Jigsaw

**John Kramer,** better known as Jigsaw, is the main antagonist of the *Saw* franchise. He is a dying serial killer who forces his victims through deadly scenarios, in where they must inflict pain upon themselves or others to escape in order to prove their appreciation for life. These tests were typically symbolic of what Jigsaw perceived as a flaw in each person's moral character or life.

## Biography

### Early Life

John Kramer was a successful civil engineer, who was married to a woman named Jill Tuck and while he ventured much in property development, she helped drug addicts with her rehabiliation clinic. John wasn't in favor of the clinic, believing that the addicts used Jill to get a fix of methadon, and didn't really want to come clean. This feeling was strengthened by the fact that several of the addicts became regular patients but being the devoted husband he was, he let it slide and later, when Jill becomes pregnant, he began using his skills to build toys and a crib for the unborn child. He also repaired an old clock and gave it to Jill as a gift however one day things go wrong. One of Jill's patients, a man named Cecil Adams, threatened her with a knife, trying to cut in line, but John was there and in a fit of rage, threw Cecil out of the clinic.

### Becoming the Jigsaw Killer

This in turn however was interpret by Cecil Adams and his then-girlfriend, Amanda Young, that Jill wouldn't help them anymore. So since she wasn't going to help them, get their next fix, they would have to take it. By robbing the clinic at closing time, forcing Jill to give her the clinic's money and desperately tried to escape however accidentally killed Jill's unborn son, slamming the door into their stomach. John witnessed Cecil fleeing and Jill suffered a miscarriage.

The tragic event made John bitter and seeing how Amanda and Cecil didn't change despite the help they received, made John conclude that they couldn't be helped since they didn't want to change. He believed that they had to change themselves and when he tried to explain his newfound wisdom to Jill, she denied it and kept helping the people John believed to be undeserving of help. The difference in philosophy caused the two to become more detached and John grew hate for the addicts, blaming them for his misfortune. In a fit of rage, he destroyed everything he had built for their son and the clock he gave to his wife. Seeing how much he changed over the past months, Jill left him and John was later diagnosed with colon cancer and an inoperable brain tumor during a routine medical checkup.

## Traps/Tests and Victims

### Bathroom Trap

The Bathroom Trap involved two players, Adam Stanheight and Lawrence Gordon, with both men being chained at their ankles to pipes at opposite ends of the dilapidated, industrial bathroom. Between them appeared to lay a corpse holding a tape recorder in one hand and a gun in the other. Both men found tapes in their pockets, which gave them each other instructions on how to win. Lawrence had to kill Adam before 6AM or else his wife and daughter would be killed and he would be left to rot in the bathroom. Adam had to escape before 6AM and survive to prevent him from suffering the same fate. Using a hidden message from a tape, Adam discovered hacksaws hidden in the toilet with Jigsaw intending for them to saw their feet off to escape. A box is also found within a wall with an "X" written on it in fluorescent pain which contains a cellphone, two cigerattes and a message hinting the blood around the "dead" man is poisoned and can be used as a weapon rather than the gun.

They ultimately fail their tasks by the deadline however Lawrence manages to saw his own foot off and shoots Adam with the gun after 6AM but he survives the gunshot. While he crawls out of the bathroom, he discovers a hot steaming pipe in the hallway, which he uses to cauterize his wound, making him the victor but Adam is left to rot by Jigsaw, who was posing as the dead body. Jigsaw though reveals that the key to the chain was hidden in the bathtub, which was lost down the drain when Adam accidentally pulled in the stopper after awakening.

### Razor Wire Maze

Paul Leahy woke up almost completely naked in a fenced-in area within a basement. Between him and the door was a gauntlet of densely strung together razor wire, which Paul was instructed to navigate through in order to find the exit. Hidden somewhere in the fencing was a hole, which would have served a way out of the maze, but the hole was located in a spot where the victim was not likely to look. The door leading out of the basement was set to close and lock on a timer, and the victim was required to escape before the timer went off.

### Flammable Jelly

Mark Wilson was stripped nude and placed in a dark cellar with broken glass covering the floor. Mark was informed that a slow acting poison coursing through his bloodstream and that the antidote was locked in a safe, the combination to which was amongst thousands of numbers scrawled on the walls. Mark's body was also smeared in a flammable substance and he only had a lit candle for light.