Would you believe that it’s been nearly 20 years since Saw first hit cinemas? Not only that but would you believe that the franchise is still going strong? In fact, Billy the Puppet and his demented life lessons are coming back this May in the upcoming soft reboot Spiral: From the Book of Saw, which stars Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson. While long-time Saw fans are excited about the franchise’s signature gruesome traps, another thing they can’t wait for is the plot twists.
Despite it being derided as a torture porn franchise (which it arguably is), Saw actually has an intricate lore with many twists and turns that either made or broke the movie they were in. So before Spiral finally reveals its game and how exactly it connects to the previous movies, here is every Saw twist ending, ranked from worst to best. Obviously, spoilers ahead. Make your choice.
8 Rigg Opens The Wrong Door & A New Apprentice (Saw IV)
Saw IV ends on a downer note when Riggs refuses to listen to caution and barges into a locked room. For his troubles, he’s shot, the person he was trying to rescue (Det. Eric Matthews from Saw II) dies, and Marc Hoffman – the newest Jigsaw apprentice – walks away. Rigg’s fatal mistake isn’t the problem; it’s the reason for it. Apparently, he needed to be taught a lesson about his crippling obsession for saving people.
When put beside Jigsaw’s other victims, Riggs’s offense is incredibly insignificant and dumb. The solution to the traps was for Rigg to do absolutely nothing because kicking unsecured doors is apparently punishable in Jigsaw’s eyes. Hoffman’s reveal was also more sudden than rewarding, although it (and the fractured timeline) did set up some interesting groundwork and the theme of legacy for Saw’s future.
7 Dr. Gordon Is The New Jigsaw (Saw 3D)
Just when Hoffman is about to evade justice once more after his improbable masterplans work perfectly (again), he’s knocked out and thrown into a familiar bathroom by none other than Dr. Gordon, now one of Jigsaw’s most loyal disciples. Given how the seventh Saw brought the franchise full circle, this twist should be the series’ best but instead, it falls flat.
Dr. Gordon’s reveal as the next Jigsaw needed to be as long as Hoffman’s arc or at least been Saw 3D’s focus for it to be truly impactful. As it is, it’s just an Easter Egg turned into a plot twist for shock value’s sake. It doesn’t help that sharp-minded fans accurately predicted this turn way back when Saw II was still in cinemas. Calling Saw 3D underwhelming is an understatement.
6 Twisted Timelines & Another First Apprentice (Jigsaw)
Jigsaw was meant to be a soft reboot but it only repeated many of the franchise’s mistakes. Two major errors stand out, namely 1) another “original” apprentice (i.e. Logan) is retroactively introduced and treated as a bigger deal than they really are and 2) the timelines aren’t what they seem. These twists worked perfectly in Saw II (more on that later), but seeing them again doesn’t elicit the same shock they once did.
Making matters worse is that Logan’s reveal contradicts the series’ core philosophy, as he masterminded an entire game for revenge – something Jigsaw claims he’s above. Logan could add a philosophical motive or two to his final speech, but it's still plain old revenge nonetheless. Jigsaw tried to fix Jigsaw’s flawed and oft misinterpreted moral code that's gotten lost in the sequels' shuffle, but it only succeeds in muddying things further.
5 Friendship Is Magic & Hoffman’s Victory (Saw V)
Saw V revisits the team dynamic of Saw II but changes things a bit. Instead of a lesson about survival or poetic justice, the victims actually have to work together to survive. It’s a sensible lesson but a weirdly misplaced and saccharine one in a franchise known for its nihilistic view on human nature.
The saving grace is Hoffman’s win, which came as a surprise to some. Saw V set up Agent Strahm as the series’ new protagonist, only for him to have the walls literally close in on him. Instead, it’s actually the two-faced Hoffman who would lead the next two sequels. While his winning streak would devolve into ridiculous cartoonish implausibility, there was some fun to be had watching Hoffman’s streak begin here.
4 Healthcare & Hoffman’s Test (Saw VI)
The only thing more satisfying than watching a villainous mastermind outsmart the heroes is seeing them finally get their comeuppance. Saw VI offers this catharsis not once but twice through William Easton’s and Hoffman’s tests.
William Easton – the slimy healthcare executive who denied Jigsaw’s medical coverage – and Hoffman have been getting away with a lot of shady and downright terrible things for quite some time, so seeing them face grisly justice Saw-style was gratifying. Granted, Easton’s connection to Jigsaw and his representing the American healthcare system may feel like the franchise was grasping at straws. However, finding out that he’s more pathetic than vile and that he himself was a test for people he trampled on was pretty clever.
That, and we’d be lying if we said that Easton’s brutal death (a stomach-churning one even by Saw standards) and Hoffman getting outsmarted by Jigsaw’s widow Jill Tuck didn't satisfy our inner gorehounds.
3 It Was Amanda’s Test (Saw III)
Saw III’s central test is Jeff’s, a man who destroyed his own life by letting a previous tragedy consume him. Unbeknownst to everyone but Jigsaw, though, is that there’s another person being tested: Amanda, his apprentice.
Make no mistake, Jigsaw has a warped way of teaching people how to make the most of their life, but even he has some standards. His traps are meant to torture, not kill. Meanwhile, Amanda’s traps murder people so that she could vent out her frustrations on others. Jigsaw secretly gave her a game to redeem herself, but her uncontrollable rage got the better of her and she paid with her life.
Her painful and surprisingly tragic death cemented Saw as a slasher franchise with some depth, and this would’ve been the perfect trilogy capper. Unfortunately, the sequels and retroactive reveals about Hoffman manipulating Amanda would rob this ending of its emotional impact and finality.
2 Twisted Timelines & Jigsaw’s Original Apprentice (Saw II)
Saw sequels giving Jigsaw countless apprentices and way too many flashbacks may seem like hackneyed plot crutches today but when they first happened, they were unexpected and shocking. Case in point: Saw II.
In the first sequel’s final minutes, it’s revealed that the game in the abandoned house was all taped beforehand and that Daniel (Det. Matthew’s son) is safe… in a safe literally beside him. Also, Amanda was helping Jigsaw out this whole time, having been converted to his philosophy after surviving the reverse bear trap from the first film.
Saw II didn’t just change the status quo but it built an entirely new one, forcing viewers to mistrust the events they were witnessing while also second-guessing each victim’s possible ulterior motives. So large was this follow-up’s impact on the franchise that every succeeding sequel aped it in one way or another, but always to diminishing results.
1 Hello Zep & The Living Corpse (Saw)
The Saw movies may be (in)famous for their complex mythos and elaborate deaths traps, but the franchise was always at its best when it kept things simple. This was and remains the case for Saw, which many fans still rightfully uphold as the franchise’s best.
Saw ended with two major reveals, the first being that Zep – the man heavily implied to be the mastermind – was actually blackmailed into working for Jigsaw. The second is that the dead body in the middle of the bathroom was alive this whole time, listening to Dr. Gordon and Adam reveal their darkest secrets. Not only that, but it’s Jigsaw himself, who personally oversaw the whole test.
Many of the sequels’ weaker twists feel more like jump scares and last-minute corrections instead of appropriately harrowing revelations. Meanwhile, Saw’s mundane yet highly effective twists shine a new light on the events that just transpired, giving the movie that started it all plenty of repeat value and layers to unfold.
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