Detective Eric Matthews apprehends the elusive Jigsaw Killer, but the arrest is merely part of a larger, more gruesome plan. Matthews discovers that his estranged son, Daniel, along with seven other strangers, is trapped in a decaying house filled with lethal nerve gas. With monitors broadcasting their desperate struggle to find antidotes and survive deadly traps, Matthews is forced to play a psychological game with Jigsaw to save his son before time—and the gas—runs out.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
October 28, 2005 |
Running time |
93 minutes |
Genre |
Horror
Mystery |
Budget |
$4,000,000 |
Box Office |
$147,748,505 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Darren Lynn Bousman |
Produced by |
Gregg Hoffman Oren Koules Mark Burg |
Written by |
Leigh Whannell Darren Lynn Bousman |
Music by |
Charlie Clouser |
Cinematography |
David A. Armstrong |
Edited by |
Kevin Greutert |
Production Co. |
Twisted Pictures |
Distributed by |
Lions Gate Films |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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Movie Collection |
Movie Order: #02 in Saw Collection
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The Plot
The Venus Fly Trap
The nightmare begins in a dim, claustrophobic room where Michael Marks, a police informant, awakens with a heavy, mechanical device locked around his neck—a mask lined with rusted spikes, reminiscent of a venus flytrap. A flickering television screen springs to life, playing a videotape from the Jigsaw Killer. The grainy footage informs Michael that he has exactly one minute to save his own life. The key to unlock the deadly mask has been surgically implanted behind his right eye. To survive, he must perform a gruesome act of self-mutilation using a provided scalpel to cut into his own flesh and retrieve the key.
Panic sets in as the timer ticks down. Michael struggles to bring himself to withstand the excruciating pain necessary to cut out the key. His hesitation proves fatal; as the minute expires, the mechanism triggers, and the mask snaps shut, crushing his head and killing him instantly. Shortly after the discovery of Michael's mutilated corpse, his handler, Detective Eric Matthews, is summoned to the crime scene by Detective Allison Kerry. Kerry reveals that Jigsaw left a specific message for Eric at the scene, personalizing the game and pulling the reluctant detective into the investigation.
The Raid and the Ultimatum
Though initially hesitant to engage with the maniacal killer's games, Eric utilizes the evidence to quickly locate Jigsaw's hideout at the abandoned Wilson Steel Plant. He leads a raid alongside Kerry, Sergeant Daniel Rigg, and a SWAT team. Upon breaching the facility, they discover the killer, John Kramer, sitting quietly, severely weakened by end-stage cancer and hooked up to an IV drip. The arrest seems too easy, but as the officers move to apprehend him, John calmly reveals that he has anticipated their arrival.
With a gesture, John draws their attention to a set of surveillance monitors nearby. The screens display a live feed from a derelict, gas-filled house where eight people are trapped. Among the terrified captives, Eric is horrified to see his own son, Daniel Matthews, alongside Amanda Young, the only known survivor of a previous Jigsaw game. John explains the rules: the house is being pumped with a deadly nerve agent. The victims have two hours to find syringes containing the antidote hidden throughout the property before their bodies shut down. John offers Eric a deal: he guarantees that Eric will see his son again in a "safe and secure state," but only if Eric agrees to sit and talk with him alone until the two-hour timer expires. Under pressure from Kerry to buy time for a tech team to trace the video signal, Eric reluctantly agrees to the ultimatum.
The House of Vapors
Inside the sealed house, the eight victims—Daniel, Amanda, Xavier Chavez, Jonas Singer, Addison Corday, Laura Hunter, Obi Tate, and Gus Colyard—struggle to comprehend their situation. They discover a central room containing a safe and an audiotape left by Jigsaw. The recording explains the lethal nature of the nerve gas and provides cryptic clues for the safe's combination, stating the numbers are "in the back of their minds" and the order can be found "over the rainbow." Alongside the tape is a key and a stark warning note: do not use the key to unlock the door.
Ignoring the warning, the aggressive Xavier snatchs the key and attempts to unlock the door. The moment he turns it, a booby trap is triggered, firing a magnum round through the peephole that strikes Gus in the eye, killing him instantly. The group, now seven, is forced to venture deeper into the house to find another way out or the antidotes, leaving Gus’s body behind.
Trial by Fire and Needles
The survivors make their way to the basement, where they find another tape addressed to Obi. The recording reveals a dark secret: Obi was an accomplice who helped Jigsaw abduct the others. Under violent pressure from Xavier, Obi is forced to enter a large furnace to retrieve two antidote syringes. However, as he grabs the second syringe, he inadvertently triggers a mechanism that slams the furnace door shut and ignites the burners. Obi is burned alive inside the oven while the others watch helplessly, unable to save him or the antidotes.
Moving upstairs, Jonas leads the group to a room containing a pit filled with thousands of used hypodermic needles. A tape explains that this test is intended for Xavier, a drug dealer, requiring him to dig through the needles to find a key that unlocks a steel door containing an antidote. Refusing to endure the pain himself, Xavier throws Amanda into the pit. Terrified and screaming, she frantically digs through the contaminated syringes and manages to retrieve the key. However, Xavier fails to unlock the door before the timer on the lock expires, leaving the antidote permanently out of reach. Frustrated and callous, Xavier abandons the group to fend for themselves.
A Conversation on Life and Death
Back at the steel plant, the clock ticks down as John engages Eric in an idle, cryptic conversation. He discusses his terminal cancer diagnosis and a failed suicide attempt that drove a vehicle off a cliff. Surviving the crash gave him a new, profound esteem for life—a perspective he claims to be sharing with his victims by testing their will to survive. He challenges Eric's morality and worldview, slowly chipping away at the detective's patience.
The tech team finally arrives, setting up equipment to trace the video signal. At Kerry's suggestion, Eric attempts to provoke John by destroying his life's work—tearing apart blueprints, sketches, and documents found in the hideout. John remains largely unmoved but drops a bombshell revelation: all the victims in the house, except for Daniel, are criminals whom Eric had corruptly framed for crimes they did not commit. He warns Eric that once the prisoners realize Daniel is the son of the man who ruined their lives, the boy's life will be in grave danger.
The Numbers Game
In the house, Xavier returns to the initial room and examines Gus's corpse. He discovers a colored number written on the back of Gus's neck. A realization strikes him: the clue "in the back of their minds" was literal. Each prisoner has a number of the safe's combination written on the back of their neck. Driven by a desperate need for the antidote in the safe, Xavier decides to hunt the others down to collect their numbers.
Xavier tracks down Jonas and, after a brutal fight, kills him to read his number. Meanwhile, the nerve gas claims another victim as Laura collapses and succumbs to the toxin. The group fractures further; Amanda and Addison abandon Daniel after discovering a photograph revealing his identity as Eric's son. However, Amanda's conscience prevails, and she returns to Daniel after finding Jonas's body. Elsewhere, Addison stumbles into a room with a glass box containing an antidote. She inserts her arms through the hand-holes to grab it, but the trap is lined with razor blades that lock her arms in place, bleeding her out. Xavier finds her trapped, reads the number on her neck, and leaves her to die.
Sanctuary in the Bathroom
Amanda and Daniel, now suffering heavily from the gas, retreat to the first room and discover a hidden tunnel. They crawl through the darkness and emerge into a dilapidated, tiled room—the bathroom from the first film. The severed foot of Dr. Lawrence Gordon and the decomposing bodies of Adam Stanheight and Zep Hindle still rot on the floor. Daniel collapses, barely conscious.
Xavier bursts into the bathroom, cornering them. Amanda points out that Xavier cannot read the number on the back of his own neck without her help. Unwilling to trust her, Xavier takes a knife and slices the piece of skin containing the number off his own neck. He throws the flesh aside and advances on them. As he approaches, Daniel—who had feigned unconsciousness—lunges forward with a hacksaw found in the room and slashes Xavier’s throat, killing him.
The Twist of Time
At the Wilson Steel Plant, watching the chaos unfold on the monitors is too much for Eric. He snaps, brutally assaulting John and forcing him at gunpoint to take him to the house. John agrees, demanding they go alone. As the two men descend in a hidden elevator to leave the plant, the tech team successfully traces the video signal to a different location. Rigg and the SWAT team storm the house, only to find it completely empty and silent.
The officers realize with horror that the images on the monitors were not live; they were watching a recording of a game that had taken place days earlier. Simultaneously, back at the steel plant, the timer expires. A hidden safe in the room Eric just left pops open. Inside sits Daniel Matthews, breathing with an oxygen mask, waiting in a "safe and secure state" just as John had promised. He had been beside his father the entire time.
Game Over
Unaware that his son is safe, Eric arrives at the dilapidated house alone. He navigates the dark corridors, following the path of the victims until he reaches the bathroom. As he steps inside, he is ambushed by a figure in a pig mask who injects him with a sedative. Eric loses consciousness.
He awakes shackled by the ankle to a heavy pipe in the dark bathroom. A tape recorder lies next to him. As he plays it, Amanda's voice fills the room. The recording reveals the final twist: Amanda Young had become John’s apprentice and accomplice after surviving her first game. She had entered the house not as a victim, but to ensure the other test subjects followed the rules and to secretly protect Daniel. The tape explains that this entire ordeal was actually Eric's test, which he failed by losing his patience and leaving the safe zone. Amanda steps out of the shadows. As Eric screams threats and pleas, she looks at him coldly, says "Game Over," and slides the heavy bathroom door shut, sealing him in the darkness to die.
