‘Se7en’ director David Fincher sets the record straight once and for all about “what’s in the box” during that infamous scene in his film turning 30 in 2025…
“What’s in the box?!?’
It’s a line so iconic that shouting it at a fellow movie buff should illicit an immediate reaction after Brad Pitt’s character David Mills begs for answers after serial killer John Doe taunts about the trophy he took after visiting his home in the film “Se7en.”
The all-time great psychological thriller is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2025 with a 4K release of the movie along with the film being re-released into IMAX theaters. With that, director David Fincher is revisiting the second film of his career after working tirelessly on the new print that became the 4K release.
While discussing the film, Fincher addressed the infamous rumors about what was actually in the box that Morgan Freeman’s character Somerset discovers when a delivery man drops off a package in the middle of the desert where they’ve been dragged by Kevin Spacey’s John Doe.
Rumors swirled for years that there was actually a prosthetic head in the box molded to look like Gwyneth Paltrow, who played Pitt’s wife in the film. Paltrow even went as as using the box gag for an amazing Halloween outfit a few years ago.
But Fincher dispelled those rumors by revealing what was actually in that box — and how Freeman’s reaction was so jarring that it convinced just about everybody that he was staring down at Paltrow’s severed head.
“It’s entirely ridiculous,” Fincher told EW. “I think we had a seven- or eight-pound shot bag. We had done the research to figure out, if Gwyneth Paltrow’s body mass index was X, what portion of that would be attributable to her head. And so we had an idea of what that would weigh, and I think there was a weight in it.
“And we did put a wig in there, so that when Morgan rips the box open if there were some of this tape that was used to seal the box — I think it was a shot bag and a wig, and I think the wig had a little bit of blood in it, so some of the hair would stick together. Remember, I think Morgan opened 16 or 17 of those things. But as I always say, you don’t need to see what’s in the box if you have Morgan Freeman.”
After Mills realizes that John Doe actually murdered his wife, there’s a brief flash on screen just before he shoots the serial killer dead that had many convinced that was also a quick look at Tracy’s severed head. But that rumor has also long been dispelled because a quick frame-by-frame shot through that scene reveals just a smiling photo of Paltrow as Tracy that flashes through her husband’s mind before he takes out his wrath on John Doe.
So there you go — you’ll have to continue using your imagination to think about what’s actually in that box when Somerset finds Tracy’s grisly remains.
