Jigsaw (Saw) - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Jigsaw was introduced in the 2004 film Saw through the character Dr. Lawrence Gordon's recounting of his first killings. Jigsaw is described as a mysterious person who kidnaps people he sees as wasting their lives and attempts to "save" them. This is accomplished by administering various "tests" consisting of mechanical devices rigged to maim or kill the subjects or other victims if not completed within a certain time period. As opposed to other killers, Jigsaw does not actually intend to kill his subjects; the purpose of his traps is to see if the subject has the will to survive, and thus inflict enough psychological trauma for the subjects to appreciate their life and save themselves from their own demons. As his victims increase, the media dubs him The Jigsaw Killer, or simply Jigsaw, because of the jigsaw puzzle-shaped piece of flesh that he cuts from unsuccessful subjects, a practice explained in Saw II as reflecting each subject "was missing a vital piece of the human puzzle; the survival instinct". Throughout the first film, his identity remains uncertain; the unstable ex-cop David Tapp suspects that he may be Dr. Gordon (one of the film's protagonists) and near the end of the film Dr. Gordon and fellow protagonist Adam are led to believe it is the hospital orderly Zep Hindle. Only at the end of the film is it revealed that the Jigsaw Killer was in fact a terminal cancer patient of Dr. Gordon's, John Kramer, who spent the entire time posing as a corpse on the floor of the bathroom Adam and Dr. Lawrence Gordon were trapped in.

Much of the character's backstory was revealed in Saw II, revealing that he had become sick and had gone in for a medical examination, where he learned from Dr. Lawrence Gordon that he was dying of colon cancer, with an inoperable brain tumor. At this point, he stated that he began to see how many people took their lives for granted. He drove himself off of a cliff but survived the suicide attempt, and subsequently began his "work" to save people from themselves. Though he never encouraged the name, Kramer's work eventually earned him the nickname The Jigsaw Killer, in spite of the circumstances and intentions he had while conducting his work; he did not consider himself to be a "killer" or "murderer". This is because rather than killing his victims outright, he trapped them in situations which he called "tests" or "games", in order to test their instinctual will to live versus physical or psychological torture.

In Saw II, Jigsaw leaves a hint in one of his traps that leads police to apprehend him. There, he puts police Detective Eric Matthews through a test by showing him Matthews' son Daniel trapped in a house filled with nerve gas, along with people whom, though far from innocent, Matthews had framed for crimes they did not commit. Jigsaw offers to let the younger Matthews survive if the Detective sits and talks to him, which ends with Eric brutally beating Jigsaw and forcing him to lead him to the house. Upon their arrival, Jigsaw is rescued by Amanda Young, one of his victims (introduced previously in Saw) who, having survived her trap and seeing her captor as a savior, has become his apprentice.

By Saw III, a dying Jigsaw is hospitalized and extremely concerned over Amanda Young's failure to allow her subjects a fair chance to survive her tests. In his desperation, Jigsaw administers a final test to Young, in order to see if she was truly capable of successfully carrying on his work. Being kept alive by Dr. Lynn Denlon, a test subject who is forced to perform brain surgery on Jigsaw at the risk of dying by her own trap, Jigsaw attempts to keep Young from failing her test. However, after she breaks down, Young shoots Dr. Denlon. Witnessing this, Jeff Denlon, Dr. Denlon's vengeful husband who is also being tested, kills Young with a gunshot to her neck. After explaining the rules of a final game to Jeff, Jigsaw is mortally wounded when Jeff slices his throat with a power saw. As he dies, Jigsaw pulls out a tape player and plays a recording explaining that he is responsible for the abduction of Corbett, Jeff's daughter, and that if he wants her back he'll have to participate in another game.

Saw IV opens with Jigsaw's autopsy, in which a tape is found in his stomach. The tape reveals to Lieutenant Mark Hoffman that his games have just begun and he would not go untested. The end of the film reveals that Hoffman is in fact another of Jigsaw's apprentices.

Saw IV also explored Jigsaw's history, more so than previously done in Saw II, rendering some of the content in Saw: Rebirth (a one-shot comic published in 2005) non-canon, instead showing a new back story. From the story given in Saw IV, Kramer was a successful civil engineer who got into property development, and was a devoted husband to his wife Jill; she ran a recovery clinic for drug users, to which he gave his belief, "Cherish Your Life". However, after a robbery and the reckless actions of a clinic patient named Cecil Adams resulted in the loss of the Kramers' unborn child, John became detached and angry, which eventually caused their divorce. After being diagnosed with cancer as first seen in Saw II, and trying to kill himself, Kramer began his work as Jigsaw, hunting down Cecil as his first test subject.

Jigsaw reappears in Saw V in flashback meetings with Hoffman that outline their relationship; Hoffman initially had killed the murderer of his sister with a fake Jigsaw trap. Furious that Hoffman used his modus operandi to kill someone without a chance to save themselves, Jigsaw blackmails Hoffman into becoming his apprentice as a way to 'redeem' himself. Jigsaw also appears in a video will to his ex-wife Jill Tuck, leaving her a mysterious box.

Jigsaw also appears in flashbacks in Saw VI. One flashback set prior to the events of the first film showed that it was Amanda Young who sent Cecil to Jill (Tuck) Kramer's clinic to steal drugs for her. This resulted in Jill's miscarriage, and thus Young was revealed to be an indirect cause of John Kramer's transformation into Jigsaw. Further flashbacks set prior to the events of the first film reveal that Jigsaw targeted William Easton for one of his games because he had insensitively denied Kramer health coverage after he had developed cancer. In the present time of Saw VI, Kramer shows himself on video twice to Easton instead of the Billy Puppet (the method Kramer usually used to speak to his subjects), so Easton could look in the eyes of someone he let die. In another flashback, this time set between the events of the first and second film, Jigsaw explains to his ex-wife that his "rehabilitation" works, showing Amanda Young as supposed evidence of this. A flashback set just before the events of the third and fourth films explores the group dynamic between Jigsaw, Amanda Young and Hoffman. Jigsaw criticises Hoffman for not seeing the test subjects as human beings and also critiques his approach to setting up Timothy Young's trap. It was also shown that Jigsaw seemed to have had a closer emotional attachment to Amanda Young than Hoffman. Shortly afterward, Jigsaw gave his ex-wife the key which she later used to open the box he gave her in his will in Saw V. In the present time of Saw VI, it is revealed that the box contained six envelopes (marked 1 through 6), a thicker envelope, and an updated version of the "Reverse Bear Trap". She gave Mark Hoffman envelopes 1 through 5, but hid everything else from him and later delivered the thick envelope to an unknown person. Envelope 6 was meant only for Tuck-Kramer, instructing her to trap Hoffman and put the "Reverse Bear Trap" on him so he could be "tested". This fulfilled the promise made, via the audio tape discovered in the stomach of Jigsaw's corpse, that Hoffman would not go untested.

Bell reprised his role as John Kramer/Jigsaw in Saw 3D, though his role was extremely minimal compared to previous films. He is seen in a flashback meeting Bobby Dagen, a celebrity who became famous after lying about being put into a Jigsaw trap, at a book signing where he calls him a liar. Hoffman later uses an unused series of tests on Dagen. Jigsaw appears at the end of the film, where it was revealed that after Dr. Gordon escaped the bathroom, Jigsaw dragged him away and gave him a prosthetic foot, and congratulated him for surviving. He then made Gordon his final accomplice, considering him to be his greatest asset. Gordon assisted Jigsaw in traps which required surgical knowledge. The contents of the package Jill left at a hospital in Saw VI was shown to be a video tape for Gordon, in which Jigsaw told him that should anything happen to Jill, he would have to "act on behalf". It is implied that John knew Hoffman would go rogue and start straying from his ideals and wanted him to be punished. After Jill is killed by Hoffman, Gordon fulfills this request by assaulting Hoffman and sealing him in the bathroom from the first film.