Gwyneth Paltrow’s head doesn’t appear in Seven… but it appears in another movie!

“What’s in this package? What’s in this package?”

Warning, spoilers! This article describes the ending of “Seven” (1995) as well as the main elements of the film “Contagious” (2011). Proceed at your own risk.

Years pass and the third act of Seven is still with us – a confused Brad Pitt shouts the symbol “What’s in this package?“or”what’s in the box” for fans of the original version. And the contents of this package are enough to test our nerves and turn our stomachs. The level of tension and confusion that David Fincher’s thriller generates from the moment John Doe decides to go to the police station until he completes his macabre plan in the middle of nowhere is possible only for a very few filmmakers who adhere to the maxim “the offer is better.” rather than a show.”

Almost 30 years after the release of the film Brad Pitt And Morgan Freeman, we’re talking about Gwyneth Paltrow’s severed head again, wrapped in a box for the occasion. But Fincher, a master of manipulation, with his filming and editing, managed to convince many viewers that they really saw Tracy’s face during the film’s climax. And yet it’s not: we never see it, the director has chosen to focus on the emotional viscerality of the scene to trick us.

But that doesn’t mean he didn’t consider playing the macabre card in the first place: in fact, the film crew created a hyper-realistic replica of the actor’s head, which gathered dust in a warehouse… until Steven Soderbergh decided to remake it some 15 years later! It was the pandemic (and prophetic?) thriller Contagion, in which the character Gwyneth PaltrowBeth meets an unpleasant fate earlier than expected and dies in the first scene of the film.

One of Soderbergh’s priorities when making his film was scientific rigor, and so he and his screenwriter Scott Z. Burns researched it to get elaborate scenes like Betty’s autopsy. In order to save the actor from this ordeal in the feature film and save a few dollars, the director and his team chose to restore the prop. seven And give it a second life… or a second death, depending on your vision.

So yes, you finally saw the severed head Gwyneth PaltrowBut not in the movie you thought!

Seven are available on VOD. To re-watch Contagion, go to Netflix.