With Jigsaw inching closer to screens, Rob looks back at the confusing plot of the original Saw movie…
Warning: this article contains spoilers for theSawfranchise, up to and includingSaw: The Final Chapter.
First things first: dont get me wrong here.Sawis one of my favourite films.
However, I re-watched the film recently, in preparation forJigsaw, and something bugged me about it.
If Gordon fails to kill Adam, his family will die and hell be left in the bathroom.
However, Adam is given a much more vague game.
Did he actually deserve to be left in the bathroom to die?
Im not so sure…
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Adam wakes up in a bathtub.
Hes totally unaware at this stage that hes in a game at all.
The last thing he remembers is a pig-mask-wearing attacker coming at him in his dingy apartment.
Naturally, Adam scrambles around a bit and gets out of the tub.
He accidently pulls the plug out in the process, which turns out to be rather important later on.
Again, its a highly justifiable move.
Searching for a meaning for this, Adam speculates that their kidneys have been removed and put on eBay.
Gordon, using his vast medical knowledge, poo-poos this theory.
Gordon makes another logical move: to try and fire up the door, which is within his reach.
The door doesnt budge.
Soon, both captives find their tapes.
They borrow a cassette recorder from the corpse in the middle of the room.
Adam listens to his tape first, hearing this grim message:
Rise and shine, Adam.
Youre probably wondering where you are.
Ill tell you where you might be.
You might be in the room that you die in.
Up until now, youve simply sat in the shadows watching others live out their lives.
But what do voyeurs see when they look into the mirror?
Now I see you as a strange mix of someone angry, yet apathetic.
But mostly just pathetic.
So are you going to watch yourself die here today, Adam, or do something about it?
Adam has no clear goal, then.
Hes simply given a vague choice between watch yourself die or do something about it.
Everyday of your working life you have given people the news that theyre gonna die soon.
Now you will be the cause of death.
Your aim in this game is to kill Adam.
You have until six on the clock to do it.
Theres a man in the room with you.
When theres that much poison in your blood, the only thing left to do is shoot yourself.
There are ways to win this, hidden all around you.
Just remember, X marks the spot for the treasure.
Let the game begin.
Adam, on the other hand, is just encouraged to do something.
The clock strikes six, and Adam is still alive.
Zep heads for the bathroom, and gets caught up in a rather lo-fi car chase with Tapp.
Zep shows up, opens the door, and gives Adams body a kick.
He believes that Adam has died, but declares that Gordon was too late in doing the deed.
Its the rules, Zep states, and hes absolutely right there.
He failed to win the game, and that is the price for losing.
But Adam isnt actually dead!
Adam took a bullet, but still stepped up to kill Zep and save Gordon.
Much like Gordon was asked to do, hes taken one life to save someone else.
Jigsaw could hardly argue that he didnt do something.
Gordon assures Adam that he will survive his bullet wound.
Gordon crawls out of the bathroom to go find help.
He used the hot metal to cauterise his stump, and passed out from the pain of doing so.
He didnt find help and he didnt go back for Adam, despite saying that he would.
Zeps own game was to kill Gordons wife and child, if Gordon lost the main game.
Again, its easy to feel like Adam got short shrift here.
Is that what Jigsaw wanted?
Would he have let Adam crawl away and live on if he had done a bit of self-dismembering?
But what if Adam had chopped his foot off before six oclock?
Would Adam have been allowed to leave before Gordons game was completed?
Youve got to question Jigsaws skills as a taskmaster.
Except the cellmate isnt actually dead, and he opens his eyes just as Amanda cuts in him.
Dick move, Jiggy.
Except, it isnt.
What exactly was the point of putting the key in the bath with Adam?
He couldve undone his shackle and wandered the bathroom freely.
What would that have achieved?
If hed found the key at the beginning, its doubtful that Adam wouldve learned anything.
InSaw III, flashbacks showed us that Amanda helped Jigsaw set up this game.
That moment the key throw is glimpsed in a montage.
In placing the key loose in the water, she consigned Adam to a game he couldnt win.
(ButSawisnt about blood-free ways of escaping, is it?)
Where was Amanda meant to put the key, if she wasnt meant to put it in the water?
Hes clearly aware of the keys placement when he gets up off the ground at the end ofSaw.
To my (possibly paranoid) ear, theres even a gloaty you couldve got out!
tone to Jigsaws voice as he tells Adam where key was.
Ah, God, it still doesnt make sense.
He did plenty of things, but none of them involved chopping off his foot.
She puts him out of his misery, killing him quickly instead of letting him starve to death.
Adam is definitely dead, then, and his rotting corpse had plenty of cameos in the later films.
(What fun!)
Youve got to feel sorry for Adam.
He never stood a chance, really.
His game was never properly explained.
(Id still love to know what Jigsaw wouldve done if Adam chopped his foot off before six.)
But instead he was rewarded by Jigsaw.
