Jigsaw and his apprentice are dead, but the games have only just begun. During the autopsy of the killer, a wax-coated cassette tape is discovered in his stomach, promising that his work will continue from beyond the grave. As a SWAT commander is abducted and thrust into a ninety-minute gauntlet to save his colleagues, two FBI agents dig into Jigsaw's past, unknowingly closing in on a shocking secret that reveals the true extent of his master plan.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
October 26, 2007 |
Running time |
92 minutes |
Genre |
Horror Mystery Thriller |
Budget |
$10,000,000 |
Box Office |
$139,352,633 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Darren Lynn Bousman |
Produced by |
Gregg Hoffman Oren Koules Mark Burg |
Written by |
Patrick Melton Marcus Dunstan |
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: #04 in Saw Collection
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The Plot
The Autopsy of John Kramer
Following the harrowing events of the previous film, the lifeless body of John Kramer, the notorious Jigsaw Killer, lies on a cold steel table inside the city morgue. During the grim procedure of the autopsy, the examiners make a bizarre discovery: a wax-coated microcassette tape has been swallowed and lodged within Kramer's stomach. Detective Mark Hoffman is immediately summoned to the facility to witness the retrieval of this final artifact.
Upon playing the tape, the gravelly voice of John Kramer fills the room, delivering a chilling message from beyond the grave. He warns Hoffman that he is wrong to assume the horror has ended with Jigsaw's death. Kramer declares that the games have only just begun and ominously informs the detective that he, too, will be tested, setting the stage for a new cycle of violence.
The Mausoleum Trap
The scene shifts to a dark, damp mausoleum where two men, Trevor and Art Blank, awaken to a nightmare. They are chained by their necks to a large, winch-like device anchored in the center of the room. The cruelty of their situation is immediately apparent: Trevor’s eyelids have been surgically sewn shut, rendering him blind, while Art’s lips have been sewn together, leaving him mute. Communication is nearly impossible, and panic quickly sets in.
Trevor, unable to see and terrified, inadvertently activates the winch mechanism by pulling on his chain. The device begins to rotate, slowly dragging both men toward the center where the machinery threatens to strangle them. In a frenzy of self-preservation and confusion, the blinded Trevor attacks Art. Forced to defend himself, Art strikes back and manages to kill Trevor. With his captor dead, Art spots a key attached to Trevor’s collar. He retrieves it, unlocking his own neck shackle just as the winch tightens. Free but in agony, Art screams, ripping the sutures from his lips and tearing his mouth open in a gruesome display of survival.
The FBI and the Inescapable Trap
Four days after her disappearance, the body of Detective Allison Kerry is discovered hanging in an underground chamber. A SWAT team, led by Officer Daniel Rigg and Detective Hoffman, raids the location to secure the scene. They are joined by two FBI specialists, Agent Peter Strahm and Agent Lindsey Perez. The agents reveal that Kerry had been acting as their informant within the department, sending them a cryptic key and a final message: "Open the door, and you will find me."
As Strahm and Perez examine Kerry's remains, they deduce a terrifying anomaly. The Angel Trap that killed her was designed to be inescapable; even though she followed the rules, the device still ripped her ribcage apart. This violation of Jigsaw’s philosophy leads the agents to conclude that Amanda Young, Jigsaw's known apprentice, lacked the physical strength to hoist Kerry into the harness alone. They theorize that a third party—another accomplice—is orchestrating these games from the shadows.
The Recruitment of Officer Rigg
Officer Rigg has been spiraling into a deep depression since the disappearance of his friend and colleague, Detective Eric Matthews, six months prior. Consumed by obsession, Rigg is convinced Eric is still alive. That night, Rigg is ambushed in his own apartment and knocked unconscious. He awakens to find a videotape from Jigsaw, revealing that Eric Matthews is indeed alive but in grave danger. He has only 90 minutes of air left, and his fate is inextricably linked to Detective Hoffman, who has also been abducted. Jigsaw warns Rigg that his obsession with saving everyone is his tragic flaw and that he must learn to let go to truly succeed.
Rigg’s first test awaits him in his own living room. He finds a woman named Brenda chained to a mechanical chair. A tape advises Rigg to leave her, but his instinct to save overrides the warning. As he approaches, he accidentally triggers the trap, which slowly begins to tear Brenda's scalp from her head. Rigg frantically works to decipher the combination to the lock, eventually freeing her. However, the moment Brenda is released, she grabs a knife hidden beneath the television and lunges at Rigg. Forced to defend himself, Rigg throws her into a mirror, killing her. A tape recorder found on her body reveals that Brenda, a pimp, was told that Rigg was there to arrest her and that her only chance for freedom was to kill him.
The Motel and the Rapist
While Rigg departs to locate his next clue, Agents Strahm and Perez investigate his apartment. They find Brenda’s body and a wall plastered with photographs of victims, including Eric Matthews, Mark Hoffman, and Jill Tuck, John Kramer’s ex-wife. Recognizing the significance of Jill Tuck, the agents bring her into the station for interrogation.
Meanwhile, Rigg arrives at the Alexander Motel for his second test. He is directed to a room where he abducts the proprietor, Ivan Landsness. Rigg forces Ivan into a prearranged room plastered with evidence of Ivan's secret life as a serial rapist. The trap prepared for Ivan demands a horrific sacrifice: he must choose to gouge out both of his eyes within 60 seconds or be dismembered. Ivan, screaming in agony, manages to blind one eye but fails to take the second before the timer expires. The machine activates, ripping his limbs from his body in a spray of blood.
The Classroom Trap
Following the trail, Rigg speeds toward an elementary school, the site of a past incident where he assaulted a man named Rex for abusing his daughter. Upon entering a classroom, Rigg discovers Rex and his wife, Morgan, impaled together by long metal spikes that pin them back-to-back. Rex is already dead, having bled out from punctured arteries. Morgan, however, is alive; the spikes missed her vital organs.
Rigg learns that Morgan was given a choice before his arrival: she could have removed the spikes—an act that would have killed her abusive husband sooner but saved herself—or waited. Rigg finds a hidden clue revealing the location of Eric Matthews and Mark Hoffman. Before leaving, he pulls the fire alarm to alert authorities to Morgan's location, continuing his race against the clock toward the final test site.
The Billy Puppet and the Origin of Jigsaw
Agents Strahm and Perez arrive at the school, discovering the carnage. They realize a connection between the victims: Brenda, Ivan, and Rex were all clients of the lawyer Art Blank, the man who survived the Mausoleum trap. In the principal's office, the agents find a Billy puppet and a tape recorder. The message ominously warns Perez that her "next move is critical" and claims her partner will soon take the life of an innocent man. Ignoring the threat, Perez leans in to hear the whisper, and the puppet’s face explodes, embedding shrapnel into her face and neck. Before being rushed to the hospital, she presses Kerry’s mysterious key into Strahm’s hand.
Enraged and desperate, Strahm returns to the police station to break Jill Tuck. Under intense pressure, Jill reveals the tragic history of John Kramer. She explains that she was once pregnant with a son, to be named Gideon. However, a robbery by a drug addict named Cecil Adams at her clinic caused a miscarriage. The grief destroyed John and Jill’s marriage. Following a cancer diagnosis and a failed suicide attempt, John embarked on his crusade. He targeted Cecil first, strapping him to a chair where he had to push his face through knives to release his wrists from razor blades. When the chair collapsed, Cecil lunged at John, only to fall into a pit of razor wire. Strahm realizes the significance of the name "Gideon"—it refers to the Gideon Meatpacking Plant, the location of Rigg’s final test.
90 Minutes: The Final Test
Rigg arrives at the abandoned Gideon Meatpacking Plant, locating the room where Art Blank is holding Eric Matthews and Mark Hoffman captive. The trap is a precarious balance: Eric stands on a melting block of ice with a chain noose around his neck. Hoffman is strapped to a chair wired with high-voltage electricity. They are positioned on opposite ends of a seesaw device. If the ice melts or Eric jumps, the water runoff will electrocute Hoffman, and Eric will hang. Art Blank, forced to oversee the game, holds a device that will release them only when the 90-minute timer reaches zero. If the door is breached before then, two massive ice blocks will swing down and crush Eric’s head.
As Rigg approaches the door, Eric spots him and screams frantically, begging him not to enter. In a desperate bid to stop him, Eric uses a gun provided by Art to shoot Rigg through the door glass. Wounded in the chest but driven by his obsession to save them, Rigg charges through the door with only one second left on the timer. The mechanism triggers immediately: the ice blocks swing down, obliterating Eric Matthews' head. Believing Art to be the mastermind, Rigg shoots him dead. As Art falls, he plays a final tape for Rigg. The message reveals that Rigg has failed his test. His goal was not to save Eric, but to wait and let Eric save himself. His obsession has cost everyone their lives.
Game Over
As the realization of his failure washes over the dying Rigg, Detective Hoffman calmly unstraps himself from the electric chair. He stands over Rigg, revealing himself as Jigsaw's true apprentice and the architect of the recent games. Hoffman declares "Game Over" and seals Rigg inside the room to die.
Simultaneously, Agent Strahm arrives at the plant. Navigating the maze-like corridors, he finds a different room using Kerry's key. Inside, he is shocked to discover the fresh corpse of John Kramer and the body of Amanda Young, revealing that the events of Saw IV and Saw III have been taking place at the exact same time. Suddenly, Jeff Denlon—the protagonist of Saw III—emerges from the shadows, brandishing a gun and demanding to know where his daughter is. Perceiving Jeff as a threat, Strahm shoots and kills him, unwittingly fulfilling the puppet's prophecy that he would kill an innocent man. Moments later, Hoffman enters, glancing at the carnage before locking Strahm inside the room with the bodies of Jigsaw, Amanda, Jeff, and Lynn Denlon. The film concludes by circling back to the beginning: Hoffman stands in the morgue, listening to the tape found in John Kramer’s stomach, ready to carry on the legacy.
