The Entire Saw Franchise Timeline Explained
The "Saw" series started out as a claustrophobic thriller about two guys trapped in a bathroom by a deranged serial killer. It has since become a sprawling horror franchise that is still going strong, many years later. Indeed, "Saw" has been delivering terrifying twists from the very beginning: Who could forget the jaw-dropping moment in which John Kramer (Tobin Bell) first peels himself off of a blood-soaked floor and reveals himself to be the mastermind behind the gory "games?"
Each of the subsequent "Saw" movies have built upon the timeline of the first film, journeying forward, backward, and sometimes even sideways to fill in the overarching story with grisly traps, trials, and tests. We've had ten "Saw" movies to date and there are even more in the pipeline according to producers. We'll have to wait and see how future installments in the "Saw" series will build upon Jigsaw's terrible legacy, but for now, here's a look at how the full timeline of the "Saw" franchise stacks up.
John Kramer's dark beginning
John Kramer's sinister arc begins with his time as an engineer and building designer. John works with his friend, attorney Art Blank (Justin Louis), on creating low-income housing for needy families through their Urban Renewal Group. Jill, John's wife, works at an addiction recovery clinic.
John is concerned over the safety of Jill's workplace, and his fears prove to be well-founded when a patient named Cecil Adams (Billy Otis) attempts to rob the facility. He shoves a heavy door into Jill's stomach on the way out, causing her to miscarry Gideon, the son she and John have been awaiting. Cecil had been encouraged to go to the clinic by Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), a fellow addict and patient who was once arrested by Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg). John, who is waiting for Jill in his car, has a brief encounter with Addison Corday (Emmanuelle Vaugier), who makes a sexual advance John turns down.
John and Jill's relationship falls apart shortly after this incident. A doll John had created for his unborn son later inspires Jigsaw's ominous visage.
A healthcare crisis
Shortly after the decline of his marriage, John is diagnosed with terminal cancer by Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) of the Angel of Mercy Hospital. During his treatment, John befriends an orderly named Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson). Zep makes it clear that he dislikes Dr. Gordon. John is also treated by Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh). His tumor is deemed to be inoperable because John was diagnosed too late, thanks to an X-ray labeling error by Logan Nelson (Matt Passmore).
John seeks approval for an alternative treatment option with insurance executive William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), a donor to Jill's clinic who is nevertheless tightfisted. John is warned he will lose his coverage with Umbrella Health if he pursues experimental treatment, as the company is quick to cut off clients in need of care, like cardiac patient Harold Abbott (George Newbern). This decision comes back to haunt Easton.
None of these people know they've made a grave mistake by simply being in the vicinity of John Kramer during this dark hour, but in time, they definitely find out.
A new type of treatment
After experiencing severe depression, John drives himself off of a cliff. But he survives the crash and gains a new perspective on life — and an incessant urge to force this revelation on others. He begins his deadly series of games with a bit of retribution, concealing himself with a pig mask and capturing Cecil at a carnival. John places Cecil in restraints in his lab and tells him that he has the choice to either bleed out from the wounds on his wrists, or press his face through a series of blades. If he chooses the latter, he'll become as scarred on the outside as he is on the inside. But, John insists, he'll escape with a renewed lease on life.
Cecil is unable to complete his challenge. But then, his chair breaks apart and allows him to escape. Cecil proceeds to attack John, but John murders him in a cage full of razor wire. John takes a puzzle-shaped piece of skin from Cecil's corpse as a memento and a symbol of the survival instinct Cecil lacked. This becomes Jigsaw's calling card.
The first apprentice
"Jigsaw" reveals Logan Nelson to have been John's first sidekick. Logan fails to wake up during the initial Bucket Head trap at Tuck's Pig Farm, and is badly wounded by the blades. But John does not believe Logan has to die due to his careless-but-innocent X-ray mislabeling. Others being put through the test have more intentional harms in their history, including Mitch (Mandela Van Peebles), who sold a defective bike that fell apart and killed John's young nephew, and Anna (Laura Vandervoort), John's former neighbor who suffocated her baby and framed her husband, who later killed himself.
John rescues Logan from the trap and trains him in his philosophy, which Logan finds to be helpful. Logan has suffered from depression after his traumatic experiences serving in the Iraq War. It is not clear how long Logan works with John, but he helps him prepare some of his earliest traps, including the Reverse Beartrap. We also don't know if he had any relationship with Jigsaw's other sidekicks. What we do know, however, is that Logan eventually gets married, has a child, and maintains a career as a medical examiner.
The second lieutenants
Jigsaw's recruitment spree doesn't stop with Logan. Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is part of the first Metropolitan Police Department team investigating the Jigsaw murders alongside Detectives David Tapp (Danny Glover), Steven Sing (Ken Leung), and Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer). He learns enough about Jigsaw to imitate his methods. Pretending to be Jigsaw, Hoffman gets vengeance against Seth Baxter (Joris Jarsky), his sister's murderer, via the Pendulum trap. Hoffman is already known for his violent and immoral ways: He previously created friction with Officer Matt Gibson (Chad Donella) after Hoffman shot a man who attacked Gibson several times, even though the man had disarmed himself. Hoffman was promoted after his unethical skirmish with Gibson, who was transferred to Internal Affairs.
Likewise, Jigsaw does not punish Hoffman, though he does admonish him for not giving Seth a chance to survive his trap. John offers to take him under his wing. The two then test Paul Leahy (Mike Butters) and Mark Wilson (Paul Gutrecht). Hoffman also helps John frame Dr. Gordon by leaving the doctor's penlight at the scene of Mark's game, after he warns John that Detective Tapp is getting close to identifying him. Tapp narrowly survives a trap laid for the police, but Sing is killed. Thus, Tapp's obsession with the case grows. John also recruits Amanda after she survives her trap, and the three work together to create several traps, including one of the franchise's most unforgettable.
The grimiest bathroom
After Amanda agrees to become Jigsaw's second protégé, she helps John orchestrate the infamous Bathroom trap. She helps kidnap Dr. Gordon, who is having an affair with a student, and Adam Stanheight (Leigh Whannell), a photographer taking pictures of Gordon for Tapp.
Amanda sets up the room so that Jigsaw can play his sinister game. Gordon wins by sawing off his own foot, and his wife and daughter also escape Zep with Tapp's help. Gordon drags himself through the halls of Jigsaw's lair and finds a hot steam pipe to cauterize his leg wound. Jigsaw then takes Gordon in to help him recover, even devising a prosthetic for his leg. Amanda sneaks back into the bathroom to asphyxiate Adam, who is already bleeding out, as an act of mercy. However, his death ends up being even more traumatic as a result of her interference.
Gordon goes on to become Jigsaw's secret helping hand. As revealed in "Saw: The Final Chapter," he assists with some of the more medically-sensitive tests, including the Venus Flytrap from "Saw II" and the Mausoleum trap from "Saw IV." He also suggests Lynn Denlon as a test subject in "Saw III."
John finds hope
After being told that his advanced brain tumor will only leave him a few months to live, John seeks solace in a cancer support group. While at a café, he runs into support group member Henry Kessler. Henry, who testified to having terminal Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, now claims to have been cured. It's all thanks to an experimental Norwegian cancer treatment conducted by Dr. Finn Pederson (Donagh Gordon). This is the experimental treatment that Umbrella Health Insurance executive William Easton (Peter Outerbridge) turned John down for in "Saw VI."
John begins researching the doctor and this life-saving miracle cure. After reaching out via the doctor's website, Dr. Pederson's daughter Cecilia (Synnøve Macody Lund) calls him with great news. There is an immediate opening in a trial taking place at her clinic in Mexico City. Eager to get started, John accepts. Once in Mexico, John is picked up by a taxi driver named Diego (Joshua Okamoto). As Diego gives him the fifty-cent tour of Mexico City, they are ambushed by masked men who take John away in their unmarked van.
When the men take John to Cecilia Pederson's treatment facility, she explains that she needs to take precautions to stop Big Pharma finding her location. Cecilia and John walk the facility grounds as she explains the procedure to him. Along the way, he meets Gabriela (Renata Vaca), who credits Cecilia for saving her life; Valentina (Paulette Hernandez), the head nurse; Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa), the anesthesiologist; and Parker Sears (Steven Brand), a now cancer-free patient.
The worst possible scenario
John awakens from his operation in a different building with the good news that he has his whole life ahead of him. The procedure was a success, leaving him cancer-free. Though John is grateful for this news, he is also disappointed that he didn't get to say goodbye to Gabriela, with whom he felt a kinship. He goes off to buy her a gift, but when he returns to the treatment facility, he makes an Earth-shattering discovery.
The once welcoming house is now empty, with the framed photo of what was supposed to be Gabriela's family now shattered and discarded on the floor. What was once the operating room has been cleared out in a hurry. John finds the monitor used during his surgery along with an educational DVD of surgeries. Not wanting to accept the unthinkable, he removes his head bandages only to discover that he has no scars or signs of having had brain surgery.
Let the game begin
Understandably, John is incensed. He flies into action, capturing Diego, who was not only his cabbie but also posed as John's surgeon. Passing John's test, Diego escapes his trap and happily names everyone involved in the cruel hustle. John calls Detective Hoffman for backup, instructing him to help find the charlatans responsible for selling him and so many others false hope. Amanda arrives to assist John in kidnapping and executing his new game of "not retribution but of reawakening."
Once everyone is in place, John explains the rules to his "players" and leaves them to it. A seemingly forgotten cell phone rings after Valentina fails her challenge to suction out her own bone marrow. Cecilia retrieves the phone and makes a call using Valentina's intestines as rope. Amanda electrocutes her before she can speak to the person on the other end.
Soon after, John and Amanda get a surprise visit from a furious Parker, who wants to confront Cecilia about his bogus operation and being swindled out of thousands of dollars. After restraining Parker, the duo forces him to watch Mateo unsuccessfully remove enough of his cerebral tissue to free himself from his trap.
A new player enters
Unlike the others, Gabriela successfully wins her game. But after suffering facial burns from ionizing radiation and using a sledgehammer to break her shackled limbs, she needs medical attention. John instructs Amanda to get her to the hospital, but Parker won't allow it. He hasn't been sincere in his reasons for being there, as he is also in on the con and there to rescue Cecilia — he's the call that she made earlier. Still concerned for Gabriela, John begs that they let her get to a hospital. Cecilia won't hear of it and coldly steps on Gabriela's neck, breaking it and killing her instantly. Cecilia and Parker put Amanda's leg in a shackle and get John into the trap intended for Cecilia.
Carlos, a young local boy John befriended, gets caught up in Cecilia's twisted revenge. Cecilia decides to bring him to make John watch an innocent suffer. It seems Cecilia knows all about John's alter ego as Jigsaw and she is relishing this opportunity. The trap is a type of waterboarding see-saw but with blood — so bloodboarding. A lever can be pulled to relieve your torture, putting the other victim deeper in harm's way. Before the blood starts to pour down, John sternly warns Carlos not to pull the lever.
John escapes his own trap
While John and Carlos are fighting for their lives and Amanda pleads for it to stop, Cecilia and Parker go upstairs to the makeshift office to retrieve their bag of stolen cash. A wire is tripped when they grab the bag, activating their actual game.
Thanks to Detective Hoffman's intel, John knew that Parker was also an accomplice of Cecilia. The bloodboarding trap and Amanda's shackles have built in fail-safes, so they are able to free themselves as Cecilia and Parker are left to fight their way out of their own toxic gas trap. It's a satisfying turn of events, but there is one more person who needs to be held accountable for their sins.
In a mid-credits scene, John and Detective Hoffman welcome Henry Kessler to the same disgusting bathroom that brought deliverance for Dr. Gordon and death to Adam Stanheight in "Saw." Henry hangs by his wrists from the ceiling with a strange mechanical device attached to his torso. John points out that the scar he showed him as proof of his life-saving operation is no longer there, so it's time to play a game.
The hell house
In "Saw II," John is finally identified as the Jigsaw killer. Eric Matthews is among the officers who finds his hideout. Little does he know, John has kidnapped Matthews' teenaged son Daniel (Erik Knudsen) and put him into a group trap at the Nerve Gas House, alongside Amanda, Addison, and several other people who'd been arrested by Matthews on bogus charges. After most of the subjects die, Xavier Chavez (Franky G) attempts to kill Amanda and Daniel, but Daniel defends them and bludgeons Xavier to death in the bathroom from the first film. Daniel is then put into a safe with an oxygen mask and hidden in Jigsaw's lair.
Detectives Matthews, Kerry, and Daniel Rigg (Lyriq Bent) arrive with others at the scene of Jigsaw's lair, and are unaware that the footage of the group trap they are presented with was pre-taped. Instead of waiting like he is instructed to do, Matthews brutalizes John and forces him to take him to the location of the trap. While Rigg discovers that the source of the video feed is another empty house, Matthews ends up alone at the actual location, and is captured and trapped by Amanda in the bathroom. In "Saw III," it is revealed that Matthews breaks his own foot to escape the shackle, but he is still captured for another game.
Amanda's test
"Saw III" takes place six months after Matthews is captured. John Kramer is near death. He gives his lawyer a box containing instructions for Jill. Meanwhile, Amanda is secretly resorting to self-mutilation and creating un-survivable traps, including one used on Kerry. John has a true bond with Amanda, but doesn't want to be replaced by a murderer. He devises one last test for her.
John has Amanda abduct Dr. Lynn Denlon and put her into a neck trap. Denlon is forced to keep John alive for the duration of another test, which turns out to involve her husband Jeff (Angus Macfadyen). Lynn and Jeff lost a son and have emotionally neglected their daughter, who was kidnapped before Jeff's test. Little does Amanda know, her survival depends on being able to let Denlon go. Hoffman slyly tells Amanda to kill Denlon, threatening to expose her part in Cecil's attack on Jill's clinic if she refuses.
Amanda refuses to let Denlon go and shoots her instead. Jeff enters the room shortly thereafter and kills Amanda in retaliation. For Jeff's final test, John asks him to show mercy, but Jeff cuts his throat with an electric saw, triggering Denlon's collar.
The triple trap
In "Saw IV," it is revealed that Hoffman was pretending to be trapped alongside the now-haggard Matthews and Art as the events in John's hospital room unfolded. Rigg is confronted with several of Art's worst clients, including Morgan (Janet Land), who just survived a test that forced her to kill her abusive husband. Rigg is supposed to let his timer run out but instead rushes into the final room with Hoffman, Matthews, and Art. Not knowing who's rushing in, Matthews shoots Rigg and triggers a device that crushes his own head. Rigg also shoots Art in the head, thinking the tape recorder in his hand is a gun. Before Rigg bleeds out, he sees Hoffman reveal himself as Jigsaw's apprentice.
Simultaneously, FBI Agent Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) and his partner Lindsay Perez (Athena Karkanis) follow Rigg's trail. Perez is injured at the scene of Morgan's test. Strahm then interrogates Jill Tuck, who leads him to the building John uses for his tests. Strahm arrives at John's room just after Jeff kills John. Strahm shoots Jeff in apparent self-defense. Hoffman locks Strahm in, but he finds an exit. However, he is then captured and put into the Water Cube trap. Strahm barely survives by using a pen to perform a tracheotomy on himself. Hoffman then "escapes" and brings out the Denlons' daughter, thinking he'll be the lone survivor. He is stunned to discover Strahm also made it out alive.
Hoffman versus Strahm
John's autopsy reveals a tape that promises Hoffman will be tested. Hoffman later receives a mysterious note that warns, "I know who you are." The note is from Dr. Gordon, who'd received a tape from Jill's box, in which John asks him to watch out for Jill.
Strahm determines that Hoffman was Jigsaw's apprentice after reading up on the Seth Baxter case. Despite being removed from the case by his superior Dan Erickson (Mark Rolston), he continues to investigate Hoffman. Jill complains to Erickson that Strahm is stalking her. Meanwhile, Hoffman works to set up Strahm as a suspect. He stages a group trap involving five crooked people connected to a deadly apartment fire Strahm previously investigated. Hoffman also uses Strahm's cell phone to lead Erickson to the location of the group trap. Upon finding two victims still alive, Erickson puts out an APB on Strahm. It's all for naught, however, as Hoffman leads Strahm to the Nerve Gas House and traps him in a room that crushes him to death.
Jigsaw's final test
Hoffman stages a two-person test for a pair of loan sharks so he can continue framing Strahm. Erickson grants Hoffman unfettered access to the FBI's investigation, and reveals that Perez faked her death and is still active on the case.
Later, Hoffman carries out Jigsaw's wish for a test on William Easton, in which Easton is forced to make life-or-death decisions for a series of his employees. Easton is not the only one being tested, however: The wife and son of the late Harold Abbott must decide Easton's fate once he reaches the finale of his test. They choose to kill him.
Though Jigsaw's work is finally done, Hoffman is not in the clear: Erickson and Perez soon discover Hoffman's identity. As soon as the FBI agents realize who Hoffman is, however, he kills them and a tech who had a hand in uncovering his secrets.
Jill Tuck's trial
The last surprise to come from John's box for Jill is the Reverse Beartrap. John's box instructs Jill to use it on Hoffman. However, Hoffman manages to survive the device. Meanwhile, Jill meets with Officer Gibson and offers to implicate Hoffman in exchange for immunity and protection.
However, Hoffman manages to divert police attention by staging the grisly Horsepower trap, as well as the test of Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery), who's made a fortune pretending to be a Jigsaw survivor. After setting a deadly trap for Gibson and other officers, Hoffman manages to sneak himself into the body bag of one of the Horsepower victims to get access to the police station. He kills anyone and everyone in his way to get to Jill's holding cell.
Hoffman places Jill in the Reverse Beartrap, which kills her, and prepares to get away. However, he's met outside by three men in pig masks. One of them is Dr. Gordon, while the other two are possibly the survivors of the Public Execution trap, Brad (Sebastian Pigott) and Ryan (Jon Cor). In retaliation for Jill, Gordon shackles Hoffman to Adam's old spot in the bathroom and takes away the saw that would allow him to save himself.
Halloran confesses
10 years after John Kramer's death, a series of Jigsaw-like deaths occur. The bodies are analyzed by Logan and his strangely Jigsaw-obsessed assistant Eleanor (Hannah Emily Anderson). Detective Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) is drawn into the case by a former criminal named Edgar Munsen (Josiah Black), who shows up with a remote device, alerts the police, and later turns up dead.
Little does Halloran know, he's being set up by Logan. Halloran is a crooked detective who took a bribe from Munsen, the man who murdered Logan's wife. The game is a copycat version of the test Logan survived. Logan plants puzzle pieces of the new victims in Halloran's freezer, so that his partner, Keith Hunt (Clé Bennett), will suspect Halloran. Eleanor is also poised to be a witness to Halloran's culpability: After she and Logan arrive at the site of the game, she escapes an ambush by Halloran and runs for help. Logan forces Halloran to admit his misdeeds by pretending to be trapped in a two-person test with him. But after Halloran confesses, Logan reveals that he has taped him. He watches as Halloran's head is sliced to pieces in the laser collar trap. Game over — for now.
Another copycat killer
In "Spiral," which takes place a few years later, a policeman is attacked by an assailant wearing a pig mask and suspended by his tongue in a subway tunnel. A recorded message informs the off-duty officer that he will have to either sever his tongue or be hit by the next train. He's unable to escape in time and is killed. Detective Zeke Banks recognizes the murder as something straight out of the Jigsaw Killer's playbook and begins investigating this apparent copycat.
Zeke comes under suspicion himself when the next officer to be targeted is someone he had a grievance with. It only gets worse when a piece of tattooed skin belonging to his latest partner, the young rookie William Schenk, arrives at the station in a box alongside a pig puppet. It becomes apparent that the killer is interested in Zeke when Schenk's skinned body is discovered in a butcher's shop that used to be a hobby store, a place Zeke frequently visited as a boy. He would go to the shop with his father, former police chief Marcus Banks.
After learning about the case, Marcus decides to get involved, but by doing so, he's playing right into the killer's hands. He follows the bread trail to a warehouse, where he's swiftly abducted. He's soon joined in the warehouse by Zeke, who gets kidnapped shortly after finding the body of yet another murdered officer — this one had to cut her spinal cord to prevent boiling wax from pouring onto her face, but she failed to escape her trap in time.
A tragic turn for Zeke Banks
When Zeke wakes up in the warehouse, he's chained to a pipe with a hacksaw nearby. Of course, he knows exactly what this means. He actually entertains the idea of sawing his hand off, but thankfully he's able to use a bobby pin to free himself without any maiming. He then discovers Peter Dunleavy, his former partner, chained up. Dunleavy was a dirty cop who went down after he murdered a man. He's about to be killed by a glass shard-launching device unless Zeke saves him. Being a good cop, Zeke tries to free him (getting cut up pretty badly himself in the process), but he can't beat the trap in time.
There's an even bigger surprise waiting for Zeke in the next room: His most recent partner Schenk, alive and well. He faked his death and has actually been the copycat killer all along, much to Zeke's astonishment. It turns out that Schenk's name is really Emmerson and he's the son of the man Dunleavy killed. Emmerson reveals that Zeke's father protected crooked cops like Dunleavy during his time in charge because he was so hellbent on cleaning up the streets, regardless of collateral damage.
It's at this point that Emmerson reveals Zeke's final test — he hands the cop a gun with one bullet and tells him that he can either kill him or shoot a target that will free his father, who is slowly being drained of his blood. Zeke does the latter, but when a SWAT team previously called by Emmerson arrives, they trigger a tripwire and Marcus' trap reacts by making it appear as though he's pointing a weapon. The SWAT team shoots Marcus dead right in front of a devastated Zeke. In the confusion, Emmerson slips away.