Seven opening sequence analyse

Se7en was directed by David Fincher and was made in 1995. Ficher and Brad Pitt have worked together on many films including Fight Club.

At The start of Se7en we see a man of retirement age in a household setting. We see him making coffee and can here hectic city noises like traffic, this is the classic connotation of New York which has a famous police department and there are many different detective television programs and films set there. The audience later learn that the man on screen is detective sommerset.


In the opening sequence and throughout the film he is wearing a suit. This implies that he is an intelligent well educated man, this idea is reinforced by the prop of a chess board on the table. There are also tribal sculptures around his home suggesting he is well travelled. The opening sequence begins with Sommerset getting ready. We see objects that he needs like pens laid out in a methodical way connoting that he has a very strict routine that he sticks to everyday and has been doing it for a long time. It also adds a sense of O.C.D.

Sommerset then enters a crime scene where he is greeted by a gruesome corpse. But this doesn’t phase him at all showing the audience that he deals with death regularly and informs them that he’s a detective. He begins to survey the surroundings when He has a conversation with another detective who doesn’t like how much detail everything requires saying ‘your always asking questions’ continuing the idea that he is a very methodical person. The conversation goes onto discuss the fact that he is retiring and his replacement is outside.

When Sommerset goes outside we see that it’s raining implying conflict, that he and his replacement won’t get on. His replacement is detective Mills played by Brad Pitt. He is wearing a scruffy shirt showing he doesn’t have the same attention to detail as Summerset and a leather jacket which has the stereotype of rebellion. Sommerset is more sharply dressed giving him power over Mills. Despite this clash of personalities we know they will have to work together as they are in frame as a 2shot.

  The next scene shows Sommerset at the end of the day getting ready to go to bed. We see his house is still tidy and he has laid items out for the next day again showing his precision and attention to detail. But when he goes to bed we see him set off a metronome. This implies he has trouble sleeping. This could be because he has things on his mind or he can’t tune out from his stressful working environment.

The titles then come up which is irregular to have pretitle sequence, this could be hinting at the strange nature of the film. The titles are hand written implying someone watching the detectives. Someone hand making films and razors in frame suggests the dark mind of the antagonist. Some of the contextual features within the titles foreshadow the graphic murders in the film. The man in the title sequence does lots of tasks like film making by hand connoting he is independent and resourceful. Flickers in the titles give them a handmade quality. Se7en comes into frame at the end of the titles in dark writing with a red undertone, this connotes pain, death and darkness. It also hints that the crimes that will be committed correlate with the number of days Summerset has left before he retires and the seven deadly sins.

http://youtu.be/SEZK7mJoPLY