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Home / Movie Quotes / Seven Quotes – ‘This isn’t going to have a happy ending.’

Seven Quotes – ‘This isn’t going to have a happy ending.’

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Starring: Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, Daniel Zacapa, Richard Portnow, John Cassini, R. Lee Ermey, Reg E. Cathey, Peter Crombie, Hawthorne James, John C. McGinley

OUR RATING: ★★★★★

Story:

Crime thriller directed by David Fincher. The story follows retiring police Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), who tackles a final case with the aid of newly transferred David Mills (Brad Pitt), as they discover a number of elaborate and grizzly murders. They soon realize they are dealing with a serial killer, John Doe (Kevin Spacey), who is targeting people he thinks represent one of the seven deadly sins.

 

Our Favorite Quotes:

‘I just don't think I can continue to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was virtue.’ - William Somerset (Seven) Share on X ‘It's easier to lose yourself in drugs than it is to cope with life. It's easier to steal what you want than it is to earn it. It's easier to beat a child than it is to raise it. Hell, love costs. It takes effort and work.’ -… Share on X ‘What's in the box?!’ - David Mills (Seven) Share on X ‘Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.” I agree with the second part.’ - William Somerset (Seven) Share on X

 

Best Quotes   (Total Quotes: 84)


 

[first lines]
Detective Taylor: Neighbors heard them screaming at each other, like for two hours, it was nothing new. Then they heard the gun go off, both barrels. Crime of passion.
William Somerset: Yeah, just look at all the passion on that wall.


 

William Somerset: Did the kid see it?
Detective Taylor: What?
William Somerset: The kid?
Detective Taylor: What kind of fucking question is that? You know, we’re all going to be real glad when we get rid of you, Somerset. You know that? It’s always these questions with you. “Did the kid see it?” Who gives a fuck? He’s dead, his wife killed him. Anything else has nothing to do with us.


 

William Somerset: I meant to ask you something when we spoke on the phone before.
David Mills: Yep.
William Somerset: Why here?
David Mills: I don’t follow.
William Somerset: Why all the effort to get transferred? It’s the first question that
popped into my head.
David Mills: I guess the same reasons as you. The same reasons you had before you decided to quit, yeah?
[Somerset stops and faces Mills]
William Somerset: You just met me.
David Mills: Maybe I’m not understanding the question.
William Somerset: Very simple. You actually fought to get re-assigned here. I’ve just never seen it done that way before.
David Mills: I thought I could do some good. Look it would be great for me if we didn’t
start out kicking each other in the balls. But, you’re calling the shots, lieutenant
William Somerset: Yes. I want you to look, and I want you to listen, okay?
David Mills: Now, I wasn’t standing around guarding the taco-bell. I worked homicide for five years.
William Somerset: Not here.
David Mills: I understand that.
William Somerset: Well, over the next seven days, Detective, you’ll do me the favor of remembering that.


 

[walking in the rain to the house of the victim]
William Somerset: What time was death established?
Officer Davis: Like I said, I didn’t touch anything, but he’s had his face in a plate of
spaghetti for about forty five minutes now.
David Mills: Wait a minute. No one bothered for vital signs?
Officer Davis: Did I stutter? This guy ain’t breathing unless he started breathing spaghetti sauce.
David Mills: So that’s how it’s done around here.
Officer Davis: I peg your pardon Detective, but this guy’s been sitting in a pile of his own piss and shit. If he wasn’t dead he would have stood up by now.


 

David Mills: We had this case once. Guy dead on the ground, knife in his back. Got to be murder right?
[looks at all the rotting food on the table]
David Mills: Fuck! Anyway, big insurance policy involved yeah. So the guy took the tip of the blade and stuck it in his own shoulder blades. And he must have screwed up a few times because there was multiples back there.
[Somerset is inspecting the back of the head of the dead obese man]
William Somerset: Could you please be quite.


 

[Somerset is driving in the rain]
David Mills: You’ve read my files, right? You’ve seen the things I’ve done?
William Somerset: Nope.
David Mills: Well I did my time on door to doors and walkin’ beat. I did that shit for a
long time.
William Somerset: And?
David Mills: The badge on my belt says “Detective”. That’s the same as yours.
William Somerset: Look I made a decision. I had to consider the integrity of the scene. Couldn’t worry whether you thought you were getting enough time on the playing field.
David Mills: Hey man, just don’t jerk me off. That’s all I ask. Don’t jerk me off.


 

[in the autopsy room where the obese corpse has been dissected Somerset’s looking in, not believing what he sees]
William Somerset: This man ate till he burst?
Coroner: He didn’t really. Not all the way. He was hemorrhaging internally, and there was a hematoma in the rectus and the transverse abdominals.
David Mills: So he did die by eating?
Coroner: Yes and no.


 

David Mills: Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a homicide.


 

[reading from his notebook to the police captain]
William Somerset: Killer put a bucket beneath him, kept on serving. Took his time too. The coroner said this could have gone on for more than twelve hours. Victim’s throat was swollen, probably from the air and there was definitely a point where he passed out. That’s when the killer kicked him and that’s when he burst.
David Mills: Ooph. Sadistic fucker, huh.


 

William Somerset: I’d like to be reassigned.
Police Captain: What?
David Mills: What?! Woh!
Police Captain: What the hell are you talking about?
William Somerset: This can’t be my last duty. It’s just going to go on and on and on.
Police Captain: You’re retiring, six more days and you’re all the way gone.


 

[Captain walks into Somerset’s office. Somerset doesn’t look up as he’s typing on the typewriter]
Police Captain: Somerset?
William Somerset: Come in.
Police Captain: Have you heard the news?
William Somerset: No, haven’t heard.
Police Captain: Eli Gould was found murdered this morning. Someone broke into his law firm and bled him to death. Wrote the word “Greed” on the floor.
[Somerset stops typing and turns to look at the Captain]
William Somerset: Greed?
Police Captain: Yeah, in blood. Mills is heading up the investigation.


 

Police Captain: I don’t think you’re leaving. You can’t leave all this.
William Somerset: Guy is out walking his dog, gets attached. His watch is taken, his
wallet. While he’s lying there on the sidewalk, his attacker stabs him in both eyes. That’s happened just last night, about four blocks from here.
Police Captain: Yeah. I read about it
William Somerset: I don’t understand this place any longer.
[Somerset saddles up to the typewriter]
Police Captain: It’s the way it’s always been
William Somerset: Maybe you’re right.
Police Captain: You do this work. You were made for and I don’t think you can deny that. Maybe I’m wrong.


 

[in the library Somerset looks up to see the night guards playing poker]
William Somerset: Gentlemen, gentlemen, I’ll never understand. All these books, a world of knowledge at your fingertips, and what do you do? You play poker all night.
Library Guard 1: Hey, we’ve got culture!
Library Guard 2: Yeah, we’ve got culture coming out our asses!
[the other guards laugh, the Library Guard turns on the hi-fi playing classical music]
George, Library Night Guard: How’s this for culture?


 

William Somerset: This was found on the wall, behind the refrigerator in the obesity murder scene.
[hands a note to the Captain to read]
Police captain: Long is the way, and hard, that out of hell leads up to the light.
William Somerset: It’s from Milton. ‘Paradise Lost’.
Police Captain: All right. I’m confused.
William Somerset: It means that this is beginning. This was found behind the same refrigerator, written in grease.
[hold up photo showing the word ‘Gluttony”]
William Somerset: There are seven deadly sins, Captain. Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Pride, Lust and Envy. Seven.
Police Captain: Hold on.
[answers the phone that’s keeps ringing at the desk he’s sat]
Police Captain: This is not even my desk!
[hangs up the phone]
William Somerset: You can expect five more of these.


 

[trying to read Dante’s book of poetry. Gets angry and throws the book aside]
David Mills: Fucking Dante. Goddamn poetry-writing faggott! Piece of shit. Fucker!


 

[Mills greeting his wife after coming home from work with Somerset]
David Mills: Hey, loser.
Tracy Mills: Hi, idiot.


 

William Somerset: I understand you two were high school sweethearts.
Tracy Mills: Mm-hmm. Pretty hokey, huh? You know something? I knew on our first date that this was the guy I was going to marry.
William Somerset: Really?
[nodding her head]
Tracy Mills: Mm-hmm. He’s the funnies guy I’ve ever met.
[looking at Mills unbelievably]
William Somerset: Really. Well, it’s kind of rare now days. I mean that level of commitment.


 

[Somerset takes off his jacket and notices Tracy noticing his gun]
William Somerset: Oh, don’t worry, I won’t wear it to the dinner table.
Tracy Mills: I, uh, you know. No matter how often I see guns, I just, I can’t get used to them.
William Somerset: Same here.


 

[at the dinner table at Mills home]
Tracy Mills: Why aren’t you married, William?
David Mills: Oh, Trace!
William Somerset: I was close once. It just didn’t happen.
Tracy Mills: It surprises me. It really does.
William Somerset: Well, anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable. Just ask your husband.
David Mills: Very true. Very, very true.


 

[at Mills apartment after finishing their meal low rumbling is heard and everything begins to rattle and clatter]
David Mills: The real estate guy, fucking piece of…
[to Tracy]
David Mills: Sorry, honey.
[to Somerset]
David Mills: He shows us the place, a few times. I think it’s good. He’s efficient. Tracy really likes it. Then I start wandering why will he only bring us here for five minutes at a time, yeah?
Tracy Mills: We found out the first night.
William Somerset: A soothing, relaxing, vibrating home.
[Somerset tries to stay straight, but he can’t help laughing and Tracy join in the laughter]


 

[Somerset reads from a photocopy of the note found at Eli Gould’s murder scene]
William Somerset: “One pound of flesh, no more no less. No cartilage, no bone, but only flesh.” Merchant of Venice.
David Mills: Didn’t see it.
[reading from the note]
William Somerset: This task done, and he would go free.
David Mills: Telling you, that chair was soaked through with sweat.
William Somerset: Of course. Killer wanted Gould to take his time. To sit and decide which cut to make first. Imagine it, there’s a gun in your face, which part of your body is expendable?


 

[spreads out the photos of the murder scene]
William Somerset: All right, let’s take a fresh look at these. Even though the corpse is there, look through it. Get it out of the initial shock. The trick is to find one item, one details, and focus on it until it’s an exhausted possibility.


 

William Somerset: He’s preaching.
David Mills: Punishing.
William Somerset: The sins were used in medieval sermons. There were seven cardinal virtues and seven deadly sins, used as teaching tools.
David Mills: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like in, uh, Parson’s tale, in what’s his, uh, Dante.
William Somerset: You read them.
David Mills: Yeah. Well, parts. Hey, you remember in, uh, Purgatory, Dante and his buddy they climb up the hill and check out all the sinners, yeah?
William Somerset: Yeah. Seven Terraces of Purgation.
David Mills: Yeah, yeah, right. Their pride comes first, not gluttony.
William Somerset: Yeah, well for now let’s just consider that the books were the killer’s inspiration. Sermons were about atonement for sin. These murders are like forced attrition.
David Mills: Forced what?
William Somerset: Attrition. It’s when you regret your sins, but not because you love God.
David Mills: More like because someone’s sticking a fucking gun in your face.


 

[discussing Eli Gould’s murder scene]
William Somerset: And no witnesses of any kind?
David Mills: Which I don’t get. Because the fucker had to get back out.
William Somerset: Well in any major city, minding your own business is a science. The first thing they teach women at rape preventions is never cry for “help”. Always yell “fire.” Nobody answers to help. You yell fire and they come running.
David Mills: That’s fucked up.


 

[Somerset and Mills are checking the painting in Eli Gould’s office but can’t find anything]
David Mills: He’s fucking with us, that’s what he’s doing!
[Mills bends over a desk]
David Mills: See this? This is us. Yeah.


 

[whispering to Somerset]
David Mills: Honestly, have you ever seen anything like this?
William Somerset: No.
Fingerprint Forensic Man: Well I could tell you guys, just by looking at the swirl pattern, they’re not the victim’s prints.
[on the wall where the painting once was, there are fingerprints forming the words HELP ME]


 

William Somerset: It doesn’t fit. He doesn’t want us to help him stop.
David Mills: Who knows. So many freaks out there doing their little evil deeds they don’t want to do, “The voices made me do it. My dog made me do it. Jodie Foster told me to do it.”


 

William Somerset: You meant what you said to Mrs. Gould didn’t you? About catching this guy?
David Mills: Yeah.
William Somerset: I wish I still thought the way you do.
David Mills: Well, why don’t you tell me what the hell you think we’re doing.
William Somerset: Picking up the pieces. We’re collecting all the evidence, taking all the pictures and samples. Writing everything down, noting the time things happened.
David Mills: That’s all?
William Somerset: That’s all. Putting everything in a neat little pile and filing it away, on the off chance that it will ever be needed in a courtroom. Picking up diamonds on a deserted island, saving them in case we get rescued.
David Mills: Bullshit!
William Somerset: Even the most promising clues usually only lead to illness. So many corpses role away unrevenged.


 

[Somerset and Mills are fast asleep on the couch, leaning against each other in the precinct hallway]
Police Captain: Wake up, Glimmer Twins. We got a winner.


 

[Captain is giving an explanation of suspect named Victor, whose fingerprints were found in Eli Gould’ office]
David Mills: You’re not buying all this are you?
William Somerset: Does not seem like our guy, does it?
David Mills: You tell me.
William Somerset: Our killer seems to have more purpose.


 

David Mills: Did you ever take a bullet?
[Somerset pulls out his gun, checks the load]
William Somerset: Never in my thirty-four years. Knock wood. I’ve only taken my gun out three times with the intention of using it. Never pulled the trigger. Not once. You?
David Mills: Yeah, but, no, I never, never took a bullet. But I pulled my gun once, shot it once.


 

[as SWAT prepare to breach, clear and break into Victor’s apartment]
Cop on SWAT Team: SWAT goes before dicks.
[to Mills]
William Somerset: They love this.


 

[SWAT have broken into Victor’s apartment moving around the rooms they notice someone lying in bed under a blanket]
California: Get up you sack of shit.
[the other cop pulls the blanket revealing shriveled, sore-covered form of a
man tied to the bed]
California: Oh, fuck me!


 

[Somerset notices the writing on the wall above Victor’s bed]
William Somerset: Sloth.


 

[leans close to Victor thinking he’s dead]
California: [whispers] You got what you deserved.
[Victor suddenly starts to cough and gag, making everyone jump]
California: He’s alive, he’s alive! The fucker’s alive!


 

William Somerset: He’s playing games.
David Mills: Uh, no shit!
William Somerset: We have to divorce ourselves from our emotions here. No matter how hard it is we have to remain focused on the details. Okay?
David Mills: I’m a man that feeds off my emotions. How’s that?
William Somerset: Are you listening to me?!
David Mills: Yes, I can hear you.


 

[reporter tries to take pictures of Mills and Somerset at the crime scene. Mills throws him out of the building]
Reporter: I got your picture man.
David Mills: Oh yeah?
Reporter: I got your picture!
David Mills: Oh Yeah? Detective Mills, M-I-L-L-S, fuck off!


 

[referring to the reporter he just threw out]
David Mills: How do they get here so fucking quick?
William Somerset: They pay police for the information, and they pay well.
David Mills: Hey, man, I’m sorry. I just, they piss me off.
William Somerset: Okay. It’s impressive to see a man feeding off his emotions.


 

[at the hospital where Victor lies inside an oxygen tent]
Dr. Beardsley: A year of immobility seems about right, judging by the deterioration of the muscles and the spine. Blood tests show a whole smorgasbord of drugs in his system. Even an antibiotic, which must have been administered to keep the bed sores from infecting.
David Mills: Now, has he tried to speak or communicate in any way?
Dr. Beardsley: Even if his brain were not mush, which it is, he chewed off his own tongue long ago.
William Somerset: Uh, Doc, is there absolutely no chance that he might survive?
Dr. Beardsley: Detective, he’d die of shock right now if you were to shine a flashlight in his eyes. He’s experienced about as much pain and suffering as anyone I’ve encountered, give or take, and he still has hell to look forward to. Good night.


 

[Tracy and Mills are having a private meeting in a cafe]
William Somerset: Why don’t you tell me what’s really bothering you Tracy.
Tracy Mills: David and I are going to have a baby.
William Somerset: Oh, Tracy, I don’ think I’m the, I’m the one to talk to about this.
[Tracy begins to cry]
Tracy Mills: I hate this city.


 

William Somerset: I had a relationship once. It was very much like a marriage. We got pregnant. This was long time ago. I remember getting up one morning and going to work, just another day like any other, except it was the first day after I knew about the pregnancy, and I felt this fear, for the first time ever. I remember thinking, how can I bring a child into a world like this? How can a person grow up with all this around them? I told her I didn’t want to have it, and over the next few weeks I wore her down.
Tracy Mills: I want to have children.
William Somerset: I can tell you now that I’m, I know, I mean, I’m positive that I made the right decision. But there’s not a day that passes that I don’t wish that I made a different choice. 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 then you spoil that kid every chance you get. That’s about all the advice I can give you Tracy.


 

William Somerset: Victor’s landlord said there was an envelope of cash in the office mailbox on the first of every month.
[reading from his notes]
William Somerset: Quote, “I never heard a single complaint from the tenant in apartment 306 and nobody ever complained about him. He’s the best tenant I’ve ever had.”
David Mills: Yeah, a landlord’s dream. A paralyzed tenant with no tongue.
William Somerset: Who pays the rent on time?

See more Seven Quotes


 

David Mills: Why aren’t we out there? Huh? Why we got to sit here, rotting, waiting until the lunatic does it again?
William Somerset: It’s dismissive to call him a lunatic. Don’t make that mistake again.
David Mills: Come on, he’s insane. Look. Right now he’s probably dancing around in his, in his grandma’s panties, yeah, rubbing himself in peanut butter. Woooh, how’s that?


 

William Somerset: This guy’s methodical, exacting, and worst of all, patient.
David Mills: He’s a nut-bag! Just because of the fucker’s got a library card doesn’t make him Yoda!


 

[reading the list of books taken out of the library flagged up by FBI]
David Mills: Modern Homicide Investigation in Cold Blood, Of Human Bondage…
[looks up at Somerset]
David Mills: Bondage?
William Somerset: Not what you’re thinking.


 

[at John Doe’s apartment building]
William Somerset: We’ll just talk to him.
David Mills: Uh-huh. Excuse me, sir, are you by any chance a serial killer? Okay.
William Somerset: You do the talking. Put that silver tongue of yours to work.
David Mills: Have you been talking to my wife?


 

[chasing John Doe in his apartment building, a man comes out his apartment door]
David Mills: Get out of the fucking hall, police!


 

[Somerset tries to stop Mills from breaking into John Doe’s apartment ]
William Somerset: If we leave a hole like this, we won’t be able to prosecute. The fucking guy will walk. Now, is that what you want?
David Mills: Nah, don’t tell me about warrants, someone’s, nah, fuck that! No! No!
William Somerset: We need a reason to knock on this door. Think about it. Okay?
David Mills: Okay man. Okay. You’re right, I’m all fucked up. You’re right, you’re right.
[then kicks in John Doe’s apartment door]
David Mills: Well, no point in arguing any more. Unless you can fix that.
[pointing to the broken door]
William Somerset: You stupid son of a…
David Mills: How much money we got left?


 

[in John Doe’s apartment, after discovering some photo’s]
David Mills: We had him.
William Somerset: What are you talking about?
David Mills: Fucking photographer in front of the fucking stairs!
[Somerset looks at the photo, a picture of Mills and Somerset on the stairwell of Victor’s apartment building; the picture John took when he posed as a reporter]
David Mills: We had him and we let him go.



William Somerset:
There are two thousand notebooks on these shelves, and each notebook contains about two hundred and fifty pages.

David Mills: I get it. Anything about the killings.
[Somerset looks and reads from one of John Doe’s notebooks]
William Somerset: “What sick ridiculous puppets we are, and what a gross little stage we dance on. What fun we have dancing and fucking, not a care in the world. Not knowing that we are nothing. We are not what was intended.”
[to Mills]
William Somerset: Oh, wait. There’s a lot more.


 

[continues reading]
William Somerset: “On the subway today, a man came up to me to start a conversation. He made small talk, a lonely man talking about the weather and other things. I tried to be pleasant and accommodating, but my head began to hurt from his banality. I almost didn’t notice it had happened, but I suddenly threw up all over him. He was not pleased, and I couldn’t stop laughing.” No dates. Placed on the shelves in no discernible order. Just his mind poured out on paper.
[Mills looks around at all of Doe’s notebooks]
David Mills: It’s like a life’s work.


 

[phone in John Doe’s apartment starts ringing and Mills runs to find the phone]
David Mills: Hello?
John Doe: I admire you. I don’t know how you found me, but imagine my surprise. I respect you law enforcement agents more every day.
David Mills: Well, I appreciate that, John. I tell you…
John Doe: No, no, you listen, alright? I’ll be readjusting my schedule in light of today’s little setback. I just had to call and express my admiration. Sorry I had to hurt one of you, but I didn’t really have a choice, did I?
David Mills: Hmm.
John Doe: You will accept my apology, won’t you? I feel like saying more, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise.
[he hangs up]


 

David Mills: You were right. He’s preaching.
William Somerset: Yeah. These murders are his sermons to us.


 

[Police are in a room where a man was found in a massage parlour with a dead prostitute]
Crazed Man in Massage Parlour: Oh God! Get this thing off of me! Get this thing off of me! Get this thing off of me!


 

[interrogating the man that works in the massage parlour]
David Mills: Do you like what you do for a living? These things you see?
Man in Massage Parlour Booth: No. No, I don’t. But that’s life isn’t it.


 

[Somerset is interrogating the man found with the dead prostitute in the massage parlour]
Crazed Man in Massage Parlour: He-he had a gun. And he made me, he made me do it. He put that thing on me! And then-then he made me wear it! Then he told me, he told me to fuck her, and I did! I fucked her! Oh, God! Oh, God! Oh, God! He had a gun in my mouth! The fucking gun was in my throat! Fuck! Oh, God, God, God. Please, please help me. Please help me.


 

William Somerset: You know, this isn’t going to have a happy ending.


 

William Somerset: If we catch John Doe and he turns out to be the devil, I mean if he’s Satan himself, that might live up to our expectations, but he’s not the devil. He’s just a man.


 

William Somerset: You want to be a champion. Well, let me tell you, people don’t want a champion. They want to eat cheeseburgers, play the lotto and watch television.
David Mills: Hey, how did you get like this? I want to know.
William Somerset: Well, it wasn’t one thing I can tell you that.
David Mills: Go on.
William Somerset: I just don’t think I can continue to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was virtue.
David Mills: You’re no different. You’re no better.
William Somerset: I didn’t say I was different or better. I’m not. Hell, I sympathize, I sympathize completely. Apathy is the solution. I mean, it’s easier to lose yourself in drugs than it is to cope with life. It’s easier to steal what you want than it is to earn it. It’s easier to beat a child than it is to raise it. Hell, love costs. It takes effort and work.
David Mills: We’re talking about who are mentally ill. We are talking about people who are fucking crazies.
William Somerset: No, no, we’re not, no
David Mills: Yes. Today…
William Somerset: We are talking about everyday life here. You can’t afford to be this naive.


 

[to Somerset]
David Mills: The point is, is that I don’t think you’re quitting because you believe these things you say. I don’t. I think you want to believe them, because you’re quitting. And you want me to agree with you, and you want me to say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re right. It’s all fucked up. It’s a fucking mess. We should all go live in a fucking log cabin.” But I won’t. I won’t say that. I don’t agree with you. I do not. I can’t.


 

[Somerset enters from the bathroom, looks at the murder display]
William Somerset: You see what he did?
David Mills: Sliced her up and he bandaged her.
William Somerset: Call for help and you’ll live. But you’ll be disfigured. Or you can put yourself out of your own misery.
David Mills: Come on!
Dr. O’Neill: He cut off her nose…
William Somerset: …to spite her face.
Dr. O’Neill: And he did it very recently.


 

[John Doe walks into the Police precinct; to Mills]
John Doe: Detective. Detective. Detective! You’re looking for me.
[he’s covered in blood and holds he’s hands out to his sides]


 

David Mills: I’m telling you, there’s no way he would just turn himself in. It doesn’t make any sense.
Police Captain: Well, there he sits. It’s not supposed to make any sense.
William Somerset: He’s not finished.
David Mills: No, he’s just pissing in our faces. Just taking it like idiots.
[to Somerset]
David Mills: You know what I’m talking about.
William Somerset: For the first time ever, you and I are in total agreement. He wouldn’t just stop.


 

Mark Swarr: My client says there are two more bodies, two more victims, hidden away. He will take Detectives Mills and Somerset to these bodies, but only Detectives Mills and Somerset. Only at six o’clock today.
David Mills: Why us?
Mark Swarr: He says he admires you.


 

David Mills: Hey, something stinks, and this one here in his three…
[pointing to Swarr]
David Mills: Yeah, you in your three thousand dollar suit and that smug smile on your face, dealing for that piece of shit.
Police Captain: Mills!
Mark Swarr: I’m required by law to serve my clients to the best of my ability…
David Mills: Aah, Jesus Christ!
Mark Swarr: …and to serve their best interests.


 

[to Mills]
Police Captain: It’s your case. Make a decision.
[to Swarr]
David Mills: Full confession. I’m in.
Mark Swarr: It has to be the both of you.
William Somerset: If he were to claim insanity, this conversation is admissible. The fact that he’s blackmailing us with his plea…
Mark Swarr: And my client would like to reminds you, two more are dead. The press would have a field day if they were to find out that the police didn’t seem too concerned about finding them, giving them a proper burial.
William Somerset: If in fact there are two more dead.


 

[to Mills]
William Somerset: If John Doe’s head splits open and a UFO should fly out, I want you to have expected it.


 

[Mills and Somerset are riding in the police car with John Doe in the back]
David Mills: We’re not just going to pick up two more dead bodies, are we John? That wouldn’t be shocking enough. We’ve got newspapers to think about, yeah?
John Doe: Wanting people to listen, you can’t just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strict attention.
David Mills: But the questions is, what makes you so special that people should listen?
John Doe: I’m not special. I’ve never been exceptional. This is though, what I’m doing, my work.


 

David Mills: I’ve been trying to figure something in my head, and maybe you can help me out, yeah? When a person is insane, as you clearly are, do you know that you’re insane? Maybe you’re just sitting around, reading “Guns and Ammo”, masturbating in your own feces, do you just stop and go, “Wow! It is amazing how fucking crazy I really am!”? Yeah. Do you guys do that?
John Doe: It’s more comfortable for you to label me insane.
David Mills: It’s very comfortable.


 

[to John Doe]
William Somerset: If you were chosen, that is, by a higher power, and if your hand was forced, seems strange to me that you would get such enjoyment out of it. You enjoyed torturing those people. Just doesn’t seem in keeping with martyrdom, does it?


 

John Doe: Nothing wrong with a man taking pleasure in his work. I won’t deny my own
personal desire to turn each sin against the sinner.
David Mills: Wait a minute, I thought all you did was kill innocent people.
John Doe: Innocent? Is that supposed to be funny? An obese man, a disgusting man who could barely stand up, a man who if you saw him on the street, you’d point him out to your friends so that they could join you in mocking him, a man, who if you saw him while you were eating, you wouldn’t be able to finish your meal. And after him, I picked the lawyer and you both must have secretly been thanking me for that one. This is a man who dedicated his life to making money by lying with every breath that he could muster to keeping murderers and rapists on the streets!
David Mills: Murderers?
John Doe: A woman…
David Mills: Murderers, John, like yourself?
John Doe: [interrupts] A woman so ugly on the inside that she couldn’t bear to go on living if she couldn’t be beautiful on the outside. A drug dealer, a drug dealing pederast, actually! And let’s not forget the disease-spreading whore! Only in a world this shitty could you even try to say these were innocent people and keep a straight face. But that’s the point. We see a deadly sin on every street corner, in every home, and we tolerate it. We tolerate it because it’s common, it’s trivial. We tolerate it morning, noon, and night. Well, not anymore. I’m setting the example. And what I’ve done is going to be puzzled over and studied and followed forever.


 

John Doe: Realize detective, the only reason that I’m here right now is that I wanted to be.
David Mills: No, no, we would have got you eventually.
John Doe: Oh really? So, what were you doing? Biding your time? Toying with me? Allowing five innocent people to die until you felt like springing your trap? Tell me, what was the indisputable evidence you were going to use on me right before I walked up to you and put my hands in the air?
David Mills: John, calm down. I seem to remember us knocking on your door.
John Doe: Oh, that’s right. And I seem to remember breaking your face. You’re only alive because I didn’t kill you.
David Mills: Okay. Sit back.
John Doe: I spared you.
David Mills: Sit back.
John Doe: Remember that Detective, every time you look in the mirror at that face of yours, for the rest of your life. Or should I say, for the rest of what life I will allow you to have.
David Mills: Sit back! Sit back you fucking freak! Shut your fucking mouth! You’re no messiah. You’re a, you’re a movie of the week. You’re a fucking t-shirt, at best.


 

John Doe: Don’t ask me to pity those people. I don’t mourn them any more than I do the thousands that died at Sodom and Gomorrah.
William Somerset: Is that to say, John, that what you were doing was God’s good work?
John Doe: The Lord works in mysterious ways.


 

[getting out of the car in the middle of the road, Somerset looks at an object in the road]
David Mills: What do you got?
William Somerset: Dead dog.
John Doe: I didn’t do that.


 

[discovering what’s inside the package, delivered for Mills]
William Somerset: California, stay away from here. Stay away from here now, don’t come in here. Whatever you hear, stay away! John Doe has the upper hand! Mills!
[starts running back towards Mills and John Doe]


 

John Doe: Do you hear me Detective. I’m trying to tell you how much I admire you and your pretty wife.
David Mills: What?
John Doe: Tracy.
David Mills: What you fucking say?


 

[to Mills]
John Doe: I visited your home this morning, after you’d left. I tried to play husband. I tried to taste the life of a simple man. It didn’t work out, so I took a souvenir, her pretty head.


 

[to Mills]
William Somerset: Put the gun down.
[throws down his own gun; to Somerset]
David Mills: I saw you with a box. What was in the box?
John Doe: Because I envy your normal life. It seems that envy is my sin.
William Somerset: Put the gun down David.
David Mills: No! What’s in the box?!


 

John Doe: Become vengeance, David. Become wrath.


 

[about Tracy to Mills]
John Doe: She begged for her life, Detective…
William Somerset: Shut up!
John Doe: She begged for her life…
William Somerset: Shut up!
John Doe: …and for the life of the baby inside her.
[Somerset punches him]
John Doe: Oh, he didn’t know.


 

William Somerset: If you kill him, he will win.
[Mills becomes agonized and begins to cry]
David Mills: Oh God! Oh God! Oh…
[he then shoots John Doe in the head several times]


 

[from the chopper overlooking what’s just happened with Mills and John Doe]
California: Holy Christ! Somebody call somebody! Call somebody!


 

[after Mills is taken away in the back of the police car]
Police Captain: Where are you going to be?
William Somerset: Around. I’ll be around.


 

[last lines]
William Somerset: [voice over] Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “The world is a fine place and worth fighting for.” I agree with the second part.

 


Total Quotes: 84

 

Filed Under: Movie Quotes

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