Jigsaw: Let the Games Begin — Part 2 of 8
I’ve had seven years to solidify my opinion on the ranking of the first seven SAW films. With just under one month until the franchise’s return, I continue with the fifth film in the franchise. And ending with a relatively hot take of the newest film.
This series will summarize each movie’s plot / interesting points, with some commentary about why it’s silly or cool, etc.
Continuing the countdown of SAW movies, much like a clock ticking down in one of the many gruesome traps in the series, we head into SAW V, the second film I saw in the series I saw in theaters.
VI. SAW V
It’s October 2008. Senior year of highschool. My good pal and I are heading into Regal Cinemas in Westborough, MA to see SAW V. This pal joined me for SAW IV, and while that’s a story for another entry, this is us seeing SAW in theaters without need for a legal guardian, so it’s uncharted territory.
We walk out of the theater after the credits begin to roll and the reaction is immediate… “meh”.
That’s SAW V. It doesn’t offer much that’s interesting, it makes the series even more complicated simply by virtue of having to figure out how it fits into events shown in the prior movie... while also knowing it does take place after most of the last film.
SAW V starts with a pendulum trap. We learn this dude killed someone and got off with the crime and is now being punished. But, something’s amiss. This dude should technically survive, but the trap kills him anyways. What could this mean?
SAW V’s actual narrative starts moments after SAW IV ends. The FBI detective played by that actor from Gilmore Girls, is trying to figure out what to do now that he’s found the corpse of Jigsaw, Jigsaw’s apprentice Amanda, and shot the protagonist Jeff of SAW III. Turns out he’s immediately abducted and put in a trap.
He survives, mostly by luck. This is another unwinnable trap. But thankfully he had a pen hidden in his pocket and gives himself an impromptu sort laryngectomy so he doesn’t drown to death and instead serves as a leaky faucet for this case of water his head is locked in. So now,this Detective — Agent Strahm is going to be out for revenge. He wants justice and now it’s even more personal because he almost got killed by this new, rogue not-so-secret Jigsaw apprentice. He also sounds like a chronic smoker the whole film.
The movie follows Straum wondering how Detective Hoffman, who was in a trap in SAW IV (and the viewer who has seen that knows is working for Jigsaw) survived unscathed, found a kidnapped child, and then follows him figuring it out but having no hard evidence and being told he’s off the case or something. He kind of goes rogue himself, getting overly antagonizing with people who may have things to help prove Hoffman’s guilt and working on his own to prove it and end the killings (of course, SAW 3D probably makes us all know this wouldn’t happen since Dr. Gordon also is a Jigsaw apprentice at this point).
We also watch flashbacks that explain Hoffman’s induction into the Jigsaw family — he made the trap in the first scene to kill the man who murdered his sister. While he was a cop. Jigsaw (and Strahm) figures this out. Jigsaw blackmails him and forces him to help with the plans. We learn how Dr. Gordon’s pen appeared in the razor wire scene in the first movie. We learn who was watching said scene. Surprise! It’s Hoffman. He’s a sadistic twat.
We watch and learn that whereas Amanda was overly emotional and let that control how she enacted tests (and killed Adam, from the first film) Hoffman is apathetic. He likes making people suffer but doesn’t really care about their will to live or anything. We learn he framed Amanda for some of the traps she was accused of rigging in earlier movies. We see that Jigsaw probably suspects as much but still needs to test everyone cause that’s kinda what he does.
We also learn Jigsaw’s ex-wife Jill is more involved than SAW IV made us believe. She’s not only aware of what he’s doing… she’s helping in some cases and enabling him to continue doing his work. This is actually an interesting point because of her dynamic with Agent Strahm in both films but like most of the interesting points in these sequels, it doesn’t save the film from being garbage.
The self-contained story this time is about super vicious business type people involved in the cover-up of a low-income housing building fire that killed people and that Agent Strahm and his partner (from SAW IV) Agent Perez had been investigating. The idea / twist with this is interesting in the typical perverse way the franchise does — these traps immediately instill a sense of competitive survivalism in the victims but the at the end the last two remaining realize had they all worked together it would’ve cost them a lot less. Seriously, the final trap has the two remaining victims put their arms in a mechanized buzz saw device — once enough blood has filled a container the door opens. We learn in SAW 3D that the survivor … lost his arm because of this.
This all happens while Strahm figures out and pursues Hoffman as previously mentioned. The endgame involves Strahm cornering Hoffman and confronting him while also feeding some fanservice through “blink and you’ll miss it” reveals of the death of characters like Danny Glover’s Detective Tapp (who we learn killed himself after the events of SAW: The Game in which he is the player character) from the original film. Hoffman is cocky, and seems to not care. It all ends with Strahm falling victim to the same hubris — he is given a test of his own by Hoffman and he dies in a, even by this franchise’s standards, hard to believe could be built trap. Hoffman is pushed into a container full of sharp glass, and smirks when it closes, safely watching as the room he and Strahm fight in closes in like a trash compactor, crushing Strahm and laying the foundation for some cool reveals in SAW VI.
SAW V isn’t nearly as bad as the final film in the franchise. It just… is boring. It’s very much a sequel that setups more interesting things to follow but does it with the increasing body count and grisly, demented violence the franchise is synonymous with. That’s why I dislike it so much. At this stage, I found myself continuing to watch because these weird tidbits of world building around the Jigsaw mythos kept me going. I realized these film were garbage and they’re turning smaller and smaller plot holes from earlier films into grand revelations for future movies but it was still interesting. It was also a not entirely awful way to keep this franchise going while it still earned money despite the main villain being dead.
Anytime you start to hear a remix of “Hello Zepp” slowly start to play and you realize the big “BUT WAIT!” twist moment is happening becomes a key part of the viewing experience of a SAW sequel. SAW V is the first time the excitement accompanying that starts to fade. SAW IV was needlessly extreme, violent, and convoluted but the twist was such a nice surprise that you probably wouldn’t see coming your first time through. It was actually surprising in a very different way than the previous films.
With that said, I will return in a week or so to talk about the end of the original “trilogy” of the franchise — SAW III.
The list so far:
- SAW 3D: The Final Chapter
- SAW V
- SAW III (next!)
- ???
- ???
- ???
- ???
(Sorted from Worst to Best)
