The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal is a film directed by Ingmar Bergman, most notable for the scene in which a medieval knight (played by Max von Sydow) plays chess with the personification of Death, with his life resting on the outcome of the game.

The title is a reference to the passage from the Book of Revelation used at the start of the film, beginning with the words "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour".

Parodies of The Seventh Seal

The concept of playing games with Death has been used (and spoofed) many times since Bergman's movie. Woody Allen, a long-time Bergman fan, made a short film that deliberately spoofed this famous movie scene, in which a young couple challenge Death to a game of badminton.

The scene has also been spoofed in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, in which Bill and Ted beat Death at Battleship and Twister, among other games; and Death constantly changes the terms: best two out of three, best three out of five, etc.