Written by Leigh Whannell and directed by James Wan, 2004’s Saw launched one of the biggest horror franchises, which spanned seven years with seven consecutive movies until 2010, and resumed in 2017 with Jigsaw, for a fresh run that’s still ongoing. The Saw franchise follows the terrifying villain Jigsaw, who catches people and puts them through tests in the form of diabolical traps for them to prove their will to live and confront their inner demons. While innovative kills bring audiences to theaters, the franchise gets more confusing with every film.

There are simply too many retcons and plot twists for the Saw movies to make much chronological sense anymore. I generally don’t care about the plot holes because the painful deaths in the Saw horror franchise and the unique traps in each movie are the main attractions. However, rewatching the Saw movies after the depressing news about the cancellation of the new Saw movie left me feeling frustrated with some of the more glaring gaps in logic and continuity in the franchise. Its evolution into a twisted police procedural only to go back to a prequel makes things utterly confusing.

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Hoffman Impersonates Jigsaw in Saw V

How Long Has He Known About Jigsaw?

Since Jigsaw died in Saw III, most of the sequels follow other characters and jump back in time to make sense of their involvement, showing flashbacks to John Kramer’s (Tobin Bell) life before he died. However, due to the constant moving around in time, and the need to retroactively modify events to make new movies and create a somewhat logical flow of time, there are a few major plot holes that are confounding to rationalize. One such plot hole involves Detective Hoffman’s (Costas Mandylor) involvement in Jigsaw’s games.

By Saw V, Hoffman has become Jigsaw, but in one of the flashbacks, we also see him impersonating the killer, much before Kramer died, which prompts Jigsaw to kidnap him and blackmail him into helping him set up Paul’s trap. Hoffman must have found out about Jigsaw through his police work, and that’s why he impersonates him to kill Seth before the events of Saw. But, Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) says in Saw, that it was Paul’s death that was first recognized as Jigsaw’s work. How did Hoffman know about Jigsaw before Paul’s death and impersonate him to kill Seth?

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Some Jigsaw Traps Require Coordination or Faith

Why Is Everyone’s Fate Not In Their Own Hands?

Jigsaw’s entire philosophy is that he wants people to appreciate life and repent for their sins or their lack of healthy choices. He wants his victims to reflect on their lives and make decisions to protect themselves at all costs, while sacrificing something that caused others misery. However, he doesn’t always allow his victims the opportunity to do so, leaving their fate in other victims’ hands. For instance, the mausoleum trap in Saw IV involves a man with his lips sewn shut and a man with his eyes sewn shut.

The idea is for the one whose eyes are open to somehow communicate with the man whose mouth is open. How is this fair to the latter, who relies entirely on his partner’s ability to be innovative and guide him? Most of the traps in Saw III and Saw 3D require such coordination, or have victims just relying on someone else to save them. How is their willingness to live tested by such traps if they have no say in their fate apart from their ability to convince someone else to help them?

8

Logan Is An Early Apprentice In Jigsaw

How Has He Never Been Mentioned Before?

While it has a few memorable traps, especially the one starring Chester Bennington in one of my favorite movie cameos, Saw VII is one of the worst films in the franchise. So, the eighth film, 2017’s Jigsaw, feels like a breath of fresh air, especially because it has some diabolical traps I consider among the best in the franchise. However, one of the most important details in Jigsaw left me with more questions than answers because it further complicates an already confusing timeline.

Every character who works for Jigsaw is knowingly an apprentice of a serial killer. While the newly introduced apprentice in Jigsaw, Logan, shares Jigsaw’s deranged sense of righteousness, it makes me question if Jigsaw is even effective. Why is everyone who successfully changed their outlook on life and survived one of his traps immediately interested in aiding the psychopath who tortured them? Moreover, Logan has never been mentioned before, and not only is his introduction unnecessary, it is inexplicable how the man who helped Jigsaw build his iconic reverse bear trap was nowhere to be seen during 7 whole movies.

7

Not Every Jigsaw Victim Deserves To Be Trapped

His Intentions Become Murkier With Every Movie

I love watching the Saw movies because of how some of the characters react to being trapped by Jigsaw. From confessing to their sins, and desperate attempts to save themselves, to screaming the whole time, and surrendering to their fates, everyone has an interesting response to the Jigsaw traps. Not all of Jigsaw’s victims react like real people would, but it’s still an interesting character study to watch them. However, some of Jigsaw’s victims don’t deserve to be brutally tortured at all.

She doesn’t deserve such punishment for simply doing Sєx work.

Saw 3D‘s Sidney is perhaps my favorite example of Jigsaw’s blind spots, because being stuck in an abusive relationship shouldn’t condemn one to such a horrible fate. All Saw VI‘s Hank did was smoke, but for that, he was forced to die in a Jigsaw trap. Jigsaw’s worst transgression of them all has aged so poorly, it makes me reconsider the brilliance of one of the Saw movies’ most brutal traps. Addison from Saw II has her hands trapped in the razor box because she’s a Sєx worker. She doesn’t deserve such punishment for simply doing Sєx work.

6

John Could’ve Spent His Money Trying To Fight His Cancer

He Does, But He Also Doesn’t

One of the most unintentionally hilarious horror movie moments is in Saw VI, when Jigsaw gets distracted while talking to an insurance agent after noticing a piranha in the fish tank. Bell’s delivery of the one-word line always cracks me up. However, the focus of the scene is, of course, on John’s disagreement with his insurance agent, who says his company cannot cover the costs of John Kramer’s experimental treatment for his advanced cancer.

While John’s issue with the character is justified, because the insurance agent shuts down many legitimate claims, it’s still confusing that John didn’t do more. He claims he is very rich, and so, he can clearly afford to go to Norway for the experimental “suicide-cells” treatment. This is further complicated by Saw X, which does depict John going to Mexico to receive experimental treatment for his cancer. So, if he could afford it, why didn’t he just go to Norway? For a man who insists on doing everything you can for your survival, the risk and cost seem justifiable.

5

The Police Are Entirely Incompetent

They Make Stupid Decisions Throughout

It is a running gag in Hollywood movies that the police are incompetent and incapable of stopping any real criminals, but there are limits to how much you can suspend disbelief at questionable decisions made by police officers in movies. It is deeply frustrating that the only cop not interested in breaking the law, who is also good at his job, apart from Agent Strahm, who gets killed by Hoffman, is Chris Rock’s character from Spiral: From the Book of Saw.

I understand that Jigsaw is brilliant, and only an impersonator would be caught, but Jigsaw’s evasion of the police is overly dependent on them making mistakes. From the agents taking in Hoffman alone, despite him potentially being Jigsaw in their eyes, to Dan Erickson thinking Agent Strahm called him despite knowing his phone is in lockup, they make glaring mistakes all the time. Jigsaw involves Logan digging up Jigsaw’s corpse, but the cops can’t tell his grave has been tampered with when they attempt to dig up Jigsaw.

4

The Cellphone In Saw Can Receive Calls But Not Call 911

It Is A Manufacturing Requirement

2004’s Saw is a horror movie with a great villain twist that I adore. Every time I rewatch the movie, despite knowing the ending, I get taken by the moment Jigsaw stands up at the end and reveals that he was the fake corpse all along. It establishes him as a calculating villain who reads human nature perfectly, and expertly introduces audiences to the famous John Kramer/Jigsaw, setting up the more ridiculous mental manipulation he will attempt during his later trysts with traps in the franchise.

However, Saw is also an example of an oversight on the writers’ part, because not only is Adam’s (Leigh Whannell) task quite vague in comparison to Gordon’s, but it also overlooks a significantly common fact about mobile phones in the States. When Adam and Gordon find the phone, they can receive calls, but can’t place a call with it. It is a legal requirement for all phones that have a functioning connection to the network to allow 911 calls, irrespective of the phone’s build. If they can be called on it, they should be able to call 911 with it.

3

Bobby Convinced Everyone He Was a Jigsaw Survivor

What Evidence Did He Provide?

Among Saw 3D‘s other major flaws is its choice of protagonist. Bobby Dagen is hailed as a survivor of a Jigsaw trap in the film, and he even publishes a book on his experience, which earns him a significant sum of money. He might sound convincing to an amateur who knows nothing about Jigsaw, but if you listen closely to him talk, it couldn’t be clearer that he was faking being a Jigsaw survivor just for the clout and the money.

While this is an intriguing premise to create a diabolical character, it makes no sense that someone can successfully fake being a Jigsaw survivor. Let alone to us viewers, it is also obvious to the cops and journalists in the world of the Saw movies that Jigsaw’s traps are diabolical and torturous, and leave people severely injured or nearly dying. While he might have intentionally stabbed himself to convince the police that he had survived, the lack of any major damage should have been telling, and the police should not have been fooled by self-inflicted wounds.

2

John Sets Up Too Many Jigsaw Traps

The Timeline Is Confusing

One of the best movies from the last decade that turned out amazing despite my low expectations is Saw X, which properly rejuvenated my interest in the franchise that seemed to be dying out due to a lack of creativity. It is a brilliant prequel that adds to John Kramer’s mythos as Jigsaw by showing him operating elsewhere as the serial killer. However, its connection to the existing movies makes the franchise’s timeline even more confounding.

The time gap between the flashbacks in Jigsaw and Saw III is incredibly short.

Chronologically speaking, the first Jigsaw trap among the ones we see is in Jigsaw. This is followed by Saw, and then by Saw X. The Saw X end credits put the film’s events very close to those of Saw and Saw II. Since he died in Saw III, the traps in that film are John Kramer’s last as Jigsaw. However, the time gap between the flashbacks in Jigsaw and Saw III is incredibly short for a dying cancer patient to successfully set up these many traps. He couldn’t have done research on his victims and kidnapped them within that time.

1

Jigsaw, Amanda, Hoffman, Gordon, And Logan Independently Make The Traps

The Time And Skill Limitations Are Impossible To Ignore

My biggest source of contention with the Saw movies directly involves my favorite thing about them – the iconic Jigsaw traps. They’re all brilliant examples of cruel engineering which ingeniously presents their victims with harsh circumstances. The debate about the best Jigsaw trap will forever rage on, but we can all agree that some of them are innovative and twisted beyond our imagination, and should have demanded expertise, resources, and time of Jigsaw and his accomplices.

However, apart from John, none of them are real engineers, and John, albeit a genius, is literally dying of cancer throughout the franchise. He is rich, and can surely gather the means necessary to set up the traps quite conveniently. However, as the existence of blueprints in the movies suggests, the traps are created and set by Jigsaw and his apprentices. It is unclear how a cancer patient, a recovering drug addict, two dangerous doctors, and one corrupt agent can create all these traps in the little time that the franchise affords them in Saw.