Saw | Saw II | Saw III | Saw IV | Saw V | Saw VI | Saw 3D | Jigsaw | Spiral | Saw X
- Awesome Music: "The Air That I Breathe" by The Hollies, which plays in the trailer, is a fittingly breathtaking piece that perfectly captures the atmosphere of the film.
- Bellisario's Maxim: John, Amanda and Hoffman look much older than when they canonically show up next in Saw II and III, a pair of movies made close to two decades prior to this one. It's not too bad with John, as he was already supposed to be in his 50s and he's meant to look like he's suffering the worst of cancer in this movie, but it's very noticeable with the other two. Reportedly
, the filmmakers briefly toyed with the idea of Digital De-Aging for the characters' appearances, but ultimately decided against it on the grounds that it would tamper with their actors' performances. - Catharsis Factor:
- For those who dislike Jigsaw’s sense of omnipotence, how brutally he tortures others without ever receiving anything close to it, this film finally features him in a trap of his own creation thanks to Pederson and Sears forcing him into the Blood Board, though it comes with a child being forced onto it with him.
- By the same token, John and Amanda turning the tables on Cecilia and Parker and outwitting them is equally satisfying to watch, if not moreso, considering that they scammed innocent people dying of cancer out money and then pretty much laughed in their faces upon realizing they were scammed.
- Epileptic Trees:
- The fact that Shawnee Smith returns as Amanda Young for this installment left some to believe that Mark Hoffman is also making his grand return, with most pointing to the trailer captions highlighting a "Detective" as evidence to back this up. Many have also stated the voice in the trailer who says "Out of all the men to cheat, you picked John Kramer?" sounds a lot like Costas Mandylor's voice.note Hoffman's voice is heard talking to John on the phone, and his physical return is ultimately confirmed in The Stinger, where he helps John in setting up Henry's trap.
- Since X is an interquel, and the series' tendency of flashing back to past movies, it's a common theory that Carlos would become the next Jigsaw, given the friendship he forms with John as well as surviving a trap at a young age, which could potentially lead him down the same path as Amanda of becoming another one of John's apprentices.
- Esoteric Happy Ending: The movie ends with John, Amanda, and Carlos walking off into the sunset, which is treated as an entirely positive thing. Carlos' survival is definitely positive, not to mention the fact that John has given him all the money that Cecelia and Parker swindled out of their victims. On the other hand, John and Amanda are now free to torture, mutilate, and kill more people, as shown in the films that follow this one chronologically.
- Funny Moments: Cecilia asks John what he does for a living, and he responds that he's a sort of life-coach who helps people work through their emotional issues.
- He Really Can Act: While Tobin Bell's abilities as an actor have never been in question, seeing as how he's been a beloved horror icon for decades, here he really gets to show his acting chops as he presents a much more vulnerable, sympathetic side to John Kramer — managing to display a human side to the character that's balanced alongside his usual presentation as a Chessmaster Serial Killer.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Anyone who's watched the film is likely to say Cecilia is the most detestable person in the franchise, or at least one of the most detestable, especially given her contrast with John throughout the movie. While John is, well, Jigsaw, he has many humanizing moments in the film; Cecilia, on the other hand, easily shows that she's a lot more immoral than him. For starters, aside from being the ringleader of a medical fraud group that robs from the dying and desperate, she kills one of her own underlings (Gabriella) despite her succeeding in her trap, tries to use the intestines of another dead one (Valentina) to get an advantage for her personal survival, and forces Carlos, a child, into the Bloodboarding Trap to John's horror.
- Jerkass Woobie:
- Of all the scammers, Gabriela is the most sympathetic one to both Amanda and John from the word go, and after John discovers the scam's true nature, it's immediately clear why: she's a hopeless drug addict who was likely roped into the job by her dealer, Mateo. During the game, Amanda easily relates to her as she used to be a drug addict herself, and John clearly had some level of empathy for her too. They're clearly happy to have Gabriela taken to a hospital after she passes her test... and Amanda has one visceral reaction when Cecilia kills her.
- Even though she appears to be somewhat apathetic as one of the scammers, Valentina has garnered some sympathy for the horrific circumstances that led to her death, which started with her being abducted shortly after a near-rape encounter with a prostitution client. Then she's placed in a trap that requires her to cut off her leg with a Gigli saw and extract the bone marrow through a surgical vacuum to stop the timer. Her having endured her trap, only to end up failing at the last second just because her bone marrow was too slow to fill up the container in time, seems downright unfair to plenty of viewers.
- Karmic Overkill: Despite them being willing accomplices to the scam, some viewers felt that Valentina, Mateo, and Gabriela were underserving of the traps they were placed in, or at the least, didn't deserve to die so horribly. It's made more apparent when Cecilia, the head of the scam organization itself who arguably deserved far worse in comparison, continued her atrocities by killing a wounded Gabriela, placing a child in a trap against John out of spite, and murdering her lover to save her own life.
- Memetic Mutation:
- "Saw Patrol."Explanation
- Boston Sawx Explanation
- Epic Bad Luck Explanation (SPOILERS)
- Misaimed Fandom: People who saw the official pre-release video clip of the Eye Vacuum Trap have claimed that it's one of the easiest traps in the franchise to beat, saying that a bit of Fingore is nothing compared to the Life-or-Limb Decisions that define many of the other traps, and the victim should have just turned the dial straight to 5 to win. These people completely ignore that the poor guy is in shock (which anyone would be if they didn't have the Audience Awareness Advantage), and Jigsaw likely designed the trap so the dial couldn't be turned more than one increment at a time. And while yes, it is less painful than other traps, it's because those were particularly gruesome, not that this one is tame. Plus, if he did win, the same people would probably complain about not getting to see the trap in action. The trap turned out to have been an Imagine Spot anyway, so it's a moot point how he would've reacted or how easy it was.
- Moral Event Horizon: If one doesn't consider the entire con to be one in itself, any viewer who sympathizes with Cecilia will probably have that end when she murders Gabriella in cold blood, and later forces a child into a trap just to torment John.
- Narm Charm: Hoffman describing accidentally conning John as "epic bad luck" in a perfectly deadpan tone is objectively very silly. It's also a very funny way to end such a grisly film, and it suggests that the creators are aware of how the Saw fandom has come to perceive the characters (alongside the last few films in general, despite his absence in them) as a bit of a goof. And all in all, it might be silly, but it's also terribly accurate.
- Nausea Fuel:
- Were you among the viewers that couldn't stomach the brain surgery scenes in Saw III? The Brain Surgery Trap is just as disgusting, with the added "bonus" that it's self-inflicted and there are close-up shots of Mateo's exposed brain matter. Mateo even successfully pulls a piece out and places it in acid with it visibly dissolving.
- Valentina's trap not only requires her to amputate her own leg, but also extract bone marrow from it.
- The Bloodboarding Trap is almost akin to the Pig Vat, only more disgusting than anything violent. Despite, that it's still pretty nasty to watch John and Carlos suffocate from falling blood onto their faces, choking and spitting out the blood that falls into their mouths. It's also a mystery how and where John even got that much blood, whose blood it once belonged to, and how old it was until it was used in the trap; it could've been simply animal blood or even worse, human blood, with possible bloodborne diseases and all.
- Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page.
- One-Scene Wonder: Hoffman only shows up in the mid-credits scene, but what few seconds he had of screentime left a strong impression thanks to it marking his return to the series after over a decade of absence since 3D, topped off by his memetic "epic bad luck" quote.
- Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The film defied all expectations by not just being well-received by audiences (especially after the tepid response to the previous installment), it also finally earned broader respect from critics, netting an 80% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the first "Fresh" film in the franchise, a title that evaded even the first film (widely recognized as "the genuinely good one" up until that point). Points of praise include making the story an early interquel — conveniently sidestepping the franchise's later Kudzu Plot and giving an opportunity for the beloved Tobin Bell a return to the spotlight as the series' Villain Protagonist — as well as stronger character focus and a surprisingly poignant script, balancing out the terrifying traps with sincere character drama and heart. The film was so well-received that it was announced shortly after that a sequel would be released the following year, something that hasn't happened since Saw 3D's release a year after Saw VI, nearly 15 years prior.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The targets of Jigsaw's traps are a Snake Oil Saleswoman and her accomplices who claim that they're being persecuted by Big Pharma because their revolutionary cancer cure would make them obsolete, when in fact they're selling false hope to dying people in order to steal their money while not caring one bit about their continued suffering. Coming out as it did in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, it's not difficult to read into the film a metaphor for various quack doctors who, at the height of the pandemic, promoted various miracle cures while claiming that the medical establishment was out to kill people, profiting handsomely off of treatments whose effectiveness was dubious at best. In truth, the basic plot outline had already been completed before COVID, and was originally intended as the ninth film before Spiral was made instead.
