Saw

Saw is a 2004 American horror film and is the first installment in the Saw film series.

## 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 recorded tapes 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 and daughter, **Alison** and **Diana** Gordon, will be executed.

Adam then finds a bag containing two hacksaws inside a toilet tank. However, Adam's saw breaks apart as they try to cut through their chains. 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 nicknamed Jigsaw. As he tells Adam about the killer, who tests his victims' will to live by forcing them to fight for their survival 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 Detective **David Tapp** and Detective **Steven Sing** visited him at the Angel of Mercy Hospital. 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 afterward, Tapp and Sing discovered a clue on a videotape used by the killer during Amanda's game and subsequently found the Jigsaw Killer's hideout in an abandoned mannequin factory. Upon arrival, they found Jigsaw and took him by surprise, saving another victim named **Jeff Ridenhour**. 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 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, he decided to continue the investigation and end Jigsaw's games for good. Therefore, he rented a run-down flat across the street from Gordon's apartment, as Tapp 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 cell phone. As time passes, he and Adam both remember how they were abducted by a mysterious figure with a pig mask the night before but are suddenly interrupted by the ringing phone. As Gordon answers the call, Alison, held at gunpoint by her captor, warns her husband not to trust Adam. 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 his photos of Gordon, which he found 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 Angel of Mercy Hospital.

Seconds later, the clock strikes six, marking the end of their game. As Adam is still alive, Zep prepares to execute Gordon's family. Before doing so, he calls the doctor and forces Alison to inform him about his failure. However, Alison frees herself and desperately fights with her captor. The struggle attracts Tapp's attention, who storms into the apartment and opens fire on Zep, giving Alison and Diana a 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 he 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. He aims his gun at 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 alone, Adam searches Zep's body for a key to his shackle but finds another audiotape instead. When playing the recording, he discovers that Zep is just another Jigsaw victim. 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. The latter began his murder series after being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. He informs 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.