John Kramer

"I want to play a game."

- Jigsaw

Jigsaw, whose real name is John Kramer, is the main antagonist in the Saw series.

He is portrayed by Tobin Bell.

Biography
Jigsaw is a former civil engineer who was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and knowing that he would die soon, became irritated by the fact that people don't appreciate the life they are living. He never encouraged the name Jigsaw or used it himself, but was given the nickname since he always cut a jigsaw shape into the bodies of his victims to symbolise that a piece of their soul was missing. Like Hannibal Lecter, Jigsaw is incredibly knowledgeable and cunning, and targets lowlifes, but unlike Hannibal, he gives his victims a second--gruesome--chance. Jigsaw puts people in elaborate death traps out of materials he finds (being a skilled engineer) and considers the survivors rehabilitated. He is a criminal mastermind and often wears a pig mask when capturing his victims to conceal his identity. Jigsaw has a Protégé named Amanda Young--one of Jigsaw's first victims, who saw him as her saviour and wanted to become his apprentice. After her death, Jigsaw was succeeded by Mark Hoffman, his other secret apprentice. Jigsaw also owns a puppet--initially built by Jigsaw as a toy for his unborn son, but with a less horrific design--who speaks for Jigsaw's victims and tells them the rules of his sick, twisted games.

Origin
Jigsaw was a psychotic killer (technically he never directly harmed anyone, except when he slashed Tapp's throat--he survived), who had a tendency for wearing his black and red robe (Amanda wore a similar robe in Saw III). He got his nickname because he cuts a puzzle shaped piece of flesh from victims who didn't survive (symbolizing their missing survival instincts). He was devoted to his wife named Jill and almost had a son (Gideon); she'd had a miscarriage after being hit in the stomach from a door by Cecil Adams--a drug addict at John's rehab clinic, who became John's first victim--turning John detached and angry (then being diagnosed with cancer) John then attempted suicide, but failed and became the Jigsaw killer. He was a clever and cunning, he used traps for his victims, when his body was dissected they found a tape recording that even though he is dead the murders will not stop. He had colon cancer and was slowly dying (also from nearly being beaten to death from Eric Mathews, father of one of his victims), but he was killed by Jeff Reinhart--the same man who killed his apprentice--in a test which he failed.

Saw
''"Yes, I'm sick, officer. Sick from the disease eating away at me inside. Sick of people who don't appreciate their blessings. Sick of those who scoff at the suffering of others. I'm sick of it all!"

- ~Jigsaw ''

Adam Stanheight/Faulkner a photographer, and Lawrence Gordon, a doctor, wakeup at opposite ends of a grimy, old bathroom (Adam in a water-filled bathtub). Both men are chained at the ankle to the pipes. Betweenthem lies a corpse holding a revolver and a cassette recorder. Adam and Lawrence discover tapes in their pockets; the men learn from both tapes that Adam must escape the bathroom, while Lawrence must kill Adam before six o'clock, or he'll lose his wife and daughter and be left to die. Adam finds a bag hidden in a toilet tank containing two hacksaws, they attempt to cut through the chains, though neither is successful, Lawrence realizes that they are meant to be used on their feet.

           "He doesn't want us to cut through our chains...He wants us to cut through our feet..."

                        ~Lawrence Gordon

Lawrence tells Adam that their captor is the notorious serial killer Jigsaw, after being a suspect five months earlier. He never directly kills anyone, instead putting victims in situations where they must go through physical and/or psychological torture to survive and escape with better appreciation of life. Flashbacks show that while Lawrence was talking with some students and an orderly named Zep Hindle about the terminal brain cancer of a man named John Kramer, he was approached by Detectives and David Tapp Steven Sing about his penlight being found at the scene of a Jigsaw "game." He viewed the testimony of Amanda Young, a heroin addict, who is the only known survivor of Jigsaw's games; she risked having her jaws ripped open during her game by a "reverse bear trap" and believes that her experience made her a better person.

"Some people are so ungrateful to be alive, but not you...not anymore..."

                                                           ~Jigsaw

Meanwhile, Lawrence's wife and daughter, Alison and Diana, are being held captive. Their house is simultaneously being watched by Tapp, who was discharged from the force. Flashbacks show that he became obsessed with the Jigsaw case after viewing Amanda's testimony, and that he and Sing illegally entered a warehouse they knew to be Jigsaw's lair and saved a man from being killed by drills aimed at his neck. Jigsaw managed to make a run for it after slashing Tapp's throat, and Sing was killed by a shotgun booby trap while pursuing him. After being discharged, Tapp became obsessed, stalking Lawrence.

In the bathroom, Lawrence finds a cell phone that can only receive calls and a cigarette and lighter; he and Adam use the latter two to try and stage Adam's death, but an electric shock through Adam's ankle chain foils this plan. Following these events, Adam and Lawrence recall their abductions; they were both ambushed and knocked unconscious by a stranger wearing a gruesome pig mask. Lawrence receives a call from Alison, who warns him that Adam knows more than he is telling. Adam explains that he was paid to take pictures of Lawrence for the past few days by Tapp, and shows Lawrence a pictures of him from the bag containing the hacksaws. Lawrence berates Adam for invading his privacy, while Adam shows Lawrence evidence that he was cheating on Alison. Adam then notices a picture of a man in Lawrence's house; Lawrence identifies the man as Zep the orderly, and the two deduce that Zep is their abductor. Adam then points out that it is six o'clock, the deadline. Zep moves to kill Alison, but she frees herself and manages to overpower Zep, sounds of gunshots gains Tapp's attention in the process. Tapp arrives in time to save Alison and Diana from Zep, allowing them to escape, and chases Zep to the sewers.

Lawrence, who is only aware of gunshots and screaming, is zapped by the ankle chain as well and loses reach of the phone; in desperation, he saws off his foot and shoots Adam with the revolver. Zep, who managed to shoot Tapp during the chase, enters the bathroom intent on killing Lawrence, he sees Adam on the floor thinking he's dead, but still intends on killing Lawrence because it wasn't before 6:00. He was blindsided by Adam and beaten to death with a toilet tank cover; Adam had only suffered a shoulder wound. As Lawrence crawls away with the promise that he'll return with help, Adam searches Zep's body for a key and finds another microcassette recorder. He learns that Zep was another victim of the game, following rules to obtain an antidote for the slow poison within his body. The corpse rises to its feet and reveals itself as John Kramer, the real Jigsaw Killer. He tells Adam that the chain's key is in the bathtub, which was drained when Adam accidentally kicked the plug out. Adam then grabs Zep's pistol and tries to shoot Jigsaw and is zapped by his hidden remote control. Jigsaw then turns off the lights and leaves the bathroom, only saying "Game over!". Then leaves Adam inside screaming...

Saw II
"What would you have done five years ago? Would you have followed the manual then? Would you have broken my jaw with a flashlight?"

{C ~Jigsaw

{C Michael Marks, a police informant, awakens to find two halves of a spike-filled helmet locked around his neck. A videotape informs him that the key to the trap has been implanted behind his right eyeball, but cannot bring himself to cut out his eye and is killed instantly when the helmet slams shut around his head when time runs out, killing him.

{C Detective Eric Matthews is called to the scene after a message is found on the wall directed at him. Later, he follows Detective Kerry and a SWAT team led by Sergeant Rigg to an abandoned steel factory. They find John Kramer, heavily weakened from his cancer, Computer monitors in John's lair show that eight people are trapped in an abandoned house: among them are Matthews' son, Daniel, who Eric previously argued with, and Amanda Young, Jigsaw's only known survivor. The eight victims have two hours before the nerve gas filling the house kills them, but John promises Matthews that he'll see his son in a "safe, secure state" if he simply talks with John for a while. Reluctantly, Matthews agrees to the conditions in order to buy time for the tech team to arrive and trace the video signal.

In the nerve gas house, the eight victims are told that antidotes can be found around the house to save them from the gas. Gus Colyard is shot by the door to the room, which is booby-trapped with a revolver, when Xavier Chavez accidentally triggers it. The search continues to the basement, where the group learns that one of them, Obi Tate, an arsonist, was an accessory to the kidnappings; he had kidnapped Laura Hunter, who shows more strain from the gas than the others. Obi attempts to retrieve two antidotes--after being threatened by Xavier--from a small furnace, but is burned alive when he unintentionally activates it. As Amanda reveals to Dthumb|300px|right|Saw II: Needle in a Haystack scene.aniel that she was framed for her possession charge which sent her to prison, Jonas Singer leads them to a door, which Xavier and Addison Corday are attempting to force their way through. In the room is a pit filled with thousands of needles and syringes; a key to an antidote is hidden inside. The trap is intended for Xavier, but he instead throws Amanda into the pit (cruel irony); she retrieves the key, but Xavier fumbles with it and fails to unlock the door in time. Frustrated with the group's lack of success, he abandons the others.

Meanwhile, John explains to Matthews how he came to begin his "work": after being diagnosed with cancer, he attempted to commit suicide by driving off a cliff, but survived the crash and vowed to spend the rest of his life testing others' wills to survive. When the tech team finally arrives, John reveals to Matthews that the seven victims aside from Daniel are criminals that Matthews himself framed for various crimes; should Daniel's identity be discovered, he will be in great danger. In an effort to make John reveal the location of the house, Matthews destroys several of John's plans and work, but fails to get a reaction.

{C Xavier returns to the first room, which contains a safe containing an antidote, and discovers a colored number on Gus' neck; he realizes by connecting this to their first clue that one colored number is on the necks of each victim. He kills Jonas in a fight and begins stalking the other victims. In another area of the house, Laura finally succumbs to the nerve gas, and the others learn of Daniel's identity. Addison and Amanda both abandon him, but Amanda quickly returns when she discovers Xavier advancing on them. Addison, meanwhile, finds an antidote in a glass box with arm sockets lined with razor blades, which her wrists get trapped in; Xavier finds her, but leaves her to die after reading her number. Amanda and Daniel retreat to the safe room, where they discover an underground tunnel that leads to the bathroom of the first film; Daniel collapses upon entering. When Xavier arrives, Amanda points out that he cannot read his own number; he cuts off a piece of skin from the back of his neck, then advances on the two, upon which Daniel attacks and kills him with a hacksaw, having only feigned collapse. Detective Matthews loses control after seeing Xavier begin chasing Daniel and Amanda and violently attacks John, eventually forcing him to take him to the house at gunpoint. Simultaneously, the S.W.A.T. team follow the signal of the video feed to another house, which contains VCRs playing back previously recorded images of the eight victims; Kerry realizes that the events of the house took place beforethey raided the factory. Matthews enters the house and eventually reaches the bathroom, where he is attacked by a figure wearing a pig mask. The two-hour timer expires in John's lair and a large safe opens, revealing Daniel hyperventilating into an oxygen mask. Upon awakening, Matthews finds himself chained by the ankle to the pipes; an audiotape lying beside him, recorded by Amanda, reveals that she has become John's protege. She appears in the doorway and seals the bathroom with Matthews inside while outside the house, a bloodied John slowly forms a smile.

Saw III
{C "Death is a surprise party. Unless, of course, you're already dead on the inside."

{C ~Jigsaw

Minutes after the room is sealed, Detective Eric Matthews escapes the underground bathroom by breaking his foot with a toilet lid and slipping it out of the ankle chain. Six months later, another Jigsaw victim is discovered by Lieutenant Rigg and Detectives Kerry and Hoffman. In his test, Troy was to rip chains from his body in order to flee from a bomb; however, the door to the room was sealed, making the trap inescapable and thus going against Jigsaw's methods. Kerry, who feels guilty over Matthews' disappearance, later awakens in a trap of her own. A key to unlock the device against her ribcage is within a beaker of acid; though she retrieves it, the device destroys her ribcage anyway, making her trap inescapable as well.

{C Jeff Reinhart--a man who seeks vengeance for the death of his son--and Lynn Denlon--a depressed doctor--are also kidnapped under John Kramer's orders. Lynn is brought before John, now bedridden from cancer, by Amanda Young, his apprentice. She is given a straightforward game: keep John alive for the duration of Jeff's game. Should John die, or should she try to escape, the collar around her neck will fire five shotgun shells at her head. Meanwhile, Jeff awakens in the middle of an abandoned meatpacking plant and is informed that he must go through several tests, which will lead him to "the man responsible for the loss of his child." {C In his first test, Jeff enters a freezer and finds Danica Scott, the only other witness to his son's death. By refusing to testify in court, she became an object in Jeff's vengeance. Danica is stripped and bound between two bars spraying ice-cold water at random intervals. She eventually convinces Jeff to help her, though she freezes solid before he can retrieve the key from behind frozen metal bars. In his second test, he successfully frees Judge Halden from the bottom of a pit being filled with liquefied pig corpses, by incinerating his late son's toys to retrieve a key. Halden had only sentenced Dylan Reinhart's killer to six months in prison, further fueling his vengeful side. The third test brings Jeff face-to-face with Timothy Young, his son's killer, who is strapped to a machine that will twist his limbs and neck one by one until they break. Jeff retrieves a key attached to the trigger of a shotgun, but Halden is killed when the shotgun accidentally discharges, and Jeff is too late to save Timothy before his neck is fatally broken. With his tests nonetheless complete, Jeff moves on to the final area.

Meanwhile, Lynn and Amanda work together to keep John alive. During an improvised brain surgery intended to relieve tension on John's brain, he semi-consciously professes his love for another woman, who Amanda mistakes for Lynn. Distressed from witnessing this, Amanda leaves the sickroom to continue watching Jeff's progress. It is revealed that Amanda cuts herself in her stress, and she recollects speaking with John and kidnapping Adam prior to the events of the first film. Soon after, Amanda also finds a letter addressed to her, its contents causing her more distress. Following the surgery, Lynn and John talk privately; Lynn reveals that her ordeal has given her a new appreciation for her family. Amanda returns with the news that Jeff's tests are complete, but she refuses to release Lynn, not believing she has learned anything. She doesn't believe anybody changes after being tested, and designed her tests to be inescapable accordingly, including Troy's and Kerry's. She also reveals that she and Eric Matthews fought after he escaped the bathroom, and that she managed to overpower him and leave him for dead. Additionally, she returned to the bathroom and gave Adam Stanheight a mercy killing.



Jeff arrives in the makeshift sickroom just as Amanda shoots Lynn in the back; he retaliates by shooting Amanda in the neck. A saddened John reveals to Amanda that Lynn's test was actually hers; she was being tested on her will to keep someone alive; she had not known that Jeff and Lynn were married. Amanda dies from her wound, and John gives Jeff one last test, where he can choose to either kill John or forgive him for all the pain he has caused him and his family. If Jeff forgives him, John will call an ambulance to save Lynn. Jeff takes a circular saw, tells John he forgives him, and slashes his throat. The door to the room seals as the dying John pulls out a tape recorder, which tells Jeff that he has failed the test by killing John, who was the only person to know the whereabouts of Corbett Reinhart, Jeff's daughter; Jeff would have to play another game to find her before she runs out of air. As the message ends, John goes into cardiac arrest and dies; the shotgun collar simultaneously destroys Lynn's head, leaving Jeff sealed in the room with the three corpses.

Saw IV
''I can't give you time. Time's an illusion.''

{C ~Jigsaw

During John Kramer's autopsy, a wax-coated microcassette is found in his stomach; it is given to Detective Hoffman, to whom it informs that he too will be tested, and that the games will continue. Meanwhile, Trevor and Art awaken in a mausoleum. Both men are chained at the neck to a winch; Trevor's eyelids are sewn together, as is Art's mouth, rendering communication impossible. When the winch begins pulling them together, Trevor panics and attacks Art. Art kills him and takes a key from his collar to free himself, tearing his lips in the process.

Four days after her disappearance, the corpse of Detective Kerry is found by the police.After Hoffman cautions Lieutenant Rigg for going through an unsecured door in order to reach Kerry, he meets Peter Strahm and Lindsey Perez, two FBI agents who had previously been in contact with Kerry. They inform Hoffman that neither Jigsaw nor Amanda Young murdered Kerry, as neither were physically capable of placing her in the trap, indicating there is a third party involved. Strahm later becomes suspicious of Rigg, who is convinced that Eric Matthews, who disappeared six months previously, is still alive.

That evening, Rigg is attacked in his home; upon awakening, a videotape informs him that Matthews is still alive, with ninety minutes to save himself, with Hoffman's life at stake as well. He finds Brenda, a female pimp, chained to a chair with a pig mask covering her face. The first test, "see what I see," is for him to leave her there; he ignores the message and ends up triggering a device to begin ripping her scalp off. He manages to free her, but she attacks him; she had been told that she would be arrested if Rigg saved her unless she killed him first. He throws her into a mirror and leaves; her corpse is later found by police, led by Strahm and Perez. Rigg's next test takes place at a motel, where the words "feel what I feel" are painted on a door. He forces the manager, Ivan Landsness, into a prearranged trap; pictures around the room show that Ivan was a serial rapist. Ivan must choose between blinding himself with blades or being dismembered. After Rigg leaves, Ivan only manages to blind one eye before time runs out and his limbs are ripped off. The third test, "save as I save," takes place at a school where Rigg once attacked a man named Rex, who abused his wife and daughter. He finds Rex and Morgan, his wife, hanging back-to-back from a harness with several rods impaling them together. The rods are placed through vital arteries in Rex's body, but non-vital in Morgan's; she can live by removing the rods while he will die either way. Rigg finds her with one rod left; he hands her the key to her harness and leaves, setting off the fire alarm as he does, for his final destination.

Meanwhile, Strahm and Perez alternate between interrogating Jill Tuck, Jigsaw's ex-wife, and investigating the scenes of each victim's trap. The two discover that they are Jigsaw targets as well, and that Art Blank, a lawyer who had gone missing two weeks previously, had successfully defended each victim of their crimes; he was also Jill's lawyer. When Perez is hospitalized after an incident at the school involving Jigsaw's puppet, which also predicts that Strahm will "soon take the life of an innocent man," Strahm furiously interrogates Jill, who reveals the rest of Jigsaw's backstory. She had been pregnant with a baby to be named Gideon, after John's first project as a civil engineer, but miscarried after drug addict Cecil Adams robbed her clinic; this would later drive her and John into divorce. After John learned of his cancer and survived his suicide attempt, he began his work testing others, targeting Cecil first. He placed Cecil in a trap where Cecil was to push his face into several knives to release himself, but the trap collapsed and he blindly lunged at John, who sidestepped and allowed Cecil to fall into a tangle of razor wire. Additionally, Art Blank is revealed to have worked with John before. Strahm connects this story with the Gideon Meatpacking Plant, the location of Rigg's final test. He arrives shortly after Rigg, but ends up trailing Jeff Reinhart, who is making his way to the makeshift sickroom of the plant. He eventually catches up to Jeff in the sickroom; Jeff waves a gun at Strahm, demanding to know where his daughter is, and Strahm kills him in self-defense, fulfilling Jigsaw's earlier prediction.

Simultaneously, Rigg is on a trail leading to a large room containing Hoffman, Matthews and Art Blank. Matthews stands atop an ice block with a noose around his neck, and Hoffman is tied to a chair with a gag in his mouth and an electrode at his feet. The two are at opposite ends of a balanced scale, and if Matthews slips off the ice after too much time passes, he will be hanged and Hoffman will be electrocuted by the melted water reaching the electrode. Two more ice blocks are positioned on the ceiling, set to swing down and crush Matthews' head if the door to the room is opened. Art must monitor them while a device on his back is set to cut through his spine; he can only release them after ninety minutes have passed. When Rigg arrives, Art and Matthews attempt to ward him off, and Matthews shoots Rigg, though he still makes it through the door with one second left on the clock. Rigg shoots just as Matthews is killed by the ice blocks. He then kills Art, believing him to be responsible for the trap, and learns from the tape recorder in Art's hand that he has failed the test by interfering; Matthews and Hoffman would have lived if Rigg had not tried to save them. An unharmed Hoffman releases himself and leaves Rigg to die, revealing himself as the second accomplice. He arrives in front of the sickroom just as Strahm kills Jeff, and seals Strahm inside with the four corpses. He is later called to Jigsaw's autopsy, which took place after the events of the film. It is now revealed the events of Saw III and this film are taking place simultaneously.

Saw V
{C "Like you, I know what it's like to lose family. And I know what it's like not to be able to protect loved ones. It's a powerless feeling."

{C ~Jigsaw

Seth Baxter, a convicted murderer, awakens chained to a table beneath a pendulum blade. In order to release himself, he must crush his hands by putting them into two presses and pushing the buttons inside. He does as the video tells him, but the pendulum still swings down and violently cuts him in half. Just before he dies, he sees an eye watching him through a hole in the wall.

In a scene from the end of Saw IV, Agent Peter Strahm finds and kills Jeff Reinhart in self-defense, after he yells "Where's my daughter!" waving the unloaded gun at Peter. After being sealed in the sickroom--with the deceased John, Amanda, Lynn, and Jeff--he escapes through a hidden passage, where he is captured by a figure wearing a pig mask. He awakens with his head trapped in a glass box slowly being filled with water; a tracheotomy using a pen keeps him breathing. Outside the meatpacking plant, Detective Mark Hoffman returns Corbett Reinhart, Jeff's daughter, to the police. He claims they are the only two survivors, only to be shocked to see Strahm carried out alive as well.

Jill Tuck obtains a box and videotape, left for her by John. The tape informs her that the items in the box are of "grave importance"; she opens the box using a key around her neck and looks inside, then leaves without disclosing its contents. Meanwhile, a memorial service is held for Officers Tapp, Sing, Kerry, Matthews and Rigg; during the memorial, Hoffman is promoted to detective lieutenant by the chief of police. While taking Strahm's mobile phone, he is informed that Lindsey Perez, Strahm's partner, died from her wounds. He confronts Strahm at the hospital, who informs him that Perez's last words were "Detective Hoffman". Strahm is taken off of duty by his boss, Dan Erickson, and begins researching past Jigsaw victims, now obsessed with piecing together Hoffman's involvement. He learns through his research that Hoffman killed Seth Baxter with the pendulum trap after Seth killed his sister, and that John used his information of this murder to blackmail Hoffman into working with him. The two worked together to set up most of John's tests, most notably the razor-wire maze and the nerve gas house. Additionally, Hoffman planted the penlight that framed Dr. Lawrence Gordon and provided the files for the victims of the gas house. Near the end of his quest, he realizes that everyone was meant to die in the meatpacking plant except for Hoffman, who was to escape as the hero.

While Strahm pieces together Hoffman's involvement with Jigsaw, five more victims awaken in a trap taking place in a sewer. Collars are locked around their necks that connect them to razor blades mounted on the wall behind them; the keys to their collars are in glass boxes on the other end of the room, but moving for them will set off a one-minute timer. All but Ashley retrieve their keys, and she is decapitated when her collar retracts. In the next room, keys must be found in jars hanging from the ceiling in order to unlock three chambers that will provide shelter from an explosion. Charles attacks Mallick and takes his key, but is struck by Luba Gibbs and is killed when the bombs explode. In the third room, five cables must be connected to a full bathtub to unlock five locks on the door, though none are long enough to reach. Luba attacks Mallick to use his body to close the circuits, but Brit foils this plan by stabbing her in the neck; they use Luba's body to close the circuits. In the final room, the door must be opened by filling a beaker, positioned in a machine fitted with circular saws, with ten pints of blood. They notice that there are five armholes and realize that all five victims were to work together to survive in every game. They also realize that all five of them were connected to a building fire that killed eight people. With no other choices, they begin sawing their arms to provide the ten pints.

{C Meanwhile, Hoffman plants Strahm's phone and Erickson's personal file in the fifth room of the sewer. Erickson follows the trail to the room just as Brit and Mallick get the door open. Mallick passes out from blood loss while Brit crawls into the room and is found by Erickson, who finds the phone and file as well. He calls for medical assistance for the two victims, then places an all-points bulletin out for Strahm's arrest. Simultaneously, Strahm follows Hoffman to the renovated nerve gas house and follows the path to a small underground room, which contains a box of broken glass. Hoffman's tape recorder informs him that he must trust him and enter the box, but Strahm stops the tape short and ambushes Hoffman when he arrives, ultimately sealing Hoffman in the box and subsequently causing the room to seal itself. Hoffman indicates the tape, which continues by telling Strahm that by choosing not to comply, he will "simply vanish" and Hoffman's legacy will become his own. The glass box is lowered safely into the floor, while the walls close in on Strahm and crush him to death.

Saw VI
"Healthcare decisions should be made by doctors and their patients, not by the government. Well, now I know they're not made by doctors and their patients or the government. They're made by the f**king insurance companies." ~John Kramer 

Simone and Eddie, wake up in a room with a caged-in scale in the center, wearing head harnesses, informed that to save themselves, they must sacrifice parts of themselves. The overweight Eddie cuts fat from his body, but Simone chops her left arm off and tips the scale in her favor, saving herself, letting Eddie die. Lieutenant Mark Hoffman is called to the scene by Dan Erickson, who found Peter Strahm's fingerprints around the room. Erickson also shows him that Lindsey Perez is alive; while explaining that he protected Perez after her incident in Saw IV due to her being a target of an unknown accomplice, now believed to be Strahm. Jill Tuck meets with Hoffman at her clinic; he informs her that he is taking control of the games, and Jill hands him only five envelopes received in the box from John's will.

William Easton, executive of the health insurance cooperation Umbrella Health, talks with his company's attorney about Harold Abbott, whose insurance policy was revoked after a discrepancy was found on his application and who later died from his illness. In his office, William is kidnapped and placed in a trap, with a large vise enclosing his torso, and a breathing mask covering his face. Hank, his janitor and a smoker, is in the same situation across from him. Hank is killed when he fails to hold his breath longer. In the second test, Jigsaw's puppet informs William that he must choose to save either his file clerk Allen, or his secretary Addy, and let the other die. In the end, William chooses to save Addy, and Allen is hanged by a barbed wire noose when his platform retracts. His third test takes place in a large boiler room, the company attorney, Debbie, stands at the bottom of a caged-in maze with a device on her chest set to fire a spear through her head. At the end of the maze, Debbie discovers through X-ray films that the key has been implanted in William's side, and attacks him with a circular saw, but fails to before the timer runs out and kills her. In the final test, William finds his six staff members chained to a spinning carousel with a shotgun pointed towards each person, but he can only choose to save two of the six by pushing buttons in a device that will drive spikes into his hand and divert the shotgun upward. He reluctantly chooses to save Emily and Shelby.

{C Meanwhile, Erickson and Perez inform Hoffman that abnormalities were found in Strahm's fingerprints, and that the scrambled voice from the Seth Baxter tape did not match Jigsaw's. They lead Hoffman to the site where the voice is being unscrambled by a technician. The moment Hoffman's voice is unscrambled from the tape, he kills all three of them and then sets their bodies on fire. Tara and Brent wake up in one locked cage, while Pamela Jenkins wakes up in another. The former cage contains a switch labeled "Live" and "Die". When Hoffman returns to the observation room, he finds a letter that Jill has placed on the desk, which he himself had written to Amanda and Jill enters suddenly and attacks him from behind, while William simultaneously reaches the end of his path, finding himself between the two cages. It is shown that he and Pamela are brother and sister, while Tara and Brent are the family of Harold Abbott. Now they can choose to either kill William or set him free using the marked switch next to the tank. Tara couldn't bear to kill another, but Brent shifts the switch to "Die", and a platform of needles swings into William's back, pumping hydrofluoric acidinto his body and killing him. Jill straps Hoffman to the chair and places the "Reverse Bear-Trap" on his head. She leaves Hoffman with a 45 second timer; he escapes the chair by breaking his hand and freeing himself, then jams the trap in between the bars of a nearby window to stop it from fully opening, and he pulls his head free, only with his mouth partially ripped open.

Saw 3D (aka Saw VII)
"In ancient Egypt, if you were speaking under oath, you were required to say, 'If I'm lying, take me to the quarries.'" Dr. Lawrance Gordon is shown crawling out of the old bathroom and into the hall, looking for help. Along the way he finds a hot pipe and uses it to cauterize the foot he amputated. the next scene cuts to an urban shopping area where a crowd of people are gathered at a storefront window to find two men, tied to a worktable, each with a buzz saw in front of them and their lover, suspended above. As she is lowered onto another buzz saw, each of the men must choose to either kill the other person in order to save her, or allow her to die, resulting in their freedom. Meanwhile, survivors from Jigsaw's previous traps gather to seek the support of self-help guru and fellow survivor Bobby Dagen. Mark Hoffman and Jill Tuck battle over Jigsaw's legacy.

Jigsaw's Victims
Jigsaw had many victims, a number being patients at the clinic. Some of the most notable are;

David--Was Amanda in the original Saw short, portrayed by the same man who played Adam.

Cecil Adams--Was the cause of the loss of John's son, while trying to rob the clinic for drugs on Amanda's request. He was one of John's first victims who John made a trap for him to escape he had to slice open his face to survive, symbolizing bringing the ugliness inside him out. He succeeded in escaping the knife trap but was killed in razor wire when he tried to attack John.

Mark Wilson--Was a software analyst targeted because he feigned illness to excuse himself from his responsibilities when he was perfectly healthy. Mark had a flammable substance smeared on him with a candle in the room, the substance ignited, burning him alive; his charred corpse was found later by police.

Seth Baxter--The man who murdered Hoffman's wife in a domestic dispute. Hoffman captured him and put him in a Jigsaw trap. But his, even if he succeeded his goal, he could not win. The police and press assumed it was committed by Jigsaw.

Paul Leahy--Chosen because he had a good life with a wife and children, but he attempted suicide by cutting his wrists. He had to crawl through razor wire to escape his trap. John worked together with Hoffman for the first time to capture Paul.

Amanda Young--A woman wrongfully convicted of drug possession (but used drugs once in jail). Her test, the infamous reverse bear-trap, had a device that would permanently rip her jaws open unless she cut open the stomach of her, seemingly, dead cellmate. She completed her test and survived, and viewed John as her savior, becoming his apprentice and him becoming like a father to her.

Donnie Greco--A victim of unnamed crimes was placed in Amanda's trap while heavily tranquilized (injected with an opioid overdose), intended to have his stomach cut open so Amanda could get the key to release her trap.

Adam Stanheight--A photographer whom John thought wasted his life, "simply sat in the shadows watching others live out their lives." He was chained to a pipe in an old bathroom with Lawrence Gordon, a doctor, whose goal was to kill him. He accidentally drained the bathtub he woke up in, unknowingly had the key that would let him escape.

Lawrence Gordon--Lawrence was the doctor who diagnosed John's cancer, and was suspected of cheating on his wife. He was chained with Adam Stanheight, whom he had to kill before six o'clock or Zep Hindle, an orderly at his hospital, would kill his wife, Alison, and daughter, Diana. Lawrence tried working together with Adam for a while to find a way out until he learns Zep is going to kill his family. Getting a gun, he shot Adam and demanded his family's release, but Zep still intended on killing him. Adam--only wounded--beats Zep to death with a toilet tank cover, saving Lawrence. He tries to crawl out of the bathroom, after sawing-off his foot, promising to get help. He is seen in Saw 3D cauterizing his amputated foot on a hot pipe in the hallway.

Steven Sing--Partner of Det. Tapp was killed by shotguns when set off a trip wire while chasing Jigsaw in his hideout.

Eric Matthews--One of the detectives that sought to capture Jigsaw, along with a SWAT team, he found his lair and interrogated him, until the situation turned violent when they learned his son, Daniel, was one of his current victims. Eric beat John senseless until he brought him to the house where his son was held. But became his prisoner while looking for him and was locked away, alone, in a cell for six months. Eric ended up being part of Daniel Rigg's test, but when Rigg failed, he was killed by a pair of iceblocks that smashed into his head.

Dr. Lynn Denlon--A depressed doctor kidnapped to save John, and Amanda put a collar, connected to John's heart monitor, on her that would fire seven shot gun shells if she did not help John survive until Jeff completed his tests. She was able to keep him through a stroke, telling Amanda that he needs to go to a hospital, Amanda tells her she can only get the necessary anesthetic and tools. Lynn performs a necessary brain surgery, removing part of his skull, to relieve the pressure. While the surgery, John starts dying and hallucinates about his ex-wife, mistakenly telling Lynn that he loves her. Out of jealousy and sadness she later shoots Lynn in the back--just as her separated husband, Jeff walks in (who shoots Amanda in the neck). John tells Jeff that he can forgive him, and get an ambulance in four minutes (that she will die if he tries to move her) or he can take revenge and kill John. So, out of anger, Jeff slices John's neck with a circular saw, killing Lynn.

William Easton--Insurer who failed to give John treatment because of his discriminate insurance policy, despite John's wealth. He was put through a series of tests, one putting him in a trap with a sick janitor, another deciding to save one employee for another, one last one in which he would have to sacrifice himself to save two others out of six. In the end, he was killed by Brent, the son of another man he refused to give insurance to

Rise of Jigsaw
Kramer was a successful civil engineer who got into property development, in particular, a building called Gideon, the name he would choose for his beloved, future son.

Cherish your life
"Cherish your life, your life."

~John Kramer'~

'Cherish your life' was the motto of John's rehab clinic (being the concept of all his traps), which his wife ran. His rehab clinic was the place where his wife was attacked by Cecil who attempted to rob it for drugs, on Amanda's request. From his car John saw Cecil running away, going in he saw what he had done. John then rushed her to a hospital, where they told him his child did not survive, John then became angry and detached. He was soon diagnosed with colon cancer by his doctor, Lawrence Gordon. He then attempted suicide by driving off a cliff. Surviving, but with severe injuries, he then decided to dedicate the rest of his life to teaching people to appreciate their own lives through physical and psychological torture..

Traps
Jigsaw usually builds deadly traps for his subjects, which are often a symbolic representation of what Jigsaw perceives as a flaw in the person's life. Jigsaw calls these tests "games", and tells the person the "rules" of the game usually by audio or video tape. The rules are tasks that the person must perform in order to pass the test and survive; however, the tasks often involve extreme self mutilation (although there have been occasions where it is possible for the subject not to harm themselves if they are clever enough, such as the Hand Trap). On occasion, Jigsaw has used psychological torture for the subject's test. The subject of one of Jigsaw's games is therefore always presented with an opportunity, the aim of which is to reinvigorate the potential of the subject, jump-start the survival instinct and instill a celebration or "savouring" of life. Jigsaw intends through these traps to force his victims to prove to him that they are "worthy" and "deserving" to continue living, and also for them to learn to abandon what he perceives to be their vices. Jigsaw often expressed a desire for his victims to succeed, but stressed that their fate was always in their own hands. The video and audio tape instructions for his games often echo this idea: "Live or die. Make your choice."

Amanda Young
When John found a grateful victim, Amanda Young, he let her become his apprentice

After becoming an apprentice to Jigsaw, Amanda often took on many of Jigsaw's iconic symbols. For instance, she often wore a pig mask when capturing her victims. She also appeared wearing Jigsaw's iconic red and black theatrical robe. Huntley analyzed this as an attempt by Amanda to be "dressed as Jigsaw".

Huntley further stated that: "For Amanda, Jigsaw as signifier can only ever stand in the place of a vexatious and frustrating lack and it is this which locates Amanda in such a conflicted position – having given “every cell” of herself to Jigsaw she is only able to act in an imitative and repetitive way, a second, or understudy, in danger of being only slightly more useful than the Billy doll, waiting both for and against Jigsaw’s inevitable and impending death."

Her Inescapable traps
Amanda eventually developed her own unique modus operandi, in which the traps she set were inescapable, even when the victims had achieved the goals of their games. While Jigsaw always refused to acknowledge his traps as murder, Amanda openly admitted that her actions did define her as a murderer.

Huntley pointed out that Amanda's traps are used as a creative tool of juxtaposition with that of Jigsaw’s, to effectively point out what the Jigsaw killer was not. In purely cinematic terms, Jigsaw directs his games while Amanda acts in hers... The subject’s of Amanda’s games, undertaken for Jigsaw, constitute only the throwing away, the discarding... At the most basic level, Amanda does not allow chance or potential to interfere, only ever seeing Jigsaw’s games as constitutive of the symbolic order, as an elaborate cover for staging the death of those who lack the survival instinct and thus do not deserve life."

Mark Hoffman
Before Amanda however, John had another secret apprentice; Detective Mark Hoffman who carried on his work after Amanda's death (which Hoffman caused) Initially, Hoffman imitated Jigsaw's M.O. with the murder of Seth Baxter. Just as Amanda Young would do later, Hoffman made Seth's trap inescapable, despite the fact that Seth did what was required of him; Hoffman also cut a puzzle piece from Seth's flesh. Jigsaw later pointed out he used poor tools in the trap, making it an even worse recreation of a Jigsaw murder. Hoffman eventually adopted Jigsaw's M.O., in which the traps he set were meant to allow victims a chance to free themselves. Later, in Saw VI, Hoffman had used a lesser quality knife to cut the jigsaw piece out of Eddie's side, a detail that contributed to eventual discovery of identity by FBI agents Perez and Erickson. This is shown as a flawed attempt at imitating Jigsaw's methods, similar to Seth Baxter's trap. After becoming an apprentice to Jigsaw, Hoffman often adopted many of his iconic symbols. For instance, he often wore a pig mask when capturing his victims. He also used Jigsaw's "Game over" phrase at the end of Saw IV before leaving Rigg to die, and left a microcassette recording of game instructions for Strahm at the end of Saw V.

Jigsaw's Legacy
Amanda claims to be taking on Jigsaw's legacy in Saw III, but is shot and killed. Mark Hoffman takes the role as his successor in Saw V and VI. Then Jill and Hoffman battle for his legacy in Saw 3D.