Jigsaw and Accomplices (John Kramer) | Other Antagonists | Law Enforcement (Metropolitan Police Department) | Other Characters (I-III, IV-VI, 3D-X)
WARNING: All spoilers in this character subpage are unmarked. Read on or go back — make your choice.
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Saw characters:
Jigsaw Victims
Lawrence Gordon
Dr. Lawrence Gordon
Played By: Cary Elwes
Appearances: Saw | Saw 3D
"He doesn't want us to cut through our chains. He wants us to cut through our feet."
One of the two protagonists of the original Saw. The oncologist who was treating John at the hospital, he wasn't particularly caring towards his patients, being more interested in treating the disease than the person. He was also taking his family for granted. Jigsaw thinks he has a way to teach him to appreciate them more...
- An Arm and a Leg: Cuts off his right foot in order to escape at the climax of the first film.
- Apologetic Attacker: He tells Adam he's sorry as he shoots him to save his wife and daughter, and breaks down screaming and crying afterwards.
- Back for the Finale: He comes back for Saw 3D, which was planned to be the series' original finale. Up until this point, he hasn't been seen since the first film, six movies ago.
- Bleed 'Em and Weep: He was already desperate and near-tears when he picks up the gun to shoot Adam, but the second he pulls the trigger and Adam falls to the floor, he breaks down sobbing and screaming.
- Cluster F-Bomb: He delivers a litany of them during the climax of the first movie, after having kept himself completely devoid of swearing up until that point.Lawrence, trying to attack Zep: You bastard! I'll fucking kill you! I'll fucking kill you! YOU FUCKING BASTARD! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!
- Deadpan Snarker: In 3D, he only seems to show up to Bobby's meeting to snark at him.
- Fatal Family Photo: Notably averted. Gordon shows Adam a picture of his family in the first movie, and yet he's still alive in the seventh one. Considering the series' ludicrously high mortality rate, his survival would be impressive even if he didn't tempt fate with this trope.
- Freak Out: Goes completely nuts when he thinks his family has been killed, leading to him cutting off his foot and shooting Adam.
- "I Can't Look!" Gesture: As soon as Adam delivers the first blow to Zepp's skull, Lawrence immediately puts his head down and looks away.
- Metaphorically True: In the first film, he says that newspapers dubbing the Jigsaw Killer as such is inaccurate, because technically speaking, he never killed anyone directly; he just puts them in situations where death is very likely. The point is really moot, as almost any jurisdiction would consider putting someone in such a situation to be murder, combined with other possible crimes like kidnapping. Saw II does at least have the Jerkass detective Eric call Jigsaw out on this defense: "putting a gun to someone's head and forcing them to pull the trigger is still murder." Plus, that ignores one of the flashbacks to Lawrence's explanation of Jigsaw, in which the latter lures Sing into a booby trap, resulting in his death; this was in turn preceded by a very straightforward attempt to murder Tapp by slashing his throat.
- Mr. Exposition: He serves this purpose in the first film to explain the previous Jigsaw incidents and Tapp's story.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Especially in the first film. Cary Elwes just didn't know how to fake an American accent. Especially in the more dramatic scenes, where his British accent tends to show up.
- Sanity Slippage:
Word of God is that after surviving his game, he developed a severe mental instability that led to his wife divorcing him. - Sarcastic Clapping: He does it (along with sarcastic verbal applause) at the Jigsaw Survivor Group meeting in Saw 3D after Bobby gives a particularly dramatic, self-serving speech to its members.
- That Liar Lies: After being told by his wife that Adam is lying. "Stop the lies! You're a liar!"
- Uncertain Doom: His fate was left hanging and never made clear until Saw 3D.
- White Shirt of Death: Averted. He wears a white T-shirt identical to Adam's during the first film in the Bathroom, but never gets covered in blood and survives the game.
Adam Stanheight
Adam Stanheight
Played By: Leigh Whannell
Appearances: Saw | Saw III
"Face it, Larry, we're both bullshitters. My camera, it doesn't know how to lie. It only shows you what's put right in front of it."
The other protagonist of the original Saw, locked in the bathroom with Lawrence. A photographer by trade, Adam was paid by Tapp to take pictures of Lawrence.
- Bad "Bad Acting": His pathetic attempt to convince Jigsaw that he's been poisoned by a cigarette. It works as well as you would expect.
- Better with Non-Human Company: Is shown to spend most of his time around people in the shadows, watching them for the purposes of his job, and is shown as well-intentioned awkward when he's actually interacts with them. A scrapped scene in the original script, however, shows that he loves to feed and interact with the stray cats that live around his apartment, who are particularly attached to him in turn. In another scrapped scene, he tells Lawrence that he really wanted to be a vet when he was younger, but decided it was a pipe dream when he saw the grades he would have needed to do it.
- Bleed 'Em and Weep: Breaks down sobbing as soon as Zep's dead, not just because he's just killed a man, but also from all the physical pain and mental trauma he's endured alongside Lawrence.
- Book Dumb: In the original script he tells Lawrence that he didn't finish high school, but he shows more than one instance of good problem-solving and remarkable intuition, and winds up saving Lawrence's life by Playing Possum and attacking and killing Zep when he's not expecting it.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Adam and Lawrence manage to find a box hidden in one of the Bathroom's walls, which has a cigarette and a note from Jigsaw inside. Lawrence proposes a plan — Adam will smoke the cigarette and pretend to die, since the note implies that it's laced with poison. Although the plan doesn't work, Adam is clearly elated to see the cigarette, and savors it while he smokes it, fluttering his eyelashes, dropping his shoulders and even smiling after he takes a drag.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Is left for several weeks to slowly die in the bathroom trap from his injuries, dehydration, and starvation, and even Amanda's attempt to Mercy Kill him in a less painful way before this occurs still happens while he's aware enough to know he's being suffocated and to injure himself while fighting back.
- Darkness Equals Death: Happens to him twice.
- On the night that he gets abducted, all of the light in his apartment is cut out.
- Adam is ultimately left to die in the pitch-black Bathroom.
- Deadpan Snarker: "I went to bed in my shithole apartment, and woke up in an actual shithole," amongst many other funny gems.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: He bludgeons Zep's head into a bloody pulp right as he's about to kill Lawrence.
- Face Death with Despair: At the end of the first film, Adam breaks down screaming when the actual Jigsaw killer closes the door to the Bathroom and leaves him to die from hunger or dehydration.John: Most people are so ungrateful to be alive... but not you. Not anymore. [walks out the door as Adam screams incoherently] Game over. [shuts the door]
Adam: DON'T! DON'T! NOOO! [more incoherent screaming] - Friend to All Living Things: A deleted scene shows that he feeds the stray cats that live around his apartment, who seek out attention from him whenever he's by, in yet another indication that at his core, he is a Nice Guy.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He tells Lawrence that his last girlfriend broke up with him for being too angry.
- Headbutt of Love: Shares one with Lawrence for comfort as they both lay bleeding on the floor.
- Mercy Kill: By Amanda, after her remorse caught up to her.
- Muzzle Flashlight: A variant. In a flashback, Adam has to use his camera flash to try and see if there's an intruder in his apartment when the power gets cut. Said intruder captures him.
- Nice Guy:
- Even if his job was a little seedy. He expresses genuine concern about Lawrence's family, tries to comfort him and calm him down as he's breaking down towards the end of the film, and beats his would-be murderer to death. He didn't do his job to spy on people; like he said, he just needed to eat. He was undoubtedly one of the nicest people in the franchise, and fans agree that he definitely did not deserve the horrible fate he got.
- One of the smaller interactions he has with Lawrence is a perfect example. When Lawrence tosses him his wallet to show him a picture of his wife and daughter, Adam flips through it and sees that the original picture is replaced with one of Alison and Diana, gagged and trapped, left there for Lawrence to find. Adam, very shakily, lies and tells Lawrence that the original picture of them isn't there. When he throws Lawrence his wallet back later on and he sees the real photo, he tearily asks why Adam didn't show it to him, and he just says, "I couldn't." He knew how much pain it would put Lawrence in to see his family in danger, and even apologizes to him for not telling him.
- It's telling that a Freeze-Frame Bonus in Saw V shows his name amongst the FBI's files full of Jigsaw victims, meaning that his kindness and overall decency meant enough to Lawrence that he, as an associate of Jigsaw, went to the trouble and the risk of making sure that his death would be known both to law enforcement and to any family members he had that cared and would have never known what had happened otherwise. (Given that all the bodies of everyone killed in the bathroom are still there by the time of 3D, it's a pretty fair assumption that the police weren't aware of its existence or of any of the games that took place there.)
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Adam's actor, Leigh Whannell, is Australian, and though he's not perfect at hiding his Australian accent, he's leagues ahead of Lawrence's Cary Elwes.
- Organ Theft: He discusses this when he looks over his body and tells Lawrence that they're in a typical organ theft situation where someone has kidnapped them, took their kidneys and put them on sale in eBay. Lawrence assures Adam that's impossible, because if he had lost his kidneys, he would be in extreme pain or already dead.
- Perfect Poison: Invoked when he pretends to pass out from the poisoned cigarette after taking a couple of drags from it. It doesn't fool anyone.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Begs Lawrence not to leave him in the bathroom alone, even though he promises that he's leaving to get help for the both of them.
- Tragic Dropout: In the original draft of the script, Adam says that he really wanted to be a veterinarian growing up, but thought it was impossible when he saw the grades he would need to get there. When Lawrence claims that he's seen kids graduate high school from a hospital bed, Adam says that they got farther than he did.
- White Shirt of Death: Adam wears a white T-shirt for the entire first movie, which ends up drenched in his and Zep's blood. Even when Amanda attempts to kill him with no bloodshed, he winds up breaking his nose when he instinctively struggles against her attempts to suffocate him and bangs his head into the sink, leaving his face drenched in blood when he finally dies.
Paul Leahy
Paul Leahy
Played By: Mike Butters
Appearances: Saw | Saw V (flashbacks)
A suicidal man who Jigsaw deems ungrateful for his life.
- Self-Harm: The reason John kidnapped Paul was that he had run a straight razor across his wrists twice (either to gain attention or to kill himself, as John asks via tape).
- Symbolic Mutilation: The Razor Wire Maze forced Paul, who cut himself twice, to crawl carefully around razor wire.
Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson
Played By: Paul Gutrecht
Appearances: Saw
A man who claims to be sick to shirk his responsibilities.
- Agony of the Feet: Mark's test was hindered by glass shards spread all around the room to trip his bare feet.
- Disproportionate Retribution: As the audience knows, Mark Wilson was a successful man enjoying life. Jigsaw's reason for kidnapping him? He liked to claim he was sick to get days off work.
- Kill It with Fire: Mark is covered head to toe in flammable jelly. He has to cautiously use a candle to navigate a dark room to discover a code for a safe in the center of it to get an antidote for his poison. He trips.
- Symbolic Mutilation: Mark, who called in sick to work even though he wasn't, had to find numbers with a candle to unlock a safe while he's covered in flammable jelly. He ended up burning to death, so he got fired.
Jeff Ridenhour
Jeff Ridenhour
Played By: Ned Bellamy
Appearances: Saw
A man who is held captive by Jigsaw and found by Tapp and Sing.
- Ascended Extra: Jeff is put in a trap in the film and has muffled lines because his mouth is gagged. He speaks and appears in another trap in the first video game.
- That wasn't the first plan to bring him back in a larger role, however. According to the original script of Saw IV, he was meant to return in said film as a Jigsaw accomplice, being the one who placed the explosive Billy that knocked out Perez in the final film.
- That wasn't the first plan to bring him back in a larger role, however.
- Pædo Hunt: It is theorized by fans that Jeff was the pedophile dentist Tapp mentioned to Gordon earlier in the film. Jigsaw's reason for kidnapping him and making his test the way it is is otherwise never explained.
- Riddle for the Ages: Nothing is known about Jeff or why Jigsaw tested him.
- This Is a Drill: Jeff's test involves two drills coming at his neck. He has twenty seconds to find the right key in a chain of them. Fortunately, Sing aborts the game by destroying the drill contraptions with his pistol.
Donnie Greco
Donnie Greco
Played By: Oren Koules
Appearances: Saw | Saw III (flashbacks)
A patient of the Homeward Bound Clinic and acquaintance of Amanda Young.
- Gutted Like a Fish: Amanda did this to a paralyzed Donnie to find the key in his stomach. Perhaps mercifully, he was so drugged up he supposedly couldn't feel much.
- Riddle for the Ages: Nothing is known about Donnie or why Jigsaw tested him. However, he is seen at Jill's clinic and was stated in the first film's original script to be Amanda's drug dealer, which could explain why he was part of her test.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Donnie is a somewhat notable figure across the storyline of the first three films, as while he's a minor victim who didn't speak a line and basically had the only purpose of dying, Amanda's killing of him is what sent her on a downward spiral into Jigsaw's mentorship.
- Swallow the Key: How Jigsaw apparently put the Reverse Beartrap's key in Donnie's stomach.
Others
Alison and Diana Gordon
Alison and Diana Gordon
Played By: Monica Potter (Alison), Makenzie Vega (Diana)
Appearances: Saw
Lawrence's unfortunate family held hostage by Zep, whom he has been ordered to murder if the doctor fails to either kill Adam Stanheight or escape by six o' clock.
- Action Girl: Downplayed with Alison, who is a normal woman and by no means a natural combatant, but she manages to break free from her binds and steal Zep’s gun, hold him at gun point, and wrestle with him long enough for Tapp to arrive and fight him.
- All There in the Manual: Word of God explains Alison divorced Lawrence and took Diana with her after he took a major Sanity Slippage following his survival.
- Break the Cutie: For Diana, an 8-year-old, it doesn't get worse than being held hostage by a sadistic monster and not knowing where your father is.
- Mama Bear: When Gordon fails his game, Alison isn't having Zep's sadistic shit and fights him with all her might to protect her child before Tapp bursts into the scene.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Diana often wonders why Lawrence is almost never at home. Of course, his wife doesn't really know either.
Carla Song
Carla Song
"It's not like I know the rules for this sort of stuff."
Played By: Alexandra Bokyun Chun
Appearances: Saw
A medical student at the Angel of Mercy Hospital, where she was educated by the Lawrence, whom she tried to have an affair with.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In the second video game, Carla meets her fate at Henry Jacobs' hands, who impales her with a pair of scissors.
- Karma Houdini: Averted in the second video game, where she is kidnapped and put to test by Jigsaw for smuggling drugs.
- The Mistress: Carla engages in an affair with Lawrence, even though he has a wife and a daughter.
- Older Than They Look: Carla, a medical student, is played by Alexandra Bokyun Chun, who was 37 years old when the movie was released.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Her adultery with Lawrence kickstarts the latter's suffering streak. Lawrence's family slowly crumbles down, he becomes vulnerable and exposed to both Tapp and Jigsaw, and despite surviving his test, Word of God said that he later went through a Sanity Slippage that led to Alison divorcing and taking custody of Diana.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: She seems genuinely saddened when Lawrence decides to abruptly end their affair before it even begins, leading to the assumption that her feelings for Lawrence are real to some degree.
Brett
Brett
Played By: Benito Martinez
Appearances: Saw
"Well, as your lawyer and your friend, my advice to you is to bite the bullet and give them your alibi now because no one is gonna believe you later."
Lawrence's lawyer and close friend.
- Ascended Extra: A What Could Have Been example. In Saw IV, he was going to be the victim who had to set up the various traps seen in the film before Art Blank took his place.
- No Full Name Given: Only his first name is known.
Father
Father
Played By: Avner Garbi
Appearances: Saw
A neighbor of Lawrence and his family, who offers Alison and Diana to stay in his house when they escape from Zep.
- No Name Given: The film's credits only refer to him as "Father".
Saw II characters:
Nerve Gas House Victims
In General
Nerve Gas House Victims
From left to right: Gus, Daniel, Jonas, Amanda, Laura, and (obscured) Addison
The unlucky group of convicts John Kramer abducted for the main game of Saw II. While most of them are indeed real criminals, what they all have in common is that they were framed by Eric for crimes they didn't commit. This is to potentially complicate the situation by having Daniel in the game.
- Blood from Every Orifice: Discussed when John tells Eric that his son and the rest of the victims in the Nerve Gas House are doomed to this fate. Eventually averted, however, as the only victim who actually dies from the gas, Laura, only gets Blood from the Mouth.
- Blood from the Mouth: A sign of the progression of the toxin's effects in the Nerve Gas House is coughing or vomiting up blood, which several victims end up doing.
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: All of them, except Daniel and Amanda, dies. Daniel wasn't even a real player, as Amanda was there to ensure his survival in preparation for Eric's game, meaning that all the victims basically failed.
- Death by Irony: The intention behind the house is for each victim to encounter an individually-tailored trap that could get them a dose of the antidote or kill them. However, the fast-acting nerve toxin and Xavier's rampage meant that most of the victims didn't even have a chance to discover their own tests.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: A group of apparent strangers find themselves locked in an abandoned house, which is obviously full of Jigsaw's traps. They soon learn that something links them all together... and one of the "survivors" was actually in on it.
Daniel Matthews
Daniel Matthews
Played By: Erik Knudsen
Appearances: Saw II
"My dad's a... He's, um, he's a real hardass. You know, he's probably got half the city right now looking for me just so he can kick my ass for disappearing on him."
Eric Matthew's estranged son, who after another argument with his father, was kidnapped by the Jigsaw Killer. Eric's desperate efforts at finding the whereabouts of his son drive the plot of Saw II.
- Break the Cutie: He's just a troubled kid put into the trials of the city's most notorious Serial Killer despite having done nothing wrong to warrant it, considering the killer's twisted philosophy. As it turns out, his role in Jigsaw's game is merely part of a greater conspiracy concerning his father, and he's betrayed and subdued by the closest person he had to a friend in his ordeal. By the time the police discover him, he's completely broken on an emotional level.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He doesn't appear after Saw II, despite surviving and his father having further roles. He's only being mentioned again in the film's DVD short The Scott Tibbs Documentary, where Scott attempts to interview Daniel in a hospital before a security guard kicks him out. Word of God is that Daniel was meant to appear in the Jigsaw Survivor Group meeting in Saw 3D, but he couldn't be included due to scheduling issues with his actor Erik Knudsen.
- Delinquent: A troubled teenager who doesn’t get along with his dad and was caught shoplifting on at least one occasion.
- Disappeared Dad: Daniel never saw Eric again after the argument they had on the boardwalk.
- Disproportionate Retribution: He's made some bad decisions and disrespected his father a few times, something every kid has done every now and then, but nothing to warrant his place in a Deadly Game.
- Enclosed Space: After the Nerve Gas House game ended, Daniel is abducted and placed into a small metal container with an oxygen mask on his face.
- Improbable Infant Survival: While John Kramer isn't above harming children, Amanda was installed into the Nerve Gas House game specifically to ensure Daniel's safety, as his survival is necessary to test his father. After everyone else in the house dies, Amanda cures him of the nerve gas, knocks him out, and traps him in a safe with an oxygen mask in preparation for Eric Matthew's test.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite being a teen delinquent, Daniel is genuinely one of the kindest characters in the series and tries to be the most supportive of everyone during the Nerve Gas House Game. Eric even lampshades he's done absolutely nothing wrong for John to put him in his sick game.
- Parting-Words Regret: Daniel's final interaction with Eric prior to being abducted was being on the receiving end of his father’s fury, and since Eric was killed in IV six months after being abducted by Jigsaw, we know they never reconciled.Daniel: I just think I should go back to Mom's early.Eric: What did you say?
Daniel: What, can you not hear me?
Eric: No, I can't hear you. Say it again!
Daniel: I think I should go back to Mom's...
Eric: Well, then, GO!
Daniel: Jesus... - Sins of Our Fathers: Besides needing look at the back of his combination number, this is the second reason why Xavier wanted to kill Daniel personally. Even Addison and Amanda did not want to anything to do with him after they discovered he is the son of a corrupt police detective, specifically the one who framed them for crimes they did not do.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Daniel has quite the sailor mouth for a kid character, dropping multiple f-bombs and s-bombs throughout his screen time.
- Ship Tease: The film seems to be setting him and Laura up for this, but it's abruptly cut short by her death, which comes mere seconds after she learns that he is the son of the detective who wrongfully convicted, which would have prevented anything from coming of this anyway.
- Slashed Throat: Kills Xavier in this way with Dr. Gordon's hacksaw from the first film.
- Trauma Conga Line: After being thrust into the Nerve Gas House and witnessing several people die in absolutely nightmare-inducing ways, Daniel is finally forced to kill Xavier in self-defense and is left with a look of pure shock and horror as he realizes that he has just killed another man. There is absolutely zero doubt that Daniel will be left with major PTSD from this experience.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Even though Daniel survived the events of the second film, he seemingly disappears from the series entirely. The last time he's even mentioned is when Eric escapes from the bathroom in III. Even stranger still is the fact that he's seemingly been forgotten by the fourth film, since Eric doesn't so much as utter his name under his breath while he's hanging over the ice block; the only reference to Daniel in IV is a blink-and-you'll-miss photograph in Rigg's apartment.
- "X" Marks the Spot: The backside of a picture hanging on the wall with the glass shattered into an X reveals the true commonality the test subjects share—they were all falsely convicted by Daniel's father, Eric.
Jonas Singer
Jonas Singer
Played By: Glenn Plummer
Appearances: Saw II
- Team Dad: Jonas is by far the most reasonable member of the group, and tries to corral the rest of the party to work together. He even tries to relate to Xavier, but Xavier had gotten too Ax-Crazy by that point and ends up murdering him.
- Worf Had the Flu: When Xavier attacks Jonas for the code number behind his neck, Jonas overpowers him, but briefly succumbs to the nerve gas. This allows Xavier to win the fight.
Laura Hunter
Laura Hunter
Played By: Beverley Mitchell
Appearances: Saw II
- Break the Cutie: Laura, who appears to be the most innocent of the victims, breaks down crying at the halfway point, lamenting about her possible death and the fact that she's going to miss out on so many years of her life and so many people she could've met.
- Broken Bird: Laura gives off shades of this with her general fragility.
- Morality Pet: Almost everyone, but particularly Daniel and Amanda, treats Laura protectively as she begins to weaken from the gas. The remaining survivors splinter after her death, though this is also because Daniel's connection to Eric has been exposed by that point.
- Ms. Fanservice: Laura's top gives a generous view of her cleavage, which was lampshaded by her actress Beverley Mitchell in the commentary of Saw II.
- Nervous Wreck: Laura is this in spades. Unfortunately, it contributes to her having the weakest will and she dies from the nerve gas quickly, despite facing none of the traps herself.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Laura, who is never presented as anything but kind and terrified, expires right before the rest of the cast begins to die en masse.
Addison Corday
Addison Corday
Played By: Emmanuelle Vaugier
Appearances: Saw II | Saw IV (flashbacks)
- Broken Bird: Addison gives off shades of this with her general prickliness and fear of trusting others.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Addison is an apparent prostitutenote , though how active she is on said job is unknown. Her only known crime besides her connection to Eric is once having attempted to proposition John before he became Jigsaw.
- Ms. Fanservice: Addison's attire is somewhat revealing, especially considering the situation. In the commentary, it was discussed that a flashback scene was planned, but not filmed, that would have had Addison giving Eric a lapdance, much to Donnie Wahlberg's faux chagrin.
- Symbolic Mutilation: In a What Could Have Been example, Addison was originally going to have a different trap than the Razor Box (which was meant for Gus), in which she had to press her face onto a hot iron, sacrificing her looks (as a prostitute, that's one of her key features) to save her life.
- Too Dumb to Live: Addison has the dubious honor of being seen as the dumbest victim in the series by the fandom and squandering what is likely the easiest trap of them all. The Razor Box Trap is a hanging glass box with two holes to put one's hands in to retrieve an antidote. The only catch is if the victim does this, they will die from blood loss due to the holes being lined with trapping razor blades. However, on the other side of the box is a padlock with a key already loaded, meaning all the victim has to do to win is walk around the box. Addison, however, plunges her hands into the box the moment she enters the room and seals her fate. To be fair, though, she was extremely delirious from the nerve toxin by this point.
Gus Colyard
Gus Colyard
Played By: Tony Nappo
Appearances: Saw II
- Eye Scream: Gus dies checking into the peephole of a door with a revolver waiting on the other side when he was repeatedly warned not to.
- Nervous Wreck: Since he was so quick to agree with Xavier to disregard the warning not to use the key to open the armed door.
- Too Dumb to Live: Gus ignores every warning to not use a key to open a certain door. When he peeks into the peephole, he subsequently gets his eye blown out by the Magnum Eyehole.
- White Shirt of Death: Gus dies when his left eye is shot by the Magnum Eyehole, with the ensuing blood getting his white shirt drenched in the process.
Other Jigsaw Victims
Michael Marks
Michael Marks
Played By: Noam Jenkins
Appearances: Saw II (onscreen) | Saw IV, Saw 3D (in flashbacks)
A former druggie, now police informant for Eric. He's introduced as the victim of the Death Mask trap in Saw II, kickstarting the plot when Jigsaw calls out for Eric at the scene of his death.
- Big "SHUT UP!": He gives one to Cecil in Saw IV when the latter begins yelling about how long he's been waiting at the clinic. Cecil tells him to shut up back in response.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Jigsaw kidnaps Michael because he despises his role as an informant, describing him as a "voyeur." While the role of a criminal informant can be dirty, especially when it concerns someone like Eric, an informant can be invaluable in assisting law enforcement in saving lives and catching criminals. Plus, the fact John describes Michael as such is pretty rich, considering he spies extensively on his victim's personal lives before testing them.
- Eye Scream: The key to his Death Mask is hidden behind one of his eyes, which Jigsaw encourages to gouge out with a dinky scalpel given to him.
- Face Death with Despair: He gets terrified and can only let out Rapid-Fire "No!" just before the Death Mask kills him.
- Rage Quit: He gives up midway into his test, angrily throwing away his scalpel and screaming for help in vain until he dies.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Shortly before the Death Mask closes.
- Symbolic Mutilation: Michael was a police informant to a corrupt cop who spied on people. In his test, he has to cut out one of his eyes to get the key that will free him from the trap.
- The Stool Pigeon: He's a criminal informant for Eric.
Saw III characters:
Jeff's Family
Jeff Denlon
Jeff Denlon
Played By: Angus Macfadyen
Appearances: Saw III | Saw IV | Saw V
The main character of Saw III. His son was killed by a drunk driver. He is unable to let go, to the detriment of the rest of his family, including his daughter Corbett and his wife Lynn. Jigsaw devises a series of traps in an attempt to help him let go and forgive those responsible for his son's death.
- Aborted Arc: In Saw IV, the arc about saving his daughter by playing another game is abruptly cut short by Strahm shooting him dead.
- Chainsaw Good: When his pistol runs out of ammo, he uses a circular saw to kill Jigsaw.
- Decoy Protagonist: The last minute or so of Saw III sets him up as the protagonist for the next movie as well - "In order to save your daughter, you will need to play a game." Apparently the new writers brought in for IV didn't want to follow up on that plotline, since he's shot by Strahm seconds later.
- In a previous version of the Saw IV script, it was shown that Jeff had to play a game similar to Strahm's in Saw V but with saw blades, and would have had to get inside like a giant blender of sorts.note He was still killed regardless.
- In a
- Excessive Mourning: What brings him onto Jigsaw's radar: Jeff is consumed by grief over his son's death, to the point he's neglecting the rest of his family. His first scene has him getting angry at his daughter for taking a toy bear from his son's room. His game is all about getting him to let go of his grief and anger. Too bad it didn't take.
- Multiple Gunshot Death: In Saw IV, as soon as he points Amanda's former pistol at him, Strahm repeatedly shoots Jeff in quick succession until he falls to the ground.
- Papa Wolf: All of his rage is over the death of his son. Anyone even remotely involved with the boy's death is responsible in his eyes.
- Parental Neglect: He's so busy grieving for his lost son that he has been neglecting his daughter.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The only victory he can really be said to have is that of putting an end to Jigsaw and his apprentice. Not that it matters much, since it condemns his wife to death and he himself gets killed by Strahm, leaving his daughter without either of her parents.
- Revenge Before Reason: His fatal flaw. He could have forgiven all those responsible, save them from death, and find peace for himself. He could have also chosen to live the rest of his life with his other family members, learning to live with his son's death. Yeah, he doesn't. The result? Every victim of the games dies, including his wife. Plus, his daughter remains missing and he gets killed by Strahm.
- Too Dumb to Live: He draws Amanda's pistol on an armed FBI agent who warned him to stand down. Although to be fair, Jeff was definitely not in the right state of mind with everything he went through.
- Vengeance Feels Empty: When confronted with Timothy, he doesn't exactly feel too great about watching his torture device slowly kill him despite openly stating he's wanted to kill him for years. Jeff then tries to save him. Ironically, he didn't actually learn anything from this and tries to exact revenge on John after, which ends horribly for him.
- Villain Killer: Surprisingly ends up being this, as he's the one who ultimately kills both John and Amanda.
Lynn Denlon
Lynn Denlon
Played By: Bahar Soomekh
Appearances: Saw III (onscreen) | Saw IV (voice-over) | Saw 3D (in flashbacks)
"I don't know what you think you know, but my marriage has survived more suffering than someone like you could ever grasp."
A major character in Saw III, Lynn is kidnapped by Amanda and forced to perform brain surgery on John to keep him alive. In order to ensure her cooperation, a device is placed on her neck that is hooked up to John's heart monitor, ensuring she only lives as long as he does.
- Dead Man's Switch: John has his heart rate monitor hooked up to the Shotgun Collar, which will kill Lynn if he flatlines; he eventually does when Jeff kills him. This example of the trope has a twist in that it's not about preventing somebody from killing him, but coercing them into keeping him alive (despite John's late-stage cancer) for as long as possible.
- Emotionless Girl: To some extent. Justified, as she's grieving for her and Jeff's deceased son.
- Hospital Hottie: She's a very attractive surgeon.
- Meatgrinder Surgery: Played for Drama. Without a surgical theater or any real operating tools, she's forced to use a power drill and small circular saw to cut away a piece of John's skull and relieve the cranial pressure.
- Nice Girl: Despite cheating on her husband, Lynn isn't a bad person at all underneath her cold exterior. In fact, she's so genuinely sympathetic and kind she wins John Kramer's heart over a conversation, enough for him to order Amanda to remove her shotgun collar.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When John asks her how people will remember his horrific story, her response is short, but effective:John: Who am I?
Lynn: A monster. A murderer. - White Shirt of Death: She wears a white shirt when she's abducted and tested, and receives a bloody shot from the back by Amanda in the climax. The Shotgun Collar then seals her fate with Ludicrous Gibs when John flatlines.
- Your Head Asplode: Her demise, thanks to her husband killing John.
Victims of Jeff's Trial
General
A trio of people involved with the death of Jeff's son. Timothy Young recklessly ran over Dylan while drunk driving, causing a horrified Danica Scott to flee at the sight of the scene. As Danica was the only witness and did not testify, presiding judge Halden gave Timothy a light sentence of six months in prison. The game Jigsaw set up for Jeff has him simply run through a gauntlet of these people at his mercy, where he can satisfy his thirst for vengeance by leaving them to die or suffer some pain to save their lives and forgive them before confronting John Kramer.
- Asshole Victim: Subverted and deconstructed. All three of the victims are shown to be complex people with regrets and sympathetic qualities despite being involved with the accidental death of a child. The very idea of Jigsaw putting them into these death traps for honest mistakes in life calls into question how much of a sham his philosophy is throughout Saw III.
Danica Scott
Danica Scott
Played By: Debra Lynne McCabe
Appearances: Saw III
A woman who witnessed the death of Jeff's son.
- Accomplice by Inaction: Jeff hates Danica because she drove off and did nothing in helping testify after witnessing Dylan's death, instead of staying since she was the only witness.Danica: I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything to you!
Jeff: That's exactly it! You didn't do anything! - Cruel and Unusual Death: Danica is left naked and tied up in a freezer room. She dies freezing to death when Jeff fails to save her in time.
- Dirty Coward: John points out that if not for Danica's self-absorption and cowardice, Timothy could have gotten a harsher sentence in his role in accidentally killing Jeff's son.
- Fan Disservice: Danica in the Freezer Room; one movie critic once said that her scene may be the most un-erotic scene featuring a naked woman in all of horror movie history. She was originally going to wear a tight T-shirt and panties, but the director Darren Lynn Bousman thought it would be too erotic for her to dress in such clothes and get wet, so they just decided to strip her completely.
- Shameful Strip: Danica is hung up by a chain on her wrists while completely naked as she's sprayed with ice-cold water in the Freezer Room.
Halden
Halden
Played By: Barry Flatman
Appearances: Saw III
The judge who sentenced Timothy Young.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Halden is set to drown in the gore of rotting pig carcasses ground up above him, but it's subverted when Jeff saves his life. He later dies a comparatively much less horrific death of taking a shotgun blast to the side of his face.
- For Want Of A Nail: If Halden hadn't died in such a stupid way, Jeff's confrontation with John may have gone very differently.
- It's All Junk: A brutal forced example. In order to be able to save Halden, Jeff must turn on an incinerator that will destroy his son's toys (which he's been keeping in pristine condition).
- No Full Name Given: Only his surname is known.
- Too Dumb to Live: Halden stands directly in front of a shotgun's line of fire when Jeff was willing to take the blast to his arm to save Timothy.
Timothy Young
Timothy Young
Played By: Mpho Koaho
Appearancdes: Saw III | Saw VI (flashbacks)
The driver who accidentally killed Dylan Denlon.
- Accidental Child-Killer Backstory: Timothy was driving drunk when he struck and killed Dylan. He felt horrible about the accident, but that didn't stop Jigsaw from putting him in a Death Trap to test Jeff's capacity for forgiveness.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Timothy, the prime object of Jeff's obsession for vengeance, gets the worst of the three victims in Jeff's trial. He's put into a device known as "The Rack" that will twist all his limbs apart before his neck unless Jeff chooses to save him. Jeff fails to do so despite trying his hardest.
Other Jigsaw Victims
Troy
Troy
Played By: J. Larose
Appearances: Saw III
A repeat convict who is the first victim of Amanda Young's rigged inescapable traps.
- Asshole Victim: Potentially, as he is a known repeat offending criminal, though exactly what his crimes were is never elaborated on, so it's unclear how bad he was.
- Attack the Mouth: One of the chains is hooked into his lower jaw. It's the only one he's unable to remove in time.
- Bit Character: His only real purpose is to foreshadow the fact that Amanda has started rigging traps.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He was mutilated by having chains pierced through his body, and was forced to pull them out before being blown up with a nail bomb.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: If you are knowledgeable, you may realize that removing the chain from his lower jaw would be impossible for him to do with his bare hands.note This is a hint that his test was rigged to be nearly impossible to escape. Unless he could free himself from the other chains and grab the bomb to disarm it or throw it out one of the windows, he would have no way to survive. Even then, he would be forced to stay with his jaw hooked until help arrived, assuming he didn't bleed to death first.
- Ludicrous Gibs: From taking the explosion of a nail bomb point-blank.
- Morton's Fork: Even if he had been able to remove the final chain in time, the door to the room was welded shut. Technically, despite the attempt to rig his test, he could have possibly survived by cheating and removing the visible batteries from the bomb's timer or throwing the bomb out the window, but with the mercilessly short timer of a minute and 37 seconds and no foreknowledge of the door being welded shut, his chance of surviving is still virtually nonexistent, due to just how much of the time he would have spent getting out of the chains.
- Symbolic Mutilation: Troy repeatedly returned to prison despite having a good privileged life. In the Classroom Trap, numerous chains pierce his body and keep him enclosed like in a prison cell, which he has to pull out in order to free himself. Plus, the door to get out of the classroom was rigged by Amanda, which, while rendering the trap inescapable, can be seen as a metaphor to confinement.
