Mark Hoffman

**Mark Hoffman**is the secondary antagonist of *Saw IV*and the main antagonist of S*aw V, Saw VI*and *Saw 3D.*He is one of Jigsaw's secret apprentices and designs death traps that, for survivors, give them reason to appreciate their lives.

## History

### Peter Strahm's Test

After leaving Rigg behind, Hoffman returned to John's bedroom where he found Agent Peter Strahm as well as the corpses of John, Amanda, Jeff and Lynn Denlon. Before Strahm could notice him, he closed and locked the door and turned off the lights inside the room. Then he went to the room located behind the hidden door, which Strahm also discovered shortly afterwards. A tape left for him told to stay in the room until reinforcements arrived however Strahm ignored the warning and entered the hallway behind the door. Ultimately, he reached the room where Hoffman was waiting for him. Upon entering, he was attacked by a disguised Hoffman who injected him with an anaesthetic. Moments later, Strahm passed out and Hoffman placed him in another trap in the same room, which was designed to kill him by drowning him without giving him a chance to survive. Hoffman then took everything that Strahm had in his pockets and placed it on a barrel before him. However, upon doing so, he forgot to remove a single pen from his pockets. Not noticing his mistakes, Hoffman left the room, expecting Strahm to die shortly afterwards.

### Message from the Grave

After the Gideon Meatpacking Plant had been secured, all the dead victims as well as John and Amanda were taken to the morgue, where Dr. Adam Heffner performed the autopsy on every single one of them. Upon the obduction of John Kramer, he found a wax-coated audio tape in his stomach and therefore ordered his colleague to call for the homicide division. Shortly afterwards, Hoffman arrived at the morgue and ordered the pathologists to cut the tape from the wax. After doing so, they gave the tape to Hoffman. The recording contained a message for him, which warned him that the games had just begun and that he woudn't get away untested.

### The Fatal Five's Trial

Despite this unnerving threat, Hoffman continued his work and set up the next big game as John had told him to during their last conversation. Therefore, he arranged a series of tests in an underground catacomb area at 1293 Sanburst Drive and also set up a surveillance room next to the chambers in which the tests took place.

### William Easton's Trial

As his identity was endangered by this, Hoffman became excessively nervous. However, he had to take care of one problem first and was alerted by Pamela Jenkins' knowledge of the box, Hoffman went to Jill's clinic and waited for her. When she arrived shortly afterwards, she took him to her office, stating she was surprised to see him so soon. Hoffman told her that he wanted to accelerate the next big game and start it the same day as he was worried that Pamela would find out more about the black box. Therefore, Hoffman demanded Jill to give him the envelopes from the box, which contained the photos of the test subjects of the game. Jill initially hesitated as this wasn't John's will, but quickly gave in and handed him five envelopes. When Hoffman told her that he would work alone from now on, she said that she only had to fulfill John's final request. He took a look at the photos in the first envelope, which showed William Easton, manager of the Umbrella Health insurance company and brother of Pamela Jenkins. When Hoffman asked Jill who he was, she merely responded that he was on John's list. After receiving the envelopes, Hoffman left the office, saying that she wouldn't see him again once he was done.

To prepare everything, Hoffman abducted all the victims of the game, most of whom were subordinates of William. At night, he invaded the headquarters of Umbrella Health to abduct William, who was alone in his office. Disguised with one of the pig masks, Hoffman cut off the power, causing a blackout. Confused by this, William left his office and was frightened when he saw the silhouette of a man who seemed to hold a gun and walked past the office rooms. Therefore, he quickly grabbed a gun from his drawer and went into hiding behind the desks in the outer office. When the man had walked past him, William embraced the opportunity and aimed his gun at the man, ordering him to stay still. The man however turned around and was subsequently shot by William. Moments later, William realized that the man was just a security guard and while he tried to help him, the guard attempted to warn him of Hoffman who was approaching from behind. Unfortunately, William didn't understand the warning and was subdued by the invader. After subduing him, Hoffman left the guard behind and took William with him.
Besides William and his colleagues, Hoffman also abducted Tara and Brent Abbott, widow and son of Harold Abbott, a cardiac patient who has succumbed to his disease when William denied the coverage of his treatment cost. The last victim was William's sister, Pamela. Remembering her request for an interview with Jill, Hoffman embraced the opportunity to ambush her and sent her a letter with Jill's address at 545 4th Street. Shortly afterwards, she arrived at the apartment of Jill, who wasn't happy to see her. Pamela showed her the blackmailing letter which Hoffman had anonymously written to Amanda and asked Jill if she understood the meaning of this message however Jill denied this and told her to go. Unsatisfied with her visit, Pamela slided the letter under her door, telling her to call back if she changed her opinion. Afterwards, she left and entered the elavator but Hoffman managed to block the control panel and thereby deactivated the elevator. When she went back through the hallway, Hoffman attacked her from behind while covering his face with one of his masks and injected her with an anaesthetic.

Afterwards, Hoffman returned to the abandoned Rowan Zoological Institute and placed all of his victims in their respective traps. Then, he attached four straps to William's limbs which would detonate if he didn't manage to accomplish the four tests prepared for him within 60 minutes. After that, he placed William in his first trap along with his janitor, Hank, who was his opponent in his first game. Hoffman then returned to the surveillance room and from there, he observed William's progress as well as Tara, Brent and Pamela, who were trapped in the animal enclosures in front of the surveillance room and were watched by Hoffman through a one-way window. However, after some time, after William had already passed his second test, he received a call from Erickson, who informed him of the tape from Seth Baxter's crime scene had been found. Furthermore, he told him that there was something else they had to discuss as soon as possible. Therefore, Hoffman agreed to meet up with him and Perez and left the zoo.

### Test

Shortly afterwards, Hoffman hurried back to the zoo in his car and reached the surveillance room, only merely seconds before the end of William's game. However, Hoffman was shocked to see the blackmailing letter for Amanda lying in front of the monitors. Moments after he sat down on his chair and read the letter, Jill suddenly entered the room and incapacitated him with an electric shock. While he was unconscious, she strapped him onto the chair and placed an updated version of the Reverse Beartrap on his head.

While he woke up shortly afterwards, he was immediately frightened by the situation. Jill then approached him and showed him a photo of himself, revealing that the black box contained a sixth envelope left for her, as John's final request for Jill was to test Hoffman. Before she finally activated the trap, they watched a final part of William's game through the one-way mirror and were disgusted when William was injected and dissolved by hydrofluoric acid. When William died, the time for Hoffman's test had come as well. However as Jill was angered by the letter, she refused to give Hoffman any chance to survive and therefore had no key for him to escape the trap.

When the timer of the trap started to count down, Jill eventually left the room with the words "Game Over". Hoffman immediately panicked and furiously smashed his left hand with the trap's frontal part in order to free himself from his restraints. He then tried to open the trap with a screwdriver but this was unsuccessful, so he pushed the trap's frontal part between two metal bars on the door window to prevent it from bursting open completely. Eventually he managed to pull his head out of the trap but was heavily injured in the process as the trap had torn his right cheek apart.

### Bobby Dagen's Trial

As he expected her to be taken into protective custody, Hoffman planned to put the police forces under pressure in order to get to her. In a safe in his hangar, he had files for another game that John had ordered him to set up at some point prior to his death. This game was focused on Bobby Dagen, a man who had earned fame and wealth by publishing his story of surviving one of Jigsaw's traps, which in fact never happened. Soon afterwards, Hoffman found out that Jill had told Officer Matt Gibson about him. Therefore, Hoffman went to the abandoned Clear Dawn Psychiatric Hospital where he set up the games for Bobby, his wife, Joyce Dagen, and his crew. Clear Dawn was the same mental facility where the man whom Hoffman had killed years earlier at the Crossroad Manufactory had been imprisoned until the hospital was shut down and Hoffman expected Gibson to still remember this incident. Besides the games, he set up another trap to prevent the police from stopping the game if they discovered it's location.

### Abduction

Following the massacre at the police station and his successful revenge on Jill, Hoffman quickly returned to his hideout in the hangar. When he arrived, the news channels already reported Jill's death and the many officers. Furthermore, they instructed the public that the city was shut down and appealed to them to contact the police if they had any information leading to Hoffman. Therefore, he knew that he had to prepare his flight quickly. He packed a purse with a gun and a bunch of money before turning on some gas bottles in the hangar, pouring gasoline all over the floor and ultimately set the hangar on fire, thereby destroying all evidence left in the building.

Moments before the explosion, Hoffman left the hangar. However, he was suddenly attacked by two pig-masked figures and as they grabbed him and held him up, a third man approached and injected him with an anaesthetic, causing him to collapse. When he lay on the ground, the man revealed himself to be Dr. Lawrence Gordon, John's oncologist who had secretly become his third apprentice after surviving one of his games on his own. Shocked by this reveal, Hoffman realized that it was Gordon who had written the second stalker letter, which he assumed to be Peter Strahm. Moments later, he passed out from the anaesthetic. While he was unconscious, the men took him to the dilapidated industrial bathroom underneath the Nerve Gas House, where Gordon had overcome his test long ago, and chained him by the ankle to the pipe right next to the decomposed corpses of Adam Stanheight and Zep Hindle. When he woke up he immediately realized the situation he was in and tried to grab a hacksaw lying on the floor to cut off his foot and free himself from his shackle. Unfortunately for him, he accidentally bumped it away from him. Moments later, Gordon picked up the hacksaw and threw it out of the room. Ignoring Hoffman's angry and desperate yells, Gordon turned off the light and sealed the door, leaving Hoffman to die with the words "Game Over".

## Victims

1. **Seth Baxter:**Sliced in half in the rigged Pendulum Trap.
2. **Homeless Man:**Shot multiple times in the back with a handgun.
3. **Dan Erickson:**Slashed in jugular vein.
4. **Lindsey Perez:**Stabbed to death in the abdomen.
5. **Adam Heffner:**Stabbed in the throat.
6. **Unnamed Police Officer:**Stabbed in the throat.
7. **Unnamed Lawyer:**Stabbed in the throat.
8. **Palmer:**Neck snapped.
9. **Unnamed Police Officer:**Stabbed in the throat.
10. **Rogers:**Shot through the eye.
11. **Jill Tuck:**Jaws ripped apart with a Reverse Beartrap.

## Quotes

* "Throughout this ordeal, if we've learned anything, it's that human life is sacred. And we've learned that, every day, life should be cherished. Justice is the backbone to every peaceful society. And I believe that true justice has been served."
* "Amanda, you were with Cecil that night Jill lost Gideon. You killed their child. You know it and I know it, so do exactly as I say. Kill Lynn Denlon or I will tell John what you did."
* "Amanda will fail you."
* "I don't need one."
* "From now on, I work alone."
* "Well, John is dead and his work is almost done!"
* "And did you?"
* "Who else knows about me?"
* "You didn't see the blood. You didn't see what he fucking did to her."
* "You don't ever go through an unsecure door. Ever."
* "Game over."
* "You wanna know the only thing wrong with killing you, Jill? I can only do it once."
* "Hello, Agent Strahm. If you're hearing this then you have once again found what you are looking for, or so you think. Your dedication is to be commended. But I ask you, if you have learned anything on your journey of discovery. As the old adage goes, Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. The situation you find yourself in is, but of trust, so I ask you Special Agent Strahm, have you learned to trust me? The only way to survive this room is by entering the glass box before you. Pain will be incurred, but you have a chance of survival. However, if you choose not to, you will never be heard from again. Your body will never be found. You will simply vanish. I ask you, Special Agent Strahm, have you learned enough to trust me? Will you heed my warning? For if you do not, this room will forever be your tomb and my legacy will become yours. Make your choice."
* "Hello, Gibson. Been a long time. What I want is simple. Give me Jill Tuck. You're protecting her despite the fact that she had direct knowledge throughout, which makes her complicit in every death. I'll make you a deal. Give her to me, the game stops, no one else dies. If not, everyone dies and you'll be to blame. Make your choice. The clock's ticking."