The Saw franchise has become a complex saga comprising many movies.
And with the release of Spiral: From the Book of Saw, things are about to get more complicated.
We're here to break down the entire Saw timeline, one bloody moment at a time.
John Kramer's sinister arc begins with his time as an engineer and building designer.
John works with his friend, attorney Art Blank, on creating low-income housing for needy families
through their Urban Renewal Group.
Jill, John's wife, works at an addiction recovery clinic.
John is concerned over the safety of Jill's workplace, especially as his wife is pregnant
with their first child.
His fears prove to be well-founded when a patient named Cecil Adams attempts to rob
the facility.
Cecil shoves a heavy door into Jill's stomach on the way out, causing her to miscarry the
couple's unborn son Gideon.
Cecil had been encouraged to go to the clinic by Amanda Young, a fellow addict and patient
who was once arrested by Detective Eric Matthews.
John and Jill's relationship falls apart shortly after this incident.
A doll John had created for his unborn son later inspires Jigsaw's ominous visage.
Shortly after the decline of his marriage, John is diagnosed with terminal cancer by
Dr. Lawrence Gordon of the Angel of Mercy Hospital.
During his treatment, John befriends an orderly named Zep Hindle.
Zep makes it clear that he dislikes Dr. Gordon.
His tumor is deemed to be inoperable because John was diagnosed too late, thanks to an
X-ray labeling error by Logan Nelson.
John seeks approval for an alternative treatment option with insurance executive William Easton,
a donor to Jill's clinic who is nevertheless tightfisted.
"And a new trial's starting.
He's looking for new patients.
And he seems to think that I'm the perfect candidate."
John is warned he will lose his coverage with Umbrella Health if he pursues experimental
treatment, as the company is quick to cut off clients in need of care, like cardiac
patient Harold Abbott.
This decision comes back to haunt Easton.
None of these people know they've made a grave mistake by simply being in the vicinity of
John Kramer during this dark hour, but in time, they definitely find out.
After experiencing severe depression, John drives himself off of a cliff.
But he survives the crash and gains a new perspective on life, and an incessant urge
to force this revelation on others.
He begins his deadly series of games with a bit of retribution, concealing himself with
a pig mask and capturing Cecil.
John places Cecil in restraints in his lab and tells him that he has the choice to either
bleed out from the wounds on his wrists, or press his face through a series of blades.
John insists he'll escape with a renewed lease on life.
However, Cecil is unable to complete his challenge.
But then, his chair breaks apart and allows him to escape.
Cecil attacks John, but John murders him by throwing him into a cage full of razor wire.
Jigsaw reveals Logan Nelson to have been John's first sidekick.
Logan fails to wake up during the initial Bucket Head trap at Tuck's Pig Farm, and is
badly wounded by the blades.
But John does not believe Logan has to die due to his careless-but-innocent X-ray mislabeling.
John rescues Logan from the trap and trains him in his philosophy, which Logan finds to
be helpful.
It is not clear how long Logan works with John, but he helps him prepare some of his
earliest traps, including the Reverse Beartrap.
We also don't know if he had any relationship with Jigsaw's other sidekicks.
Jigsaw's recruitment spree doesn't stop with Logan.
Mark Hoffman is part of the first Metropolitan Police Department team investigating the Jigsaw
murders alongside Detectives David Tapp, Steven Sing, and Allison Kerry.
He learns enough about Jigsaw to imitate his methods.
Pretending to be Jigsaw, Hoffman gets vengeance against Seth Baxter, his sister's murderer,
via the Pendulum trap.
Jigsaw does not punish Hoffman, though he does admonish him for not giving Seth a chance
to survive his trap.
John offers to take him under his wing.
Hoffman also helps John frame Dr. Gordon by leaving the doctor's penlight at the scene
of Mark's game, after he warns John that Detective Tapp is getting close to identifying him.
Tapp narrowly survives a trap laid for the police, but Sing is killed.
Thus, Tapp's obsession with the case grows.
John also recruits Amanda after she survives her trap, and the three work together to create
several traps, including one of the franchise's most unforgettable.
After Amanda agrees to become Jigsaw's second protégé, she helps John orchestrate the
infamous Bathroom trap.
She helps kidnap Dr. Gordon, who is having an affair with a student, and Adam Stanheight,
who is photographing Gordon for Detective Tapp.
Amanda sets up the room so that Jigsaw can play his sinister game.
Gordon wins by sawing off his own foot, and his wife and daughter also escape Zep with
Tapp's help.
Gordon drags himself through the halls of Jigsaw's lair and finds a hot steam pipe to
cauterize his leg wound.
Jigsaw then takes Gordon in to help him recover, even devising a prosthetic for his leg.
Amanda sneaks back into the bathroom to asphyxiate Adam, who is already bleeding out.
Gordon goes on to become Jigsaw's secret helping hand.
As revealed in Saw: The Final Chapter, he assists with some of the more medically-sensitive
tests, including the Venus Flytrap from Saw II and the Mausoleum trap from Saw IV.
He also suggests Lynn Denlon as a test subject in Saw III.
"I was his patient and he was mine."
In Saw II, John is finally identified as the Jigsaw killer.
Eric Matthews is among the officers who finds his hideout.
Little does he know, John has kidnapped Matthews' teenage son Daniel and put him into a group
trap at the Nerve Gas House, alongside Amanda, Addison, and several other people who'd been
arrested by Matthews on bogus charges.
After almost all of the subjects die, Daniel is put into a safe with an oxygen mask and
hidden in Jigsaw's lair.
Detectives Matthews, Kerry, and Daniel Rigg arrive with others at Jigsaw's lair, and are
unaware that the footage of the group trap they are presented with was pre-taped.
Instead of waiting like he is instructed to do, Matthews brutalizes John and forces him
to take him to the location of the trap.
While Rigg discovers that the source of the video feed is another empty house, Matthews
ends up alone at the actual location, and is captured and trapped by Amanda in the bathroom.
In Saw III, it is revealed that Matthews breaks his own foot to escape the shackle, but he
is still captured for another game.
Saw III takes place six months after Matthews is captured.
John Kramer is near death.
He gives his lawyer a box containing instructions for Jill.
Meanwhile, Amanda is secretly resorting to self-mutilation and creating unsurvivable
traps, including one used on Kerry.
John doesn't want to be replaced by a murderer, and devises one last test for Amanda.
John has Amanda abduct Dr. Lynn Denlon and put her into a neck trap.
Denlon is forced to keep John alive for the duration of another test, which turns out
to involve her husband Jeff.
Lynn and Jeff lost a son and have emotionally neglected their daughter, who was kidnapped
before Jeff's test.
Little does Amanda know, her survival depends on being able to let Denlon go.
Hoffman slyly tells Amanda to kill Denlon, threatening to expose her part in Cecil's
attack on Jill's clinic if she refuses.
Amanda refuses to let Denlon go and shoots her instead.
Jeff enters the room shortly thereafter and kills Amanda in retaliation.
For Jeff's final test, John asks him to show mercy, but Jeff cuts his throat with an electric
saw, triggering Denlon's collar.
In Saw IV, it is revealed that Hoffman was pretending to be trapped alongside the now-haggard
Matthews and Art as the events in John's hospital room unfolded.
Rigg is confronted with several of Art's worst clients, including Morgan, who just survived
a test that forced her to kill her abusive husband.
Rigg is supposed to let his timer run out but instead rushes into the final room with
Hoffman, Matthews, and Art.
Not knowing who's rushing in, Matthews shoots Rigg and triggers a device that crushes his
own head.
Rigg also shoots Art, thinking the tape recorder in his hand is a gun.
Before Rigg bleeds out, he sees Hoffman reveal himself as Jigsaw's apprentice.
Simultaneously, FBI Agent Peter Strahm and his partner Lindsay Perez follow Rigg's trail.
Perez is injured at the scene of Morgan's test.
Strahm then interrogates Jill Tuck, who leads him to the building John uses for his tests.
Strahm arrives at John's room just after Jeff kills John.
Strahm shoots Jeff in apparent self-defense.
Hoffman locks Strahm in, but he finds an exit.
However, he is then captured and put into the Water Cube trap.
Strahm barely survives by using a pen to perform a tracheotomy on himself.
Hoffman then pretends to escape, and is stunned to discover Strahm also made it out alive.
John's autopsy reveals a tape that promises Hoffman will be tested.
Hoffman later receives a mysterious note that warns, "I know who you are."
The note is from Dr. Gordon, who'd received a tape from Jill's box, in which John asks
him to watch out for Jill.
Strahm determines that Hoffman was Jigsaw's apprentice after reading up on the Seth Baxter
case.
Despite being removed from the case by his superior Dan Erickson, he continues to investigate
Hoffman.
Jill complains to Erickson that Strahm is stalking her.
Meanwhile, Hoffman works to set up Strahm as a suspect.
He stages a group trap involving five crooked people connected to a deadly apartment fire
Strahm previously investigated.
Hoffman also uses Strahm's cell phone to lead Erickson to the location of the group trap.
Upon finding two victims still alive, Erickson puts out an APB on Strahm.
However, Hoffman then leads Strahm to the Nerve Gas House and traps him in a room that
crushes him to death.
Hoffman stages a two-person test so he can continue framing Strahm.
Erickson grants Hoffman unfettered access to the FBI's investigation, and reveals that
Perez faked her death and is still active on the case.
Later, Hoffman carries out Jigsaw's wish for a test on William Easton, in which Easton
is forced to make life-or-death decisions for a series of his employees.
Finally, the wife and son of the late Harold Abbott must decide Easton's fate, and they
choose to kill him.
Though Jigsaw's work is finally done, Hoffman is not in the clear.
Erickson and Perez soon discover Hoffman's identity.
As soon as the FBI agents realize who Hoffman is, however, he kills them.
The last surprise to come from John's box for Jill is the Reverse Beartrap.
John's box instructs Jill to use it on Hoffman.
However, Hoffman manages to survive the device.
Hoffman manages to divert police attention by staging the grisly Horsepower trap, as
well as the test of Bobby Dagen, who's made a fortune pretending to be a Jigsaw survivor.
After setting a deadly trap for Gibson and other officers, Hoffman manages to sneak himself
into the body bag of one of the Horsepower victims to get access to the police station.
He kills anyone and everyone in his way to get to Jill's holding cell.
Hoffman places Jill in the Reverse Beartrap, which kills her, and prepares to get away.
However, he's met outside by three men in pig masks.
One of them is Dr. Gordon, who shackles Hoffman to Adam's old spot in the bathroom and takes
away the saw that would allow him to save himself.
10 years after John Kramer's death, a series of Jigsaw-like deaths occur.
The bodies are analyzed by Logan and his strangely Jigsaw-obsessed assistant Eleanor.
Detective Halloran is drawn into the case, but little does he know, he's being set up
by Logan.
Halloran is a crooked detective who took a bribe from the man who murdered Logan's wife.
The game is a copycat version of the test Logan survived.
Logan plants puzzle pieces of the new victims in Halloran's freezer, to make him a suspect.
Logan then forces Halloran to admit his misdeeds by pretending to be trapped in a two-person
test with him.
After Halloran confesses, Logan reveals that he has taped him.
"Innocent people died because of me, I did it!"
He watches as Halloran's head is sliced to pieces in the laser collar trap.
Game over, for now.
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