but criticizing the dark cinematography, implicit and implied violence, and the bleak ending. "Seven" revitalized Fincher's career and helped Pitt transition from roles based more on his appearance to serious, dramatic roles.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" is now regarded as one of the best thriller, crime, and mystery films ever made. It remains influential in filmmaking, inspiring a host of imitators of its aesthetic, style, and premise of detectives chasing down serial killers with distinctive methods and motives. The film's title sequence, depicting the killer preparing for his actions later in the film, is considered an important design innovation and also influential on future credit sequences, while "Seven"s twist ending has been named as one of the best in cinematic history.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: In a city overcome with violent crime and corruption, disillusioned police detective, William Somerset, is one week from retirement. He is partnered with David Mills, a short-tempered but idealistic detective who recently relocated to the city with his wife, Tracy. On Monday, Somerset and Mills investigate an obese man forced to eat until his stomach burst, killing him, and uncover the word "gluttony" written on the wall. Somerset fails to get himself and Mills reassigned to another case, believing it is too extreme for his last investigation. The following day, the second victim, greed, is found, having been forced to cut a pound of flesh from his body. Clues at the scene lead Somerset and Mills to the sloth victim, a drug-dealing pederast, who they find emaciated and restrained to a bed. Photographs reveal the victim was restrained for exactly one year. Somerset surmises that the murders are based on the seven deadly sins.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Tracy invites Somerset to share supper with her and Mills, helping the detectives overcome their mutual hostility toward each other. On Friday, Tracy meets privately with Somerset as she has no other acquaintances in the city. She reveals her unhappiness at moving there, especially after learning she is pregnant, and believes the city is an unfit place to raise a child. Somerset sympathises with Tracy, having convinced his former girlfriend to abort their child for similar reasons and regretting it ever since; he advises her to inform Mills only if she intends to keep the child.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: A comment by Mills inspires Somerset to research libraries for anyone checking-out books based on the seven deadly sins, leading the pair to the apartment of John Doe. The suspect returns home unexpectedly and is pursued by Mills, who is incapacitated after being struck with a tire iron by Doe. Mills is held at gunpoint momentarily, but Doe chooses to flee. The police investigate Doe's apartment, finding a large amount of cash, hundreds of notebooks revealing Doe's psychopathy, and photos of some of his victims, including images taken of Somerset and Mills by what they believed was an intrusive journalist at the Sloth crime scene. Doe calls the apartment and speaks of his admiration for Mills.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: On Saturday, Somerset and Mills investigate the fourth victim, lust, a prostitute raped with a custom-made, bladed strap-on by a man held at gunpoint. The pride victim is found the following day, a model who took her own life rather than live without her beauty, after being facially disfigured by Doe. As Somerset and Mills return to the police station, Doe arrives and turns himself in. He threatens to plead insanity at his trial, potentially escaping punishment, unless Mills and Somerset escort him to an undisclosed location where they will find the envy and wrath victims. During the drive there, Doe explains that he believes himself to be chosen by God to send a message about the ubiquity of and apathy toward sin. Doe has no remorse for his victims, believing the shocking murders will force society to pay attention to him.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Doe leads the detectives to a remote location, where a delivery van approaches. Somerset intercepts the vehicle and opens a package the driver was instructed to deliver to Mills at this specific time. Upset at what he finds, Somerset tells Mills to put his gun down. Doe reveals that he himself represents envy because he envied Mills' life with Tracy, and implies the package contains her severed head. He implores Mills to become wrath, telling him that Tracy begged for her life and that of her unborn child, and takes pleasure in realizing that Mills was unaware of the pregnancy. Despite Somerset's pleas, the distraught and enraged Mills shoots Doe to death, completing his plan. As the catatonic Mills is taken away by the police, Somerset tells his captain that he will "be around." A narration by Somerset says: "Ernest Hemingway once wrote 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" also features Julie Araskog as Mrs. Gould, John Cassini as Officer Davis, Reg E. Cathey, Peter Crombie, and Richard Portnow as, respectively, Doctors Santiago, O'Neill, and Beardsley, Richard Schiff as Mark Swarr, and Mark Boone Junior as "greasy FBI Man." Hawthorne James appears as George, the library night guard, Michael Massee portrays "man in massage parlour booth", Leland Orser plays "crazed man in massage parlour", Pamala Tyson portrays a thin vagrant outside Doe's apartment, and Doe's delivery man is played by Richmond Arquette.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Doe's victims include: Bob Mack appears as Gluttony, a morbidly obese man force fed until his stomach bursts; Gene Borkan portrays Greed, a criminal-attorney forced to cut off his own flesh; and Michael Reid MacKay appears as the Sloth victim, Theodore "Victor" Allen, a drug dealer and child abuser. Cat Mueller portrays the Lust victim, a sex worker impaled with a bladed sex toy, and Heidi Schanz appears as model Rachel Slade, Pride, who is disfigured by Doe. Writer Andrew Kevin Walker makes a cameo appearance as a corpse investigated by Somerset during the film's opening scene, Freeman's son, Alfonso, appears as a fingerprint technician, and columnist, George Christy portrays the police department janitor scraping Somerset's name from his door.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Andrew Kevin Walker, moved from the suburbs of Pennsylvania to New York City in 1986, and described the "culture shock" of living in a city undergoing a period of significant rises in crime and drug abuse. While working as a sales assistant for Tower Records in 1991, the aspiring screenwriter began writing a spec script, "Seven", set in a bleak and gloomy unnamed city inspired by his "depressing" time in New York. Walker said, "it's true that if I hadn't lived there I probably wouldn't have written "Seven"... I think it's that way for anything—the right time and the right mood, and the right inspiration, whatever inspiration is. That's what's so scary about writing." Film studios were eager for high concept spec scripts, and Walker believed his thriller about police officers pursuing a serial killer driven by the seven deadly sins would attract attention and help begin a professional writing career.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Walker intended to leave the narrative open to interpretation so as to not invalidate the opinions of his prospective audience. He wanted to defy the audiences expectations and leave them feeling "violated and exhausted" by the conclusion, because "there's lots of evil out there, and you're not always going to get the satisfaction of having any sort of understanding of why that is. That's one of the things that scares people the most about serial killers." For the killer, Walker recounted his own experiences of walking down the city streets and observing crimes and sins being openly committed on every corner, and what would happen if someone was specifically focused on these sins. He had Doe surrender himself to the police because it would rob the audience and characters of the anticipated satisfaction and make them uncomfortable leading into the finale.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The script was optioned in the early 1990s by Italian company, Penta Film, under manager Phyllis Carlyle. Walker was paid the minimum fee allowed by the Writers Guild of America, which he described as not being "fuck you money," but enough to quit his job, relocate to Los Angeles, and work on "Seven".


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: To helm the project, Penta Film hired director Jeremiah S. Chechik, who had recently directed the successful comedy film, "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (1989), and was looking for a more serious project. However, Chechik and Penta Film mandated several script changes, including removing the bleak "head-in-the-box" ending, in which the decapitated head of Tracy is delivered in a box. Given the option to refuse the requests and risk being replaced or the project cancelled, Walker acquiesced, writing a more mainstream ending in which the detectives confront Doe in a church, described as either burnt-out or actively on fire. In this version, Doe embodies the sin of Envy and kills Mills before being shot dead by Somerset, while a pregnant Tracy leaves the city. In a 2017 interview, Walker said he felt that he was ruining his script and should have left the project. In total, he wrote thirteen different drafts to meet the studio demands. The project failed to progress and as the option was expiring and Penta Film was experiencing financial difficulties (eventually dissolving in 1994), the studio sold the rights to producer Arnold Kopelson, who brought it to film studio, New Line Cinema. Chechik also left the project, with Guillermo del Toro and Phil Joanou approached to replace him; Joanou turned it down because he found the story too bleak.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: David Fincher was mainly known for directing popular music videos, such as "Janie's Got a Gun", "Vogue", and "Who Is It". His only feature film, "Alien 3" (1992), had been a negative experience which tasked him with filming without a complete script, and its studio, 20th Century Fox, significantly modified the film in editing, against Fincher's wishes. Fincher disowned the film, saying "I'd rather die of colon cancer than make another movie." Even so, his agent brought him the "Seven" script. Fincher was uninterested in the police procedural aspects but found himself drawn in by the gradual reveal of Doe's plans, saying "I found myself getting more and more trapped in this kind of evil... and even though I felt uncomfortable about being there, I had to keep going." He determined the script matched his own creative sensibilities, particularly its "meditation on evil and how evil gets on you and you can't get it off," and uncompromising ending in which "[Tracy's] been dead for hours and there's no bullshit chase across town and the guy driving on sidewalks to get to the woman, who's drawing a bath while the serial killer sneaks in the back window." Fincher expressed his interest to the studio, and it was realized that he had been sent Walker's original script. New Line Cinema sent Fincher a current draft in which Tracy survived, but he would only agree to direct the original script. He met with New Line Cinema's president of production, Michael De Luca, who also preferred the original script and the pair agreed to start filming that version in six weeks, believing delaying any longer risked executives noticing their plan and interfering.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Despite their efforts, Kopelson and studio executives made efforts to lighten "Seven"s tone and change the ending. Fincher was resistant to any changes, unwilling to compromise his creative control or vision. De Luca remained supportive of Fincher, and the original ending gained further backing as the project secured prominent actors, including Freeman, Pitt, and Spacey. In particular, Pitt said he joined "Seven" on condition that the head-in-the-box ending be retained, and that Mills "[shoots] the killer in the end. He doesn't do the 'right' thing, he does the thing of passion." He was upset that the original ending to his previous film, "Legends of the Fall" (1994), had been cut in response to negative test audience results. Kopelson was convinced to support Fincher after being reassured that the decapitated head would not be shown, saying "it needed this horrendous event to kick off the last sin, wrath," that would be discussed for decades. Walker said, "there's nothing wrong with [positive] endings, it's just that the dark ending of "Seven" was what it was about. To change the ending to something else was to remove the very heart of the story.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Walker performed some script refinements, including extending a chase sequence depicting Mills cautiously pursuing Doe, aiming to avoid typical cinematic chases in which characters frantically pursued their target. He said, "I always thought, 'God, if someone was shooting at me, I would be terrified to turn any corner!'" A shooting script was completed by August 1994.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Pitt had established himself as a credible film star following successes with "Interview with the Vampire" (1994) and "Legends of the Fall", but Fincher had not considered him to portray Mills because "I'd never seen Mills as particularly accomplished, and I was concerned that [Pitt] seemed too together. But when I met him, I thought, this guy is so likable he can get away with murder—he can do anything and people will forgive him for it." Conscious of Pitt's popularity and importance to "Seven"s potential success, Kopelson shortened the pre-production schedule to five weeks from twelve to fit his schedule. Pitt turned down several offers from other films because he wanted to escape his typecasting as a romantic lead character in favor of something with a more "documentary feel" with urban settings and a focus on dialogue, akin to thriller films such as "The Conversation" (1974). He said, "I just wanted to escape the cheese... I came to find out [Fincher] had a lactose intolerance as well, so I was very happy about it." Pitt described Mills as a well-intentioned "idiot" who "speaks before he really knows what he's talking about." He cut his hair for the role and lost weight to reduce the muscle he developed for "Legends of the Fall". Sylvester Stallone and Denzel Washington turned the role down.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Walker named the Somerset character after writer W. Somerset Maugham. Walker envisioned William Hurt playing the character, but Fincher cast Freeman; the studio was concerned that pairing a black and white detective would make "Seven" seem derivative of the action film "Lethal Weapon" (1987). Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, and Al Pacino turned the role down. The script was modified further after Pitt's and Freeman's castings to better match their acting styles; Mills was made more verbose, and Somerset's dialogue was trimmed down, being made more precise and direct. Robin Wright auditioned for, and Christina Applegate turned down the role of Tracy before Paltrow was cast. She was recommended by Pitt who had been impressed by her "Legends of the Fall" audition. Fincher also preferred Paltrow, but was told by those involved that she would not be interested in a "dark" film like "Seven". He auditioned about 100 people before Pitt contacted her directly to meet with them. Fincher said Tracy is "so important because it's the only sunshine we have in the film. This is the feel-bad movie of [1995]... we needed someone who could take those little seconds she gets and fill them with soul, and that's what I'd always seen in her performances."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Fincher and Walker wanted Ned Beatty to play John Doe, because of his resemblance to the 1969 composite sketch of the Zodiac Killer; Beatty declined, describing the script as the "most evil thing I've ever read." Michael Stipe, lead vocalist of the rock band R.E.M., was considered but the filming dates conflicted with the band's tour, Val Kilmer declined the role, and R. Lee Ermey auditioned, but Fincher said his portrayal was "completely unsympathetic" without any depth. Kevin Spacey was preferred by Pitt, but executives refused to pay his salary. Doe's scenes were initially filmed with an unknown actor portraying Doe, but the filmmakers quickly decided to replace them and Pitt helped negotiate Spacey's involvement. Spacey recalled, "I got a call on a Friday night, and on Monday morning I was on a plane to Los Angeles, shooting on Tuesday"; he filmed his scenes in twelve days. Spacey wanted his name omitted from the film's marketing and opening credits to ensure the killer's identity remained a secret. He said, "I'd just done "Swimming With Sharks" (1994), "The Usual Suspects", and "Outbreak" (both 1995)... I knew that if any of those movies did well, my profile would be... different. How would that affect my billing in "Se7en"? If I'm the third-billed actor in a movie where the top two billings are trying to find somebody and they don't find that somebody until the last reel, then it's obvious who that somebody is. It was a bit of a shit-fight for a couple of days, but I felt very strongly that it was the right thing to do for the movie. We finally won because it was a deal-breaker; I was either going to be on a plane to shoot the movie or I wasn't."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The Bob Mack made his theatrical debut as Gluttony, described as a "very heavy guy face down in spaghetti." Gene Borkan was cast to play the Greed victim because the filmmakers wanted someone who resembled lawyer Robert Shapiro. He did not realize his character would already be dead and refused a request to perform nude, telling Fincher "I'll be naked if you're naked. Otherwise, you don't get that." On the set, when he realized what his scene entailed, Borkan renegotiated his salary, receiving "five times [the $522 Screen Actors Guild day-scale fee]." Michael Reid Mackay's (Sloth) audition involved him portraying a corpse who slowly turned his head towards the camera; it was deemed "creepy" enough. Set decorator, Cat Mueller, portrayed the Lust victim after Fincher's assistant said she had the personality and body to portray a "dead hooker." She received $500 for six hours of filming over two days, but described being nude in front of Pitt as a perk. Model, Heidi Schanz, was cast as the Pride victim after the previous actress dropped out. Running low on time, Fincher wanted a model with exiting headshots and pictures that could be displayed in the character's apartment. She said, "even though I'm dead, I think it's the most glamorized murder." The film's content made casting and crewing "Seven" difficult; Gary Oldman turned down an unspecified role, Fincher's former costume designer declined to work on the film, and talent agents refused to pass offers on to their clients, describing "Seven" as "evil and misogynistic."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Principal photography took place between 1994 and 1995. Assistant director, Michael Alan Kahn, recalled the commencement of filming: "I went up to Fincher and I said, 'Look at this! Look! It's here! We're here! You did it! We're shooting a movie... isn't this amazing?...' And he looked at me as though I were from outer space and said, 'No, it's awful... now I have to get what's in my head out of all you cretins.'" Walker was on set throughout filming to provide suggestions or on-spec rewrites, but did not give Fincher much input, believing he should adapt the script as he wanted.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Location shooting took place entirely in downtown Los Angeles. Fincher wanted to shoot in Oakland, California, because it had "beautiful clapboard houses," but the schedule would not allow for this. The film's near constant rain was a pragmatic decision, as Pitt was only available for a total of fifty-five days before he began filming "12 Monkeys" (1995), and it often rained during filming so to avoid any continuity errors Fincher decided to have near-constant rain. He also believed it introduced an inescapable element for the characters, because conditions were bad inside and outside, and made it appear less like Los Angeles which was associated with sunny weather.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven"s aesthetic was influenced by films such as "All That Jazz" (1977), "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), and "The French Connection" (1971), as well as the "vulnerable" over-the-shoulder viewpoint of documentary television show, "Cops". Cinematographer Darius Khondji also named the crime thriller, "Klute" (1971), as a significant influence because of its "use of toplight... widescreen compositions for intimacy rather than big vistas, the way that vertical strips of the city are shown in horizontal mode, the fragments of faces and bodies... the look of "Se7en" has this heightened sense of realism—a realism that's been kicked up several notches and becomes its own style." Fincher singled out one scene in "Klute", in which the only illumination is the character's flashlight, saying he disliked other films where characters state that visibility is low but the audience can see the scene clearly. Khondji used a mixture of lighting, such as the warm light of Chinese lanterns to represent the past and present, and the cold light of Kino Flos to represent the future.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The studio was unhappy with how dark the dailies were; Khondji suggested printing the footage brighter, but Fincher refused to compromise. Available footage was made into a well-received promotional showreel for the theater owner convention, ShoWest, after which complaints about the darkness ceased. Khondji used Panavision Primo lenses which offered a sharp image with good contrast, and Kodak film stocks which could capture the "gritty" interiors and deep blacks for night-time exteriors.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The scene in which Mills pursues Doe was described by Khondji, as one of the most difficult scenes to film due to its length as well as fast camera movements in the rain or tight interior spaces that were barely lit. One segment had to be re-filmed because the location was too dark for the camera to capture Freeman's face. Pitt also insisted on performing his own stunts for the scene, and slipped on a rain-slicked car bonnet, crashing through the windshield and sustaining injuries including cut tendons and nerves in his left hand; Fincher said he saw exposed bone. He returned to the set a few days later, having received stitches and a forearm cast which had to be written into later scenes. For scenes set prior to the chase, Pitt would keep his hand in his pocket or otherwise obscured to hide the injury. Pitt said he regretted not disrobing for a separate scene of Mills and Somerset shaving their chests to wear concealed listening devices. He disliked the public attention given to his body, but later came to believe that taking his shirt off would have conveyed the growing partnership between Mills and Somerset.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The crew had to clear used condoms and crack pipes from the location of the Sloth victim sequence, replacing those with prop crack pipes and air fresheners. The actors were not told the Sloth victim was a person in costume, and McGinley's shock at the body moving was real. Lights with green color gels were shone through the window from the adjacent building to give everything a green tint. Leland Orser, who portrays the man forced to kill the Lust victim, deprived himself of sleep to achieve a "deranged mindset"; his scene was pushed back so he stayed awake another night. He would breathe rapidly between scenes to make himself hyperventilate on camera. The ending was scripted to take place directly beneath transmission towers, a location picked by Doe to interfere with the police communications, but it actually interfered with the film crew radios, and the actors had to use cell phones to communicate with the crew from afar.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The ending remained a point of contention between New Line Cinema and the filmmakers. Fincher wanted to follow Mills shooting Doe with a sudden cut to black, intending to leave the audience stunned, but executives believed this would alienate audiences. Fincher instructed staff at a test screening to keep the lights off following the cut to black so the audience could take it in; his instructions were not followed. Afterward, one female audience member walking by Fincher said, "the people who made that movie should be killed." Fincher said the screening invitation said, "Would you like to see a new movie starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman," both known for films very different in tone to "Seven", "I don't know what the fuck they thought they were gonna see... but I'm telling you, from the reaction of the people in there, they were bristling. They couldn't have been more offended." Executives wanted a mainstream conclusion in which Mills and Somerset pursue Doe and a kidnapped Tracy, who would survive. Pitt recalled, "[the studio says] 'You know, he would be much more heroic if he didn’t shoot John Doe—and it's too unsettling with the head in the box. We think maybe if it was [Mills'] dog's head in the box.'" Freeman preferred a storyboarded sequence of Somerset killing Doe, sparing Mills from losing his career as well, but Pitt believed Mills had to kill Doe and test audiences preferred that version. Another alternative depicted Mills shooting Somerset to stop him killing Doe before he could. Fincher and Pitt refused to compromise on the head-in-the-box ending but settled for a longer epilogue showing Mills being arrested and Somserset delivering a concluding narration offering some optimism.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Pitt and Fincher were unhappy with the car ride scene leading into the ending because the dialogue had to be dubbed over as too much ambient sound had been picked up during filming. Pitt believed this caused the scene to "lost its breath," affecting the pacing and emotion. The helicopter scenes were also filmed in post-production as there was no time during principal photography, but the studio agreed extra time and funding if the scenes were deemed necessary. Filmed several months later, the green ground had turned brown and so the ground-based scenes had to be color corrected to match the new footage. The opening credits were scripted to be set over footage of Somerset visiting a countryside home he intended to purchase for his retirement, taking a piece of the wallpaper that he would carry through the film, before returning to the city by train. This was intended to create a stark contrast between the countryside and the darkness of the city, but there was insufficient budget to film it. Scenes of Somerset looking at the wallpaper piece had to be cut as a result.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Richard Francis-Bruce edited the 127minute theatrical cut. His style focused on "having a motivated cut," believing every cut needed to be done with a specific purpose. For the finale, he introduced more rapid cuts to emphasize the tension as Doe's plan is revealed, and a brief four frame insert of Tracy as Mills pulls the trigger, to compensate for not showing the contents of the box. To emphasize the darkness, Fincher and Khondji used an expensive and lengthy bleach bypass chemical process which retained more of the silver present in the filmstock which would normally be lost. The silver created a luminous effect in lighter tones and deeper darker colors. Of the 2,500 prints sent to theaters, only a few hundred used the process.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" was budgeted at $30–$31million, but Fincher convinced studio executives to provide further funding to achieve his vision for the film, eventually pushing it $3million over budget, to a total of $33–$34million, making it New Line Cinema's most expensive film at that point. A studio employee said studio executives "would go into these meetings with [Fincher], saying, 'Absolutely not, not a penny more'... but he was so relentless and persuasive that they'd come out all ga-ga-eyed, and give him more money." About $15million of the budget was spent on below-the-line costs.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Fincher hired Howard Shore to score "Seven", based on his score for "The Silence of the Lambs". Shore said Fincher would attend recording sessions but rarely interfered with Shore's process. Performed by an orchestra of up to 100 musicians, the score combines elements of brass, percussion, piano, and trumpets. "Portrait of John Doe" serves as the central theme with two cue notes; a rising version is used for Tracy's appearances. Shore described the film's ending as having a "visceral, kind of primal effect on me." He incorporated his reaction into the sequence's score, providing little accompaniment during the dialogue between Mills, Somerset, and Doe, but using it to punctuate significant moments such as Somerset opening the box. Shore said "the music starts, and it turns the scene, it turns it into John Doe's perspective... the music enters, and you realize, the look of the horror on his face, it's a chilling moment."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Shore's opening theme, "The Last Seven Days", described as a more "upbeat" piece, was replaced by a remix of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails's "Closer" by Coil and Danny Hyde. David Bowie's "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" is used for the end credits. "Seven" features songs including: "In the Beginning" by The Statler Brothers, "Guilty" by Gravity Kills, "Trouble Man" by Marvin Gaye, "Speaking of Happiness" by Gloria Lynne, "Suite No. 3 in D Major, BWV 1068 Air" by Stuttgarter Kammerorchester and Karl Münchinger, "Love Plus One" by Haircut One Hundred, "I Cover the Waterfront" by Billie Holiday, "Now's the Time" by Charlie Parker, and "Straight, No Chaser" by Thelonious Monk.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Fincher hired his friend Ren Klyce as sound designer. They inserted sounds on the outside of each frame, such as raining or screaming, to create a psychological impression that terrifying things are occurring even when the audience cannot see or escape it. Klyce and sound designer Steve Boedekker also produced the music heard at the entrance to the Lust murder sex club.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Fincher, Khondji, production designer Arthur Max, and costume designer Michael Kaplan, collaborated on establishing a unified vision for the art direction. Fincher established the design rules for the film: "This is a world that's fucked up and nothing works." He wanted every design aspect to look neglected and in a state of decay. Fincher was influenced by the photography of William Eggleston, focused on "coolness", making the visuals simultaneously gritty and stylized as well as classic and contemporary, and the black-and-white photographs of Robert Frank. Khondji said Frank's style could be seen in "Seven"s very bright exteriors and dark interiors. Many interior scenes were underexposed to create a stark contrast, which in turn made the exteriors stand out more. Interior lighting was also often provided by external sources, using only a few interior artificial lights. The end scene with Mills, Somserset, and Doe, featured inconsistent lighting because the actors were always lit from behind by the sun regardless of where they were standing in the scene, which Khondji described as "a bit of a nightmare and never realistic in terms of continuity."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Fincher wanted precise staging for every scene to make the audience feel as if they were in the location. He had sets built without removable walls so that they had to film within the confined of the sets, believing it was important to create limitations to challenge himself. Doe's murder scenes were influenced by photography, such as the work of Joel-Peter Witkin. The "gluttony" set was wrapped in plastic to contain the cockroaches and a cockroach wrangler was used to help control them. The Sloth scene, in particular, took influence from the work of painter Edvard Munch, drawing on the green and "claustrophobic" imagery. The "Lust" sex club ceilings were lowered to make the space more claustrophobic and was sprayed on the walls for texture and to imply that they were covered in bodily fluids. A former bank was used as the library and 5,000 books were rented to fill the space, supplemented with fiberglass replicas. The shaking in Mills apartment, caused by a passing train, was created using gas-powered engines attached to the set. Walker's script described Doe's home extensively, with windows painted black for privacy and a drawer filled with empty painkiller bottles to help Doe cope with regular headaches.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Rob Bottin led development of practical effects. He researched crime scene photos and police evidence files, observed an autopsy, and studied the effects of obesity to realize his designs. For the Gluttony victim, Mack spent up to 10 hours a day having makeup and prosthetics applied. A scuba-like device was used to let Mack breathe while facedown in spaghetti. Mack recalled how he was unaware that he would be surrounded by live insects until reading the daily call sheet and noticing a "cockroach wrangler"; Pitt would flick some roaches off of Mack between takes. The character's autopsy used a fiberglass replica with a deliberately enlarged penis; Fincher said after Mack spent so long in makeup for 30 seconds of screentime, that he could "at least give him a huge cock."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Bottin's team spent eleven days experimenting on the right aesthetic and prosthetics for the Sloth victim portrayed by MacKay. MacKay was tall and weighed only to during filming, offering a slight frame for the emaciated character. The filmmakers asked him to lose more weight but he declined. The effects team made a body cast of MacKay to develop rubber prosthetics that could be applied all over his body. The appliances were painted to appear bruised and scarred, veins were airbrushed onto MacKay, and he was fitted with gelatin sores, overgrown fingernails, skeletal teeth, and matted hair. The process took up to 14 hours, requiring MacKay to begin at 5am for filming at 8pm. He was brought to the set in costume, and Freeman quipped, "you don't look so good." He described filming the scene as "real heavy-duty," and was left "breathing very hard and crying." He had to remain relatively still over four hours of filming, having to limit his breathing to prevent his stomach rising and falling, and the cold set was worsened by makeup artists repeatedly spraying his body with water. Unable to move, he tensed his muscles to warm himself. He described the moment he was permitted to cough in McGinley's inspecting face as a "great relief," as he could move and breathe again.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: For Schanz's Pride victim, Fincher personally added blood to her, while her nose was taped to the side and her face covered in gauze. To secure the film's release, several scenes of Bottin's effects work had to be cut. Fincher described "Seven" as psychologically violent, implying violence without showing it in action. Walker portrays the opening scene corpse, lying in a pool of blood. He said the blood was very cold, and had a minor panic attack once in place because he was worried about moving and ruining the shot.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Following the removal of the planned opening train ride with Somerset, Fincher needed a temporary title sequence to screen "Seven" for studio executives. He recruited R/GA designer, Kyle Cooper, and his team to assemble a montage slideshow reflecting Doe's perspective. This helped establish the character and his threat earlier in the film as he would not physically appear until "Seven"s final act. The sequence was set to the "Closer" remix at Fincher's request.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The sequence was well received by executives who suggested retaining it for the theatrical release. Fincher did not want to appear as if he was accepting their suggestion and instructed Cooper to develop a new concept; Cooper convinced Fincher to use a more elaborate and detailed version of his slideshow. Cooper focused on Doe's elaborate journals, glimpsed briefly in the film, while Fincher suggested the sequence physically involve Doe. Fincher wanted Mark Romanek to direct the sequence, being a fan of his music video for "Closer" and sharing similar design sensibilities, but Cooper secured the role because of his previous experience on similar title sequences. Fincher told Cooper, "all I want is for the audience to want to run screaming from the theater during the title section."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The sequence depicts Doe's preparations and routines for his murderous plans, such as cutting off his fingertips, processing photographs in his bathtub, and making tea (inspired by Cooper's appreciation for the "elegant" way Doe stirs his tea following his surrender). As Doe writes in his journals, the sequence focuses on him crossing out words such as "pregnancy," "marriage," and other elements representing concepts of a "perfect life" that he does not believe people deserve. Fincher said, "it was a way of introducing the evil. The idea was that you're watching title sequences from the mind of somebody who's lost it... [the audience] won't understand while they're watching it, but they'll get it later." Doe's journals were made by Clive Piercy and John Sabel, and cost tens of thousands of dollars to fill each one with text and images filled with text and images; about six complete journals were made, supplemented by blank ones on the shelves. Artist Wayne Coe storyboarded the sequence, which was edited by Angus Wall and shot by Harris Savides. Cooper regularly conferred with Wall on ideas, and spent the night before filming locating items that he believed would make interesting inclusions such as fish hooks and loose hairs from his drain.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Filming took place over eight days, including two days filming a hand model stand-in for Doe. Fincher was upset at the casting as the model's hands were shorter and chunkier than Spacey's. A further five weeks were spent putting the sequence together. Although digital options were available, Cooper's team opted to assemble the sequence by hand, believing that any irregularities and accidents in the images incurred would enhance the overall aesthetic, and added manual scratches, tears, and pen marks direct to the film negative. Fincher and Cooper devised a rough-looking text for the credits to appear as if written by a "disturbed hand." Fincher said: "I always liked the idea that the titles would be written by Doe, hand-lettered... [Cooper and I] wanted to have them look personal, not typeset. I liked that it wasn't slick." The text was etched onto a black-surfaced scratchboard and visually manipulated while being transferred to film to add a smear effect combined with different variants of the same text achieved by placing the text over a light box and filming them over-exposed, creating an animation-style effect. "Disquieting" sounds were added throughout the sequence at a low frequency, such as barking dogs and screams. The title sequence cost $50,000.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The theatrical box office of 1994 had achieved record grosses, with nine films earning more than $100million, and the highest attendance (1.29billion) since 1960 (1.3billion). However, by 1995, the average cost of making and marketing a film had doubled since 1990, reaching $50.4million, making it more difficult to turn a profit. The rising salary cost of actors was a contributing factor, as studios vied to secure popular actors, such as Harrison Ford, Jim Carrey, Tom Cruise, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who could generally guarantee a minimum level of box office success and held broad appeal outside of the United States (U.S.) and Canada. If notable stars were unavailable, studios were forced to pay exorbitant salaries for lesser stars and pay other cast lower salaries to offset the costs. The 1995 theatrical box office was in a downturn, the first quarter being about $90million lower than the same period in 1994. Markets outside of the U.S. and Canada were growing, accounting for 41% of a film's total revenue, including theatrical and home media profits, and outperforming the U.S. and Canadian box offices for the first time in 1994. Anticipated films such as "Batman Forever", "Crimson Tide", and "Pocahontas", were scheduled for release alongside the most expensive film of its time, "Waterworld", but New Line Cinema had low expectations for "Seven", based on middling scores from test audiences.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: New Line Cinema's marketing president, Chris Pula, called the advertising campaign "risky" because it had to "prepare people" for "Seven"s violent and dark content while making it a topic of discussion among potential audiences. Early trailers and newspaper, television, and radio advertisements focused on the seven sins, presenting "Seven" as an "edgy" prestige film instead of a jumpscare-style horror. Entertainment professionals also believed violent or horrific films had a limited appeal and rarely received positive reviews. Fincher's public image had also been tarnished by the failure of "Alien 3", and although Freeman and Pitt were proven stars capable of attracting audiences, New Line Cinema struggled to capitalize on Pitt's popularity. His core audience, teenage girls, were not the target audience for "Seven", and research showed that young men would avoid taking a romantic partner to films featuring him because they felt "threatened" by his appeal. The positive word-of-mouth following "Seven"s theatrical release led the marketing campaign to shift focus toward targeting Pitt's female fans.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The premiere of "Seven" took place on September 19, 1995, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California. The event featured over 800 guests, including Fincher, Freeman, McGinley, Spacey, Tia Carrere, Elliott Gould, Matthew Modine, Lori Petty, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Rapaport, Eric Roberts, Robert Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, John Singleton, Christian Slater, Quentin Tarantino, and Jennifer Tilly.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" was released in the United States and Canada on September 22, 1995. During its opening weekend, "Seven" earned $14million across 2,441 theaters—an average of $5,714 per theater—making it the number1 film of the weekend, ahead of the debut of "Showgirls" ($8.1million), and "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" ($4.5million), in its third week of release. It became the highest-grossing opening September weekend of its time, replacing 1991's "" ($12.6million). The successful opening was credited to the marketing campaign overcoming audience scepticism, as well as, in part, Pitt's popularity with males and females, although the opening audience skewed more male, as well as lack of competing action films. New Line Cinema distribution executive, Mitch Goldman, had moved up the release date of "Seven" to avoid this competition as well as strategically opening the film in more theaters than usual to target suburban and small-town locations where Pitt's recent films had fared well.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The film remained number1 in its second weekend, ahead of the debuts of "" ($7.3million) and "Devil in a Blue Dress" ($5.4million), and in its third weekend ahead of the debuting "Assassins" ($9.4million) and "Dead Presidents" ($8million). "Seven" remained the number1 film until its fifth weekend, falling to number3 behind the debuts of "Get Shorty" ($12.7million) and "Now and Then" ($7.4million), and was among the top ten-highest-grossing films for nine weeks. "Seven" had grossed about $87million by the end of December, when it received a wide re-release in select locations to raise the film's profile during the nomination period for the 1996 Academy Awards. The re-release helped raise "Seven"s box office to about $100.1million, making it the ninth-highest-grossing film of 1995, behind "Casper" ($100.3million), "Jumanji" ($100.5million), "GoldenEye" ($106.4million), "" ($108.4million), "Pocahontas" ($141.6million), "Apollo 13" ($173.8million), "Batman Forever" ($184million), and "Toy Story" ($192.5million). Estimates by industry experts suggest that as of 1997, the box office returns to the studio—minus the theaters' share—was $43.1million.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" also performed well outside of the U.S. and Canada, receiving positive audience reactions and successful debuts in countries such as Australia ($1.8million), South Korea ($808,009), Seoul ($961,538), New Zealand, and the Netherlands. "Seven" is estimated to have earned a further $227.2million, giving it a total worldwide gross of $327.3million, and making it the seventh-highest-grossing film worldwide, behind "Apollo 13" ($335.8million), "Batman Forever" ($336.5million), "Pocahontas" ($347.1million), "GoldenEye" ($356.4million), "Toy Story" ($365.3million), and "" ($366.1million). "Seven" became one of the year's most profitable films. "Seven" was an "unexpected success" and became "one of the most successful movies of the year."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Critics such as Ebert and Howe described "Seven" as an intelligent and well-made film that could comfortably stand alongside other thrillers. Others compared "Seven" unfavorably with "The Silence of the Lambs" and "The Usual Suspects", believing it lacked the same intelligent narrative, and took itself too seriously as an examination of evil instead of a "silly piece of pulp." The "Orlando Sentinel" said, however, that "Seven" did offer a "terrific film-noir atmosphere" and excellent performances, with "The Seattle Times" saying that the film would be "unendurable" without Freeman and Spacey.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Critics unanimously praised Freeman's performance. Terrence Rafferty and Kenneth Turan wrote that Freeman's "exceptional" performance was mainly responsible for making "Seven" watchable in spite of itself. Desson Howe and James Berardinelli said the performance elevated Pitt's own to appear "actorly," although Freeman often stole every scene in which he appeared, providing a fresh take on an otherwise cliché role. Reviews of Pitt's performance were polarized between those who found it "energetic" and impressive, and those who believed the role was beyond his acting abilities. Some reviewers found his performance to continue his successful transition to more serious roles from those based mainly on his appearance, although Howe said Pitt's presence did more for "Seven" than his acting. The "Orlando Sentinel" said what could have been a cliché role was saved by Mills not being inept or inexperienced, just out of his depth on this particular case. Some reviews said that the character was underdeveloped, pointless, stupid, and not particularly likeable, and that Pitt's performance lacked the subtlety or effectiveness to compensate. Critics positively received Paltrow's performance, believing she made the most of her limited screentime and was generally underutilized, while considering the character a "flimsy contrivance". Spacey's performance was also praised for its creepy and understated portrayal of an intelligent character who does not undermine themselves with "a moment of sheer stupidity."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Fincher's directorial style was praised for its "striking craftmanship", and "stunning" visuals that often thrilled and exasperated the viewer simultaneously. In contrast, Rafferty said that his style was less effective stretched over the film's runtime and that Fincher mistook darkness for profundity and chose style over coherence. Although Siskel considered Walker's script to be smartly written, several critics were less enthusiastic, finding the dialogue trite, many scenes implausible, and character motivations weak. Jami Bernard and Richard Schickel wrote that "Seven" lacked many of the essentials prevalent of its genre such as suspense, witty dialogue, and cathartic humor, or the psychological depth to match the intellectual thrills of its peer, "The Silence of the Lambs".


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The violent content of "Seven" was generally negatively received. Critics such as Berardinelli and Gene Siskel found the gore excessive and "gratuitous". While some found the violent visuals to be tiresome and detracting, others believed that Fincher skilfully avoided showing the violence that led to the death, preventing them from distracting from "Seven"s more enjoyable aspects. Even so, Ebert and Turan believed "Seven" would be too disturbing for many viewers. Fincher responded, "I didn't set out to piss off the people who are upset. I was told that Michael Medved [film critic at the New York Post] wrote that the movie was evil, but I'm sure he slows down when he passes an accident just like everyone else. Death fasicnates people, but they don't deal with it." Howe and Owen Gleiberman felt the ending was "like an act of treachery against the viewer," undermining any hope for a positive outcome, and Barry Norman said it denied the audience "even of the final comfort they fully deserve." Roger Ebert, however, found the ending to be "satisfying," but underwhelming compared to the film's earlier events. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on a scale of A+ to F.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" received one nomination at the 68th Academy Awards for Best Editing (Richard Francis-Bruce), and Walker was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 49th British Academy Film Awards. At the MTV Movie Awards, "Seven" received three awards, Best Movie, Most Desirable Male (Pitt), and Best Villain (Spacey).


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The apathy of the unnamed city's inhabitants is a central theme in "Seven". Somerset does not believe the city can be saved, intending to retire outside of its confines, and telling Mills that women are taught to yell "fire," not "rape," because people are more likely to pay attention if they selfishly think themselves in danger. Taubin described the city as an infection point for corruption, where signs of violence and decay are omnipresent in its dark corners and rain, as well as the television reports, fights, screams, and children in impoverished apartments. Dyer compared the near ubiquitous rain to films such as "Blade Runner", as a constant, near inescapable presence, which in "Seven" can represent sin seeping into every gap. The bleak aesthetic of the city implies a layer of moral decay and indifference by its inhabitants, that enables Doe's plan. Somerset has not stopped caring, but he has become as apathetic as those around him because of the futility of his efforts. "Seven" reinforces this in several scenes, such as when his concerns that a child witnessed a murder are dismissed, the police captain's indifference to a mugger needlessly stabbing out his victim's eyes, and the sex club manager who dislikes his role but sees no alternative. Even so, Somerset tries to spare Tracy from the influence of the city by advising her to leave with her unborn child.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Somerset and Doe both perceive the ubiquity of sin and indifference toward it. There are parallels in how both men live alone, are devoted to their work, and do not have any meaningful relationships. Although there is mention of Somerset's former partner and some degree of respect with his colleagues, he tells Tracy that "anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable." Doe's apartment is a reflection of his own isolation from society. They differ, however, in their response to sin: Somerset has surrendered to apathy and sorrow, while Doe feels contempt for society and has assumed a role as their punisher. It is implied that Somerset was once passionate about his work until he realized he could not change things, while Doe is dedicated and passionate, believing wholeheartedly in the change his work will bring. Somerset has never killed anyone, and retains a spark of hope that humanity can be better, while Doe kills freely, believing humanity is beyond saving. When Mills tells Doe he is killing innocent people, Doe replies, "only in a world this shitty could you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face. But that's the point. We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it's common, it's trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night. Well, not anymore."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Mills and Somerset are contrasting characters in terms of temperament, morality, intelligence, and personal connections. Somerset is analytical, wise, experienced, and meticulous, while Mills is young, messy, and inexperienced, but full of potential. Mills is optimistic and relatively light-hearted, choosing to move to the city because he believed he could have a positive until everything is taken from him. Goldberg wrote that Mills and Tracy are naive to the city's corruption, demonstrated by how they are tricked into renting an apartment that experiences constant shaking from nearby trains. Dyer said Tracy, in particular, represents potential virtue, but as she is used infrequently to conceal her eventual fate, her impact is reduced.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Doe's plan does work, shocking Somerset out of his apathy and inspiring him to defer his retirement and fight for a better future. Walker said of the ending, "it's about "optimist Mills"... going up against this pessimistic kind of world-weary detective in Somerset... those dramatically opposed points of view are pushing and pulling each other throughout the story. And then once pessimism is confirmed, even to the optimist who's been arguing that the fight is always worth fighting, will the pessimist in the light of confirmation of all his worst predictions, will he stay or will he walk away?" Rosenbaum described it as a "touching, old-fashioned faith in the power of good to reassert itself," tempered by the fact the hope is inspired by a self-martyred serial killer. He criticized that "Seven" chose style over substance, giving the overall message that we "remain exactly where we are." Dyer compared Doe to Hannibal Lecter in "Silence of the Lambs", in terms of ability to outthink and manipulate the authorities combined with his artistic method of arranging his murders, but that they are contrasted by their different social statuses, Lecter being an educated professional and a preference for luxury, while Doe is seemingly self taught, unemployed, and obsessed only with his mission. However, Rosenbaum said that unlike "Silence of the Lambs", "Seven" did not "exploit its psycho killer for cheap laughs or blind hero worship." Nayman found "Seven" problematic, believing it did venerate Doe as having a valid criticism of society.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Doe's murders are described by Somerset as his sermons to the masses. Dyer and Saunders describe Doe as conducting a violent crusade demonstrating the consequences of moral decay and sinning, based on his own interpretation of Christian ideology, in a city compared to the biblical Sodom and Gomorrah. Writer Patricia Moir said that theorists in the late 1990s believed a growing trend in North America resulted in the decay of social meta narratives of order created by religion, science and art, in turn diminishing societal norms, and that in absence of these paradigms, all that remained was the chaos of existence. Somerset tries to create order using the ticking of a metronome to disguise the disordered noise of sirens and screams outside his apartment. Dyer wrote that Somerset smashing the metronome is him acknowledging he can no longer ignore the darkness of the city. Doe creates order by filtering literature about the seven deadly sins and works by authors such as John Milton through a lense of religious fanatacism. He believes his purpose is given by God, which is reflected in the opening credits depicting Doe cutting the word "God" from a dollar bill; Kyle Cooper said, "I hesitated on that one but decided to do it because John Doe took it on himself to play God."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Doe rationalizes that everyone is guilty of sin or wishing ill on other sinners. According to Dyer, Doe is conscious he is also a sinner and so his plan involves his own death. Goldberg wrote that Doe is the true sin of wrath, evidenced by his violent acts, but to complete his plan he must make Mills "become" wrath, and gives himself the sin of "envy". His resigned acceptance of the sin is, according to Goldberg, because there is no other sin for him to take and he is conscious that sins will not end with his death. Doe transferring wrath to Mills also demonstrates the infectiousness and pervasiveness of sin. When Mills kills Doe it can be considered an act of good and justice, eliminating a remorseless force of evil, but he commits the act purely for revenge. Film professor Richard Dyer suggests that Doe did not know how to conclude his plan until meeting with Mills while disguised as a photographer, during which Mills displays his wrath. Writer Shaina Weatherhead believed "Seven" foreshadows the importance of the wrath and envy sins throughout, identifying the color red as representing wrath and green representing envy, colors which appear often: Somerset has a red lamp, Mills drinks from a green mug, and there are background green buildings with red address numbering.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" features subtle references to the number seven, reinforcing the religious subtext, such as the Doe's plan culminating on Sunday, the seventh day of the week and the biblical day of rest, on which Doe's package for Mills is delivered at 7:01pm. In researching Doe, Somerset references material including "The Parson's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer, which discusses penance, Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" and its seven terraces of purgatory, a Catholic dictionary, and a reference to seven children being slain. There are also references to art in "Seven" such as a stack of spaghetti cans resembling "Campbell's Soup Cans" by Andy Warhol. Journalist Kim Newman considered each of Doe's kills to be arranged as an artistic piece dedicated to each sin. Commentary appears on the excesses of performance art and culture of celebrity, with Mills referring to Doe as a "movie of the week" and a "fucking T-Shirt", implying his legacy will be brief before fading into obscurity. Moir said that "Seven" provides no final answers about Doe's legacy, but implies that things have potentially only gotten worse.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" was released on VHS, DVD, and Laserdisc in 1996. A 2-disc special edition DVD released in 2000, introduced additional features including a remastered picture scanned from the original film negative, extended or deleted scenes, the original opening with Somerset and cut-to-black ending, production photos and designs, and storyboards for an alternate ending. The release also included four commentary tracks: Pitt, Fincher, and Freeman discussing "Seven"; a discussion between Fincher, De Luca, Francis-Bruce, Walker, and film studies professor Richard Dyer; Khondji, Max, Dyer, Francis-Bruce, and Fincher; and an isolated music and effects score with commentary by Shore, Klyce, Dyer, and Fincher. The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in 2010, featuring remastered visuals and containing all of the additional content present in the special edition, with an additional collectible DigiBook version containing production notes and photo stills.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The "Seven" soundtrack was released with the film in November 1995. The 11-track compact disc and cassette tape release contained several of the songs used in the film, such as "Guilty" and "In the Beginning", as well as two pieces of the score ("Portrait of John Doe" and "Suite from Seven"), but omitted "Closer" and "The Hearts Filthy Lesson". A bootleg recording of the score was released in the late 1990s, before an official debut of the full 16-piece score in 2016.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: A novelization of Seven, written by Anthony Bruno, was released alongside the film in November 1995. A seven-issue comic book series, "Seven", was released between September 2006 and October 2007 by Zenescope Entertainment. Serving as a prequel to the events of the film, the comic book focuses on Doe and the planning of his crimes.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" is now regarded as one of the best thriller, crime, and mystery films ever made. Some publications have listed "Seven" among the greatest films of all time. A 2014 poll of 2,120 entertainment industry professionals by "The Hollywood Reporter" ranked "Seven" as -voted ranking named it the eighty-fifth-best film of all time. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes offers a approval rating from the aggregated reviews of critics, with an average score of . The website's critical consensus says: "A brutal, relentlessly grimy shocker with taut performances, slick gore effects, and a haunting finale." The film has a score of 65 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 22 critics' reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: Retrospectives have identified "Seven" as retaining its appeal over its peers due to its bleak, often imitated but rarely equalled ending, as well as Fincher's story-focused directorial style. Critic Matt Goldberg described "Seven" as timeless because of its stylized reality that is not linked to any particular time or place, and lack of popular culture references, advertisements, or focus on technology. Discussing "Seven"s lasting positive legacy as a thriller, Walker said: "I know a lot of people hate "Seven" and think it's just garbage, so it's good to be humbled in that way. I'm really proud of it... Looking back at the time that's passed, I feel extremely lucky that they never managed to make a sequel to it... I've been lucky that they've not managed to make a prequel to it, which, in my opinion, sucks all of the kind of meaning and energy out of who and what John Doe represents. I love that it's still a standalone piece. "Seven" is included in the 2003 film reference book "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", and has been listed among Pitt's and Fincher's best films.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" helped Pitt's transition into more serious and dramatic acting roles. He and Paltrow became romantically involved before the film's release, and Pitt would work again with Fincher on films such as "Fight Club" (1999). It also established Freeman as a mentor-type figure, an archetype he would reprise in many projects thereafter. After the failure of "Alien 3", "Seven" revitalized Fincher's feature film career, establishing him among the most iconoclastic Hollywood directors of his generation; he would direct "The Game" (1997), "Fight Club", and "Panic Room" (2002) over the next few years. Walker and Shore collaborated with Fincher on several other projects. Describing the personal impact on himself, Walker said "ten years down the line, if nothing else got produced. I'd still have this great movie on video... when I'm run out of town, living my old age, running a miniature golf shop, I can always have what I've dreamt of having since I was very young." In a 2022 interview, MacKay (Sloth) said that he was still earning "healthy residual payments" for his role, and would occasionally be recognized in public by fans. He said: "people still think they used a dummy in that scene... I get that a lot. But that was me."


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: "Seven" inspired many filmmakers, and is considered influential on crime-based films and television shows that replicated its grim aesthetic, body horror imagery, lighting, and premise of disenchanted detectives pursuing criminals with distinct killing methods and motivations, featured in "Kiss the Girls" (1997), "The Bone Collector" (1999), "Along Came a Spider", "The Pledge (film)" (both 2001), the "Saw" series (2003), and television series "Prodigal Son" (2019–2021). "Collider" said "Seven" caused a resurgence in faith-based horror, supernatural, and apocalyptic mystery films. The superhero film, "The Batman" (2022), shares similar style and tone with "Seven", and publications such as "Rolling Stone" called it "part superhero blockbuster, part 1970s-antihero homage, and part "Seven" remake." "Seven"s use of alternative music by "Nine Inch Nails" is also seen as contributing to more mainstream use of similar songs in films such as "Final Destination" (2000), "" (2001), and "Resident Evil" (2002).


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The title credit sequence for "Seven" was called "one of the most important design innovations of the 1990s" by the "New York Times". Art of the Title described it as the beginning of a "renaissance in title design, particularly in the horror genre, and its influence was evident over two decades after "Seven"s release. In 2011, IFC ranked the sequence as the third best ever made, behind those of "Vertigo" (1958) and "A Hard Day's Night" (1964), and its style can be seen in the opening credits of films such as "The Bone Collector", "Red Dragon", and "Taking Lives" (2004).


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: The film's twist ending is considered one of the best in cinematic history. Pitt's dialogue, "What's in the box?", as he asks Somerset to confirm the contents of Doe's box, has become iconic, used in popular culture and memes. Walker said "[The twist is] one of the reasons I think "Seven" did well... because people went in and they did not know in the first ten minutes exactly how the movie was going to end." Although it is only implied that Tracy's head is in the box, Fincher recalled an encounter with a woman who said, "'There is no need to make a stand in of Gwyneth Paltrow's head to find in the box. You don't need to see that.' And I said, 'Well, we didn't.' And she said, 'Oh yes, you did.' So, the imagination, if properly primed, can do more than any army of makeup artists." John Doe has been named by several publications as one of the great cinematic villains.


title: Seven (1995 film)

text: A sequel, "Ei8ht", was proposed by New Line Cinema in 2002, based on a repurposed spec script titled "Solace" by Ted Griffin about a psychic serial killer pursued by a similarly psychic detective, Somerset. The idea was eventually abandoned after principal "Seven" cast and crew, including Freeman and Pitt, expressed no intention to return for a sequel and Fincher said "I would be less interested in that than I would in having cigarettes put out in my eyes." The script was made into the standalone thriller, "Solace" (2015), which was a critical and box office failure.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: The Lighthouse is a 2019 film directed and produced by Robert Eggers, from a screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Max Eggers. It stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as nineteenth-century wickies (lighthouse keepers) in turmoil after being marooned at a remote New England outpost by a wild storm. The film has defied categorization in media, and interpretations of "The Lighthouse" range from a horror film, a psychological thriller, a survival film, and a character study, among others.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: "The Lighthouse" first emerged from Max's re-envisioning of Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished short story of the same name. Robert assisted the development when Max was unable to complete the adaptation of "The Light-House", sourcing the plot from a nineteenth-century legend of an accident at a lighthouse in Wales. "The Lighthouse" draws visually from photography of 1890s New England, maritime-themed French cinema from the 1930s, and symbolist art. Principal photography took place in Nova Scotia beginning in April 2018 and consumed slightly over a month. It was shot in black-and-white with a nearly square 1.19:1 aspect ratio.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 18, 2019, by A24. It grossed over $18 million against an $11 million budget and received widespread critical acclaim, with particular praise for the direction, visuals, and performances of Dafoe and Pattinson. It was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 92nd Academy Awards and 73rd British Academy Film Awards, in addition to numerous nominations and wins at other awards ceremonies.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: In 1890s New England, Ephraim Winslow serves a contract job as a "wickie" (lighthouse keeper) for a month on a small isolated island rock off of the coast, under the supervision of the island's longtime wickie, Thomas Wake. In his room, Winslow discovers a small scrimshaw of a mermaid and keeps it in his pocket. Wake immediately proves to be very demanding, assigning Winslow increasingly difficult jobs such as emptying chamber pots, painting the lighthouse, and carrying heavy kerosene tanks up the stairs, while not allowing him access to the lantern room. Winslow observes that every evening, Wake secretly ascends the lighthouse and removes his clothes before the light. During his stay on the island, Winslow begins to hallucinate sea demons and logs floating in the sea, and masturbates to the mermaid on the scrimshaw. He also continues to observe Wake's strange ritual and is bothered by a one-eyed gull that Wake tells him not to slaughter, as he believes that gulls are reincarnated sailors and slaughtering one would bring bad luck. One evening while dining, Wake reveals to Winslow that his previous wickie perished after losing his sanity, while Winslow reveals that he is a former lumberjack from Maine seeking a new job.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: The day before his scheduled departure, Winslow discovers a dead gull inside the cistern, bloodying its water. Winslow is attacked by the one-eyed gull once more and he brutally slaughters it in a fit of rage. After this, the wind drastically changes direction and a fierce storm hits the island rock. Winslow and Wake spend the night getting drunk, and the storm rages through the next morning, preventing the relief ferry meant to pick up Winslow from collecting him. As Winslow empties the chamber pots, he notices a body washed up on the shore and discovers that it is a mermaid, which awakens and screams at him. He flees back to the cottage, where Wake informs him that the storm has spoiled their rations, and that new ones will not arrive for weeks. The pair unearth a crate at the lighthouse's base that supposedly contains reserve rations, but contains only bottles of alcohol. In the following days, as the storm continues to rage, Winslow and Wake drink most of the alcohol, alternating between moments of intimacy and aggressiveness. One night, Winslow tries unsuccessfully to steal the lantern room keys from Wake as he sleeps and contemplates murdering him. He later encounters a lobster trap containing the one-eyed head of Wake's previous wickie. Winslow confesses to Wake that his real name is Thomas Howard and that he assumed the identity of the real Ephraim Winslow, his foreman who died in an accident Howard purposely neglected to stop. Wake chases Howard down, accusing him of "spilling his beans" before destroying their only dory boat with an axe. Once incapacitated, however, Wake claims that it was Howard who chased him and hacked up the dory.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: With no alcohol left, the two begin drinking a concoction of turpentine and honey, while the storm increases and starts flooding the cottage. The next morning, Howard finds Wake's soiled logbook, in which Wake has criticized him as a drunken and incompetent employee and recommended that he should be sacked without pay. The two men argue, and Howard attacks Wake while hallucinating the mermaid, the real Winslow, and Wake as a Proteus-like figure. Howard beats Wake into submission and takes him to the hole at the base of the lighthouse to bury him alive. Wake curses Howard as he is buried, wishing him a "Promethean fate." Howard takes the keys to the lantern room, but Wake frees himself and strikes Howard with an axe. Howard disarms Wake and murders him, before ascending the lighthouse. In the lantern room, the Fresnel lens opens to Howard, who reaches in and laughs before violently yelling in distortion, then slipping and falling down the lighthouse steps. Sometime later, a barely-living Howard lies nude on the rocks with a damaged eye as a flock of gulls peck at his exposed organs, with the lighthouse being completely missing from the island.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: The original idea of "The Lighthouse" was first articulated at a dinner between director Robert Eggers and his younger brother, Max Eggers. Robert was unhappy with his film industry prospects after the pitching of his first major feature, "The Witch" (2015), failed to secure funding. Max shared a basic outline from his screenplay, a lighthouse-set ghost tale as part of an attempted reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe's unfinished short story "The Light-House". Adapting the short story proved troublesome, halting Max's progress on the script, then under the tentative working title "Burnt Island". Robert started musing ideas to bolster the project's conceptualization, and, with his brother's support, soon began investigating for source material.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: One story that caught the director's attention in his initial research was a nineteenth-century myth of an incident at Smalls Lighthouse in Wales, wherein one of two wickies, both named Thomas, dies while trapped at their outpost by a destructive storm. That both men were named Thomas, Robert recalled, compelled him to create a film with an underlying story of identity. By the time there was a realized concept, Robert momentarily stopped his commitment to "The Lighthouse" when he found an investor to finance "The Witch".


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: After "The Witch" finished its theater rollout, the film's unexpected success elevated Robert's directing profile. To exploit his newfound credibility, he pushed "The Lighthouse", one of several projects, in his negotiations with studio executives. He and Max then resumed their work by exchanging drafts they revised accordingly. This coincided with more rigorous research of the period to develop the onscreen world: Robert immersed in photos of 1890s New England, 1930s maritime-themed French films, and symbolist art for visual reference. The Eggers' study of literature with maritime and surrealist themes informed "The Lighthouse" characters' speech. They looked into the writings of Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. P. Lovecraft, among others, before coming across literature from Sarah Orne Jewett, a novelist best known for her local color works set around the coast of Maine. Her dialect-heavy writing style provided the lead characters' cadences, rooted in the experiences of her own sailor characters and real-life farmers, fishermen and captains she had interviewed. Robert and Max also deferred to a dissertation on Jewett's technique to guide their direction for intense conversational scenes.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: The Eggers' theater background was another force shaping "The Lighthouse" creative direction. The two men sourced elements from playwrights that influenced their work as young teens, chiefly from artists such as Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and Sam Shepard whose writings examine male-centric perspectives of existential crises and psychosis.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: "The Lighthouse" stars Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson. They both separately approached Eggers to express their enthusiasm for "The Witch" and their desire to collaborate. Dafoe and Pattinson first met at a party, and Pattinson's participation was used as a selling point in pitches to Dafoe. Their signings were announced separately to the media in February 2018. Eggers' initial film proposals with Dafoe were not fruitful. When they met in person to discuss "The Lighthouse", the director was plainspoken in the conversation. Dafoe recalled, "There was no discussion. 'This is the way we're going to do this. My way or the highway.' That's very unusual, especially for a two-hander, for a director to say, 'This is the way I see it. Yes or no?'"


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: Pattinson and Eggers originally met to negotiate terms for an unrelated project. Pattinson was offered, and passed on portraying a Victorian socialite because he believed the role would fail to challenge his acting ability. His next meeting with Eggers took place once he finished reading "The Lighthouse" completed script. During the conversation, Pattinson showed Eggers a clip of an intoxicated man screaming "I am a demon" to convey this understanding of the director's vision.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: To prepare for their respective roles, each actor employed different techniques at the rehearsals. Dafoe was spontaneous in his performance, citing his theater background with the experimental troupe The Wooster Group, whereas Pattinson planned his rehearsing from the discussion of the script.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: Anya Taylor-Joy, who starred in Eggers' directorial debut "The Witch", was eager to work with him again and asked if she could play the mermaid. Eggers replied that there was not a role for her and she "really should not be this particular mermaid". Taylor-Joy jokingly replied that she could play a seagull instead.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: Principal photography began on April 9, 2018, in Canada. Filming finished slightly over schedule, at approximately 35 days, as a result of unforeseen circumstances on set. Jarin Blaschke was contracted as the director of photography in his third collaboration with Eggers. Shooting officially commenced in Cape Forchu, a fishing village in southern Nova Scotia. Because the filmmakers found no lighthouse suitable for the needs of the production, they constructed a 70-foot (20-meter) lighthouse set for their base of operations. Elsewhere regionally, the production filmed scenes at Leif Erikson Park, inside a hangar at Yarmouth Airport, and soundstages near Halifax for interior shoots. "The Lighthouse" filming became a difficult undertaking as a combination of remote location, technical caveats of the camerawork, and harsh climate precipitated a stressful work environment.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: Eggers had already envisioned shooting "The Lighthouse" in black-and-white, with a boxy aspect ratio, before drafting of the script. Although he and Blaschke faced resistance from studio executives hoping to maximize the film's commercial prospects, the two men were adamant and did not want to shoot in color because they feared undermining the artistic integrity of their work. Eggers at first pushed the use of 1.33:1 format aspect ratio, believing it sufficiently captured confined sets and the lighthouse's vertical orientation, then reconsidered when Blaschke suggested 1.19:1 aspect ratio, imaging used fleetingly in the film industry's transition to sound, as an alternative (albeit in jest). After further analysis of period films for inspiration, chiefly the German thriller "M" (1931), Blaschke determined that the 1.19:1 format endowed footage with a greater sense of confinement, while amplifying the physical isolation of the characters in their environment.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: Blaschke shot "The Lighthouse" on 35mm film using Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 cameras equipped with vintage Bausch and Lomb Baltar lenses. Occasionally, to capture flashback sequences or scenes of heightened conflict, specialized lenses refurbished by Panavision were used. The onscreen universe was given a highly saturated visual palette evocative of orthochromatic film. Creating the spectrum of textures with a sufficient antique quality was one of Blaschke's initial responsibilities during the pre-production. He developed a process of testing the utility of digital footage in color negative film stock, first with Kodak Vision3 500T 5219 film, before selecting Eastman Double-X 5222 stock based on the composition produced. Blaschke resumed the testing after securing the Baltar lenses for the shoot, this time with an arrangement of shortpass filters—a class of scientific optical filters—and photographic filters most sensitive to blue-green and ultraviolet light. The specifications were so unusual that it required the manufacture of custom sets of filters by Schneider Kreuznach, a costly, month-long endeavor. Blaschke recalled, "I sketched a desired spectrograph on graph paper, indicating a complete elimination of all light beyond 570 nanometers [mid-yellow] while allowing all shorter wavelengths to pass freely. At that point, I was unsure of the true light loss and I was pretty nervous about it." Post-production editing of "The Lighthouse" occurred simultaneously at the FotoKem film laboratories in Burbank, California.


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: "The Lighthouse" genre was described by critics such as Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" as a horror film and Lee Marshall of "Screen Daily" as a psychological thriller. Other critics, such as Owen Gleiberman of "Variety" stated that the film was one that could not be pigeonholed, declaring that "you may feel in your bones that you're watching a supernatural shocker [...] Are we seeing a slice of survival, a horror film, or a study in slow-brewing mutual insanity? How about all of the above?" Michael Phillips of "The Chicago Tribune" echoed these statements, noting that the film's plot did not operate "as any sort of conventional ghost story, or thriller, or anything".


title: The Lighthouse (2019 film)

text: Eggers said the film's sub-text was influenced by Sigmund Freud, and hoped that "it's a movie where both Jung and Freud would be furiously eating their popcorn". According to Pattinson, the phallic imagery of the lighthouse is explicit, as Eggers described it as an erect penis in the script. The film was meant to include "a very juvenile shot of a lighthouse moving like an erect penis and a match-cut to Pattinson's actual erect penis", although this cut was removed upon request by financiers. Winslow displays an Oedipal fixation on his boss, Wake, given his simultaneous fear and admiration of him. Pattinson commented on the father/son dynamic in the film, stating "I was pretty conscious of how I wanted the relationship to come across. In a lot of ways, he sort of wants a daddy." As the film progresses, Winslow is increasingly "looking for Willem [Dafoe]'s validation" both as a boss and as a father figure.