9 Sept 2026
GHMC 129 - Saw (2004)
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THANKS TO ANDREW FOR MAKING THE INTRO SONG. (soundcloud.com / andoryukesuta)@andoryukesuta
Adam Stanheight, a photographer, awakens in a dilapidated bathtub with his ankle chained to a pipe. Across the room is oncologist Dr. Lawrence Gordon, and between them is the corpse of a suicide victim holding a revolver and a microcassette recorder. Both men find a tape in their pockets, and Adam retrieves the recorder. Adam's tape urges him to survive, while Lawrence's tape orders him to kill Adam by 6:00, or his wife, Alison, and daughter, Diana, will be murdered. After listening to the tapes, the duo uncovers a clue leading Adam to find a bag containing two hacksaws inside the toilet. Both men try to saw through their chains, but Adam's saw breaks. Lawrence realizes that the saws are intended for their feet, and identifies their captor as the Jigsaw Killer, a serial killer who tests his victims' will to survive through murderous contraptions known as "games"; Lawrence knows about him because he was once a suspect.
Five months prior, Lawrence, after discussing the terminal brain cancer of patient John Kramer with his medical interns, was interrogated by detectives David Tapp and Steven Sing, who found his penlight at the scene of one of Jigsaw's games. Lawrence's alibi cleared him, but he agreed to view the testimony of heroin addict Amanda Young, the only known survivor of one of Jigsaw's traps. Tapp and Sing later found Jigsaw's warehouse using the videotape from Amanda's game. There, they detained Jigsaw and saved a man from a trap, but Jigsaw managed to escape after he critically injured Tapp; Sing was killed by a shotgun trap.
In the present, Alison and Diana are tied up and gagged in their apartment, as their captor watches Adam and Lawrence through a hidden camera. The house is simultaneously watched by Tapp who, after being discharged from the police following Sing's death, has become obsessed with the Jigsaw case, and remains convinced that Lawrence is the killer. Meanwhile, Lawrence finds a box containing two cigarettes, a lighter, and a one-way cellphone. Adam asks Lawrence for the cigarette but Lawrence discourages this. He recounts his abduction in a parking garage by a pig-masked figure. Adam recalls his own abduction when he returned home to find a puppet in his darkroom, where he stored photos of Lawrence.
