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  • Morgan Freeman in a dinner jacket on the red carpet, 1990
    Morgan Freeman at the Academy Awards in March 1990, four years before he played Somerset. No free photograph of him from 1994 or 1995 was found. Photograph: Alan Light. Alan Light · CC BY 2.0
    1Somerset · Morgan Freeman, 1990
  • A ten-storey brick and stone office block on a downtown corner
    The Pacific Electric Building at Sixth and Main in 2009. Photograph: Publichall. Publichall · CC BY-SA 3.0
    2610 S. Main
  • A tall brick hotel on a street corner with signs on its roof
    The Hotel Alexandria at Spring and Fifth in July 2008, under renovation. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons user Los Angeles. Los Angeles (Wikimedia Commons user) · CC BY-SA 3.0
    3501 S. Spring
  • Brad Pitt in a cap and jacket signing autographs, 2001
    Brad Pitt at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, in December 2001, six years after he played Mills. No free photograph of him from 1994 or 1995 was found. US Air Force photograph. Airman 1st Class Tanaya M. Harms, US Air Force · Public domain
    4Mills · Brad Pitt, 2001
  • A tall Beaux Arts bank building with columns on a downtown corner
    The old Bank of America building at Spring and Seventh in 2008. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons user Los Angeles. Los Angeles (Wikimedia Commons user) · CC BY-SA 3.0
    5650 S. Spring
  • A large brick hotel with twin towers above a city square
    The Biltmore over Pershing Square in 2006. Photograph: Chris Eason. Chris Eason · CC BY 2.0
    6506 S. Grand
  • Flat desert scrub under a dark storm sky
    The Antelope Valley in the high desert round Lancaster, under a passing storm, in 2009. Photograph: Rennett Stowe. Rennett Stowe · CC BY 2.0
    7W. Avenue I · the last day

Se7en

David Fincher’s film, 1995. Its city has no name and nearly no sun: it is downtown Los Angeles in the winter rain, printed with the silver left in. The last day is the only dry one, in the desert.

The lab

Skip the bleach.

Khondji wanted deeper blacks and quieter colour, so the film went through the colour baths and was then processed again as black and white, to put back the silver the bleach normally takes out. It was slow and expensive: only a few hundred of the 2,500 release prints were made that way. Run each real place through the baths. Keep the lever on and the print keeps its silver.

Where we read it
  1. DevelopThe colour image comes up.
  2. BleachSkipped: the silver stays.
  3. FixMakes the image permanent.
  4. WashClears the chemistry.

Nothing printed yet. The first print is Pacific Electric Building.

The tanks are full and the line is empty. Run the first print: it is the police station.

The drying line · 0 of 10 places printed

A ten-storey brick and stone office block on a downtown corner
The Pacific Electric Building at Sixth and Main in 2009. Photograph: Publichall. Publichall · CC BY-SA 3.0

Sixth and Main

A railway terminal.

The squad room where Somerset and Mills work was not a police station. It was the third floor of the Pacific Electric Building, opened in 1905 as the station and headquarters of the Pacific Electric Railway. The precinct’s front door was a biscuit factory out in the Arts District.

  • 1905Pacific Electric terminal · the squad room
  • 1925National Biscuit Company · the precinct door
Where we read it
A ten-storey brick and stone office block on a downtown corner
The Pacific Electric Building at Sixth and Main in 2009. Photograph: Publichall. Publichall · CC BY-SA 3.0

The squad room

610 South Main Street at Sixth Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles

Pacific Electric Building

The police station’s offices, where Somerset and Mills work, were filmed on the third floor.

It opened on 15 January 1905 as the station and headquarters of the Pacific Electric Railway, designed by Thornton Fitzhugh.

For many decades its ten floors held more floor space than any building west of Chicago; the Jonathan Club took the top three.

In 1914, 1,626 scheduled trains a day entered or left Los Angeles at its Main Street Station.

Apartments now. See it from the corner of Main and Sixth.

Where we read it
A seven-storey cream factory building on an industrial street corner
The old National Biscuit Company building from the corner of Mateo Street in 2012, by then the Biscuit Company Lofts. Photograph: Downtowngal. Downtowngal · CC BY-SA 3.0

The precinct door

1850 Industrial Street at Mateo Street, Arts District, Los Angeles (the film used 673 Mateo Street)

Biscuit Company Lofts

Its Mateo Street side played the outside of the police precinct.

It was built in 1925, for $2 million, as the west-coast headquarters of the National Biscuit Company, designed by Eckel & Aldrich.

It became 104 live/work lofts in 2006–07 and was declared a Historic-Cultural Monument in 2007.

Private apartments. See the building from Mateo and Industrial streets.

Where we read it
Los Angeles Conservancy

Historic Downtown walking tour

Historic Core, Los Angeles · $25 · members and under-18s $18 · Saturdays

About two hours and a mile and a half through the Historic Core, starting at Pershing Square and ending near Grand Central Market. Registration required; stairs and hills.

Book a Saturday

West Fifth Street, between Main and Spring

Fifth Street.

Three of the film’s doors are on one block and a half of Fifth. Walk it.

A grand hotel lobby with columns, a gallery and a tiled floor, 1917
The lobby of the Hotel Rosslyn at Fifth and Main, as published in 1917. Published for John B. Parkinson, architect · Public domain

112 West Fifth Street

Hotel Rosslyn

The police station lobby: John Doe walks in here.

At 112 West Fifth: Hotel Rosslyn.

Where we read it
A grand hotel lobby with columns, a gallery and a tiled floor, 1917
The lobby of the Hotel Rosslyn at Fifth and Main, as published in 1917. Published for John B. Parkinson, architect · Public domain

The lobby

112 West Fifth Street at Main Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles

Hotel Rosslyn

Its lobby played the police station lobby where John Doe walks in.

The 800-room hotel opened in 1914; its twin, the Rosslyn Annex across the street, followed in 1923. Both carried huge glowing signs with a heart, for the Hart brothers who owned them.

The annex’s rooftop sign read New Million Dollar Hotel, and Wim Wenders filmed The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) inside it.

Apartments now (the Rosslyn Lofts). See it from Fifth and Main.

Where we read it
A tall brick hotel on a street corner with signs on its roof
The Hotel Alexandria at Spring and Fifth in July 2008, under renovation. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons user Los Angeles. Los Angeles (Wikimedia Commons user) · CC BY-SA 3.0

The door and the chase

501 South Spring Street at Fifth Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles (the film’s door was 218 West Fifth)

Hotel Alexandria

It played John Doe’s apartment building. The chase runs through its Mezzanine Ballroom, across Fifth Street past Frank Court and the Chester Williams Building, and into the alley behind.

It opened on 12 February 1906 as the first luxury hotel in downtown Los Angeles, designed by John B. Parkinson, at a cost of $2 million.

It became apartments in 2005; it is still used for events and film shoots, and its Palm Court ballroom is a Historic-Cultural Monument.

Apartments and an event space. See it from Spring and Fifth.

Where we read it

Where the detectives read, wait and talk

Other rooms.

Away from the station, the film keeps to ordinary rooms: a library at night, a car outside a hotel, a coffee shop, a café on a famous corner. One of them, the Ambassador, has since been pulled down.

  1. Read
    A tall Beaux Arts bank building with columns on a downtown corner
    The old Bank of America building at Spring and Seventh in 2008. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons user Los Angeles. Los Angeles (Wikimedia Commons user) · CC BY-SA 3.0

    650 South Spring Street at Seventh Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles

    The old Bank of America building

    The city library, where Somerset reads up on the seven deadly sins at night, was filmed in this disused bank.

    It is also called the Hellman Bank Building, and stands at 650–660 South Spring Street and 117 West 7th Street.

    It is part of the Spring Street Financial District, the stretch from just north of Fourth to just south of Seventh nicknamed the Wall Street of the West.

    See it from the corner of Spring and Seventh.

    Where we read it
  2. Wait
    A large brick hotel with twin towers above a city square
    The Biltmore over Pershing Square in 2006. Photograph: Chris Eason. Chris Eason · CC BY 2.0

    506 South Grand Avenue, facing Pershing Square, Los Angeles

    The Biltmore

    Mills waits in his car by the car park entrance behind the hotel, on Grand Avenue, when the Cliff’s Notes are handed in.

    It opened on 1 October 1923 as the largest hotel west of Chicago, with 1,500 rooms; it has 683 now.

    The Academy was founded at a banquet in its Crystal Ballroom in May 1927, and eight Oscar ceremonies were held in its Biltmore Bowl.

    A working hotel. The film used the car park entrance at the back, on Grand Avenue.

    Where we read it
  3. Breakfast
    A band on a lit stage seen over a crowd
    A show at the Teragram Ballroom in October 2021: Wolf Alice on stage. Photograph: Justin Higuchi. Justin Higuchi · CC BY 2.0

    1234 West Seventh Street, Westlake, Los Angeles (the coffee shop was 1238)

    Teragram Ballroom

    Tracy and Somerset meet for breakfast at a coffee shop: the Quality Coffee Shop on West Seventh Street.

    The coffee shop is now part of the Teragram Ballroom, an extension of the 1913 Playhouse theatre next door.

    The ballroom puts on all-ages shows, with doors at 7pm.

    A music venue; doors at 7pm on show nights, tickets through its own site.

    Where we read it
  4. Talk
    A busy intersection with palm trees and old office blocks
    Hollywood and Vine in December 2000, looking east from the south-west corner. Photograph: Ken Lund. Ken Lund · CC BY-SA 2.0

    6300 Hollywood Boulevard at Vine Street, Hollywood (the café was at 6302)

    Hollywood and Vine

    Somerset and Mills meet a contact who once worked for the FBI in a café here, New York Pizza. It is now part of the Katsuya restaurant, which also took in Erny’s Best Deli on Vine.

    The corner was known from the 1920s for its radio and film businesses, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame is centred on it.

    The café is now part of a restaurant on the corner; the Walk of Fame is on the pavement outside.

    Where we read it
  5. Gone
    A postcard of a hotel entrance gate with palms and a lawn
    The Ambassador Hotel’s entrance gate on Wilshire Boulevard, on a postcard sent in 1959. The hotel was demolished in 2005–06. Colourphoto, Boston (postcard) · Public domain

    3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Koreatown, Los Angeles (now the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools)

    The Ambassador Hotel site

    One of the hotel’s bungalows was used for the safe house scene.

    Designed by Myron Hunt, it opened on 1 January 1921; its Cocoanut Grove nightclub was a Los Angeles landmark, and it hosted six Oscar ceremonies.

    It closed to guests in 1989 and was demolished in 2005–06.

    Schools stand on the site now, with a replica of the Cocoanut Grove inside and a pocket park along Wilshire Boulevard.

    Working schools. See the site from the pocket park on Wilshire Boulevard. The hotel is gone; the photograph is a 1959 postcard.

    Where we read it
Discover Los Angeles

The Biltmore Los Angeles

Pershing Square, Downtown Los Angeles

The 1923 hotel on Pershing Square, 683 rooms, where the Academy was founded. Mills waits behind it on Grand Avenue; the bank, Fifth Street and the Pacific Electric Building are a short walk.

Read about the hotel
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Flat desert scrub under a dark storm sky
The Antelope Valley in the high desert round Lancaster, under a passing storm, in 2009. Photograph: Rennett Stowe. Rennett Stowe · CC BY 2.0

West of Lancaster

The dry day.

After a city of rain, the film ends in sun, in open desert under the transmission lines. The rain on the shoot was real and Fincher kept it; the sunlight was saved for the opening and the end.

Where we read it
Flat desert scrub under a dark storm sky
The Antelope Valley in the high desert round Lancaster, under a passing storm, in 2009. Photograph: Rennett Stowe. Rennett Stowe · CC BY 2.0

The last day

West Avenue I just east of 110th Street West, west of Lancaster, Los Angeles County

West Avenue I, under the pylons

The ending was filmed under the transmission towers on West Avenue I, west of Lancaster, in almost featureless desert.

The towers interfered with the crew’s radios, so the actors took their cues by mobile phone.

Sunlight appears only in the opening and closing sequences.

Lancaster, a city of 173,516 people in 2020, is in the Antelope Valley in the western Mojave Desert.

A public road through open desert, with no services. Stop only where it is safe to pull right off.

Where we read it
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The people

Who made it.

  • Morgan Freeman in a dinner jacket on the red carpet, 1990
    Morgan Freeman at the Academy Awards in March 1990, four years before he played Somerset. No free photograph of him from 1994 or 1995 was found. Photograph: Alan Light. Alan Light · CC BY 2.0
    Morgan FreemanSomerset · shown 1990
  • Brad Pitt in a cap and jacket signing autographs, 2001
    Brad Pitt at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, in December 2001, six years after he played Mills. No free photograph of him from 1994 or 1995 was found. US Air Force photograph. Airman 1st Class Tanaya M. Harms, US Air Force · Public domain
    Brad PittMills · shown 2001
  • Gwyneth Paltrow with her hair up, smiling, 2000
    Gwyneth Paltrow at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2000, five years after she played Tracy Mills. Photograph: Jared Purdy. Jared Purdy; derivative by Tabercil · CC BY-SA 3.0
    Gwyneth PaltrowTracy Mills · shown 2000
  • David Fincher in glasses and a dark jacket, 2012
    David Fincher in Paris in January 2012, seventeen years after Se7en. No free photograph of him from the 1990s was found. Photograph: Elen Nivrae. Elen Nivrae · CC BY 2.0
    David Fincherdirector · shown 2012

David Fincher directed Andrew Kevin Walker’s script for Arnold Kopelson and Phyllis Carlyle. Darius Khondji shot it, Arthur Max designed it, Richard Francis-Bruce cut it and Howard Shore wrote the score; Kyle Cooper made the titles. Kevin Spacey, R. Lee Ermey, John C. McGinley and Richard Roundtree are in it too. Fincher had wanted Oakland; the schedule kept it all in downtown Los Angeles. New Line released it on 22 September 1995.

  • 12 Dec 1994first day of shooting
  • 10 Mar 1995last day
  • 127minutes
  • $327.3mworldwide box office
Where we read it

Go there.

Where it is now

10 places on the map: 6 downtown, 3 west of downtown and in Hollywood, and 1 in the desert. Most are homes or offices now; see them from the street.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Apartments now. See it from the corner of Main and Sixth.

  • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Private apartments. See the building from Mateo and Industrial streets.

  • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. See it from the corner of Spring and Seventh.

  • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Apartments and an event space. See it from Spring and Fifth.

  • General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Apartments now (the Rosslyn Lofts). See it from Fifth and Main.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working hotel. The film used the car park entrance at the back, on Grand Avenue.

  1. A ten-storey brick and stone office block on a downtown corner
    The Pacific Electric Building at Sixth and Main in 2009. Photograph: Publichall. Publichall · CC BY-SA 3.0

    610 South Main Street at Sixth Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles

    Pacific Electric Building

    The police station’s offices, where Somerset and Mills work, were filmed on the third floor.

    Apartments now. See it from the corner of Main and Sixth.

    Where we read it
  2. A seven-storey cream factory building on an industrial street corner
    The old National Biscuit Company building from the corner of Mateo Street in 2012, by then the Biscuit Company Lofts. Photograph: Downtowngal. Downtowngal · CC BY-SA 3.0

    1850 Industrial Street at Mateo Street, Arts District, Los Angeles (the film used 673 Mateo Street)

    Biscuit Company Lofts

    Its Mateo Street side played the outside of the police precinct.

    Private apartments. See the building from Mateo and Industrial streets.

    Where we read it
  3. A tall Beaux Arts bank building with columns on a downtown corner
    The old Bank of America building at Spring and Seventh in 2008. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons user Los Angeles. Los Angeles (Wikimedia Commons user) · CC BY-SA 3.0

    650 South Spring Street at Seventh Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles

    The old Bank of America building

    The city library, where Somerset reads up on the seven deadly sins at night, was filmed in this disused bank.

    See it from the corner of Spring and Seventh.

    Where we read it
  4. A tall brick hotel on a street corner with signs on its roof
    The Hotel Alexandria at Spring and Fifth in July 2008, under renovation. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons user Los Angeles. Los Angeles (Wikimedia Commons user) · CC BY-SA 3.0

    501 South Spring Street at Fifth Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles (the film’s door was 218 West Fifth)

    Hotel Alexandria

    It played John Doe’s apartment building. The chase runs through its Mezzanine Ballroom, across Fifth Street past Frank Court and the Chester Williams Building, and into the alley behind.

    Apartments and an event space. See it from Spring and Fifth.

    Where we read it
  5. A grand hotel lobby with columns, a gallery and a tiled floor, 1917
    The lobby of the Hotel Rosslyn at Fifth and Main, as published in 1917. Published for John B. Parkinson, architect · Public domain

    112 West Fifth Street at Main Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles

    Hotel Rosslyn

    Its lobby played the police station lobby where John Doe walks in.

    Apartments now (the Rosslyn Lofts). See it from Fifth and Main.

    Where we read it
  6. A large brick hotel with twin towers above a city square
    The Biltmore over Pershing Square in 2006. Photograph: Chris Eason. Chris Eason · CC BY 2.0

    506 South Grand Avenue, facing Pershing Square, Los Angeles

    The Biltmore

    Mills waits in his car by the car park entrance behind the hotel, on Grand Avenue, when the Cliff’s Notes are handed in.

    A working hotel. The film used the car park entrance at the back, on Grand Avenue.

    Where we read it

Stay

On Pershing Square.

The 1923 hotel behind which Mills waits, a walk from every downtown place.

Discover Los Angeles

The Biltmore Los Angeles

Pershing Square, Downtown Los Angeles

The 1923 hotel on Pershing Square, 683 rooms, where the Academy was founded. Mills waits behind it on Grand Avenue; the bank, Fifth Street and the Pacific Electric Building are a short walk.

Read about the hotel

Go there

Walk the Historic Core.

The Conservancy’s Saturday walk from Pershing Square, and tours of downtown and Hollywood.

Los Angeles Conservancy

Historic Downtown walking tour

Historic Core, Los Angeles · $25 · members and under-18s $18 · Saturdays

About two hours and a mile and a half through the Historic Core, starting at Pershing Square and ending near Grand Central Market. Registration required; stairs and hills.

Book a Saturday
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Downtown Los Angeles

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Hollywood

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What’s on

A show at the coffee shop.

The old Quality Coffee Shop is a music venue now.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

Two posters and the score.

Original 1995 posters from our store, and Howard Shore’s score.

Printed Originals · Our poster store

Seven (1995) — US one-sheet

An original 1995 US one-sheet, 27 × 40 in (68.6 × 101.6 cm). Rolled, mint. Available framed.

In stock

View poster
Printed Originals · Our poster store

Seven (1995) — French grande

An original 1995 French grande, 47 × 63 in (119.4 × 160 cm). Rolled, mint.

In stock

View poster
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Seven (The Score)

Howard Shore · CD, Concorde Records, 1995

Howard Shore’s score, released in 1995.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The print record

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

10 of 10 places · 14 of 14 Moments

  • Pacific Electric Building

    610 South Main Street at Sixth Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles

    • The squad room

      The police station’s offices are filmed on the third floor of the Pacific Electric Building.

    • A railway terminal opens

      The Pacific Electric Building opens as the railway’s Main Street Station and headquarters.

  • Biscuit Company Lofts

    1850 Industrial Street at Mateo Street, Arts District, Los Angeles (the film used 673 Mateo Street)

    • The precinct door

      The old biscuit factory on Mateo Street plays the outside of the precinct.

  • The old Bank of America building

    650 South Spring Street at Seventh Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles

    • A night in the library

      A disused bank on Spring Street plays the city library where Somerset reads.

  • Hotel Alexandria

    501 South Spring Street at Fifth Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles (the film’s door was 218 West Fifth)

    • The chase

      John Doe’s building and the chase through the Mezzanine Ballroom, across Fifth Street and into the alley.

    • The first luxury hotel

      The Alexandria opens, downtown’s first luxury hotel.

  • Hotel Rosslyn

    112 West Fifth Street at Main Street, Historic Core, Los Angeles

    • He walks in

      The Rosslyn’s lobby plays the police station lobby where John Doe walks in.

  • The Biltmore

    506 South Grand Avenue, facing Pershing Square, Los Angeles

    • The Cliff’s Notes

      Mills waits in his car behind the Biltmore, on Grand Avenue.

    • The Academy is founded

      The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is founded at a banquet in the Crystal Ballroom.

  • Teragram Ballroom

    1234 West Seventh Street, Westlake, Los Angeles (the coffee shop was 1238)

    • Breakfast with Tracy

      Tracy and Somerset meet at the Quality Coffee Shop on West Seventh Street.

  • Hollywood and Vine

    6300 Hollywood Boulevard at Vine Street, Hollywood (the café was at 6302)

    • The contact at the café

      Somerset and Mills meet a former FBI contact at New York Pizza, Hollywood and Vine.

  • The Ambassador Hotel site

    3400 Wilshire Boulevard, Koreatown, Los Angeles (now the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools)

    • The safe house

      A bungalow of the Ambassador Hotel is used for the safe house scene.

    • The Ambassador comes down

      The Ambassador Hotel is demolished and schools are built on the site.

  • West Avenue I, under the pylons

    West Avenue I just east of 110th Street West, west of Lancaster, Los Angeles County

    • Under the pylons

      The ending is filmed under the transmission towers on West Avenue I, in sunlight.

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