| Saw | |
|---|---|
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| Credits | |
| Title: | Saw |
| Genres: | Horror |
| Directed by: | James Wan |
| Cinematography: | David Armstrong |
| Production | |
| Navigation | |
| Previous: | — |
| Next: | Saw II |
Saw is a horror film directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell. It was the first film in the Saw franchise and was released on October 29, 2004.
On October 31, 2014, Saw was re-released in honor of its 10th anniversary. However, it earned only $650,051 in its opening weekend and therefore is the third lowest-grossing wide opening. At the end of its run, the release had grossed $815,324, bringing the film's overall domestic gross to $56,000,369.
Plot[]
Freelance photographer Adam Stanheight and oncologist Dr. Lawrence Gordon awaken in a dilapidated bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes on the opposite sides of the room. Between them lies a corpse, holding a revolver and a microcassette recorder. Both men find a tape in their pockets, and Adam quickly retrieves the tape player. Upon playing his cassette, a distorted voice urges him to escape. In contrast, Gordon's recording tells him to kill Adam by 6:00, as otherwise, his wife, Alison, and his daughter, Diana, will be executed. Adam then finds a bag containing two hacksaws inside a toilet tank. However, as they try to cut through their chains, Adam's saw breaks eventually. Thereby, Gordon realizes the saws are not meant to cut through their chains. Instead, they are supposed to cut off their feet, leading him to conclude that they were abducted by a wanted serial killer known as Jigsaw. As he tells Adam about the killer, who tests his victims' will to live by forcing them to fight for their lives in his deadly games, Gordon admits that he was a former suspect in the case.
Flashbacks reveal how the doctor got involved in the homicide investigation in the first place. Five months earlier, Gordon had introduced his medical students to John Kramer, a terminal cancer patient, when he was visited by Detective David Tapp and Detective Steven Sing. They had found his penlight at the scene of Jigsaw's latest game. Although Gordon's alibi cleared him, he agreed to listen to the testimony of Amanda Young, a heroin addict and the only known survivor of one of Jigsaw's games.
Shortly after Gordon was allowed to leave the police station, Tapp and Sing discovered Jigsaw's hideout in an abandoned mannequin factory after finding a clue on a videotape used by the killer during Amanda's game. Upon their arrival, they found Jigsaw and took him by surprise, saving another victim named Jeff Ridenhour in the process. However, the killer slashed Tapp's throat with a hidden blade, allowing him to escape custody. While pursuing him, Detective Sing accidentally triggered a booby trap and was subsequently killed by four shotguns.
In the present, Alison and Diana Gordon are held captive in their apartment while their captor watches Adam and Dr. Gordon via a hidden camera. Simultaneously, the house is observed by David Tapp, who suffered a mental breakdown after Sing's death and was subsequently discharged from the Metropolitan Police Department. However, because of his feelings of guilt, he decided to continue the investigation on his own to end Jigsaw's games for good. Therefore, he rented a run-down flat across the street from Gordon's apartment as he still considers him the primary suspect.
Meanwhile, Gordon finds a hidden box in the bathroom. It contains two cigarettes, a lighter, and a one-way cellphone. As time passes by, he and Adam both remember how they were abducted by a mysterious figure with a pig mask the night before, when suddenly, the phone rings. As Gordon answers the call, Alison, held at gunpoint by her captor, warns her husband not to trust Adam, stating that the latter knew everything about him. When Gordon confronts his fellow prisoner with Alison's warning, Adam eventually admits that Tapp had hired him to spy on the doctor. He shows him the photos he previously took of him, as he found them in the same bag as the hacksaws. Upon doing so, Adam reveals his knowledge of Gordon having an affair with one of his medical students, Carla, whom the doctor had met at a hotel on the night of his abduction. However, he realizes that one of the photos was not taken by him. It shows Alison and Diana's captor standing at a window in Gordon's apartment. Upon looking at the picture, Gordon identifies the man as Zep Hindle, an orderly from the hospital where he worked.
Seconds later, the clock strikes six, marking the end of their game. As Gordon had not managed to kill Adam in time, Zep prepares himself to execute Gordon's family and calls the doctor so Alison can inform him about his failure. However, Alison frees herself from her restraints and desperately fights with her captor. The struggle attracts Tapp's attention, who storms into the apartment and opens fire on Zep, thereby giving Alison and Diana the chance to escape. Zep flees the scene and sets out for the bathroom to kill Gordon. Tapp pursues his opponent to an underground tunnel network where the bathroom is located and brutally batters him, but is ultimately shot in the chest and succumbs to his wound.
Meanwhile, Gordon suffers a mental breakdown as he is unaware of his family's survival. In a last desperate attempt to save them, he uses his hacksaw to cut off his foot. Then, he takes the gun from the lifeless body in the middle of the room and shoots Adam, who collapses immediately. Moments later, Zep enters the bathroom and prepares himself to shoot Gordon but is attacked by Adam, who survived the gunshot. After a brief fight, Adam gains the upper hand and bludgeons Zep to death with the toilet tank lid.
Gordon, albeit severely injured, promises to get help and crawls out of the room. Once he is alone, Adam searches Zep's body for a key to his shackle but finds another audiotape instead. Upon playing the recording, he finds out that Zep himself was just another victim of Jigsaw. The latter had injected him with a slow-acting poison and ordered him to capture and kill Gordon's family if the doctor failed his test. In return for that, Zep would have been given the antidote.
When the tape ends, the corpse in the middle of the room arises and is revealed to be John Kramer, the real Jigsaw Killer, who began his murder series after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He tells Adam that the key to his chain is in the bathtub behind him. However, it went down the drain when Adam initially scrambled from the tub. Horrified by these events, Adam grabs Zep's gun and tries to shoot Kramer but is incapacitated by an electric shock. Deciding that Adam did not learn his lesson, Kramer turns off the lights and closes the door, leaving the screaming young man to die.
Cast[]
- Leigh Whannell as Adam
- Cary Elwes as Dr. Lawrence Gordon
- Danny Glover as Detective David Tapp
- Ken Leung as Detective Steven Sing
- Dina Meyer as Kerry
- Mike Butters as Paul
- Paul Gutrecht as Mark
- Michael Emerson as Zep Hindle
- Benito Martinez as Brett
- Shawnee Smith as Amanda
- Makenzie Vega as Diana Gordon
- Monica Potter as Alison Gordon
- Ned Bellamy as Jeff
- Alexandra Chun as Carla
- Avner Garbi as Father
- Tobin Bell as Jigsaw