Jigsaw

The Jigsaw Killer (or simply Jigsaw) is the fictional villain of Saw and its sequels Saw II and Saw III. His backstory was explored in the comic book Saw: Rebirth published by IDW publishing. He is played by Tobin Bell.

History Once John Kramer was diagnosed with an inoperable frontal lobe tumor, he realized how fleeting and valuable life truly was. He saw how other people took their lives for granted and was disgusted.

At the hospital, he witnessed various people who, in his opinion, had thrown their lives away. Amanda, a young woman who had overdosed on heroin; "Can you imagine that? A beautiful, young woman with everything in front of her, ready to throw it all away. She'd survived, but did she learn anything from the experience? I doubted it." Paul, a man who had cut himself; "He'd slashed his wrists. A guy with a wife, family, kids, a good position and he'd tried to end it all. What the hell was wrong with him? What was wrong with everybody?!"

Utterly depressed at the futility of life, John attempted to commit suicide by driving his car off a cliff. "But I didn't die. Ending it all would be too easy...just the last cop-out in a life far too full of them already. The cancer growing inside would eventually kill me anyway. I accepted that, fully and completely. But that knowledge didn't depress me anymore. In fact, it liberated me, clarified everything. No, I didn't die...I was reborn."

John was now convinced of his mission; to teach others to appreciate the value of life that was now being denied him. And so, Jigsaw was born.

Jigsaw John spent the next months of his life planning meticulously for his 'subjects', painstakingly creating devices to 'test' them that corresponded to their discretions. Paul, the man who had cut himself earlier, would now have to crawl through razor wire. Amanda, the drug addict would have to dig through the entrails of her former drug dealer to get a key that would unlock the device on her head.

He placed his victims in deadly traps, leaving them a video tape (usually with an eerie puppet, which has become his trademark) or a cassete tape that says "Play Me", telling them how to escape. They often involved quick thinking, dangerous decisions and often self-mutilation (one trap required a victim to gouge out his own eye to find a key underneath.)

The name "Jigsaw Killer" comes from his signature engraving of the shape of a puzzle piece into the skin of an unsuccessful victim. John stated that he never intended to be called the Jigsaw Killer, claiming that the puzzle piece was to symbolize the piece that the victims were missing in their lives.

Later it turned out that Jigsaw recruited an apprentice, Amanda, one of the few people to have survived his games. Finding a father figure and savior in Jigsaw, she will carry on in his footsteps once he succumbs to cancer.

Notable Traps Some of his traps are the:

Reverse Bear-trap This trap was a device attached to the victim's head, in such a way that it is impossible to remove unless the padlock is removed by unlocking it. The device has a mechanism attached the victim's mouth, with a shape alike to a bear trap. Instead of snapping closed however, the device snaps open. If the device is not removed before a timer activates it, it will rip the victim's jaw open, possibly killing them. This device was used on Amanda, a drug addict. The key to remove the device was located in another victim's stomach, forcing her to chose between cutting a person open or falling victim to the mechanism. The other person is her drug dealer, who was given an opium overdose, which kept him alive, but "not able to do or say much of anything." She decided she valued her life more than the addiction and managed to take the key with a knife and remove the device. The other victim, however, was killed from the wounds she inflicted to remove the key. The Venus Fly-Trap This trap is very similar to the Reverse Beartrap. The mechanism is attached to the victim's chest, only removable if the key to the padlock is obtained. Near the head are two masks, each opposite from one another. The inside of each mask is filled with nails. When the timer activates the device, it will snap closed. The head, since it is located between the two masks, will be impaled by the nails, killing the victim. This device was used on Michael, a police informer. The key to the device, for this game, was surgically placed behind his eye. To remove the device, he would have to use a scalpel to carve through his eye and retrieve the key. However, he could not do so and was killed by the device. The Bathroom Trap This trap involves two victims trapped in a filthy bathroom. Both are chained by their ankles to a pipe. Also present in the room is a dead body, holding a gun, which is out of reach for the two prisoners. One of the prisoners will receive a bullet, with which to load the gun and kill the other prisoner. They must do so by a certain time limit, usually a matter of hours, or else someone they love, usually a family member, will be killed. In order to reach the gun, however, they must saw off their own chained leg with a hacksaw, hidden in the room. The other victim may try to escape by sawing off their own leg and leaving. It should also be noted that the hacksaw's strength is only strong enough to saw through flesh, but not the chains attached to the leg. This trap was used on Adam and Lawrence, with Adam as the prey and Lawrence as the killer. Both tried to find alternatives, but could find none. Lawrence was forced to saw his own leg off and retrieved the gun. He pretended to fatally shoot Adam, but in reality only shot him in the arm. He then crawled out to find help. Adam, however, remained trapped. It is assumed that Lawrence either died from his wounds or could not relocate the bathroom, because the corpse of Adam was later discovered. The Razor Wire Maze This trap involves a victim who wakes up in a fenced area of a basement. Between the victim and the door, there is razor wire hanging that the victim has to either push through or push apart to make an opening. There is a hole cut somewhere at the end of the fence, but it is in a place where the victim in not likely to look. The door out of the basement is set on a timer and the victim must escape before the timer goes off. In order to escape, the victim must "find the path through the razor wire". Paul was the victim for this trap. He was a man with a decent life, yet he tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists, just for attention. According to Jigsaw, the irony of his situation was that if he really wanted to die, he just had to stay where he was (since the door to freedom would close, trapping him in). If he wanted to live, however, he would have to “cut himself again”. Footage from the movie shows him pushing his way through the wire, and making it to the end, but not finding the hole in time, therefor being trapped in "forever". Detectives found him hanging dead on the razor wires. He was cut so deep that detectives found traces of stomach acid on the floor. Detectives also found peepholes in the wall, showing that Jigsaw liked to "book front row seats to his own sick games." The Nerve Gas House This trap involves Jigsaw leaving multiple victims in house riddled with traps, usually containing one for each person. The victims breathe in a toxic nerve agent in the air as they go through the house, and they must find antidotes, for the door to the house will eventually open on its own, but if they do not find an antidote, they will die before it happens. Each trap usually contains a way to get an antidote. The majority of Saw 2 involved a nerve gas house. The Razor Box Trap This trap involved a glass container which was suspended from the roof. Inside the box is a item of great importance in which is only accessible by two holes underneath the box that is big enough to fit ones arms through. Once they put their arms through, however they realize that the corners of the holes are fitted with blades that will bend up if something is inserted and if the person tries to take their hands out the blades will go into their skin and the harder they pull the deeper the blades go in. Addison fell victim to this trap. It is unknown if she survived or died of blood loss. It is later revealed that if the victim were to walk to the other side of the box, they would see a lock with a key sticking out of it - Which in turn would've unlocked the box and allowed them to access the item without harm. The Magnum Eyehole This trap consisted of a door and a gun. The door consisted of a keyhole and an eyehole. On the other side of the eyehole was a bunch of gears attached to the trigger of what looked to be a Magnum firearm. Once the key was placed in the keyhole and turned, the firearm would go off and fire through anyone who looked through the eyehole. Which in this case was Gus. The Furnace This trap was built like a furnace for cremating bodies. The victim must get objects such as keys or antidotes that are placed inside. One would be placed with a chain attached to the top of the furnace that, when pulled down, will close the door and ignite the furnace. The only way out is to twist a knob that turns off the flames. In this case, Obi fell victim. The knob had a painting of a devil pointing to a knob which said "twist". This clarifies Jigsaw's line, "Once you're in Hell, only the devil can help you." The Flammable Jelly This trap involved a young man who was stripped of his clothing, barefoot, and covered in a flammable jelly. He is in a room with a safe, broken glass all over the floor, a lit candle, and hundreds of numbers written on the walls. He is told that there is a poison in his blood and he has two hours to find the correct combination, open the safe and take the antidote for the poison which lies inside the safe. While looking at the walls however, he draws too close to the candle and goes up in flames. The scorched body is shown afterward.