Underground Tunnels

## History

The tunnels were a wide-ranging network of underground hallways. It is unknown when or by whom they were built, but since the beginning of John Kramer's murders as the serial killer Jigsaw, they were frequently used by him and his apprentices for their deadly games. There were at least two known ways to enter the tunnels. The first entrance was located in a room on the ground floor of the Nerve Gas House under a hidden trapdoor. Besides that they were also connected to what seemed to be some kind of sewer tunnels located under an abandoned factory which provided another entrance. The tunnels themselves housed at least three rooms. One was an dilapidated industrial bathroom where several of Jigsaw's games took place. The next one was a small holding cell. The last room was actually a trap on its own. In the center of the room was a glass coffin connected to a gear system which allowed the coffin to be lowered down into a hollow in the floor. This coffin was filled with numerous glass shards. If a victim entered the room, the only chance to survive was to enter the coffin. Otherwise the victim would slowly be crushed to death by the walls which were connected to a mechanism which caused them to close in on the victim.

### Adam Stanheight and Dr. Lawrence Gordon's Test

Several months after the beginning of the Jigsaw killings, the bathroom located in the tunnels was used for one of John Kramer's most complicated tests. Along with his apprentice, Amanda Young, he abducted the renowned oncologist Dr. Lawrence Gordon and freelance photographer Adam Stanheight, who had been observing Gordon for some days already.

Both men were chained by the ankle to pipes in opposite corners of the room, with Adam lying in a water filled bathtub. He had the key for his shackle lying on his stomach. However, after waking up and scrambling from the bathtub, he accidentally pulled the plug and unwittingly sent the key down the drain. Between them, in the middle of the room, lay John in a pool of blood, posing as the corpse of a man who shot himself in the head, still holding the gun in one hand and a tape recorder in the other. Both Adam and Lawrence had an envelope in their pockets. While Adam's envelope only contained an audio tape, Lawrence's also had a key and a bullet inside. Using the plug from the bathtub, Adam eventually managed to obtain the dead man's tape recorder and play the tapes.

The tapes recorded by Jigsaw gave them the instructions they had to follow in order to win their game. Lawrence had to kill Adam by 6:00. Otherwise his wife, Alison, and his daughter, Diana, would be killed by Zep Hindle, who held them hostage as part of his own test and was told to kill them and Gordon afterwards if Lawrence didn't kill Adam in time. Adam, however, was merely told to survive until the end of the game.

Listening to the clues provided by the tapes, Adam searched the toilet tank, which was marked with a heart. He found a plastic bag inside which contained a pair of hacksaws as well as the photos of Gordon he took throughout the days prior to the game. While trying to cut through their chains with the saws, Adam's saw quickly broke, leading him to angrily throw it against the mirror, breaking a piece of glass out of it. After unsuccessfully trying to cut through his chain as well, Dr. Gordon soon realized that the saws were not strong enough to cut through their chains and were actually meant to cut off their feet.

Their desperation grew as the time was ticking down. When the clock struck six and Lawrence still hadn't managed to kill Adam, he was called on a cellphone he had found in a hollow space behind a wall. To his surprise it was Alison who called him. However moments later he heard shots and screams in the background, which caused him to panic. He was then electrocuted through his chain, rendering him unconscious for some mere seconds. Adam desperately tried to wake him up and finally managed to do so. However, this caused Lawrence to further panic, as he didn't know that his family actually managed to escape from Zep. Despite Adam's frequent attempts to calm him down, he started to cut off his foot while a screaming and horrified Adam was forced to watch. When Lawrence grabbed the dead man's gun and aimed at Adam, the latter begged for his life, but Lawrence shot him in the shoulder with the bullet from his envelope, intending to kill him, which caused Adam to collapse.

Meanwhile Zep drove to the factory connected to the tunnels while being pursued by David Tapp, a discharged homicide detective who had been observing Dr. Gordon's Apartment and therefore the captivity of Diana and Allison. Zep entered the underground tunnels but was eventually outrun by Tapp. The two of them engaged in a fight and initially Tapp managed to gain the upper hand. However during their scuffle he was eventually shot in the chest and collapsed and was eventually left for dead by his adversary.

Shortly thereafter, Zep entered the bathroom, and Lawrence desperately tried to shoot him but was out of bullets. Zep then prepared to kill him, since he didn't kill Adam in time. However, Adam, who had survived the gunshot, knocked him to the ground and started to fight for Zep's gun. Adam eventually managed to get the gun out of Zep's hands and bludgeoned his head with the lid of the toilet tank. Lawrence promised to find help for Adam before crawling out of the bathroom, leaving Adam behind alone. Ridden by fear, Adam searched Zep's body for a key to his shackle, but instead found another tape recorder which revealed that Zep was merely another victim of Jigsaw.

After listening to the tape, the man in the middle of the room, who was thought to be dead the entire time, stood up and revealed himself to be the actual Jigsaw Killer. When he told Adam that the key to the shackle was in the bathtub, Adam recognizes how it went down the drain when he woke up. Terrified, he grabbed Zep's gun and attempted to shoot Jigsaw, but was electrocuted by the latter's hidden remote control. After that, Jigsaw turned off the lights before closing the door and leaving Adam to die in the darkness of the bathroom with the words "Game Over."

### Dr. Gordon's Fate

At the same time Lawrence crawled through the tunnels in an attempt to find a way out. However due to his injuries and his massive loss of blood, he wasn't able to make it very far. He soon reached a hot steaming pipe in the hallway and after some hesitation pressed the stump of his severed foot against the pipe in order to cauterize the wound. However the immense amount of pain caused him to lose consciousness. Moments later he was found by John Kramer, who was in fact one of his own patients. He took Gordon with him and during a brief regain of his consciousness Lawrence recognized John, who smiled at him and congratulated him for his survival before Lawrence passed out again.

### Adam's Death

Sometime after Adam failed his test and was left to die, Amanda returned to the bathroom, as she felt guilty for abducting him and had nightmares about his ghost haunting her. When she arrived, Adam was already weakened by both his gunshot wound and his lack of food. Out of mercy, Amanda suffocated him with a plastic bag. Adam desperately tried to fight her off but his head smashed against the toilet, leading to him losing his consciousness and finally succumbing to asphyxiation.

Several months later, John Kramer eventually targeted seven people for a big game taking place in the Nerve Gas House connected to the tunnels: Jonas Singer, his manager Gus Colyard, the prostitute Addison Corday, the drug dealer Xavier Chavez, Laura Hunter, Obi Tate and Daniel Matthews. Additionally, Amanda was among the prisoners and played as a victim as well primarily in order to be able to observe the game and make sure that the rules were followed. These people had a connection which initially none of them knew about. Daniel's father, the corrupt detective Eric Matthews, once innocently framed the other six people for crimes they didn't commit by faking the evidence. All of the victims were breathing in a deadly nerve agent which would kill them after approximately two hours. However, there were numerous syringes with the antidote hidden all around the house with one being in a large safe located in the starting room of the game. Unknown to the victims, they had numbers in different colours written on their necks. The order in which the colors appeared on the rainbow was also the same order in which the numbers had to be entered in order to open the safe.

Eventually it was Xavier who found out about the numbers and therefore tried to get those of the other victims as well, causing him to start a bloody rampage during which he killed Jonas Singer and left Addison Corday for death after she had been trapped while attempting to get one of the antidotes. Eventually he pursued Amanda and Daniel, as they were the last survivors left besides him. The two of them tried to hide inside the Safe Room and eventually found the trapdoor under the safe which they opened with a key that they found at the start of the game. Only seconds after Daniel and Amanda went through the trapdoor and found the underground tunnels underneath the house, Xavier managed to open the door and continued to pursue them. Full of fear Amanda and Daniel ran away and followed the tunnel until they found another door. When they entered the room and turned on the lights the room was revealed to be the bathroom, where they found the decomposed corpses of Adam Stanheight and Zep Hindle.

As there was no other way to escape the room Daniel decided to sham being dead. Just a few seconds later Xavier entered the room. When Amanda told him Daniel was gone, he told her that all he wanted from her was a number written on her and Daniel's neck as those numbers were the combination to the safe which contained one of the antidotes. Amanda reminded him that he would still need her as she was the only person left who could tell him about his own number. However instead of asking her for help Xavier eventually cut off the skin from his neck with a knife he previously found in the basement while Amanda was watching in horror. When he was done, he approached her but was killed by Daniel who suddenly jumped up and sliced his throat with the hacksaw previously used by Lawrence Gordon to cut off his own food. When Xavier died in front of them Amanda started screaming.

However, as she and Daniel were the only survivors left in the house the time for the next part of her and John's plan had come. Amanda subdued Daniel and injected him with the antidote from the safe. Afterwards she took his unconscious body with her and finally left the Nerve Gas House.

### Eric Matthews' Test

The day after the game, Amanda returned to the bathroom and hid inside the bathtub, waiting for Daniel's father, Detective Eric Matthews, to arrive. When Eric found the bathroom and searched for his son, thinking he was still trapped, he was ambushed and sedated by Amanda, who chained him by the ankle to a pipe, leaving only a spotlight, an empty gun, and a tape recorder with a message for Eric. When Eric woke up and played the tape, he realized that Amanda, who he thought to be another victim, was actually Jigsaw's accomplice. Seconds later, Amanda showed up outside the bathroom and closed the door, leaving Matthews inside to die.

Desperately looking for a way to escape, Eric soon found the hacksaw. At first, he attempted to saw through his chains, but when he saw Lawrence Gordon's severed foot, he realized that he had to cut off his chained foot in order to escape. Eric tried to saw his foot off with the hacksaw but couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he took the lid of the toilet tank and used it to smash and break his foot. This allowed Eric to slip his foot out of the shackle and escape the bathroom.

Meanwhile Amanda suffered and emotional breakdown as she stumbled through the tunnels screaming and crying. However, she soon realized that she wasn't alone when she heard Eric who shouted for his son. Surprised by his escape Amanda started to panic as he came closer to her and hid behind some pipes. When she thought the coast was clear she carefully left her hiding spot but was hit by the head with a large metal rod by Eric when she turned a corner. Stunned by the blow she tried to crawl away and fight off Eric who bit the back of her knee and smashed her head against the wall several times, demanding her to tell him where his son was. When Amanda refused to answer and instead spit blood in his face Eric grabbed his knife and threatened her. However, she embraced her opportunity and brutally kicked his foot which he had smashed and broken in order to get free from his shackle in the bathroom. Overwhelmed by the pain he fell to the floor, giving Amanda the chance to leave. As she was weaving towards the exit Eric shouted after her, insulting her and telling her she was nothing compared to Jigsaw. This caused Amanda to stop for a moment before she finally went back to take her revenge and kill Eric.

### Eric Matthews' Confinement

Unbeknownst to Amanda, Eric survived her attempted murder. He was later found by another apprentice of Jigsaw, Detective Mark Hoffman. While he was almost unconscious, Hoffman dragged him away and took him to a cell somewhere in the tunnels. Shortly afterwards he braced his foot and gave him an orange prison overall. After his awakening, Eric was regularly supplied with food and spent the next six months in his cell.

### Peter Strahm's Investigation

Approximately six months later, Special Agent Peter Strahm discovered the underground tunnels connected to the bathroom while tracking down Hoffman. In the tunnels, Strahm stumbled upon a blood trail on the ground left by Eric Matthews when he got out of the bathroom. He traced it to the closed door of the bathroom but decided not to open the bathroom door as he was trying to find Hoffman. Shortly afterwards he found a room with a large glass coffin in its center. The coffin was filled with broken glass shards as well as a tape recorder. Strahm grabbed it and played the message left for him by Hoffman but stopped when he heard Hoffman's steps behind him.

Stram quickly went into hiding behind the door and waited for the detective. When Hoffman arrived and entered the room he found the tape lying on the floor. Strahm calmly approached him from behind while holding him at gun point. The two men engaged in a fight and eventually Strahm managed to lock Hoffman inside the coffin. Seconds later the door to the room was closed as well. Furiously Strahm demanded Hoffman to tell him how to open it but Hoffman just calmly pointed at the tape. When the agent listened to the second half of the tape, the coffin was slowly lowered down into a hollow space in the floor while the walls of the room started to move towards each other. Strahm desperately tried to find a way out and angrily yelled at Hoffman. However, he was eventually crushed to death by the walls while Hoffman averted his gaze in disgust. (*Saw V*)

Moments later, Hoffman was transported to another room nearby where he was able to open and leave the coffin. He returned to the hallway and used a switch which caused the walls that killed Strahm to return to their original position. Upon reentering the room, he saw Strahm's mutilated corpse which was still clinging to a grate at the ceiling with one hand. When he approached it, it fell down to the floor. However, Hoffman realized that the now severed hand, which still clung to the grate, was almost unharmed. Therefore, he removed it by using pliers and took it with him in order to use it to place Strahm's fingerprints on his future crime scenes.

### Mark Hoffman's Execution

Some time later, Lawrence Gordon, who had become another apprentice of Jigsaw after surviving his own game, captured and sedated Mark Hoffman after the latter murdered John Kramer's ex-wife, Jill Tuck. Following John's final instructions, he chained Hoffman up in the bathroom along with Adam, Zep, and Xavier's remains. When Gordon entered the room and Hoffman woke up, he started to panic and tried to grab the hacksaw to free himself from his shackle. However, Lawrence took the saw and threw it out of the room. Ignoring Hoffman's angry and desperate yells, Lawrence turned off the light and closed the door, leaving Hoffman to die with the words "Game Over."