When Detective Eric Matthews finally apprehends the elusive Jigsaw Killer, he thinks the game is over, only to realize it has just begun. He watches helplessly via video monitors as his estranged teenage son and seven convicts are trapped in a decaying house filled with lethal nerve gas, forced to work together to find antidotes hidden within sadistic traps before their bodies shut down from the inside out.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
October 28, 2005 |
Running time |
93 minutes |
Genre |
Horror Mystery Thriller |
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 |
Lionsgate |
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 Flytrap
Michael Marks, known to the police as an informant, awakens in a state of panic to find a grotesque, spike-filled metal apparatus locked securely around his neck. As he struggles to comprehend his surroundings, a videotape activates, delivering a chilling message from the Jigsaw Killer. Michael is informed that he has exactly one minute to retrieve a key hidden surgically behind his right eye. The alternative is grim: if he fails to unlock the device in time, the mask will snap shut like a Venus flytrap, instantly killing him.
Driven by adrenaline and terror, Michael finds a scalpel and approaches a mirror, attempting to perform the gruesome surgery on himself. However, his will falters; he cannot bring himself to withstand the excruciating pain necessary to cut into his own flesh to extract the key. As the timer reaches zero, the mechanism triggers. The mask snaps shut violently, crushing his head and killing him instantly. Shortly after, Detective Eric Matthews is summoned to the gory crime scene by Detective Allison Kerry, who reveals that Jigsaw has left a specific message addressed to Eric.
The Raid on Wilson Steel
Although initially reluctant to engage in the investigation, Eric's instincts kick in, and he quickly deduces the location of Jigsaw's hideout at the abandoned Wilson Steel Plant. He joins Kerry and Sergeant Daniel Rigg in a raid, leading a SWAT team to breach the facility. Inside, they find the killer, John Kramer, sitting quietly and appearing severely weakened by terminal cancer. He offers no resistance.
However, just as the officers move to arrest him, John reveals that their arrival was anticipated. He directs their attention to a bank of surveillance monitors shielded by glass. On the screens, Eric is horrified to see eight people trapped inside a large, decaying house. Among the captives are his own estranged son, Daniel Matthews, and 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 the gas breaks down their bodies completely. John offers Eric a bargain: if Eric agrees to sit and talk with him alone until the two-hour timer expires, he will see his son again in a "safe and secure state." Under pressure from Kerry, Eric reluctantly agrees to the ultimatum, buying time for a tech team to arrive and trace the video signal.
First Blood and Broken Rules
Inside the gas-filled house, the eight victims—Daniel, Amanda, Xavier Chavez, Jonas Singer, Addison Corday, Laura Hunter, Obi Tate, and Gus Colyard—struggle to orient themselves. They discover a cassette tape left by Jigsaw which explains their situation and the lethal nature of the nerve gas. The tape offers a cryptic clue: one antidote is inside a safe in the room, and the combination is "in the back of their minds," while the numbers' order can be found "over the rainbow." Alongside the tape, they find a key and a strict warning note advising them not to use it on the door.
Xavier, an aggressive drug dealer, ignores the warning. Driven by panic and arrogance, he uses the key to unlock the door. The moment he turns it, a booby trap triggers, firing a magnum round through the peephole. Gus, who was standing in the line of fire, is shot through the eye and killed instantly. The group, now terrified and one member down, realizes the gravity of their situation.
Into the Furnace
Following Gus's death, the survivors navigate the house, eventually reaching the basement. Here, they find another tape addressed to Obi, revealing a dark secret: Obi helped Jigsaw abduct the other victims. The revelation turns the group against him, but he is given a chance to redeem himself by retrieving two antidotes from inside an old furnace. Under pressure from Xavier, Obi crawls into the small metal chamber.
As Obi reaches for the syringes, he inadvertently triggers a trap door that seals him inside. The furnace ignites, and despite his desperate screams and the group's futile attempts to break the glass window to save him, Obi is burned alive, and the antidotes are destroyed in the flames.
The Needle Pit
The remaining prisoners continue their search, led by Jonas to a room on the upper level. A new tape explains that another antidote is hidden behind a heavy steel door. To unlock it, someone must retrieve a key buried at the bottom of a deep pit filled with thousands of used, dirty hypodermic needles. The tape implies this test is intended for Xavier, referencing his history as a drug dealer. However, Xavier refuses to endure the pain himself. Instead, he forcibly throws Amanda into the pit.
Amanda screams in agony as she is forced to dig through the mound of syringes, needles piercing her skin repeatedly. Despite the torture, she manages to find the key and toss it to Xavier. However, Xavier fails to unlock the door before the timer on the mechanism runs out, leaving the antidote permanently out of reach. Frustrated and callous, Xavier abandons the group to search for a way out on his own.
Conversations and Corruption
Back at the Wilson Steel Plant, the two hours pass slowly. John engages Eric in an idle, cryptic conversation that tests the detective's patience. John opens up about his cancer diagnosis and a failed suicide attempt that radically shifted his perspective, giving him a newfound esteem for life—a philosophy he claims to be teaching his subjects. Eric, consumed by worry for his son, has little patience for John's moralizing.
When the tech team finally arrives to trace the signal, Kerry suggests Eric try to provoke John or find clues. Eric destroys John's documents and sketches, but John remains unmoved. He then drops a bombshell revelation: all the victims in the house, except for Daniel, are criminals who were framed by Eric with planted evidence. They are innocent of the specific crimes they were jailed for, and Eric is responsible for their incarceration. John warns that once the prisoners realize Daniel is the son of the corrupt cop who framed them, Daniel's life will be in immediate danger.
Survival of the Fittest
In the house, Xavier returns to the initial room where they woke up 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. Deciding he needs all the numbers to get the antidote for himself, Xavier begins hunting the survivors.
He attacks Jonas, and after a brutal fight, kills him to read his number. Meanwhile, the nerve gas claims another victim as Laura collapses and dies from the toxin. Amanda and Addison, having found a photo of Eric and Daniel, realize the boy's identity and abandon him. However, Amanda's conscience prevails, and she returns to Daniel after finding Jonas's body. Elsewhere, Addison stumbles into a room containing a glass box with an antidote inside. She inserts her arms through the armholes to grab the syringe, but the sockets are lined with razor blades that trap her wrists. She is unable to pull her hands out without bleeding to death. Xavier finds her trapped, reads the number on her neck, and leaves her to die.
The Bathroom Revisited
Amanda and Daniel, fleeing from Xavier, return to the first room and discover a hidden tunnel. They crawl through the dark passage, which leads them to a horrific, familiar location: the dilapidated subterranean bathroom from the first film. The room still contains the decomposing bodies of Adam Stanheight and Zep Hindle, along with the severed foot of Dr. Lawrence Gordon.
Weakened by the gas, Daniel collapses just as Xavier bursts into the room. Amanda tries to protect Daniel, taunting Xavier that he cannot read his own number without help. Unphased, Xavier takes a knife and slices the skin off the back of his own neck to view the number. He then advances on them to kill them for their numbers. Daniel, who was feigning unconsciousness, springs up and slashes Xavier's throat with a hacksaw found in the room, killing him.
The Deception Revealed
Watching the chaos on the monitors, Eric snaps. He brutally assaults John, beating him to a pulp to force him to reveal the house's location. John agrees to take him but insists they go alone. They leave the plant via a hidden elevator. Meanwhile, the tech team succeeds in tracing the video signal to a house across town. Rigg and the SWAT team rush to the location, only to find VCRs playing tapes. They realize the shocking truth: the video feed they had been watching was a recording. The game at the house had taken place days ago.
Simultaneously, at the Wilson Steel Plant, the timer expires. A large safe in the corner of the room—which had been there the entire time—opens up. Inside sits Daniel Matthews, alive and breathing with an oxygen mask. He had been in the "safe and secure state" John promised all along, right under the police's noses.
Game Over
Unaware that his son is safe, Eric arrives at the actual house used for the game. He navigates the corpse-strewn hallways and eventually enters the bathroom. He is immediately ambushed by a figure in a pig mask who injects him with an anesthetic. Eric loses consciousness.
When Eric wakes up, he is shackled by the ankle to a pipe in the dark bathroom. A tape recorder lies next to him. As he plays it, Amanda's voice fills the room. She reveals that she has become John's apprentice and accomplice after surviving her own test. She had entered the house not as a victim, but to ensure the rules were followed, and she faked being a victim to guide the others. The tape explains that John is dying, and Amanda will continue his work, with Eric serving as her first test subject. As the recording ends, Amanda appears in the doorway. She looks at Eric with cold detachment, says "Game Over," and slides the heavy door shut, sealing him in the darkness to die.
