With eight different movies, a video game series, and theme park attractions, it is fair to say that the Saw franchise is one of the most popular and successful in the history of the horror genre, relying upon heavy gore and a detailed storyline that interweaves all the films.
At the core of the franchise is the character of Jigsaw, which is a fairly mysterious one throughout the story, and because of that the fear of the unknown really kicks in throughout the entire series of movies, with even the biggest Saw fans not knowing everything about Jigsaw. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the character in detail, revealing 10 things that you didn’t know about Jigsaw.
Comic
![Saw: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Jigsaw](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Kramer-Cropped.jpg)
The character of John Kramer (Jigsaw), is one that is very complex and there is a huge backstory for him, which is why he became so popular as a horror character, however, for those fans wanting to know even more about his backstory, there is a way to find out.
While the movies do explain plenty about him as a person before things took a turn for the worse if you want to know more about his transformation from Kramer into Jigsaw, then picking up the comic, Saw Rebirth would be your best bet. That’s right, there is an actual comic book for Saw, which puts most of the focus onto Jigsaw himself and how he ended up becoming that man.
Billy The Puppet
![The Jigsaw doll in Saw.](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/jigsaw-saw-doll.jpg)
Everybody knows who Billy is, but not everyone actually knows that his name is Billy, with the creepy puppet from the Saw franchise being the mascot of the movies, and is one of the most recognizable parts of the entire franchise, despite not really having a big role.
Billy normally only pops up to explain the rules of a trap, or occasionally cycling around with his maniacal laugh in order to freak out those who are trapped and involved in a game, but it is nice that the movies went out of their way to name him. Nowadays you will often see people dressing up as Billy during Halloween, with many people often confusing the puppet to be Jigsaw, which isn’t the case as Jigsaw is John Kramer.
He Is A Civil Engineer
![Saw 2 trap](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Saw.jpg)
When you think about Saw movies, one of the first things that come to mind is the amazing inventions and crazy creations that put the victims in danger, with some mental traps coming from the sick and twisted mind of Jigsaw throughout the films.
While most people just take the traps for granted as things that just pop up within the movies, but there is a reason to why Jigsaw is able to create these traps, and that is because he was actually a civil engineer before he became ill and focused on torturing people. Even though the films don’t go into that in major detail, it does make sense that he would be a civil engineer as that explains how he would be able to create the various torture devices.
He Doesn’t Actually Want To Kill Anyone
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While it might seem ridiculous to believe considering the crazy and dangerous creations that Jigsaw makes throughout the movies, he doesn’t actually want anyone to die and doesn’t set out to actually kill any of his subjects that end up in his games.
All of his traps are made to be beatable, whether it be a solo one or a team effort, Jigsaw always makes them in a way that can allow survival, with the traps simply being created to teach the victim the value of life due to whatever mistake they made in real life. Of course, the vast majority of his victims do not make it out alive, with the traps creating some of the most brutal deaths imaginable, but it isn’t the purpose.
Creation Of Billy
![](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2004/10/Saw-movie-reviews.jpg)
You might think that Billy the puppet would be the creation of some incredible Hollywood props company or something that was found in a dusty old shop, but that wasn’t the case, as the puppet was actually the creation of James Wan.
The director of Saw came up with the idea to have Billy within the movies and also made the design of the puppet, but instead of going and getting it made by a professional, James Wan also decided to make Billy as well. That’s right, the puppet was actually stitched together by Wan himself, and while there were likely countless models made by professionals, it is cool to know Wan created the original.
Year Of The Pig
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Billy the puppet is something a lot of people dress up as at Halloween, but the other costume a lot of fans will go to is the pig mask and cloak that is worn by Jigsaw and his accomplices throughout the movies, often dressing this way when they capture their victims in the open world.
While the pig mask is obviously used to hide the identity of those underneath as well as the fact it is just incredibly creepy to look at, there is an actual reason as to why a pig was chosen, and that is because it is a tribute to the ‘Year of the Pig.’ The reason that Jigsaw has a tribute towards this Chinese New Year is because it is that year when Jigsaw started doing his work, so he wants to continue referencing it through the masks.
Video Gaming
![](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/saw-featured.jpg)
While it isn’t exactly a family-friendly option to play, Saw was made into a video game for those who couldn’t get enough of the sick and twisted violence within the movie world, and while there are often different people voicing your beloved characters in a video game, that isn’t the case with Saw.
When it comes to Jigsaw, Tobin Bell was firmly committed to the character, not just within the movies as he also voiced the character for the video game as well, making sure that fans weren’t let down by someone else trying to mimic being him. While it obviously worked out for Tobin in terms of being paid, it is not something that a lot of actors do when it comes to video game spin-offs, so it was impressive to see him do that.
Children’s Nightmares
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There is a reason why Saw isn’t something for children to watch, with the movie firmly being for people aged 18 and over due to the sheer amount of gore and violence being incredibly inappropriate for children to view, however that doesn’t mean children weren’t used as inspiration.
When the creators thought about the traps and creations that Jigsaw would be making, they actually used strong inspiration from the nightmares of children in order to create them, which shows just how tormented the nightmares of children can be. While they obviously didn’t come up with the exact traps from the nightmares of people so young, they did provide the inspiration to many different moments from the show.
Creating Jigsaw’s Lair
![](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Lair-Cropped-1.jpg)
Tobin Bell, the actor who plays Jigsaw, was incredibly invested in the character and how it was portrayed, wanting to make sure that there was always consistency and great detail put into the mastermind behind the scenes to ensure that the character was always taken seriously.
When it came to Saw 3, fans were given a glimpse into the lair of Jigsaw and the area that the murderous mastermind created his traps and props, which is something that fans really enjoyed seeing, allowing the character to be enhanced even further. To make sure that everything in the area suited the character, Bell actually worked with the film’s production designers in order to decide what would go on the walls and what sort of devices could be found within the room.
Inspiration
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The reason that John Kramer’s life turns into the mad, trap inventing, people killing man that fans know so well is all due to the fact that he becomes ill, and this was actually something that Leigh Whannell, the creator of the character, had some experience in.
While Whannell didn’t go around creating traps to punish people and teach the meaning of life by murdering them, he did envisage a character who would become desperate and psychotic after finding out they were going to die, which is what happens to Kramer. In Leigh’s real life, he had a slight scare during one MRI, and that launched the idea that would go on to create one of horror’s greatest ever characters.