Alternate ending

The film’s climax, where David Mills is provoked into ending John Doe's life after discovering his wife’s fate, wasn’t always the planned ending.

Initially, Detective Somerset was meant to do the deed, but Brad Pitt strongly believed that Mills had to be the one to do it.

He argued that in such a situation, anyone would act on raw emotion rather than reason.

Reflecting on his stance, Pitt later explained: “He’s got to do it. He doesn’t do the ‘right’ thing, he does the thing of passion.”