Originally Posted by Paff

Seven (yeah, I refuse to call it "Se7en"... except I just did. Oh well) absolutely needs to take place in an unnamed city. Because the movie is so grim, so pessimistic, so hopeless, you'd lose that if it were a familiar metropolis. Like if it were LA you could just say, well eventually it'll be sunny again, and you can take a bus to Venice Beach. Repeat for any major city. It's presumed that the city of Seven must have some upscale cultural area, but because we don't know the exact city we are unable to pinpoint it. And thus, the pervasive pessimism that has let Somerset become so jaded is passed on to the viewer. Putting Seven in a known city is like watching Memento in reverse (which I'm aware can be done on the deluxe edition DVD); you rob the film of the very effect it's trying to achieve.

Originally Posted by movieguru

As I recall, there was an elevated "monorail" type public train system, so I always thought it took place in Chicago.

Originally Posted by slop101

What's funny is I saw it when it first came out, and that was all I could think about. Throughout the whole movie, the fact that they never addressed the location (real or not) bugged the fucking shit out of me - it seemed like a really lazy writer's device to me and it made me disconnect and kept me from liking the movie initially. I ended up getting over it, but it's still kinda lazy and annoying just because I need some point of reference, and none is given. Even Star Wars gave us "long ago and far away", which was just enough.

Originally Posted by AdzzyC

When Mills and Somerset meet the FBI guy in the dinner clearly in the background you can see New York Pizza.

Originally Posted by Kwilcox777

it actually is New York is the city where it is supposed to take place. In one scene in the restaurant it has "New York Piggy" and another address shown is in NY.

Originally Posted by slop101

Yup, this is totally just outside of New York...

Originally Posted by Nick Danger

Two drive-by posters bumping an old thread to vote for NYC.