Jigsaw (2017)

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Lore & Background

The film expands the mythology by revealing that John Kramer recruited his first apprentice, Logan Nelson, ten years before the events of the main series. After Logan mislabeled John's X-rays, causing his cancer to go undiagnosed, John saved him from a barn game and made him his first apprentice. Logan later recreated the barn games, choosing victims from criminals that Detective Halloran let go, and framed Halloran as the new Jigsaw Killer as revenge for releasing Edgar Munsen, who killed Logan's wife. The film also introduces Eleanor Bonneville, a Jigsaw fangirl whose studio contains a corpse appearing to be Mitch, though she is later cleared of suspicion. The narrative suggests a new generation of disciples has taken up the mantle, continuing to trap individuals in moral dilemmas, reinforcing the franchise's core message that true value is found only when life is at stake.

In Their Own Story

Detectives Brad Halloran and Keith Hunt pursue Edgar Munsen, who claims that he must start a "game" in exchange for his own survival. He activates a remote trigger, and is then shot and collapses. Five people – Mitch, Anna, Ryan, Carly, and an unconscious man – awaken inside a barn with buckets on their heads and chains around their necks. A tape recording from John Kramer explains that they must each sacrifice blood to survive before the chains pull them towards a wall of buzzsaws. Most of the group escapes by cutting themselves, except for the unconscious man, who awakens too late. Their next test reveals that Carly, a purse snatcher, accidentally caused the death of an asthmatic woman. To save the others from being hanged, she must inject herself with one of three needles – one an antidote to a poison in her system, another being saline, and the last one acid. She refuses, so Ryan injects her with all three, killing her but saving the others. In their third test, Ryan attempts to escape the barn, but his leg falls through loose floorboards, and is ensnared by wires. Another tape recorder reveals that he will be punished for breaking the rules and must pull a lever to be "set free." Anna and Mitch become trapped inside a silo, forcing Ryan to pull the lever and sever his leg to rescue them.

Reader's Guide

The narrative centers on five strangers locked inside a barn, forced to confront past sins while detectives investigate the mysterious circumstances surrounding the new murders. The film was conceived when writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger, who had spent two years pursuing the opportunity to write a Saw entry, proposed their vision. Their original pitch took place in an oil derrick in the middle of the ocean, but that element didn't convince Lionsgate. They settled on the idea of telling the story through a time shift storyline like in previous Saw films, but in a different way. Their first draft for the film originally took place outside entirely, but the idea didn't work out and they resolved to set the plot in a barn. In July 2016, Michael and Peter Spierig signed on to co-direct the film. Charlie Clouser, who provided the score for all previous entries in the Saw series, returned to score Jigsaw. With a production budget of $10 million, principal photography took place from early October into November 2016 in Toronto under the working title, Saw Legacy. The film was released by Lionsgate Films on October 27, 2017, and received negative reviews. It was followed by a standalone installment in the series, titled Spiral: From the Book of Saw, in 2021.

Did You Know?

• The film was originally conceived with a pitch set in an oil derrick in the middle of the ocean, but that element didn't convince Lionsgate.
• Principal photography took place in Toronto under the working title 'Saw Legacy'.
• The film's budget was $10 million, and it grossed $104.2 million worldwide.
• Charlie Clouser returned to score the film, describing it as a 'reinvention' of the series.
• Hannah Emily Anderson originally signed to play Eleanor Bonneville in three films, but the latter two never materialized.