Two strangers, a photographer and a doctor, awaken in a dilapidated bathroom chained to pipes at opposite ends of the room, with a corpse lying in a pool of blood between them. They soon discover they are pawns in a depraved game orchestrated by the Jigsaw Killer, a serial mastermind who tests his victims' will to live through sadistic traps, forcing them to make impossible choices to survive.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
October 29, 2004 |
Running time |
103 minutes |
Genre |
Horror Mystery Thriller |
Budget |
$1,200,000 |
Box Office |
$103,911,669 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
James Wan |
Produced by |
Gregg Hoffman Oren Koules Mark Burg |
Written by |
Leigh Whannell James Wan |
Music by |
Charlie Clouser |
Cinematography |
David A. Armstrong |
Edited by |
Kevin Greutert |
Production Co. |
Twisted Pictures |
Distributed by |
Lionsgate |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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Movie Collection |
Movie Order: #01 in Saw Collection
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The Plot
The Awakening in the Chamber
Freelance photographer Adam Stanheight and oncologist Dr. Lawrence Gordon regain consciousness in a grim, dilapidated bathroom. The atmosphere is suffocating, bathed in the cold glow of industrial lights. Confusion quickly turns to terror as they realize they are shackled by their ankles to heavy pipes on opposite sides of the room. Lying in a pool of blood between them is a corpse, clutching a revolver in one hand and a microcassette recorder in the other.
Searching their pockets, both men discover cassette tapes personalized for them. Adam retrieves a tape player found on the body and plays his recording; a distorted, menacing voice urges him to escape the room. Dr. Gordon’s tape, however, delivers a much more sinister ultimatum: he must kill Adam by 6:00, or his wife, Alison, and his young daughter, Diana, will be executed. The stakes are set, and the psychological torture begins immediately.
Tools of the Trade
Desperate to find a way out, Adam scours his vicinity and discovers a bag inside the tank of a filthy toilet. Inside are two hacksaws. Hope flares briefly, but as Adam attempts to saw through the heavy chains binding them, his saw snaps and breaks apart. Watching Adam's futile effort, Dr. Gordon comes to a chilling realization: the saws were never meant to cut through the steel chains. They were provided to cut through their own feet.
Dr. Gordon deduces that they have been abducted by the notorious serial killer known as "Jigsaw." He explains to Adam that this killer does not murder his victims directly but instead places them in elaborate, deadly traps to test their will to live. Gordon grimly admits that he is all too familiar with Jigsaw’s methods, revealing that he was once a primary suspect in the police investigation surrounding the killer.
Echoes of the Investigation
Flashbacks illuminate the history connecting Dr. Gordon to the killer. Five months prior, Detectives David Tapp and Steven Sing visited Gordon at the Angel of Mercy Hospital to question him. At the time, Gordon was discussing a terminal patient named John Kramer with his medical students. The detectives revealed that Gordon’s penlight had been found at the scene of one of Jigsaw’s gruesome games. Although Gordon provided an airtight alibi, he agreed to witness the testimony of Amanda Young, a heroin addict who became the only known survivor of a Jigsaw trap.
The investigation intensified when Tapp and Sing discovered a clue hidden within the videotape from Amanda’s game. The audio led them to an abandoned mannequin factory, which served as the Jigsaw Killer's lair. Upon raiding the facility, they caught Jigsaw off guard and managed to save another victim, Jeff Ridenhour, from a deadly contraption.
However, the arrest went catastrophically wrong. The cornered killer slashed Detective Tapp’s throat with a concealed blade before fleeing. In the ensuing pursuit, Detective Sing chased the suspect down a hallway but accidentally triggered a tripwire, causing four shotguns to discharge simultaneously, killing him instantly. Jigsaw escaped into the shadows, leaving Tapp critically injured and Sing dead.
The Watchers and the Watched
In the present timeline, the threat against Gordon’s family is very real. Alison and Diana are being held hostage in their own apartment by an unseen captor who monitors Adam and Gordon through a hidden camera feed. Simultaneously, the Gordon residence is under surveillance from across the street. The observer is none other than David Tapp.
Following Sing’s death, Tapp suffered a severe mental breakdown and was discharged from the Metropolitan Police Department. Obsessed with the case and convinced that Dr. Gordon is the mastermind behind Jigsaw, Tapp has rented a run-down flat to monitor Gordon’s home, determined to expose him and end the games once and for all.
Secrets Revealed
Back in the bathroom, Gordon discovers a hidden compartment containing two cigarettes, a lighter, and a one-way cell phone. As the hours grind on, the two prisoners recall their abduction; both remember being subdued by a mysterious figure wearing a pig mask. Their reminiscence is interrupted by the sudden ringing of the cell phone. Gordon answers to hear his wife, Alison, who is being held at gunpoint. She frantically warns him not to trust Adam.
Forced into a corner, Adam confesses his true involvement. He admits that Tapp hired him to spy on Dr. Gordon. Adam produces a stash of photographs he took of the doctor—photos he found in the bag with the hacksaws—and reveals that he knows about Gordon’s affair with Carla, a medical student Gordon met at a hotel on the night of his abduction.
Among the photos, however, is one Adam did not take. It depicts a man standing at the window of Gordon’s apartment. Gordon stares at the image in horror and identifies the man as Zep Hindle, an orderly from the Angel of Mercy Hospital.
The Sixth Hour
The clock strikes 6:00, signaling the end of the game. Since Adam is still breathing, Zep prepares to execute Alison and Diana. He forces Alison to call her husband one last time to tell him he has failed. Instead of surrendering to death, Alison breaks free from her restraints and engages Zep in a desperate struggle. The commotion alerts Tapp, who has been watching from across the street. Tapp charges into the apartment, guns blazing, and exchanges fire with Zep.
While Alison and Diana manage to escape to safety, Zep flees the scene, intent on finishing the game by killing Gordon himself. Tapp pursues Zep to an underground tunnel network leading to the bathroom. A brutal fight ensues, but the ex-detective is physically outmatched; Zep batters him severely before shooting him in the chest. Tapp succumbs to his wounds, leaving Zep free to proceed to the bathroom.
A Desperate Sacrifice
Inside the bathroom, unaware that his family has survived, Dr. Gordon suffers a complete psychotic break. Believing he has lost everything, he makes a frantic, final decision to play by the rules. He takes up his hacksaw and, screaming in agony, saws through his own ankle, severing his foot to free himself from the chain.
Bleeding profusely, Gordon crawls across the floor, retrieves the revolver from the corpse’s hand, and loads it with a bullet found in the hidden box. He shoots Adam, who collapses instantly. Moments later, Zep bursts into the room to kill Gordon, only to be ambushed by Adam. Adam, having survived the gunshot with a shoulder wound, attacks Zep with feral intensity. He bludgeons the orderly to death with the heavy lid of the toilet tank.
Game Over
Dr. Gordon, pale from blood loss and shock, promises Adam that he will crawl out to find help. He drags himself out of the bathroom and disappears into the dark hallway, leaving Adam alone with the bodies. Desperate to free himself, Adam searches Zep’s corpse for a key to his shackle. instead, he finds another cassette player.
Pressing play, Adam listens to a recording that shatters his understanding of the events. Zep was not the Jigsaw Killer; he was another victim. The tape reveals that Jigsaw had injected Zep with a slow-acting poison. Zep’s only chance for the antidote was to successfully kidnap Gordon’s family and ensure the doctor killed Adam. Zep failed his test.
As the tape ends, the "corpse" that has been lying in the middle of the room for hours slowly begins to rise. It is John Kramer, the terminal cancer patient and the true Jigsaw Killer. He peels off a prosthetic makeup mask, revealing his face. Kramer informs a horrified Adam that the key to his chain was in the bathtub the entire time, but it had washed down the drain when Adam woke up and unplugged it in his panic.
Adam grabs Zep’s gun and attempts to shoot Kramer, but the killer incapacitates him with a hidden electric shock device. Standing over the screaming, defeated young man, Kramer walks toward the exit. He hits the lights, plunging the room into darkness, and says three final words: "Game over." He slams the heavy door shut, sealing Adam inside to die alone.
