Saw

Posted by: Luna on Friday, October 29th, 2004

Starring: Leigh Whannell (Adam), Cary Elwes (Dr. Lawrence Gordon), Danny Glover (Det. David Tapp), Ken Leung (Det. Steven Sing)

Adam and Dr. Lawrence Gordon wakes up one night to find themselves chained to pipes at opposite ends of a filthy bathroom with a bloody dead guy between them. They each find a mini cassette tape in their pockets. A cold and rough disguised voice is recorded on the tapes. Turns out they are the latest victims of the “jigsaw killer” who likes to play sadistic mind games with people that force them to either kill themselves or others. Lawrence is ordered to kill Adam by 6am otherwise his wife and daughter will die. They find 2 blunt saws which they use to try to saw through the chains. Of course, it doesn’t work, the purpose of the saws is for them to cut off their feet. A cell phone is also provided by the killer. Throughout the rest of the film, we are led to believe the jigsaw killer is Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson), an orderly who works at Lawrence’s hospital. He watches Lawrence and Adam through a video camera installed secretly in the bathroom. He also kidnaps Lawrence’s wife, Alison (Monica Potter), and daughter, Diana (Makenzie Vega), intending to kill them if Lawrence fails to kill Adam by 6am. When time runs out for Lawrence, Zep calls him up and then walks over to Alison to shoot her while Lawrence is still on the phone. Alison had managed to loosen her bonds, so she fights Zep for the gun. A gunshot fires, attracting former Detective David Tapp’s attention. He had been watching Lawrence’s house, thinking that Lawrence was the jigsaw killer. He runs over and chases Zep, while Alison and Diana remain alive and safe. In the meantime, Lawrence is still on the cell phone and had heard the struggle and gunshot. Panicking over the thought of losing his family, he resorts to sawing off his left foot to get rid of his chains. Then, he grabs the bullet and gun from the dead guy on the floor, tells Adam he’s sorry, and shoots him. Meanwhile, Tapp had chased Zep all the way to some sort of sewage plant. They struggle, and Zep kills Tapp. He then enters the bathroom where Adam and Lawrence are. Zep tells Lawrence he’s sorry, but it’s too late. According to the “rules”, he was supposed to kill Adam by 6am. Suddenly, Adam gets up (Lawrence had only shot him in the shoulder), grabs the toilet tank lid, and crushes Zep’s skull with it. Unfortunately, Adam is still chained, so Lawrence, who is weak and bleeding to death, offers to crawl and go get help. After he leaves, Adam searches Zep’s body for the key to the chains, but instead of a key, he finds another tape player. Turns out Zep was just another jigsaw killer victim. He had been poisoned, so he was forced to kidnap Lawrence’s wife and daughter to earn the antidote. Suddenly, the “dead” guy on the floor rises. Turns out he’s the real jigsaw killer. His name is John (Tobin Bell) and he was the terminal cancer patient seen during one of Lawrence’s flashbacks. He says his motive to get people to stop taking life or “being alive” for granted. John then turns off the lights in the bathroom and shuts the door, leaving Adam imprisoned. We never see what happens to Lawrence.

Wow, the ending took me by surprise! How rare is that nowadays especially with scary movies!?

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