History Film / Jigsaw

* BaitAndSwitch: The first shot of the movie is a focus on a spherical object filled to the brim with spikes, making it look like the movie's going to open with one of Jigsaw's traps in action, like the previous movies. Then the camera pans away, revealing it's a spike strip that's used to deflate Edgar's car tires.

* TheDitherer: Carly [[spoiler:was a purse snatcher who let a woman she stole from to suffer an asthma attack and die; she could have saved her (as she was only a few feet away), but she instead chose to run away with $3.53]]. In the barn game, she's told that she was injected with poison, and has to choose between one of three needles to cure herself before all the victims end up being hanged: antidote, saline solution or acid. It's implied that she knows which one is the correct answer to not choose the one with a [[IronicEcho 3.53]] number on it, but she's too frightened to do so. As the chains around her and the other subjects' necks begin to pull upwards, [[spoiler:Ryan injects all three syringes into her. They are freed, but [[LaserGuidedKarma Carly painfully bleeds out and dies for her troubles]]]].

* FakeOutOpening: The first shot of the movie is a focus on a spherical object filled to the brim with spikes, making it look like the movie’s going to open with one of Jigsaw’s traps in action, like the previous movies. Then the camera pans away, revealing it’s a spike strip that's used to deflate Edgar’s car tires.

* SeriesContinuityError: The franchise's timeline was already very complex, so much that even dedicated fans can get frustrated getting a grasp on the sequence of events, especially since some movies happen out of chronological order or even during another; however, the timeline was still carefully constructed, and could be understood clearly when put in order. Then along came this film, which dropped a bomb on everyone by revealing that [[spoiler:Logan was the first Jigsaw apprentice, not Hoffman]]. Fans were baffled at this reveal, since it disrupted the timeline the previous films had, and when the issue was brought up to the film's writers, they admitted that knowing the complete timeline didn't make any sense for such a reveal (since the film was released and is set years after the previous ones), and they were hoping that nobody would notice it.

* SoundtrackDissonance: The first trailer shows off the kind of imagery associated with the franchise as "Running Scared" by Music/RoyOrbison plays in the background.

** In the final scene, [[spoiler:with Logan and Halloran in the laser collars, Halloran forces Logan to go first, and he is apparently killed. Halloran goes next, and watches the lasers shooting upwards and burning into the ceiling until his confessions make them stop. In his relief, he stares up at the ceiling... then to the ceiling above Logan, with no burn marks. [[FiveSecondForeshadowing A couple shots later]], Logan gets up.]]

* PetTheDog: [[spoiler:William was put through one of Jigsaw's earliest deathtraps. Why? He accidentally mixed up one of the x-rays that could have prevented John's cancer from reaching the point of no return. Right as he was about to be killed at the start, John has a change of heart (since killing him over an honest mistake would be antithetical to his philosophy), sews up his wounds and makes him one of his first disciples.]]

* SecretTestOfCharacter: [[spoiler:Brad and William are put through a jigsaw deathtrap and one of them has to push a button that will doom the other. Brad doesn't hesitate to push the button to save himself, this being the final nail in the coffin that leads to William leaving him in the trap with no way of escaping.]]

* ResurrectedMurderer: Discussed but ultimately subverted with rumors about John Kramer, the infamous Jigsaw Killer, having returned from the dead when a new spree of killings begins around a decade since the last one (wherein John was killed midway through) happened, which kickstarts the film's plot. Come TheReveal at the end, it's shown via a FlashbackMontageRealization that it was an OfCorpseHesAlive ruse made by a new killer.

* ContinuityNod: At the police station and Eleanor's room with Jigsaw material, various newspapers detailing the events of ''Film/SawIV'' are present.

** The Laser Collars are an obvious reference to the Shotgun Collar from ''Film/SawIII''.

* XMarksTheSpot: Used as a subtle {{Foreshadowing}} with a painted "X" that Edgar stands in front of. [[spoiler:It gives away the aiming range of the shot Edgar had received.]]

* ExactWords: [[spoiler:After recapturing Anna and Ryan, John shows them a shotgun shell which he loads into a shotgun, telling them that the shell is their "key to freedom" and that they've been doing everything "backwards" and need to "reverse their thinking", leading to Anna and Ryan believe that he intends for them to kill one another to survive. Unfortunately, Ryan figures out too late that wasn't the meaning and Anna fires the shotgun, which kills her and destroys the keys hidden in the shotgun shell; instead of trying to do what seemed obvious, they were to examine the shotgun and find the keys]].

* VillainRespect: Implied. [[spoiler:At some point in the present, Ryan's decomposed corpse was covered with a blanket presumably from Logan, whereas Anna's is left untouched]]. In a way, this could represent how [[spoiler:he was the only one who "won" the game]], as detailed in the FaceDeathWithDignity entry.