John Kramer, a dying engineer known as the Jigsaw Killer, traps people he believes waste their lives in deadly "games" meant to make them value survival. His tests continue after his death through apprentices, Amanda Young, Detective Mark Hoffman and Dr. Lawrence Gordon, until Gordon seals Hoffman in the original bathroom in Saw 3D. Later films add a copycat, Logan Nelson, a second copycat, William Schenk, and in Saw X a story from John's last months, between Saw and Saw II.
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No. 01 · 2004 · Film
Saw recap
Two men wake chained by the ankle at opposite ends of a filthy bathroom, with a dead man lying between them holding a gun and a tape recorder. Adam is a photographer; Dr. Lawrence Gordon is a surgeon. Tapes tell them that Lawrence must kill Adam by six o'clock, or his wife Alison and daughter Diana will die, and that hacksaws are hidden in the room; they are too weak to cut chains. Lawrence knows the man behind it: the Jigsaw Killer, who puts people in deadly traps without killing them himself, and who once briefly made Lawrence a suspect. Flashbacks show the detectives David Tapp and Steven Sing hunting Jigsaw; Amanda Young describing how she escaped a reverse bear trap; and Sing's death in a shotgun trap. The orderly Zep Hindle is holding Lawrence's family hostage, while Tapp, obsessed and thrown off the force, watches the house. Adam turns out to have been hired by Tapp to photograph Lawrence.
How Saw ends
Lawrence saws off his own foot to escape and crawls away for help, and the "dead" body on the floor stands up: it is John Kramer, the real Jigsaw, and he seals Adam in to die. Alison escapes Zep, and Tapp chases him and is shot. Lawrence shoots Adam in the shoulder to fool the camera, and Adam kills Zep when he arrives. Zep was just another of Jigsaw's test subjects. John says "Game over" and slams the door.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 02 · 2005 · Film
Saw II recap
Detective Eric Matthews, a violent cop with a habit of planting evidence, tracks the Jigsaw Killer to a warehouse and finds John Kramer, dying of cancer, waiting for him. On monitors, Eric sees eight people trapped in a house filling with nerve gas, including his son Daniel. The others, among them Amanda Young, the only known survivor of a Jigsaw trap, were all framed by Eric. They have two hours to find antidotes hidden in the house, and the numbers on the backs of their necks are the code to a safe. John says that if Eric talks with him long enough, he will see his son again. The prisoners die one by one; the drug dealer Xavier turns on the others when he learns of the numbers. A SWAT team led by Eric's colleague Allison Kerry raids the house shown on the monitors. Losing his patience, Eric beats John until he agrees to take him to the house.
How Saw II ends
The video was recorded earlier: Daniel is safe in the warehouse, Amanda is Jigsaw's apprentice, and Eric ends up chained in the bathroom from the first film. Xavier cuts the number off his own neck to read it, and Daniel kills him. Eric reaches the house, where Amanda attacks him in a pig mask. Daniel was hidden in the safe the whole time, and had Eric waited, he would have seen him. Amanda leaves Eric chained in the bathroom, where Adam's body still lies.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 03 · 2006 · Film
Saw III recap
John Kramer is near death, kept alive by Amanda Young in a hidden workshop. Amanda kidnaps Dr. Lynn Denlon, a surgeon, and puts a collar on her that will explode if John's heart stops; she must keep him alive until he finishes his last game. That game belongs to Jeff Denlon, Lynn's husband, who has been consumed with grief and rage since a drunk driver killed his young son. Jeff walks through a series of traps holding the people he blames: Danica, a witness who did not testify; Judge Halden, who gave the driver a light sentence; and Timothy, the driver. Each time Jeff must decide whether to save them. Meanwhile Detective Kerry is found dead in a trap, and Eric Matthews' disappearance hangs over the police. Amanda, who has been setting traps that cannot be escaped, behaves more and more erratically toward Lynn.
How Saw III ends
Jeff kills John, Lynn's collar goes off, and a tape tells Jeff his daughter is hidden and his test is not over. Amanda refuses to free Lynn and shoots her, failing John's secret test of her own loyalty, and Jeff shoots Amanda, who dies. John reveals that Lynn is Jeff's wife and offers Jeff a last choice: forgive him or kill him. Jeff cuts John's throat with a power saw, which sets off Lynn's collar and kills her. The door seals, leaving Jeff to find his daughter Corbett.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 04 · 2007 · Film
Saw IV recap
At John Kramer's autopsy, a wax-coated tape found in his stomach tells Detective Mark Hoffman that the games have just begun. Officer Daniel Rigg, a SWAT commander obsessed with saving everyone, is kidnapped and told he has 90 minutes to save Eric Matthews, who is alive, and Hoffman, who is also being held. Rigg is forced through tests involving a sex trafficker, a serial rapist, and a wife-beater and his wife, all of which teach him that he cannot save everyone. FBI agents Peter Strahm and Lindsey Perez work the case and question Jill Tuck, John's ex-wife, and through her the film shows John's backstory: Jill lost their unborn son, Gideon, when a drug addict named Cecil robbed her clinic, and John, dying of cancer, made Cecil his first test subject. Perez is badly hurt by an exploding puppet. Strahm tracks Rigg to the Gideon meat factory.
How Saw IV ends
Hoffman turns out to be John's second apprentice and leaves Strahm sealed in the factory with the dying Rigg. Rigg bursts into Eric's room with a second left, Eric is killed by blocks of ice, and Hoffman, never in danger, stands up. Strahm kills Jeff Denlon, who was searching for his daughter. The events happened alongside Saw III, before the autopsy, and a tape warns Hoffman he will be tested.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 05 · 2008 · Film
Saw V recap
Agent Peter Strahm survives the trap Hoffman left him in by cutting a hole in his own throat, and Hoffman, posing as a survivor, is hailed as a hero for closing the Jigsaw case. Strahm suspects him and digs through Hoffman's past. Flashbacks show that Hoffman killed his sister's murderer, Seth Baxter, in a fake Jigsaw trap, and that John Kramer found out and recruited him. Meanwhile five people wake in a sewer with collars on their necks: Ashley, Brit, Charles, Luba and Mallick. A tape tells them to do the opposite of their instincts. Each room has a trap that rewards cooperation, but they turn on one another, and three die. The survivors, Brit and Mallick, realise they are all connected to a building fire that killed eight people. Strahm is suspended by his boss, Dan Erickson, and finds Hoffman at the nerve gas house.
How Saw V ends
Strahm locks Hoffman in a glass box, not realising it is the safe place, and is crushed to death by closing walls, framed as Jigsaw's accomplice. Brit and Mallick each give blood by putting an arm in a saw and survive, and Erickson finds them. The tape left for Strahm explains that if he did not trust the game, he would die and be framed as the accomplice. Hoffman watches Strahm die from inside the box, now free of suspicion, and the case is closed in his favour.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 06 · 2009 · Film
Saw VI recap
Hoffman plants Strahm's fingerprints at a new Jigsaw scene to keep the blame on the dead agent. Jill Tuck receives a box from John Kramer's will and helps carry out his plan. The new test targets William Easton, an insurance executive whose company denied John coverage for an experimental cancer treatment. William wakes in an abandoned zoo and is forced through tests on his own staff, deciding who lives: his janitor, his secretary or a clerk, his lawyer, and six junior employees on a carousel, of whom he can save two. Agent Erickson and the recovered Lindsey Perez work out that Strahm's fingerprints were planted. Hoffman also finds a letter he wrote to Amanda missing. Watching from a cage are a widow, Tara Abbott, and her son Brent, whose husband and father William denied coverage, and William's sister Pamela, a journalist.
How Saw VI ends
Brent pulls a lever that kills William with acid, and Jill puts Hoffman in a reverse bear trap, which he escapes with his face torn. Erickson and Perez identify Hoffman's voice on a tape, and he kills them. Jill, acting on John's instructions and the letter that shows Hoffman caused Amanda's betrayal, straps the trap to his head. Hoffman breaks his wrist and escapes, wanting revenge on Jill.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. The theatrical cut has no post-credits scene; an extra scene was added after the credits on the home release.
No. 07 · 2010 · Film
Saw 3D recap
Jill Tuck goes to Detective Matt Gibson, offering to testify against Hoffman in exchange for protection, and Hoffman sets out to kill her. Meanwhile, Bobby Dagen, a self-help author famous for surviving a Jigsaw trap, turns out to have made up the story, and Hoffman puts him through a real game in an abandoned asylum. Bobby must reach his wife, Joyce, within an hour, as people who helped him lie, his publicist, lawyer and best friend, die in traps around him. Hoffman also kills a gang in a junkyard trap. Gibson sends a SWAT team after Bobby, but they are gassed. Hoffman gets into the police station hidden in a body bag, and kills everyone there, including Gibson. Dr. Lawrence Gordon appears in flashbacks recovering from the first film.
How Saw 3D ends
Bobby fails his test and Joyce burns to death, Hoffman kills Jill with the reverse bear trap, and Dr. Lawrence Gordon, John's secret third apprentice, chains Hoffman in the original bathroom. Bobby falls from hooks driven through his chest. Gordon survived the first film by cauterising his leg and has been helping John since, under orders to act if Jill were harmed. He throws away the hacksaw and seals the door, saying "Game over".
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 08 · 2017 · Film
Jigsaw recap
Ten years after John Kramer's death, bodies start turning up in the city with Jigsaw's mark, and a man the detectives are chasing claims he must start a game. Five people wake in a barn with buckets on their heads and chains pulling them toward saw blades. A tape in John's voice says each must confess what they have done. Detective Halloran, who lets criminals go when it suits him, suspects the medical examiners Logan Nelson, a veteran, and Eleanor Bonneville, who secretly collects Jigsaw traps. One by one the barn captives are killed: a purse thief, a man who sold a faulty motorcycle that killed John's nephew, and a woman who smothered her baby. Edgar Munsen, the man from the opening, is found dead in John's grave. Halloran arrests Logan and Eleanor, and Logan persuades the other detective that Halloran set them up.
How Jigsaw ends
Logan turns out to be a copycat, trained by John after surviving his own test, and he kills Halloran in a laser collar trap. The barn games happened ten years earlier: Logan was the unconscious man in the opening game, and John saved him. Logan says he made the X-ray mistake that left John's cancer undiagnosed. He used the new game to punish Halloran, who freed the man who killed his wife. "I speak for the dead," he says, and walks out.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 09 · 2021 · Film · optional
Spiral recap
Detective Zeke Banks is distrusted by his colleagues after turning in a corrupt partner years earlier. His father, Marcus, is the retired police chief. A Jigsaw copycat begins killing police officers: one is left hanging by his tongue in front of a subway train, another loses his fingers. The killer sends Zeke parcels with a spiral symbol and puppet. Zeke is given a rookie partner, William Schenk, and soon a box arrives with a piece of Schenk's skin, and a skinned body is found. Captain Angie Garza dies in a trap of hot wax. Marcus goes after the killer alone and disappears. Zeke follows clues to a warehouse, where he tries to save his former partner Peter Dunleavy from a trap and fails.
How Spiral ends
Schenk is the killer, the son of a man murdered by a corrupt cop, and he escapes while police kill Marcus by mistake. Schenk faked his death with another body. He gives Zeke one bullet: shoot him, or save Marcus. Zeke saves Marcus, but SWAT officers arrive, a wire raises Marcus with a gun attached to his arm, and they shoot him. Schenk walks away as Zeke screams.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 10 · 2023 · Film
Saw X recap
Set between Saw and Saw II, John Kramer has terminal brain cancer. A man from his support group, Henry Kessler, says an experimental treatment cured him, and John contacts Cecilia Pederson, who runs the programme. He travels to a clinic outside Mexico City, pays a fortune and undergoes surgery. Afterwards he finds the clinic empty and realises the surgery was faked: he has been scammed. With Amanda Young's help, John kidnaps the doctor, nurses and anesthesiologist who took his money, and makes the impostor doctor, Diego, cut bombs from his arms. He puts the others through brutal games: one must cut off her own leg, another must drill into his own skull. Cecilia turns the tables, captures John and Amanda, and puts John and a young boy, Carlos, into a trap that waterboards them with blood.
How Saw X ends
John's plan anticipated Cecilia's betrayal: Cecilia and her partner Parker are trapped, she kills him to survive, and John, Amanda and Carlos escape. Parker, who arrived to help Cecilia, was part of the scam. Flashbacks show that Diego exposed the whole scam to John, including Parker and Henry, and that John tricked Cecilia into bringing Parker to the clinic. John, Amanda and the boy walk away, leaving Cecilia sealed in the room as it fills with gas.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. In a mid-credits scene, Henry Kessler, who lured John into the scam, wakes in a run-down bathroom with a trap on his stomach, while John and Detective Mark Hoffman watch.
Common questions
What is the Saw story so far?
John Kramer, a dying engineer known as the Jigsaw Killer, traps people he believes waste their lives in deadly "games" meant to make them value survival. His tests continue after his death through apprentices, Amanda Young, Detective Mark Hoffman and Dr. Lawrence Gordon, until Gordon seals Hoffman in the original bathroom in Saw 3D. Later films add a copycat, Logan Nelson, a second copycat, William Schenk, and in Saw X a story from John's last months, between Saw and Saw II.
Where did Saw leave off?
Saw X (2023) is the latest. John's plan anticipated Cecilia's betrayal: Cecilia and her partner Parker are trapped, she kills him to survive, and John, Amanda and Carlos escape. Parker, who arrived to help Cecilia, was part of the scam. Flashbacks show that Diego exposed the whole scam to John, including Parker and Henry, and that John tricked Cecilia into bringing Parker to the clinic. John, Amanda and the boy walk away, leaving Cecilia sealed in the room as it fills with gas.
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