History Sandbox / SawMarkHoffman

** While most of Hoffman's later victims were handpicked from John's will and for him to set up the respective games, one of the few he tests of his own accord is [[DeathByRacism a gang of neo-nazi skinheads]] for his Horsepower Trap. Given how he uses one of the skinheads' corpses as a decoy for a BodybagTrick, it's strongly implied that he .

* EvilSoundsDeep[=/=]GutturalGrowler: He speaks in a menacingly deep growl in comparison to John's [[SoftSpokenSadist soft-spoken tone]].

* KickTheSonOfABitch:
** Before becoming John's apprentice, he personally hunted down the man who had killed his sister Angelina. Given the vicious way Seth murdered her and the fact that he got away with it without remorse, Hoffman sealing him in an unavoidable trap meant that he really had it coming.
** While most of Hoffman's later victims were handpicked from John's will and for him to set up the respective games, one of the few he tests of his own accord is a gang of neo-nazi skinheads for his Horsepower Trap.
* KillerCop[=/=]CopKiller: He's a cop who has murdered many other cops, as well as several FBI agents, due to his actions as a Jigsaw killer. Come ''Saw VI'' and ''3D'', he decides to get all-personal when it comes to this, culminating in him [[SpreeKiller going on a crazed massacre through an entire precinct]] to get to Jill at the latter film's climax.

* PayEvilUntoEvil: As a KnightTemplarBigBrother, he avenges his sister's death by killing her murderous boyfriend.

* {{Revenge}}: Vengeance is the essence of Hoffman whenever he's not being committed to his Jigsaw job. His setting stone for recruitment was an inescapable trap he built for the man who killed his sister. In ''Saw 3D'', Hoffman's motivation is revenge against Jill for attempting to kill him in the previous film.

* TheStoic: He's a very composed and usually inexpressive person, like John and unlike Amanda. However, this goes completely out the window when Jill nearly kills him.

-->''"The game begins tonight."''

** Killing lab technician Sachi, Erickson and Perez to maintain his cover.
** Killing nearly 20 police personnel (directly or otherwise) as part of his plan to kill Jill Tuck.

** In the first time, as his attempt to frame Strahm as Jigsaw's second accomplice pitifully falls apart in front of him, Hoffman ''successfully'' pulls off a move that only a desperate idiot would normally attempt - he kills two gun-carrying FBI agents (and fairly major characters) using only a knife, a cup of coffee and a minor character as a human shield; Hoffman then works to re-establish Strahm as the Jigsaw accomplice by planting his fingerprints all over the crime lab, then setting it aflame... with a still-breathing but rapidly dying Erickson left behind.

* StartOfDarkness: ''Saw V'' explored his Start of Darkness in detail.

* DirtyCop: Besides becoming one of Jigsaw's apprentices, he uses his knowledge of the legal system and due process to keep other cops off of his trail.

* AtLeastIAdmitIt: He admits to enjoying seeing people suffer in their traps, and angrily snaps at John to stop pretending he doesn't.

* BeneathSuspicion: ''Saw IV'' sets up a twist ending for Hoffman that's very similar to the example from the first film, down to having a fake suspect for the audience to assume as an apprentice. Just like Lawrence and Adam, Eric and Hoffman are trapped in a small room at the Gideon Meatpacking Plant with Art having them on hold while overseeing Rigg's game. Similarly to Adam with Zep, Rigg finds out that Art had an instruction tape with him, and Hoffman unties himself from his chair, matching John getting up in the first film.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Outwardly presents himself as a hard-working and caring cop, while hiding what a cold, [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]], murderous, apathetic, asshole bastard he truly is.

* BigBad: After John's death in ''Saw III'', he became the Big Bad from ''Saw IV'' to ''3D'' (totalling to four films, which is one more than the films where John had the role). However, it took a couple of films to solidify him as a legit threat.
* BigNo: His last words, at least on screen. He has a few days at most before he'll actually die of dehydration.

* ChekhovsGunman: Much like Amanda, he first appeared in a small scene in ''III'', and was revealed to be another Jigsaw apprentice in the next movie, taking up the Jigsaw killer reign after the deaths of John and Amanda.
* CoDragons: With Amanda, though she didn't like him being there. The feeling is mutual with him.

* FreudianExcuse: His sister, who was his only remaining family, was brutally murdered by Seth Baxter. After this, Hoffman degrades into a sociopathic drunken mess until he decides to murder Seth in a mock Jigsaw game. John takes notice of this and blackmails Hoffman into becoming his accomplice, leading his life down a further downward spiral.

* KnightTemplarBigBrother: When his sister is killed by her boyfriend and said boyfriend is let off on a technicality, he avenges her death by killing the man in such a way that it would appear to be another Jigsaw killing.

* UncertainDoom: Whether Hoffman perished from Lawrence imprisoning him is currently left in the air. Although WordOfGod in ''Saw 3D'''s DVDCommentary indicated he died (and that Gordon removed any means Hoffman could use to free himself, like the toilet lid Eric Matthews used to smash his foot in ''Saw III''), Costas Mandylor was asked to reprise his role, but this was put on hold with changes to developmental plans for future installments in the series. Since the release of ''Spiral'', Darren Lynn Bousman claimed that there are discussions to bring back Hoffman for a later movie.

** Following his staged survival and achievements in the games at the Gideon Meatpacking Plant between ''Saw III'' and ''IV'', Hoffman is promoted to the fictional rank of Detective Lieutenant (which could be parallel to the real-life Lieutenant Detective rank used in some American police departments).

** .

Jigsaw's second canonical apprentice and the third full-term Jigsaw Killer (after Amanda Young), Mark Hoffman started out as a detective of the Metropolitan Police Department's Homicide Division simply assigned to the Jigsaw case. He used the knowledge he acquired of Jigsaw by virtue of following the case to murder Seth Baxter using Jigsaw's MO, after the latter was freed from his life imprisonment for his murder of Hoffman's sister Angelica Acomb (whom Seth dated and put through DomesticAbuse beforehand) on a technicality. This frame job made it to the news and caught John Kramer's attention, who blackmails Hoffman into helping him. Not long afterwards, Hoffman became John's first full-tenured apprentice after the latter's initial attempt with Logan Nelson, doing a good bulk of jobs before Amanda (whom he constantly competed against for John's praise) came in.

Jigsaw's second canonical apprentice and the third full-term Jigsaw Killer (after Amanda Young), Mark Hoffman started out as a detective of the Metropolitan Police Department simply assigned to the Jigsaw case. He used the knowledge he acquired of Jigsaw by virtue of following the case to murder Seth Baxter using Jigsaw's MO, after the latter killed his sister Angelica Acomb (whom Seth was dating and put through DomesticAbuse shortly beforehand). This frame job makes it to the news and catches John Kramer's attention, who blackmails Hoffman into helping him. Shortly afterwards, Hoffman became a willing apprentice, doing a good bulk of jobs before Amanda came in.

At some point, Hoffman began to fall in love with his carnage and, like Amanda, didn't completely buy into Jigsaw's philosophy. After Jigsaw and Amanda's deaths, Hoffman continued John's work until ''Saw 3D''. His true identity as Jigsaw's successor was first discovered by the FBI in ''Saw VI'', but (due to him immediately destroying their found evidence and killing the investigators in response) was only revealed to the Metropolitan Police Department at large in ''3D''.

* TheStoic: He's a very composed person, like John and unlike Amanda. However, this goes completely out the window when Jill nearly kills him.

* OffscreenInertia: When he's captured by Lawrence, Brad, and Ryan in ''Saw 3D'', he's trapped inside the Bathroom (next to Adam's corpse, no less), but with all possible methods of escape removed. The film ends with him being left to stay there until he dies, though his fate remains ambiguous due to production-related issues.

* DetectiveMole: He's implied to have had the major role of finding crimes for victims during the time John was alive, and in a flashback from ''Saw V'' he warns him that Tapp could be a potential threat.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Downplayed. Whenever he's talking to others onscreen, he tends to come off as not the brightest bulb among the Jigsaw killers and Metropolitan Police Department staff alike (whether he's ObfuscatingStupidity or not is up for debate). However, he has an honored reputation within the department for being a very successful officer, and he manages to accomplish numerous tasks throughout the movies. These include:
*** Implicitly eliminating both Jigsaw and Amanda just though careful planning and knowledge of their behavior.
*** Killing two FBI agents integral to the case with nothing more than a knife, a cup of hot coffee and another employee as a HumanShield.
*** Escaping an improved version of the Reverse Bear Trap that was rigged by Jill.
*** The culminating point might be him slaughtering an entire police precinct in the span of minutes, simply to get revenge on Jill for her attempt on his life.

* ArcWords: "Right now, you are feeling helpless." While not a {{Catchphrase}} of his, as he says it only once in the Pendulum Trap's tape, but it's particularly emphasized between ''Saw V'' and ''VI''.

* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: In the flashback in ''Saw V'' preceding John's abduction of him, Hoffman gets randomly attacked by a dog to his surprise, but when he hears the dog's owner referring to it as "Peewee," he gives a short, displeased remark about it.

* WhoNamesTheirKidDude: In the flashback in ''Saw V'' preceding John's abduction of him, Hoffman gets randomly attacked by a dog to his surprise, but he's displeased about the fact that the dog's owner refers to it as "Peewee."

[[caption-width-right:245:''"You told me the only way to help people reach true enlightenment was to detach emotionally."'']]

->''"Throughout this ordeal, if we've learned anything, it's that human life is sacred. And we've learned that, every day, life should be cherished. Justice is the backbone to every peaceful society. And I believe that true justice has been served."''

** Even Hoffman hates racist skinhead gangs. The Horsepower Trap barely looks survivable at all, and Kara is tied up with barbed wire when chains would have been perfectly fine, as the rest of the skinheads had them as restraints.
** When Strahm is killed via TheWallsAreClosingIn, Hoffman ''looks away'' before the final impact, as if even he can't stand how horrific Strahm's death is.

At some point, Hoffman began to fall in love with his carnage and, like Amanda, didn't completely buy into Jigsaw's philosophy. After Jigsaw and Amanda's deaths, Hoffman continued John's work until ''Saw 3D''. His true identity as Jigsaw's successor was first discovered by the FBI in ''Saw VI'', but (due to him immediately destroying their found evidence in response) was only revealed to the Metropolitan Police Department at large in ''3D''.

* NearVillainVictory: Just before the end of ''Saw 3D'', and in Hoffman's perspective, everyone who had opposed him was dead, and there was nobody left to stop him. It looks as if Hoffman had won in the end... until Dr. Gordon, Brad and Ryan show up to immobilize him, something that Hoffman never knew, let alone suspected.

* SmugSmiler: Makes the smuggest grins when seeing Strahm flail around in vain from his inevitable death.
* TheSociopath: He seriously surpasses John in how many lines he's willing to cross. While John had a moral lesson in mind with his doings and gave his victims a chance to survive, Hoffman makes half his traps inescapable in the belief that murderers can't redeem themselves, being hypocritical in that statement while claiming so, while the other half force their victims into making sadistic choices, where one can live only at the expense of another's death. He horrifyingly blackmailed Amanda, a BrokenBird with standards, simply because he didn't like her. He's also willing to murder people whom he worked with for over 20 years just to get away, as well as putting Strahm in an inescapable trap and framing him for the murder he himself committed in ''Saw V''. He fully crosses the line when he murders John's ex-wife with the Reverse Bear Trap in ''Saw 3D''.

* VillainousValour: He's a murderous bastard, but escaping a Reverse Bear Trap without any means to do so was pretty damn impressive.

At some point, Hoffman began to fall in love with his carnage and, like Amanda, didn't completely buy into Jigsaw's philosophy. After Jigsaw and Amanda's deaths, Hoffman continued John's work until ''Saw 3D''. His true identity as Jigsaw's successor was first discovered by the FBI in ''Saw VI'', but (due to him immediately destroying evidence in response) was only revealed to the Metropolitan Police Department at large in ''3D''.

Jigsaw's second canonical apprentice, and the third full-term Jigsaw Killer (after Amanda Young), Mark Hoffman started out as a detective of the Metropolitan Police Department simply assigned to the Jigsaw case. He used the knowledge he acquired of Jigsaw by virtue of following the case to murder Seth Baxter using Jigsaw's MO, after the latter killed his sister Angelica Acomb (whom Seth was dating and put through DomesticAbuse shortly beforehand). This frame job makes it to the news and catches John Kramer's attention, who blackmails Hoffman into helping him. Shortly afterwards, Hoffman became a willing apprentice, doing a good bulk of jobs before Amanda came in.

Jigsaw's second canonical apprentice, and the third Jigsaw Killer (after Amanda Young). Hoffman started out as a cop assigned to the Jigsaw case. He used the knowledge he has of Jigsaw by virtue of following the case to murder his sister's killer using Jigsaw's MO. The frame job catches John's attention, who blackmails Hoffman into helping him. Shortly afterwards, Hoffman became a willing apprentice. At some point, Hoffman began to fall in love with his carnage and, like Amanda, didn't completely buy into Jigsaw's philosophy. After Jigsaw and Amanda's deaths, Hoffman continued John's work until ''Saw 3D''. His true identity as Jigsaw's successor was first discovered by the FBI in ''Saw VI'', but (due to him immediately destroying evidence in response) was only revealed to the Metropolitan Police Department at large in ''3D''.