Stories from the set

The production team at «New Line Cinema» did not want to put the film into production for a long time because of its ending. A whole range of alternative endings was discussed (at least five), but the final word remained with Brad Pitt — he refused to take part in the filming if the film's ending were changed.

During filming, Morgan Freeman would draw his gun from its holster with his finger on the trigger. Police officers present on set as technical advisors quickly corrected the actor, pointing out his mistake.

Early versions of the script featured a strange, gnome-like woman who was part of the investigation team. After each murder, she would go to the crime scene, swear horribly, and make biting jokes at the expense of Somerset and Mills.

An early version of the script had references to Mills' partner named Parsons. He was killed during a police raid. But the filmmakers decided to get rid of this storyline and removed all mentions of Parsons from the script before filming began.

All of John Doe's books are real, written specifically for the film. It took about two months and 15 thousand dollars to write them.

Somerset's metronome ticks seven times during the first scene of the film.

Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker worked on the script for about two years. In addition, Andrew played a cameo role — he was the first corpse shown in the film.

The role of John Doe could have gone to R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe.

Morgan Freeman's son, Alfonso, appeared in a cameo role as a fingerprint technician.

In the first frames of the film, all house numbers begin with the digit 7.