John Doe is the main antagonist of the 1995 film Se7en.
He was portrayed by Kevin Spacey.
History[]
Se7en[]
The story concerns a couple of detectives, the experienced and soon-to-retire Somerset and Mills, the younger, more inexperienced, and hotheaded man, who both investigate a series of serial homicides committed according to the Seven Deadly Sins. The first victim is "Gluttony", a morbidly obese man who was forced to eat until the killer kicked him and his abdominal wall ruptured. "Greed", is a hotshot lawyer forced to carve a pound of flesh from his own body. "Sloth", is an emaciated man strapped to a bed for a full year while his body deteriorates along with his sanity. "Lust" is a prostitute killed by a man wearing a bladed sexual strap-on device while an unidentified man held the muzzle of a pistol in his mouth. "Pride", is a model bound to her own bed with her nose sliced off and given a choice between taking pills to commit suicide or call for help and be maimed for life. The first five are all investigated by Mills and Somerset, who try to ID the perpetrator before they can claim another victim. Eventually, a man, calling himself "John Doe", turns himself in and confesses, saying there are still two victims to be discovered, "Envy" and "Wrath".
Very little is uncovered about John Doe and his past other than he has a large amount of wealth. When Mills and Somerset agree to follow Doe's instructions for finding the last two victims. he leads them out of the city to a rural area. A courier suddenly shows up with a package specifically for Mills. When Somerset opens the box, he finds the severed head of Mills' wife, Tracy. Doe tells Mills that he admires Mills, admitting that his sin is "Envy". Somerset pleads with his partner to drop his pistol; if Mills kills Doe, Mills will become "Wrath" and Doe will achieve his goal. In a fit of distress and rage, Mills shoots Doe dead.
Personality[]
Very little is revealed about Doe himself other than he is insane and independently wealthy. He is mild-mannered and calm and claims that he was "chosen" to commit the murders by a higher power. The one time he shows any actual emotion is when he and Mills argue while they drive him out of the city; Mills claims that the police would have eventually caught Doe, however Doe angrily retorts that he'd planned to turn himself in from the beginning. When Mills tells Doe that the people that were murdered were innocent victims, Doe's anger becomes apparent again when he explains his choice of each victim according to their own transgressions.
Doe himself is very crafty and extremely patient, able to stay at least one step ahead of his pursuers: the common factor of the murders, the Seven Deadly Sins, is not discovered until after the 2nd victim is found. His torture of the Sloth victim is an intricately contrived plot stretched out over a full year involving immobilizing the victim, providing him enough nutrition to stay alive and administering an antibiotic to prevent bedsores, taking a single photograph each day to show the progression of his deterioration, tending to basic grooming needs and eventually severing the victim's hand to plant fingerprints in the Greed victim's office. It is also gruesomely revealed that Doe purposely shaves off the tips of his fingers to keep from leaving any prints at each crime scene.
When Mills and Somerset track Doe to his apartment, they find a labyrinth-like arrangement of rooms, all dimly lit. His bed has a large, illuminated cross over it. Another room contains thousands of personal journals written mostly stream-of-consciousness with no clues about the murders he's committed.