Why the movie is called Seven Pounds
The movie is called Seven Pounds because that is the number of people that Ben helps, throughout the movie, which are Holly, George, Connie, young Nicholas, Ezra, Emily and his brother, not counting the older lady Inez, who Ben orders to be washed at the nursing home, since she wasn’t on his original list.
The title also referrers to a play of William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, in which the merchant Antonio agrees to, pay the loan shark Shylock a pound of his own flesh, if he doesn’t pay his debt on time. In the movie, Ben literally pays all his seven ‘debts’ in flesh, hence the title Seven Pounds.
The end of Seven Pounds
In the end of Seven Pounds, Ben calls his friend Dan and tells him that it’s time. He then commits suicide, by lowering himself in a bathtub, containing the poisonous Box jellyfish. After his death, Ben has arranged it so that Emily Prosa will get his heart and Ezra Turner receives his corneas.
Dan’s part of this setup is to overlook the donor procedure, which is why Ben calls him, before he kills himself.
Trifling Facts
Will Smith doesn’t actually play the character Ben Thomas; he plays Tim Thomas, who has stolen his brothers’ identity and impersonates, Ben Thomas. Michael Ealy is the one who plays the real Ben Thomas.
A clue to the end for the movie lies in Woody Harrelson’s character, Ezra, which in Hebrew means help or assistance.
In the real world, the poison from a Box jellyfish would have made Ben’s organs useless for transplant, and the jellyfish hadn’t survived in a tank of water, for a whole week, either. Besides, the poison from that jellyfish is treatable, as well.