History Saw / TropesGToR

*** Cecilia gives a bigger one to him near the climax of ''Film/SawX'', calling him out for being just a psycho hiding behind a fake moral code.

* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: Every film between the first one and ''Jigsaw'' has at least one promotional poster with a physical depiction mimicking the roman numberal of their correspondent entry number.

* NoFullNameGiven: Most of the characters in earlier films have full names, but characters with only a first name or surname become prominent in later movies. While many of them have minor or supporting roles, there are still major ones without a full name, such as most of the barn game victims from ''Jigsaw''.

* NoFullNameGiven: Most of the characters in earlier films had full names, but characters with only a first name or surname become prominent in later movies. While many of them have minor or supporting roles, there are still major ones without a full name, such as most of the barn game victims from ''Jigsaw''.

---->"A monster. A murderer."

** As he explains in ''Saw II'', Jigsaw has a twisted logic that kind of made sense as to why he was carrying out those sadistic games.

** Ironically, Jigsaw himself gets one in ''Saw III'' on his death bed. He asks Lynn how people will remember his horrific story. Her response is short, but effective:
--->"A monster. A murderer."
** Easily the most epic one is delivered by [[spoiler:Josh, one of the victims of the Shotgun Carousel]] in ''Saw VI''. [[spoiler:Once his boss, who had spent his career sticking to a "probability formula" that decided who would get healthcare coverage and who wouldn't, decides not to save him, Josh lets him have it shortly before the shotgun blasts a hole in his chest.]]

** Also in ''Saw VI'':

* MemoryTrigger: Used in several films to set up {{flashback}}s:
** One of the letter messages Rigg reads in ''Film/SawIV'' helps him remember how to progress in the game.
** Reminders of what they did to be tested:
*** The written text on William's skin under the bombs strapped to him in ''Film/SawVI''.
*** The environmental props and text Bobby comes across in ''Film/Saw3D''.
** ''Film/SawVI'':

*** Hoffman himself gets reminded when he finds a blackmail letter he had sent to Amanda back in ''Film/SawIII'', in the surveillance room for William's game. The ensuing flashback montage reveals the sequence when Hoffman wrote it and Amanda read it, using footage between ''Saw III'' and ''IV'', with some additional scenes establishing the circumstances. Said letter was left by Jill (after Pamela previously found it and gave it to her) in the surveillance room as part of her sneak attack on him, who was infuriated by the letter when she discovered that Hoffman was the one who wrote it.

* HollywoodAcid: As seen in ''III'' and ''VI''.

** Jigsaw. A jigsaw puzzle is made of numerous pieces, and by ''Saw 3D'', Jigsaw has ceased to be a single individual or apprentice and become a full-fledged '''movement''', shown when [[spoiler:Gordon takes down Hoffman]], helped by two other people in pig masks, who were confirmed by WordOfGod to be Brad and Ryan (the survivors of the trap seen in the movie's opening). Each of these individuals in the movement could be thought of as jigsaw pieces.

* PrimalFear: The franchise is a double whammy of this in regards to {{Gorn}}. Gory death traps in which you inflict self-mutilation of various types? Check. [[{{Squick}} Extra-disturbing items and substances]] like [[Film/SawII a pit full of dirty needles]] and [[Film/SawIII a vat of liquefied pig guts]]? Check.

* InconsistentDub: The Hungarian dubs of the movies shift back and forth between using "Kirakós" (jigsaw) or "Fűrész" (saw) to refer to Jigsaw. The Hungarian words for "jigsaw" and "saw" have no relations, so it comes out of nowhere when Jigsaw is called "Fűrész".

* ImmediateSequel: While an amount of time ranging from months to years passes between the events of some films (with ''Saw IV'' being a POVSequel to ''III''), ''Saw III'', ''Saw V'', ''Saw VI'' and ''Saw 3D'' start off within seconds, minutes or hours after their respective preceding films.

** In ''Saw III'':

** [[spoiler:Hoffman]] gets it at the end of ''Saw 3D'', which ''was'' satisfying.

* KarmicTwistEnding: ''Film/Saw3D''[='s=] ending is a notable departure from the franchise's typical use of {{Cruel Twist Ending}}s. [[spoiler:After the climax, Hoffman managed to win over the police in his final schemes before escaping the city, including finishing with Bobby's game and killing Jill. Just as he was going to the airport, Gordon, revealed to be Jigsaw's most entrusted accomplice with a plan to take out Hoffman, gets on his way (alongside Brad and Ryan, the survivors of the film's opening trap) and captures him, then locking him up to die in the bathroom where Gordon had previously been imprisoned in by Jigsaw during the first movie.]]

* KarmicTwistEnding: ''Film/Saw3D''[='s=] ending is a notable departure from the franchise's typical use of {{Cruel Twist Ending}}s. [[spoiler:After the climax, Hoffman managed to win over the police in his final schemes before escaping the city, including finishing with Bobby's game and killing Jill. Just as he was going to the airport, Gordon, revealed to be Jigsaw's most entrusted accomplice with plans to take out Hoffman, gets on his way (alongside Brad and Ryan, the survivors of the film's opening trap) and captures him, then locking him up to die in the bathroom where Gordon had previously been imprisoned in by Jigsaw during the first movie.]]

* KarmicTwistEnding: ''Saw 3D'''s ending is a notable departure from the franchise's typical use of {{Cruel Twist Ending}}s. [[spoiler:After the climax, Hoffman managed to win over the police in his final schemes before escaping the city, including finishing with Bobby's game and killing Jill. Just as he was going to the airport, Gordon, revealed to be Jigsaw's most entrusted accomplice, gets on his way (alongside Brad and Ryan, two of the victims of the film's opening trap) and captures him, eventually locking him up to die in the same room where Gordon had previously been imprisoned in by Jigsaw during the first movie. Gordon himself was acting on the order of Jigsaw, who put him a contract to take Hoffman out if he went after Jill; in the case of success, Gordon would be given access to the remaining material that Jigsaw had kept secret to him. Although, it's unknown what Gordon did afterwards, since [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse he doesn't return]] in the following movies, whick took a TimeSkip on the timeline.]]

* IndirectSerialKiller: The various Jigsaw killers and copycats are notorious for kidnapping people and forcing them into life-or-death scenarios where they're forced to do a LifeOrLimbDecision or solve CriminalMindGames in order to survive. In some (but not all) "[[DeadlyGame games]]" involving multiple victims, one person has to kill the other (be it directly or indirectly) to win. Thus far, whereas most of the other Jigsaw killers almost exclusively followed this MO, Mark Hoffman is the only one who has also committed direct murders regularly.

* NothingIsScarier: Nine tenths of the scary in the movies come from the characters walking around in the [[AbandonedWarehouse abandoned, desolate locations]] where the games take place.

* IdiosyncraticWipes: Elaborate and often bizarre examples can be found in the movies, often involving SeamlessScenery. For instance, in one case from ''Film/SawIV'', the camera follows Brenda crashing through a mirror into a set at a police station.

* IdiosyncraticWipes: Elaborate and often bizarre examples can be found in the movies, often involving SeamlessScenery. For example, in one case from ''Film/SawIV'', the camera follows Brenda crashing through a mirror into a set at a police station.

* HeinousnessRetcon: Zig-zagged with John. In the first three films, he was consistently depicted as a fearsome yet professional mastermind who abducted people who had done something "wrong" but relatively light in their life, taunted or showed notable sadism about their struggles and (almost always) incoming fates, and wasn't above putting victims' relatives and children in harm's way. What was described of his backstory did little to garner him sympathy. Starting with the flashbacks he appears in from ''Saw IV'' onwards, while his previous acts and events are still acknowledged from time to time, he's portrayed in a more sympathetic light, with extensions to his backstory that {{retcon}} supplementary details from the ''Rebirth'' comic, and him appearing to have more genuinely good intentions as he's said or shown to be more restricted to outright criminals for the most part. In contrast, however, the present plots clarify (likely unintentionally on the producers' part) that he's noticeably gotten even worse, having pettier targets and more KickTheDog acts in his posthumous schemes.

* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'':

** In a comparatively depressing example, Jill hallucinates a series of these (involving her times with John before their divorce) [[spoiler:just before her death]] in ''Film/Saw3D''.

* HappyFlashback:
** The flashbacks to Jigsaw's life before his StartOfDarkness, the first one being hallucinated by himself in ''Saw III''.
** In a comparatively depressing example, Jill hallucinates a series of these [[spoiler:just before her death]] in ''Saw 3D''.

* HappyFlashback: The flashbacks to Jigsaw's life before he became the twisted killer he is today.