Saw (film)
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Saw is a 2004 thriller/horror movie, directed by James Wan and co-written by Wan and Leigh Whannell. It was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004 and saw an international release later that year. Saw was released in theaters on October 29, 2004. A sequel, Saw II, was released on October 28, 2005 and another, Saw III, will be released on October 27, 2006.
Plot
The film begins with two men waking up in an old, grimy bathroom with no windows. One of the men is a young photographer named Adam (Leigh Whannell); the other is a surgeon named Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes). They are chained to pipes, and in the middle of the floor between them is a corpse, who has died from a self-inflcited gunshot to the head. In a message on a tapeplayer in the corpse's hand, Jigsaw says, "When you have that much poison in your blood, the only thing left to do, is shoot yourself."
In their pockets, they find cassettes telling them what to do: Gordon has until 6:00 to kill Adam. If he doesn’t, his wife, Alison (Monica Potter), and daughter, Diana (Makenzie Vega), will be killed. They find a pair of hacksaws, but they aren’t strong enough to cut through their chains; they are, however, strong enough to cut through flesh and bone. “He doesn’t want us to cut through our chains,” notes Gordon. “He wants us to cut through our feet.”
Gordon also realizes who’s behind this: Jigsaw, an infamous serial killer who puts his victims in twisted games in an attempt to make them appreciate their lives. Unfortunately, they usually result in their deaths. He knows who it is because he was a suspect. One of the penlights from his office was found at a crime scene where Jigsaw was the killer. The case was investigated by Det. David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Det. Steven Sing (Ken Leung). The earlier victims included a man who attempted suicide for attention (He was put in a maze of razor wire), a man who faked an illness (He was covered in a flammable substance while he had to input the combination to the safe, the numbers of which covered the walls, and his only light source was a candle), and a drug addict named Amanda (Played by Shawnee Smith), she was the only survivor of Jigsaw’s traps. She had to cut open and find a key in a heavily sedated man to prevent the device on her head to rip her jaws open.
Back in the bathroom, Adam and Gordon discover that they’re being watched and Adam finds a picture in Gordon's wallet that shows Gordon’s wife and daughter being held captive. Adam doesn't show it to him, though. Meanwhile, Det. Tapp is under the impression that Gordon is Jigsaw. He remembers a few weeks back, when he was injured by Jigsaw and Det. Sing was killed while chasing Jigsaw down an alley (one of Jigsaw's many traps).
Gordon finds two cigarettes and a cell phone that only receives calls. Jigsaw has instructed him to poison Adam with the cigarettes, but after an argument, Adam reveals to Gordon that his family is in mortal danger. They decide to fake Adam’s death, but that plan fails and the chain holding Adam to the pipe electrocutes him for a second.
The cell phone rings, and Alison is forced by her captor to tell Gordon not to believe Adam’s lies. Adam reveals that he was hired by Det. Tapp to spy on Gordon when he cheated on his wife. Back at home, Alison is about to escape. At the same time, one of Adam’s photos reveal that Zepp, Gordon’s assistant from the hospital, is the one holding his wife and daughter hostage.
The clock strikes 6:00, ending the time limit. Zepp and Alison fight over a gun while Det. Tapp rushes to save her. The fight turns into a chase as Det. Tapp tries to catch Zepp before he can get to the bathroom. Believing that his wife and daughter are still in danger, Gordon finally saws off his own foot.
Det. Tapp nearly emerges victorious, but Zepp kills him first and rushes to the bathroom. Free of his shackle, Gordon shoots Adam. Zepp arrives in the bathroom and Adam, who is surprisingly alive, beats him to death with the toilet lid. After a tearful goodbye, Gordon leaves, saying he has to "get help, or he'll bleed to death".
Adam, however, is still trapped. He searches Zepp’s pockets for a key, but instead finds another cassette. Zepp was a pawn in Jigsaw’s game all along. He was being forced to kidnap a daughter and her mother or he would die. The real Jigsaw, it turns out, was the “corpse” on the floor, which rises up and tells him of the key to use for his chains, but Adam lost it when he first awoke. Jigsaw has been killing people to make them learn life lessons, as he himself is bitter from his approaching death of cancer (referenced by another cryptic message in his tape earlier "when you have that much poison in your blood"). Adam is shocked by the moment and Jigsaw abandons him locking him in the bathroom. “Game over,” he says, ending the film with Adam, being trapped in the pitch-black bathroom, screaming into the credits.
Cast
- Leigh Whannell – Adam Faulner
- Cary Elwes – Dr. Lawrence Gordon
- Danny Glover – Detective David Tapp
- Ken Leung – Detective Steven Sing
- Dina Meyer – Kerry
- Mike Butters – Paul Stallberg
- Paul Gutrecht – Mark Rodriguez
- Michael Emerson – Zepp Hindle
- Benito Martinez – Brett
- Shawnee Smith – Amanda Young
- Makenzie Vega – Diana Gordon
- Monica Potter – Alison Gordon
- Ned Bellamy – Jeff
- Alexandra Bokyun Chun – Carla (as Alexandra Chun)
- Avner Garbi – Father
- Tobin Bell – Jigsaw/John
Trivia
- It's revealed in "Saw II" that Adam (Leigh Whannell) died shortly after the events of Saw.
- It's unclear if Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) dies after he cuts off his foot because he is not in the movie after that point. Many say it's likely that he died though because he says "I'm going to bleed to death if I don't go and get help." Plus he did lose a lot of blood after cutting off his foot and Adam wasn't rescued from the bathroom. Others say he could be alive because of the clue in "Saw 3"'s tagline, "Rules Are Meant To Be Broken"(note that during a director commentary in the first film states that "it's up to you do decide", meaning it could go however you want it to go). There was also no explanation for why Dr. Gordon's pen was found at one of Jigsaw's crime scenes. It's likely that Jigsaw took the pen from Gordon's desk after meeting Gordon.
- Kerry (Dina Meyer) the cop plays a much bigger role in Saw II.
- Was originally rated NC-17 for strong graphic violence. This version is available as Saw: Uncut Edition, a DVD special edition of Saw released around the same time as Saw II.
- Cary Elwes and Monica Potter both played villains in the Alex Cross films Kiss The Girls and Along Came a Spider.
See also
| Canada:18A (British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | R (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) | R (Alberta) | 16+ (Quebec) | Taiwan R-18 |
| Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Brazil:16 | Chile:14 | FinlandK-18 |
| France:-16 | Germany:18 | Hong KongIII | Ireland:18 | Italy:T |
| Japan:R-15 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:18 | Philippines:R-13 | Portugal:M/18 |
| Singapore:M18/NC-16 (edited version) | Switzerland:16 | [[UK: 18 BBFC | USA NC-17 (original rating) / (edited for re-rating) | Greece:K-17 |
External links
- [Official site]
- [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
- [Official Message Board]
- [GreatestJournal Community for Leigh Whannell(Adam)]
| Saw Series |
|---|
| Saw 2003 Short | Saw | Saw II | Saw III |
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