- Directed by Kevin Greutert
- Written by Pete Goldfinger, Josh Stolberg
- Stars Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Synnove Macody Lund, Steven Brand
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 58 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3PzUo4P21c
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is effectively “Saw 1.5,” taking place between the first and second movies. John is the main character this time around which was interesting, giving his lessons more directly and hands on. There are games and traps galore, and we thought it was excellent. One of the best in the series.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on John getting some medical tests done. We then cut to him in a cancer support group. The doctor gives him a few months to a year to live along with some unsupportive advice.
While in the hospital, John sees one of the staff, a custodian, go through another patient’s things and steal his watch. We cut to that staff member sitting inside one of Jigsaw’s finger-breaking, eyeball-sucking-out games. No– that was all just John’s imagination; the custodian sees John watching and puts the watch back in the drawer and avoids that fate.
John sees a man he met in the support group; he’s in remission now and feeling much better. Henry talks about a doctor that he read about who operated on him and gave medication – but the treatment isn’t approved yet. He gives him a link to Dr. Finn Pederson. John researches Pederson on the Internet. There’s a whole conspiracy thing going on where Pederson went into hiding from Big Pharma because he could cure cancer, and they want to shut him down. Pederson’s daughter is still active, and John contacts her.
She soon calls John and sets up a time to get him into treatment near Mexico City. They arrange to pick John up at the airport and take him to the treatment, but on the way, they are pulled over by bandits. No– the bandits work for the hospital, the “kidnapping” was just to avoid infiltrators from the big drug companies.
He gets to the big building and meets Gabriela, who shows him around. She says that Cecilia Pederson saved her life. The place used to be a chemical factory, but now it’s a secret high-tech operating facility. He meets Valentina and Mateo, some of the staff, as well as Parker Sears, another patient.
Cecilia asks John what he does and he says he helps people overcome their obstacles, sort of like a “life coach.” Not long after, John undergoes brain surgery. Later, he wakes up in a hotel and Cecilia says he’s doing much better now. She tells him to leave his bandage alone, drink his medicine for the next seven days, and then go home; he’ll be fine. He agrees to wire the second half of the payment in the morning.
A few days later, he takes a bottle of tequila as a gift to Gabriela and finds the whole “hospital” deserted and realizes that his whole treatment was fake. He pulls off his bandages, and there’s no scar, no hole, nothing.
Diego, the taxi driver/surgeon is first; he tells John everything he knows about where the others are, but that doesn’t stop the two explosives embedded in his wrists. He could cut his own arms up– which will he choose? Diego gets to cutting, and removes both of the explosive devices in time. “You’re going to be OK,” says John, who takes him a first aid kit.
Then John calls his detective friend and arranges for some help finding the others.
Mateo, actually a veterinarian who sells animal drugs on the side, is captured. Gabriela gets captured. Valentina too.
We cut to Cecilia, who has piles of cash on her desk to pay her accomplices. She also is captured– by Amanda, John’s “associate.”
Mateo, Gabriela, Valentina, and Cecilia all wake up in a warehouse. When John comes in, they all know what’s up. They all beg and blame Cecilia.
Valentina gets to play first. She has to either suck all the marrow out of her own severed leg or be beheaded by a wire. John tells the others that all of them are going to play a game like this. They’ve conned 34 people over 8 years, and John is not happy about it.
Valentina touches the suction device, and her counter starts. She puts on the tourniquet and starts cutting on her leg. She uses the wire and starts sawing; the leg falls off. She hooks up the suction device, which starts draining her marrow. She’s just a little too slow, however, and ends up losing her head.
The others are now convinced that this is not a trick. John and Amanda discuss philosophy and second chances.
Meanwhile, Cecilia cuts out Valentina’s intestines to use as a rope to pull in a bag with a cellphone inside. She gets the phone, but Amanda soon takes it away.
There’s a pounding at the door. Parker Sears is there, and he wants his money back. Amanda whacks him and ties him to a chair. He tells John that the doctors were crooks and didn’t operate on him either. John shows him his prisoners on the monitors. They explain the games and rules to Sears, who agrees to help them.
Mateo is up next. Billy wheels out a tray of medical equipment and a tape. Mateo’s job is to cut out parts of his own brain and put them in a jar within three minutes, or something bad will happen. Cecilia talks him through the procedure, and there is much screaming. Again, he’s too slow and the machine cooks his head.
Cecilia admits that she’s a fraud, but her father is real. She can get John in for treatment by him, but John doesn’t even entertain the idea.
Gabriela is next, with her arm and one leg chained and suspended in mid-air. He’s hooked up part of a radiation treatment machine to slowly fry her unless she breaks her arm and ankle. She uses the metal bar to break her ankle and get out of that chain. She starts beating at her wrist as the blisters on her face grow bigger and bigger. John tells Amanda to take her to the hospital.
Just then, Parker Sears grabs his gun and demands that Amanda give him the keys. He leads them both down to the “game area,” and it becomes clear that he’s been in on the con all along. He releases Cecilia and puts John in her trap in her place. John still wants Gabriela sent to the hospital, but Cecilia stabs her instead.
Cecilia stops and gloats over how she’s outsmarted John. She’s actually glad that John removed her accomplices, “loose ends.” She knew all along that he was Jigsaw. She hears the little boy, Carlos, outside playing ball and brings him inside to put in the same “game” as John.
Sears activates the game, and both John and Carlos are pulled to the floor in chains. Both of them take turns being drowned in blood, mostly John taking the worst of it. Which one will sacrifice the other? Sears and Cecilia go upstairs to get their cash. They grab the bag of money and a timer is triggered; they are in the true final game. The trap in the game room stops, and John, Amanda, and Carlos release themselves from the not-deadly trap and fake restraints. John tells little Carlos that he’s a warrior. We flash back to John disabling Sears’s gun. We also see Diego telling John all about Sears’s part in the scam.
Jigsaw comes on the speaker, telling them that he knew everything about their tricks all night. Gas starts flooding the room they are locked in. He says only one of them can survive the next trap. The gas is poison, but there’s a hole that one of them can breathe through. They fight over the hole, and Cecilia ends up stabbing Sears. She survives, but is injured, broke, and alone.
John takes Cecilia’s bag of money and gives it to Carlos. He and Amanda lead the boy outside.
In an after-credit scene, we see John get revenge on Henry, who showed him a fake scar and got this whole mess started. Detective Hoffman has caught him and says that Henry picked the absolute worst guy to scam.
Commentary
This is actually the first time that John is the main character, and not a policeman or other victim.
In Saw VI, John’s insurance denied him coverage for this treatment; in this one, he tries for it anyway. This one actually takes place between “Saw” and “Saw II.” How does a sickly old man in Mexico, who doesn’t speak the language at all, make these death machines? Billy and the audio tapes aren’t really necessary, since John is right there, personally involved this time, but they’re a nice connection to the other films.
Both Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith look way too old for a prequel movie, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. In all the films, John’s victims are criminals or otherwise deserve what they get, but this time it all seems much more personal and reasonable.
This might be the best of the series after the original.