- AKA “Saw VII”
- Directed by Kevin Greitert
- Written by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan
- Stars Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Cary Elwes
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yXuloqQ_68
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one continues on from the previous film while also going back to events following the first film and filling in some more details of the whole story. John is gone, but the things he set in motion still continue. This was quite good and consistent in quality with most of the other sequels. If you liked those, you’ll probably like this one too.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open to a flashback to the end of the first film, as the credits roll. Dr. Gordon crawls out of the big bathroom, lacking a foot and bleeding profusely. He cauterizes the wound by burning it on a hot water pipe, which looks excruciating.
We cut to a big “home renovation” display out in the middle of the town square, but this one has two guys chained to a saw-contraption. There’s also a girl suspended above the saw. Billy the puppet rides in on his bike, talking to Brad and Ryan about how the girl played both of them. There’s a huge crowd outside watching the whole thing as the saws spin up. Only two of them are getting out of this. This is a very toxic love triangle. She yells that she loves Brad, so Ryan pushes the saw into him. But there’s a lot of yelling, and the guys figure out she was playing them both and is still trying to. “I think we’re breaking up with you, Tina,” says one of them as she’s lowered onto the blade. Every cop in town shows up at this point.
We get a flashback to the previous film, where Jill puts Hoffman into the jaw-ripping helmet as per John’s “final request.” He escapes with a bit of facial damage. He goes back to one of his hideouts and sews up his Joker-like face. Then he burns his fake ID cards and most of the evidence that could be used against him.
Jill goes to Matt Gibson, an Internal Affairs cop, and she wants to talk in exchange for immunity. Meanwhile, Bobby, one of the survivors of Jigsaw’s games, is in town promoting his new self-help book. He talks about finding the strength to survive, and how it helped him take control of his own life afterward.
Jill leaves the police station and is immediately grabbed by Hoffman, who puts her in a complicated spike-car that reminds us that this is a 3D movie. Then she wakes up; just a nightmare.
A guy named Evan wakes up to hear a Jigsaw recording that explains how his racist friends are going to die if he doesn’t save them. He’s glued to a seat in a car that’s about to fall on his girlfriend and rip off a friend’s jaw and run over another friend if he doesn’t stop it. There is much screaming from all of them as the counter hits zero. Everybody dies.
We cut to Bobby’s “Jigsaw Support Group” the next day, where a victim talks about kicking her abusive husband into spinning saw blades. “It was the best thing that ever happened to me.” Bobby credits his wife, Joyce, for getting him through his recovery. Surprisingly, Dr. Gordon, from the first film, is there as well, and he calls out Bobby on his BS. Someone grabs Bobby on the way out of the meeting.
Matt Gibson gets a call about the four people who died in the car trap at the junkyard. Hoffman left clues for Gibson, personally. He puts Jill in a safe house, but Hoffman knows all about it.
Bobby wakes up in a metal tube. Billy comes on screen and accuses Bobby of making the whole thing up; he’s never really been in a Jigsaw trap. But he is now. He has one hour to save his wife. He gets out of the spike trap easily enough, but there’s a whole series of challenges ahead of him.
Hoffman sends a tape to Gibson; he wants Jill for revenge. If he gets Jill, he’ll stop the killings. If he doesn’t, everyone dies.
Bobby finds his publicist in a trap. He’s been fed a key that will shut off her device, but there’s also a fishhook. Bobby needs to pull the key and the fishhook out of her stomach. Also, every time she screams, the sound activated spikes get closer to killing her. He pulls and pulls, blood gushing everywhere. He gets the key, but too late to save her.
Bobby flashes back to a book signing where John himself showed up. It’s clear that John didn’t approve of what Bobby’s been doing with his stolen valor. The police figure out that Bobby, his wife, and his handlers are all missing.
Bobby finds his lawyer in the next trap, which will pierce her eyes out. In order to free her, he needs to lift a bar that will slowly stab him as well. He does it but can’t hold it up long enough, and that’s really bad for her. Next, he finds his best friend, blindfolded and noosed. He’s suspended over a long fall, but there’s a narrow bridge of planks. Bobby has to talk his blindfolded friend across the planks. They’re both screaming idiots, and the key gets lost; the friend soon dies.
Gibson and Rogers follow a clue and go to a place where Hoffman shot a perpetrator in the back. Gibson turned him in, and that went badly for Gibson.
Bobby finds his wife, but he can’t get to her without pulling some of his own teeth, one by one. As he starts pulling, we see Gibson and the police enter the building where he was in the first spike trap.
Bobby has finally reached his wife, but to save her, he has to actually survive the trap that he made up for his book. Bobby admits his lie to her.
Gibson closes in on Hoffman, but it’s a trick; there’s no one there. There’s a booby-trap machine gun that kills them all. Back in the warehouse, additional traps start killing all the police there.
Across town, Hoffman opens up a body bag; he’s escaped to the morgue. He kills the people working there and then goes through the police station, killing everyone in his path.
Bobby puts the hooks through his chest muscles, screaming the whole time. He then hoists himself up to the roof to plug two wires together. His chest rips apart, and he falls before he can connect the wires.
Hoffman makes his way to where Jill is being held. She stabs him in the neck and runs off, but all the doors are locked.
Bobby watches as his wife is enclosed in an oven and starts to cook alive. He’s just really not very good at solving these traps to save people. Meanwhile, Hoffman beats the crap out of Jill. He finally puts her in the “jaw machine” and sets the timer. It rips her head apart. Hoffman then makes his escape after blowing up his last hideout. As promised, he killed everyone to get Jill.
On his way out, Hoffman’s captured by Dr. Gordon and some men in pig masks. We get a flashback to John leaving Gordon a special message. John helped him heal and replaced his missing foot. Turns out, he’s been working with John all along.
Hoffman wakes up in the big bathroom, where Gordon has him chained to the wall, just like he was so long ago. Gordon takes the hacksaw away though. “I don’t think so.” Gordon leaves him there, chained to the wall in the dark. “Game over.”
Commentary
Bobby may be the worst “player” in the whole franchise; he didn’t save a single person.
Some of the early deaths are simply excuses for neat murder devices but don’t have a lot to do with the overarching plot. We didn’t watch the 3D version, but most of the deaths are rather splattery, so that’s what that’s all about.
This one is only loosely connected to the previous films, as John/Jigsaw is dead by this time. John only appears in a brief flashback, and even Hoffman doesn’t show up too much. Dr. Gordon makes a comeback, which ties things in a little bit right at the end.