Saw (film) - Plot

Plot

Adam (Leigh Whannell), a photographer, awakens in a full bathtub in a disused bathroom along with Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes), an oncologist, who turns on the lights. Both men are chained at the ankle to pipes at opposite ends of the room. Lying between them is a corpse in a small pool of blood holding a revolver and a microcassette recorder. Adam and Lawrence discover tapes in their pockets, and Adam manages to take the tape recorder. Adam finds out that he must escape the bathroom, while Lawrence must kill Adam before six o'clock, or his wife Allison and daughter Diana will be killed and he will be "left to rot". They also learn that the corpse was another victim who shot himself before he could succumb to a deadly poison in his blood. Using clues, Adam finds a bag in the toilet, containing two hacksaws, though neither is able to cut through the chains. Lawrence realizes that the saws are not meant for their chains, but for their feet, and tells Adam that they have been captured by the Jigsaw Killer.

Flashbacks reveal that while Lawrence was talking with students about a patient named John (Tobin Bell), who suffers from an inoperable frontal lobe tumor, an orderly named Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson) interrupts referring to the patient as a person with a name and a personality. Dr. Gordon was then approached by Detectives David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Steven Sing (Ken Leung) about his penlight being found at the scene of a Jigsaw "game". He viewed the testimony of Amanda (Shawnee Smith), a heroin addict and the only known survivor of Jigsaw's games, who believes that Jigsaw helped her. Other Jigsaw victims include Paul (Mike Butters), who was trapped in a cage filled with razor wire, and Mark (Paul Gutrecht), who had to obtain an antidote for the poison in his body from a safe, the combination scrambled on the room's walls, with only a candle for light while himself being covered in a flammable substance and having to walk over broken glass.

Meanwhile, Lawrence's wife and daughter, Alison and Diana (Monica Potter and Makenzie Vega), are being held captive in their home by a man who is also watching Adam and Lawrence through a camera behind the bathroom's mirror. The house is simultaneously being watched by Tapp, who was discharged from the force and is now stalking Lawrence. He and Sing had previously found Jigsaw's lair using Amanda's tape and saved Jeff (Ned Bellamy) from a drill trap; however, Jigsaw fled after slashing Tapp's throat, and Sing was killed by a shotgun booby trap while pursuing him. In the bathroom, Lawrence finds a cellphone that can only receive calls. He receives a call from Alison, who is being held at gunpoint, telling him to not trust Adam. Adam admits that he had been paid to take photos of Lawrence, several of which are in the hacksaw bag. Lawrence realizes that Tapp had been paying Adam. They also find a photo of Zep in Lawrence's house, revealing that he is holding the Gordons captive. Unfortunately, the clock hits six as they realize this.

Zep moves to kill Diana and Alison, but Alison manages to overpower him. However, as Alison speaks to Lawrence on the phone, Zep attacks her and the gunshots from the struggle get Tapp's attention. He arrives in time to save Alison and Diana, but Zep escapes and Tapp follows, eventually pursuing him into the sewers, where Tapp is shot after a brief struggle. Lawrence, who only hears gunshots and screaming, is electrocuted and loses reach of the phone. In desperation, he saws off his foot and shoots Adam with the corpse's revolver. Zep enters the bathroom intent on killing Lawrence, only to be beaten to death by Adam with a toilet tank cover. As Lawrence crawls from the bathroom with the promise of help, Adam searches Zep's body for a key and finds another recorder, which reveals that Zep was also a Jigsaw victim; he was forced to hold the Gordons captive to obtain an antidote for the slow-acting poison in his body. As the tape ends, the corpse rises to its feet and reveals itself as John, the real Jigsaw Killer. John informs Adam that the key to his shackle is in the bathtub, but when Adam woke up, he pulled the plug, resulting in losing the key. Adam tries to shoot him with Zep's gun, but John electrocutes him and he loses reach of the gun. John then turns off the lights and seals the bathroom door, leaving a screaming Adam to die.