Do you want to feel old? The famous crime thriller often styled as "Se7en" celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, ringing in 2025 with re-release in IMAX locations which those who didn't have a chance to enjoy in theaters simply won't want to miss it. That milestone also means that those of us of a certain age have spent the better part of three decades reciting an oft-repeated refrain every chance we get: “What's in the box?” If you've never seen the influential David Fincher noir and somehow remain blissfully unaware of what's actually going on in the film's heart-stopping climax, well, this is your cue to leave right now and avoid spoiling one of the film's greatest twists 21st century for yourself.

Still here? Good. As if watching disgraced actor Kevin Spacey play a total sociopath wasn't scary enough, fans of Fincher's dark tale about a pair of cops hunting down a prolific serial killer had to endure one of the most intense final acts ever put to film. . After spending the entire film torn between his commitment to his criminal career and the peaceful home life represented by his loving (and pregnant) wife Tracy (Paltrow), Pitt's hot rookie Detective Mills sees the two worlds collide in the worst possible way. Killer John Doe, always one step ahead of our heroes, finally manipulates them into one final tragedy: Tracy's decapitated head packed in a box. Although never shown on screen, this nasty ending helped Se7en earn its reputation as one of the genre's darkest and most cynical films of its time - but also left a trail of questions in its wake.

Chief among them has always been whether or not Fincher and his crew went so far as to create a prosthetic head (or even a body) modeled after Paltrow to flesh out Freeman's veteran character Somerset. Well, we can consider this mystery finally solved.

It's fair to say that the success of Se7en has followed David Fincher throughout his career, for better or for worse. On the one hand, his sophomore effort opened up a world of possibilities for a clearly talented and visionary director to make his mark. On the other hand, it's hard to constantly find yourself living up to such sky-high expectations. However, 30 years after the release of the 1995 classic, Fincher is only too happy to revisit his morality play centered around the seven deadly sins. At the top of the list, of course, remains the topic of what actually it was inside that fateful box opened by Morgan Freeman in that dry and dusty desert.

While talking to Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview, Fincher put to rest any notion that he stooped to such shock and awe to elicit that reaction from both Brad Pitt and Freeman during filming. Asked if the prosthetic head rumors had any truth to them, he replied:

"No, that's completely ridiculous." I think we had a seven or eight kilo bag. We did the research to find out, if Gwyneth Paltrow's body mass index is X, how much of that could be attributed to her head? And so we had an idea of ​​what it was going to weigh, and I think there was weight to it.

And we put a wig in there, so when Morgan rips open the box, if there's any 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 some blood in it, so some of the hair will stick. Remember, I mean Morgan opened 16 or 17 of those things (during filming). "But as I always say, you don't need to look at what's in the box if you have Morgan Freeman."

So there you have it. Case closed. In the end, Fincher decided that realism only goes so far and simply let his stars make their cinematic magic. Based on the end result, we'd say he made the right choice. Be sure to check your local listings to see the IMAX re-release of "Se7en" this weekend at a theater near you.