The Evolution of JIGSAW / SAW's Antagonists

In the first Saw, a photographer, Adam, and an Oncologist, Dr. Lawrence Gordon, are both captured by a stranger in a pig mask with long human hair, then locked in a bathroom with a seemingly dead body. They're made to play a sadistic game designed to teach them a life lesson by their captor – Jigsaw, and while Dr. Gordon slices himself free, Adam is able to take out Jigsaw – just joking, turns out Adam only eliminates another one of Jigsaw’s victims, simply following the mastermind’s rules. As it turns out, the dead body on the floor was actually the very much alive John Kramer, AKA the Jigsaw Killer – a former cancer patient of Dr. Gordon. I know. This movie is full of twists.

In Saw II, John Kramer is caught by Detective Mathews, while another one of his sadistic games begins, which includes Detective Mathew's own son and Amanda – a former victim of Jigsaw who is now secretly working alongside him, and was apparently the stranger in the pig costume... John Kramer confesses to Mathews that after his cancer diagnosis, he attempted to end his own life, but when he got a second chance, he gained a new appreciation for living, which motivated him to create his games and offer his victims that same appreciation...by torturing them. Despite this heartfelt speech, Detective Mathews beats Kramer into a pulp, until he tells him where his son is. But...the plan backfires as Jigsaw sets him up and Amanda locks him away.

Saw III finds John Kramer now bedridden and forcing a Doctor, Lynn Denlon, to keep him alive with an impromptu brain surgery. But his apprentice Amanda – driven by envy by how close John and the Doctor seem, shoots Lynn, only to be struck by a bullet fired by the Doctor's husband, Jeff — John Kramer’s latest test subject – all a malicious plan created by Jigsaw himself, who didn’t want a full-on murderer like Amanda to take up his mantle. Meanwhile, Jeff takes revenge on John with a buzz-saw.

In Saw IV, it’s revealed that Detective Mathews was kept alive to be a part of a new game alongside another Detective, Mark Hoffman, both being used as bait for their fellow Detective, Rigg — but when Rigg tries to save them he accidentally sets off their traps, seemingly killing them both. But it turns out Hoffman is very much alive and apparently yet another sucker working alongside Jigsaw. Meanwhile, in a flashback John Kramer’s wife, Jill Tuck, has a miscarriage, which inspires Jigsaw's first ever game to teach the responsible party a lesson. Back in the present, the film ends with John Kramer’s autopsy – revealing he left a final cassette tape for Hoffman.

Saw V, in flashbacks, shows how Hoffman copied Jigsaw’s M.O. to take revenge on his sister's killer, followed by Jigsaw abducting Hoffman and blackmailing him to become his apprentice. In the present, Hoffman's ally, Agent Strahm, suspects Hoffman is involved with Jigsaw and pursues him, only to be tricked into an unbeatable trap as Hoffman gets away.

In Saw VI, Hoffman plants evidence to make it seem Strahm is Jigsaw’s accomplice. Concurrently, it’s also revealed that Amanda aided the criminal who caused Jill Tuck’s miscarriage, and was coerced by Hoffman with this information to shoot the Doctor in Saw 3, resulting in Amanda’s own death. Hoffman, in the present, is found out by his fellow Detectives to be Jigsaw’s real apprentice and goes on a kill-spree for his freedom. But Jill captures Hoffman, as requested in Jigsaw's will, and fits him with a reverse-bear trap – which Hoffman narrowly escapes.

Saw: The Final Chapter follows Hoffman hunting down Jill Tuck – and outfitting her in the lethal reverse bear trap instead. Hoffman then proceeds to escape but is caught by three pig masked individuals, led by Dr. Gordon, who after crawling from his trap in the first movie was nursed back to health by Jigsaw, and surprise, surprise, became his accomplice. Dr. Gordon then proceeds to chain Hoffman up and leaves him for dead in the very same bathroom he, himself, was once trapped in.

Nearly a decade after John Kramer died a new batch of victims start cropping up in 2017’s Jigsaw – as John is apparently still alive and running a new game — just joking, this is just a fake-out flashback, and in fact, Logan Nelson, a pathologist, is the new mastermind. After previously mislabelling John Kramer’s cancer X-Ray, Logan was put into a Jigsaw game, but survived and, yup, you guessed it, was yet another trainee taken under the late John Kramer's wing. Using his Jigsaw knowledge, Logan frames and takes out the corrupt cop who let his wife's killer free.

In the latest film, Spiral: From the Book of Saw a pig-masked copycat is targeting corrupt cops. Detective Zeke Banks and his new rookie partner, William Schenk, are on the case. But after Schenk goes missing he's presumed to have fallen victim to the latest copycat, only for it to be revealed that he faked his own death and is in fact himself the copycat killer. Apparently, when younger, Schenk's father was killed by a dirty cop, so he decided to take on Jigsaw's M.O. While Schenk invites Zeke to join him in taking down corrupt cops, Zeke instead opts to save his captured father, giving Schenk the opportunity to escape.