Seven Trivia Quiz

With just seven days until his retirement, Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is matched up with Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt), recently transferred in from upstate. With the goal of showing the new arrival the ropes, the two detectives are called to the disturbing "gluttony" crime scene, where the victim (played by Bob Mack) was force-fed until his stomach burst. Concerned that this crime may be more than a simple one-off, Somerset requests reassignment, citing his short remaining tenure.

When Mills tries to claim the case, the precinct captain instead puts Mills on a different case, and tells Somerset that he is stuck "cleaning up the fat man."

Given another case on his own, Detective Mills is called to a scene where the lawyer Eli Gould (played by Gene Borkan) has been killed in his office with the word "greed" scrawled on the floor.

Somerset, in the meantime, goes back to the first crime scene after and discovers the word "gluttony" behind the fridge at the first crime scene, along with a quote from "Paradise Lost" by John Milton. The two detectives quickly come to the realization that the two murders are connected.

Somerset researches the Seven Deadly Sins at the library, looking at such titles as "Purgatory" from Dante's "The Divine Comedy", "The Parson's Tale" from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales", and the "Dictionary of Catholicism" - and recommends Mills do the same.

The next morning, Mills moves into Somerset's office, and he receives a phone call from his wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow). Mills hands the phone to Somerset, who finds himself invited over to dinner at the Mills residence. After dinner, the two detectives discuss their two cases, trying to find any other connections between the two murders, aside from the 'deadly sins' angle. A clue leads them to go and interrogate the lawyer's widow, who sees in crime scene photos that the modern painting on the wall is actually upside down.

After examining the painting in the lawyer's office, Somerset discovers fingerprints on the wall behind the painting. Once the wall is examined by the technicians, the message "help me" is discovered, fully written with fingerprints.

The fingerprints bring up the record of a man known as Victor Allen, and the police converge on the man's residence, only to find that he is the next victim, when he is discovered tied to his bed, missing one hand, and apparently starved nearly to death over the course of a full year. "Sloth" is written on the wall above the bed. The emaciated man (portrayed by Michael Reid MacKay), while found alive at the scene, dies shortly afterwards in the hospital.

Having made a connection with Det. William Somerset over dinner the other night, Tracy calls him as the only other person that she knows in the city. She wants to talk with someone, to express her misgivings about their new situation in the city, without causing any stress to her husband in the process. In the course of their conversation, she reveals that they are going to have a baby, and she is not sure what to do.

While he states that it is not his place to be the one to give the advice, he does suggest two possibilities: "If you don't keep the baby, I mean, if that's your decision, don't ever tell him that you were pregnant. But if you choose to have this baby, you spoil that kid every chance you get."

With no further clues, Mills and Somerset are waiting for some further development when a chance comment from Mills about the killer having a library card gives his partner an idea. Upon searching at the library for patterns of other people researching the seven deadly sins, they come up with a 'Jonathan Doe' and seek out his apartment.

As they knock at the door, a man comes up the stairs at the end of the hall, sees the two detectives and pulls out a gun, shooting at them and running away. Mills immediately runs after, chasing the shadowy figure through an apartment, down a fire escape, through traffic and more until he is ambushed. Mills finds himself at the serial killer's mercy, but the man ends up just disappearing, without hurting the detective.

John Doe's apartment has mementos and photos of the first three scenes (Gluttony, Greed, and Sloth), but also has a picture of a blonde woman (perhaps a prostitute?) and a receipt for leatherwork from a 'specialty' store. While searching through Doe's other belongings, the phone rings, and Mills answers it. Of course, it is John Doe calling to express admiration at being found, and a warning that he would be accelerating his timetable.

A brief time later, as the two detectives are interviewing the man at the leatherworks store they get word that the blonde has been discovered. They rush to the scene to find that a man had been forced at gunpoint to wear the leather contraption (and attached blade), which killed the woman through its use.

John Doe chose a model for his Pride victim, and he cut up her face and even cut off her nose before bandaging her up. Then, he glued a phone in one hand, and a bottle of pills in her other hand, giving her the choice of calling for help and living with her disfigurement, or using the sleeping pills to kill herself.

Of course, John Doe knew his victims well, and as he expected, the woman chose to kill herself.

After the model (the fifth victim) is discovered, Mills and Somerset return from the crime scene to their precinct station, just as John Doe arrives in a cab, covered in blood. He is quickly taken into custody, and just as quickly demands his lawyer.

Through his lawyer, John Doe reveals that there are two more bodies out there, and that he will make a full confession if Mills and Somerset come with him to where the bodies are. If they refuse his offer, he will instead claim insanity, which the lawyer assures them is a likely verdict.

When the blood on John Doe's clothing is analyzed, they discover that there is the blood of someone other than the "Pride" victim.

When Mills, Somerset and John Doe arrive at the supposed location of the two remaining victims, there is no one and nothing suspicious in sight, until a van approaches their location. Somerset runs to intercept the van, leaving Mills to watch over Doe, and the van turns out to be a delivery van. The man delivers the box to Somerset, who opens it and recoils in shock at what he sees.

From a distance, Mills watches Somerset's reaction while John Doe natters at him. Doe expresses his envy at Mills' simple, happy life with his pretty wife, and tells Mills that he visited Tracy that morning, and cut off her "pretty head." Driven to a hot rage, Mills ignores Somerset's attempts to stay his hand, and he empties his gun into John Doe, becoming the Wrath that Doe planned.