Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers for Saw X.
Almost 20 years after the first gruesome installment premiered, Saw X has revitalized the Saw franchise, expanding upon previous lore in several essential ways. Saw X occurs between Saw and Saw 2 in the Saw movie timeline, featuring the triumphant return of Tobin Bell as serial killer John Kramer, AKA Jigsaw, and Shawnee Smith as his apprentice, Amanda. While in some regards, Saw X could be considered a standalone sequel, there are some key connections to the previous Saw movies that explain later events.
Throughout the previous nine installments of the Saw franchise, terminal cancer patient John Kramer ensnared a swathe of victims in a series of elaborate traps, with the help of his apprentices. Referred to by Jigsaw as “games,” these traps test those Kramer determines ungrateful of life, murdering them brutally if they lack sufficient will to live. Saw X sees Kramer return, conned into a fake cancer treatment and subsequently exacting his unique brand of violent revenge upon the perpetrators, offering connections to all movies in the franchise.
10 Saw X Sheds More Light On Kramer’s Illness And Death
While Jigsaw’s failing health is a major plot point in almost all of the Saw movies, specific details about life with a terminal cancer prognosis were often only touched upon. The opening act of Saw X, however, focuses exclusively on these, providing a heartfelt insight into the character’s health. Saw X is the first Saw movie where Kramer is truly the main character, with the whole movie told from his perspective, and, quite frankly, it is all the better for it. Bell’s performance is enthrallingly tender, eliciting a surprising amount of sympathy from an audience fully aware of his upcoming murderous exploits.
9 Does Saw X Make Jigsaw The Hero?
Conned by a phony cancer treatment, Kramer himself is the victim of an elaborate game that is orchestrated by people seemingly far crueler than Jigsaw himself. The con’s mastermind, Dr. Cecilia Pederson, reaches a level of immorality unseen thus far in the Saw franchise, inserting a young boy, Carlos, into a trap with Jigsaw. Kramer valiantly bears the brunt and focuses his energies entirely on rescuing the boy. This scene, combined with Tobin Bell’s heartfelt performance in the first act, reorients Jigsaw as the hero. The villain quickly becomes Dr. Cecilia, with audiences rooting for Kramer to exact his revenge during Saw X‘s ending.
8 Saw X Explains Jigsaws Vendetta Against Doctors
Several doctors have fallen victim to Jigsaw’s traps throughout Saw history, and the truly repulsive Dr. Cecilia Pederson may have demonstrated why. The implication previously was that Kramer encountered many medical professionals routinely throughout his cancer treatment and found several of them “undeserving” of their lives. Saw X, however, depicts a physician even more monstrous than Kramer himself with Dr. Cecilia. Dr. Cecilia is depicted as cruel and evil, scamming cancer patients and endangering young Carlos’s life. This could certainly explain why Jigsaw would later focus his attention on the medical community.
7 Saw X Sets Up Amanda’s Story Arc
Upon rescuing young Carlos, Amanda displays a level of affection toward the boy that borders on the maternal. While this may appear incongruous considering her murderous behavior, it foreshadows her later storyline in Saw 2. Throughout Saw 2, Amanda is tasked with protecting Daniel Matthews, the teenage son of Detective Eric Matthews. Like Carlos, Daniel is an innocent who has been unfairly thrust into one of Jigsaw’s traps, and Amanda maintains this duty of care for both boys. Saw X reveals much more of Amanda’s natural tenderness, a trait unexplored in the earlier Saw franchise.
6 Kramer And Amanda’s Relationship Is Fully Explored In Saw X
Amanda is probably the most famous survivor of a Saw trap, and throughout the Saw franchise, Amanda and Kramer appear to have a rather unhealthy, and sometimes pseudosexual, father-daughter relationship. Saw X, however, allows actual tenderness and affection to play out between the two. Though still somewhat disturbing, the pair are presented as a codependent team, with deep-rooted devotion and comradery. While Saw 3, in particular, presented Amanda as an unstable obsessive, Saw X truly explores their relationship, making it unsettlingly normalized, and explaining Amanda’s later loyalty.
5 Saw X References Saw’s Infamous Bathroom
The most infamous location in the Saw franchise is undoubtedly the revolting bathroom where Saw is primarily set. The bathroom makes a brief appearance in Saw X during the mid-credit sequence, proffering a brief glimpse and an underway game. This setting is additionally referenced earlier in Saw X, when a victim, Gabriela, is forced to break her own bones with a sledgehammer, in order to free her shackled hand and foot. This is a reference to a later scene in Saw V, when, Detective/Jigsaw apprentice, Mark Hoffman breaks his own foot to escape the bathroom, a tactic he presumably learned from Gabriela.
4 Detective Mark Hoffman’s Story Arc Is Teased In Saw X
Another exciting appearance in Saw X‘s mid-credit sequence was from Detective Mark Hoffman himself, who is revealed in the latter Saw movies to be Jigsaw’s original apprentice. Hoffman is conspicuously absent from Saw X, despite logically being present during its events. In fact, eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted him earlier in the movie, during the capture of Dr. Cecilia’s team. It is implied to be primarily Amanda’s handiwork, but one scene shows a particularly masculine pair of hands handling a victim from beneath the trademark pig mask and robe, strongly implying Hoffman’s involvement.
3 Jigsaw’s “Life Is A Gift” Mantra Is Better Explained
Though certainly present during the first Saw, events in Saw X could explain some of the origins of Jigsaw’s “life is a gift” mantra. In an early scene, Kramer is attending a cancer support group, during which the group’s leader comments “Today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present.” Whether this is the origin of Kramer’s mantra is unclear, but the sentiment is echoed by Jigsaw throughout all later activity and this must surely have cemented his belief that some are undeserving of their lives.
2 Sax X Teases Future Traps And Their Development
Several traps from the Saw franchise are teased in Saw X in various forms. Most notably, Kramer is seen sketching plans for Saw 3‘s infamous twisting rack in his notebook, detailing the contraption’s headpiece which would later turn a victim’s head all the way round. Later, a trap comprised of heating elements clamps down on a victim’s face, bearing a strong resemblance to the Death Mask from the opening scene of Saw 2 – itself a variation on Amanda’s Reverse Bear Trap. Additionally, Saw X‘s premise of a game played by multiple victims functions as a prototype for the imminent events of Saw 2, when several victims are thrust together.
1 Jigsaw’s Brain Surgery Foreshadows Saw 3
During Kramer’s fake brain surgery, he is informed by Matteo, a conman disguised as an anesthetist, that he must remain awake during the procedure. Subsequently, Jigsaw forces Matteo to remove part of his own brain with improper equipment and no anesthetic. This foreshadows Saw 3, where Jigsaw undergoes actual brain surgery and is informed by Dr. Lynn Denlon that brain surgeries require a conscious patient. It is another example of Saw X neatly unifying the previous movies. Saw became notorious for retconning previous events, with fresh revelations in each movie, Saw X, on the other hand, works to connect them into a cohesive whole.
