- Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman
- Written by Josh Stolberg, Pete Goldfinger
- Stars Chris Rock, Samuel L. Jackson, Max Minghella
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzy6ORqE9IY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was set in the same universe as the “Saw” movies and a sort of spinoff. It was well made, with realistic effects and decent acting. But it managed to be a little bland and, we thought, easy to solve the mystery. If you’re a fan of the series, you might want to see it for completion, but we don’t give it a high recommendation.
Spoilery Synopsis
A purse snatcher runs through a crowded carnival, and another guy with a gun chases him down into the subway tunnels. A man with a pig mask grabs him from behind. He wakes up inside a machine that is chained to his tongue, and he’s balanced over the track. The pigman comes on the screen and says he wants to play a game. He is accused of lying on the stand to put innocent people in jail. The only way he can get out of the trap is to rip his own tongue off. He takes too long and the train hits him. Credits roll.
Zeke Banks goes on a tirade about Forrest Gump, how he died of AIDS from Jenny, which is why there was never a sequel. His friends then break into the hotel room next door and steal a bunch of money from drug dealers. Then a dozen cops arrest them all; turns out Zeke is an undercover cop.
Captain Garza chews out Zeke for being a lone wolf cop. She assigned Detective Schenk to be his new partner and babysitter. Zeke turned in a bad cop twelve years ago and has been paying for it ever since. They are assigned to investigate a case where a guy got hit by a train. Zeke and Schenk talk about how hard it is to be a cop. They find the guy from the opening scene– or what’s left of him.
Back at the station, Zeke gets a flash drive that says, “Play Me.” The spiral on the tape hints that it’s related to the Jigsaw killings, but that was a long time ago, and this might be a copycat killing of some kind. They find the man’s tongue and badge– he was Boz, a cop friend of Zeke’s.
Zeke takes charge of the case, which annoys many of the other detectives. He goes to see Kara, Boz’s wife. Lisa, Zeke’s wife, is there as well. Zeke goes home and finds Marcus, his father, a retired cop, already there; they argue.
The detectives all get together and talk about the evidence they don’t have. Detective Finch finds out that Boz was chasing a small-time crook named Benny and steals a gun from a shop. Finch goes to where Benny stays but someone grabs him from behind and puts him into a machine.
We flashback to when Zeke turned in Pete, the dirty cop. Zeke’s father Marcus was the police chief at the time, and he was not happy about the situation. Zeke gets another video taunting him and the police. It leads them to a box of fingers and Finch’s badge. We flashback to Finch not doing his job when Zeke got shot. We then flash to what happened to Finch– he was in a finger-pulling-off machine.
Checking out enemies, Zeke goes to see Pete, the cop he got thrown off the force. He’s uncooperative, but still tells Zeke what he needs to know. Zeke gets another box, and this one has a doll wearing skin off Schenk’s arm. The little paint bottle included leads them to a hobby shop where they find Schenk’s skinned body.
Meanwhile, Captain Garza gets gassed in the cold-case room and passes out. The pig-mask guy is there and puts her in the next contraption. The tape comes on and says she covers up the corruption in her department. This machine, as with Finch, is a no-win situation, and she dies painfully.
O’Brien suggests that Marcus may be involved, since he knew about the hobby shop location, and Zeke hits him. Both Pete and Marcus had access to the security camera footage at the police station. Someone grabs Zeke. We cut to Marcus, checking out a “spiral” location. There’s a note asking if he wants to play a game. Someone grabs him as well.
Zeke wakes up chained to a pipe with a hacksaw within reach. He could cut his arm off– or he could use the hairpin to pick the lock. He gets out and finds Pete hanging from his hands from the roof. Pete denies knowing anything about anything that’s been going on. They play a tape and hear about Pete’s crime. This particular trap shoots broken glass at Pete unless Zeke can unlock the padlocks holding him there. Zeke finds the key, but it’s too late for Pete.
Zeke goes into the next room and finds Schenk there, not dead after all. Pete killed Schenk’s father. Schenk lied about everything else. Pete, Finch, Boz, and the others were all crooked, not like Zeke. Schenk wants to partner up with Zeke to “clean up” the police force. Schenk shows Zeke into a room where his father hangs from chains. Zeke has one bullet to either shoot Schenk or free Marcus. He reveals that Marcus was the one who corrupted the police force in the first place.
Zeke shoots the trap and releases Marcus. He chases and beats up Schenck. The police arrive outside and start cutting through the steel door. They cut through a cable that pulls Marcus right back up again like a puppet on strings. The cables on Marcus make him raise a gun and point it at the cops, who blow him away excessively.
Schenk takes the elevator and gets away.
Commentary
Kevin felt early on that Schenk would turn out to be the killer. I thought it was more likely Marcus. Both of them were apparently eliminated as suspects well before the end, but either could have been a red herring.
This is more of a side-story to the main series, as it’s a copycat killer, but John/Jigsaw doesn’t appear at all in this one. Since it’s not John, the rules are different, and we never really know why any of this is happening until the end.
I will quote Kevin on this one, “It was OK.” Definitely not up to the rest of the series, but not bad in itself.
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