Saw has one of the best and most shocking reveals in horror history, but a big part of it was subtly spoiled much earlier, though it’s very easy to miss. In 2003, James Wan and Leigh Whannell made a short film titled Saw that served as the basis for what would become one of the most profitable and popular horror franchises in recent years. The short film was followed by the feature-length movie Saw, written by Whannell and directed by Wan in his feature directorial debut, which became a critical and commercial success.

Told in a nonlinear narrative, Saw follows Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Whannell), who find themselves chained in an abandoned bathroom, with a corpse between them. The man in the middle has apparently killed himself, while Adam and Dr. Gordon realize they are the new victims of the Jigsaw Killer and have to find a way to survive. Saw includes flashbacks that show what Gordon and Adam did before being targeted by Jigsaw and why they became his new victims, and one of those flashbacks gave away Saw’s big John Kramer (Tobin Bell) twist.

Saw’s Hospital Scene Revealed John Kramer Was Jigsaw Through His Drawings

John Kramer Didn’t Stop Designing His Traps While At The Hospital

The flashbacks are set five months before Gordon and Adam’s kidnapping, and first show Gordon at the hospital. Gordon is seen discussing the terminal brain cancer of patient John Kramer with his medical interns before he’s interrogated by detectives David Tapp and Steven Sing as his penlight was found at the scene of one of Jigsaw’s twisted “games”. When Zep, an orderly at the hospital, tells Gordon the patient is named John, the camera focuses on John, who has an open notebook in front of him with some drawings.

Although it’s a brief look, the notebook shows a sketch John had been working on, and it’s none other than the reverse bear trap, which was first tested on Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith). The reverse bear trap became one of the most famous traps in the Saw franchise, appearing on several occasions, including in Saw 3D when Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) used it on John’s ex-wife, Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), killing her. Amanda’s “game” is shown minutes later, so those who caught the sketch surely made the connection between the “game” and John.

While the sketch only shows that the patient with terminal cancer was the Jigsaw Killer and thus the one holding Gordon and Adam captive, it doesn’t reveal that the body in the bathroom is Kramer. However, as many viewers have pointed out over the years, the resemblance between John and the “corpse” is more evident once you put together the pieces of the sketch and Amanda’s trap.

Other Clues In Saw That Pointed To Kramer’s Villain Twist

Saw Left A Couple Of Clues To Its Big Twist

John’s sketch of the reverse bear trap might be the most telling clue to the killer’s identity and the “corpse” in Saw, but it’s not the only one. In one scene, Jigsaw says he’s “sick of the disease eating away at me”, and by then, the audience knows there’s a patient attended by Gordon who has terminal cancer. Throughout Saw, Zep is used as a red herring, and a big clue to him not being the Jigsaw killer is when he says “it’s the rules” as he’s about to kill Gordon, hinting at him being a pawn rather than the mastermind.

One of the clues given by Jigsaw to Gordon and Adam is that “x marks the spot”, which they believe to be different glow-in-the-dark “x” points in the bathroom, but John’s “dead” body was laid out in the form of an “x”. Saw’s subtle clues to its big twists only make the viewing experience more exciting and every rewatch more interesting.