MovieChat Forums > Se7en (1995) Discussion > What City?

What City?

posted 9 years ago by JustCuriosity
14 replies | jump to latest

I wonder what city folks think that Se7en is supposed to be in? They never say what city it is, perhaps to make the story more universal and more unreal. They always refer to "this city." It was mostly filmed in Los Angeles. But it doesn't really seem like Los Angeles. It seems far too dark for L.A. really. It seems more east coast and older and grimy, really more like New York City. At one point Tracy refers to "upstate" which is the way New Yorkers often speak about the the rest of the state. There is one problem with New York since they leave the "city" at the end of the film and drive a short distance and they are in the desert. That doesn't exist on the East Coast. It is obviously the Mojave Desert. In some sense, I think it is meant to be completely unreal, but wondered what others thought?

[–] EnnJaySee 9 years ago

and it rained pretty much the entire time except for the end!

#TheBull

[–] jbaddock 9 years ago

I isn't meant to be any city at all - even the road signs towards the end only refer to the 'City Limits'. It's any city and every city, a microcosm of the *beep* world' we live in. It's the same idea that John Doe is basically anonymous, or even Everyman. It's not so much unreal, more the notion that these sort of things could happen in any city anywhere in the world. Bottom line is that is doesn't matter what city this is set in, because, basically, they're all the same.

[–] thewolfchild 8 years ago

Filmed in L.A.

Based on New York.

Deliberately ambiguous.

Wolf

"I Drank What?!" - Socrates

[–] Ray_Tango 8 years ago

The hilly desert landscape of the eastern county areas gives it away. California's southern counties can also get rainy and gloomy during the late winter months between January and April. However, Fincher did a commendable job maintaining a level of anonymity to the city throughout a majority of the film's running time. He clearly wanted to make sure that the audience remembers this can happen in any major metropolitan city, and the killer can easily get away with it (if intelligent enough).

Action Hero's Anthem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9Cpb61R-4U

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

The city is very much anonymous(I was thinking Portland Oregon or Vancouver Canada for parts)...but those wide open spaces at the end look like the barren Bakersfield area 100 miles north of LA, to me.

That same area -- less the power lines -- is where Cary Grant ran from the crop duster in Hitchcock's North by Northwest. If I'm right.

But am I wrong?

[–] regahsof 8 years ago

Thought New York, too. The sign when they are leaving says pop. 8 million something, which is NYC's population (although the sign also said est. 1926 or something).

[–] travise1986 8 years ago

I was under the impression it was filmed in LA and Philadelphia.

[–] rvatcherka 7 years ago

Go back and look at the street signs. They all pount to LA. Also Somerset says something to the effect of stay out of here California John Doe has the upper hand now.

[–] 7 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Twerk_Stain 7 years ago

^that

The entire theme is about a 'John Doe in your city'. Any person, wherever you live. It goes further with that in terms of the victims in that they're relateable to any city. Obese people, powerful attorneys, drug dealers/pedos, hookers, vanity, the nutty jealous type, and dudes with bad tempers...

literally...any city.

The twist is only that the plot starts completely anonymous and then gets personal between characters involved. The overall setting remains anonymous entirely, though.

[–] Theshornwonder 7 years ago

Don't they say Mills transferred from Buffalo or upstate? Something like that indicates New York, though it's more like "Gotham" than the real New York. "California" was the name of the SWAT team. The desert however, does point to California or Nevada.