Before Saw
Jonas Singer and Xavier Chavez are sentenced to imprisonment at the Joliet Correctional Center.
Amanda Young is sentenced to imprisonment for drug possession and becomes addicted to heroin during her time in jail.
Detective Mark Hoffman and Officer Daniel Rigg interrogate Jane at her school due to her being physically abused by her violent father Rex, which she denies out of fear. In front of his cowed wife, Morgan, Rigg attacks Rex and breaks his nose.
Rex tries to take legal proceedings against Rigg, which are dismissed due to an incorrect statutory declaration by Mark Hoffman.
Art Blank successfully defends Rex against the accuses of abuse due to his wife refusing to testify against him.
Mark Hoffman’s sister, Angelina Acomb, is brutally murdered by her boyfriend, Seth Baxter, during a domestic dispute, resulting in Hoffman suffering from depression.
Seth Baxter is sentenced to a life imprisonment for murder.
The Clear Dawn mental facility is shut down by the state, resulting in the release of several inmates.
Due to an emergency call, Officer Matt Gibson enters the old crossroad factory and is attacked by a former patient of Clear Dawn.
Mark Hoffman arrives at the factory and shoots the aggressor despite him dropping his weapon.
Matt Gibson reports Mark Hoffman to the police.
Mark Hoffman is promoted while Matt Gibson is transferred to the internal affairs department.
As an internal affairs officer, Matt Gibson convicts three of Mark Hoffman’s colleagues of unspecified offences, resulting in Hoffman swearing revenge against him.
While drunk, Timothy Young causes a car accident, resulting in the death of Dylan Denlon.
The only witness of the car crash, Danica Scott, refuses to testify against Timothy Young which causes the presiding judge, Halden, to sentence him to imprisonment for merely six months.
Their son’s death and Timothy Young’s mild punishment results in both Lynn and Jeff Denlon suffering from depression, causing them to neglect each other as well as their daughter Corbett.
Logan Nelson and Keith Hunt fought together in the war in Iraq. Logan got captured and tortured by their enemies. He was eventually rescued, but was left with trauma, leading to his discharge from the military.
Ryan causes a car accident that kills his two high school friends and another driver, whilst incriminating one of the former for it.
John Kramer designs his first building, the Gideon Meatpacking Plant on 11235 Blake Drive.
John Kramer encourages his wife, Jill Kramer, to open the Homeward Bound Clinic for drug addicts under the motto “Cherish your life”.
Following her release from imprisonment, Amanda Young becomes a patient at Jill’s clinic.
The manager of the Umbrella Health insurance company and brother of journalist Pamela Jenkins, William Easton, sponsors a party for the Homeward Bound clinic where he gets to know John Kramer, who asks him about his dubious commercial practices.
The clinic gets several new patients, including Paul Leahy, Donnie Greco, Michael Marks, Gus Colyard, Troy, Derek and Cecil Adams.
Jill becomes pregnant and her son, Gideon, is planned to be born during the year of the pig in the Chinese zodiac.
John Kramer shows Jill his new workshop and surprises her with a crib and a wooden puppet for their son.
John Kramer, leader of the Urban Renewal Company, and his lawyer, Art Blank, work together on a project regarding the creation of new housing for needy families.
Art Blank successfully defends the pimp Brenda and the threefold rapist Ivan Landsness.
During a brawl between Gus Colyard and Cecil Adams at the Homeward Bound Clinic, John Kramer makes acquaintance with the latter.
While waiting for Jill in front of the clinic, John Kramer makes acquaintance with the prostitute Addison Corday who offers him her company, which he rejects.
Amanda Young persuades Cecil Adams to a robbery at the clinic which results in him inadvertently slamming a doorknob into Jill’s stomach, causing a miscarriage.
Cecil flees from the clinic.
John Kramer finds Jill and takes her to the Angel of Mercy Hospital, but despite their efforts, the doctors aren’t able to save the life of John and Jill’s unborn child.
Following Gideon’s death, John suffers from severe depression, causing him to withdraw from both his wife and the project he and Art Blank were involved in, which results in a dispute between John and the latter.
John decides to have an X-ray on his skull but the medical examiner in charge of reading the results makes a mistake, changing the names of the patients, resulting in John’s brain tumour remaining undiagnosed, allowing it to grow into an inoperable state.
Some time later, the oncologist Dr. Lawrence Gordon diagnoses John with an inoperable brain tumour.
John attempts to commit suicide by driving his car over a cliff, but survives, despite being heavily injured and decides to spend the rest of his life testing other people’s will to survive.
John separates from Jill, who reverts to her maiden name, Tuck.
John decides to move to a new house, where Anna, Matthew and their baby were his neighbours.
Anna asphyxiated her baby because she was stressed by her crying, John Kramer witnessed the scene.
John abducts Cecil Adams during a Chinese street festival while wearing a pig mask, and forces him into his first trap.
Cecil survives, albeit heavily injured, but dies when he lunges to attack John, who sidesteps, causing Cecil to fall into a cage full of razor wire. After bleeding out, John cuts a jigsaw piece out of Cecil’s skin.
John builds the Glass Coffin.
Carly begins to commit minor thefts in the city but ends up killing an asthmatic woman after stealing her purse, which contains her inhaler.
The police find Cecil Adams’ corpse and create a case file under the name of Cecil Fletcher.
Because of the jigsaw piece cut from Cecil’s body, the police and newspapers give John Kramer the nickname “The Jigsaw Killer” or simply “Jigsaw”. Detective David Tapp takes on the lead position on the case.
After finding out about Cecil’s death, Jill visits John in his workshop, confronting him with the newspaper and photos of Cecil she finds on a workbench, resulting in another dispute between them, causing Jill to leave.
Mitch sells a faulty motorcycle to John’s Nephew, causing his death in a car accident.
Dr. Lawrence Gordon starts an affair with his medical trainee, Carla.
Due to his new way of life, John is looking for people whose will to survive he wants to test and finds some.
Saw
David Tapp, calling himself “Bob”, hires the photographer Adam Stanheight to observe Dr. Gordon in return for a payment of $200 per night.
Adam agrees, observes and takes photos of Dr. Gordon.
John Kramer abducts Zep Hindle and forces him to participate in his next test.
Zep breaks into Dr. Gordon’s apartment and hides inside Diana Gordon’s closet.
Carla contacts Dr. Gordon, asking him to meet her at a motel.
After Gordon leaves the apartment, Zep captures Alison and Diana Gordon and ties them up in Alison and her husband’s bedroom. Unnoticed by him, David Tapp takes a photo of him when watching out of the window.
Adam follows Dr. Gordon to the motel.
Gordon refuses to sleep with Carla and puts an end to their affair.
Zep anonymously calls Gordon in the motel, causing him to leave.
Gordon is abducted in a car park and taken to an underground bathroom where he has to survive one of Jigsaw’s games.
Adam returns to his apartment to develop the photos for Tapp.
Amanda Young breaks into Adam’s apartment, abducts him and takes him to the same bathroom as Dr. Gordon.
John and Amanda prepare Adam and Dr. Gordon’s Test.
Amanda leaves the bathroom while John stays and poses as an allegedly dead body.
Dr. Gordon and Adam awake and their game plays out, leading to Gordon failing his task to kill Adam until 6:00 o’clock.
Zep forces Alison to call Gordon to tell him about his failure, but gets into a fight with her, resulting in a shoot-out.
Tapp enters Dr. Gordon’s house, offering both Alison and Diana a chance to flee.
Alison and Diana flee to their neighbors who call the police.
While listening to the shoot-out, Gordon suffers a mental breakdown, leading to him sawing off his own foot and shooting Adam in an attempt to kill him.
Tapp pursues Zep to an underground tunnel network connected to the bathroom, but is shot by the latter during a melee.
Zep reaches the bathroom and tries to shoot Dr. Gordon in order to complete his own test but is overpowered by Adam who survived the gunshot and smashes the aggressors head with a toilet lid.
A heavily injured Dr. Gordon promises Adam to come back with help before crawling out of the bathroom.
While searching Zep’s corpse for a key for his shackle, Adam find’s Zep’s instruction tape, revealing that Zep himself was also just a victim of the real Jigsaw.
John Kramer stands up, revealing to Adam that the key for his shackle lies inside the bathtub. Upon realizing the key went down the drain when he woke up, Adam starts to panic and tries to shoot John who subdues him and leaves him to die alone in the bathroom.
Between Saw & Saw X
John finds Dr. Gordon unconscious in the hallway outside the bathroom and nurses him back to health.
Dr. Gordon becomes John’s fourth apprentice.
Due to nightmares and feelings of guilt, Amanda Young returns to the bathroom and suffocates Adam with a plastic bag in order to grant him a quick death.
Detective Eric Matthews starts an affair with his fellow colleague Detective Allison Kerry, resulting in him alienating from his son Daniel and his wife, who subsequently files for divorce.
Due to his violent and aggressive behavior towards suspects, Eric is investigated by the internal affairs department.
Dr. Lawrence Gordon leaves the Angel of Mercy Hospital and starts working at the Saint Eustace Hospital.
Joan is tested by Jigsaw and survives.
Bobby Dagen and his best friend, Cale, watch Joan on TV when she tells her story of surviving one of Jigsaw’s games.
In order to become rich and famous, Bobby Dagen publishes his book “S.U.R.V.I.V.E. – My story of overcoming Jigsaw”, in which he talks about his experience of surviving one of Jigsaw’s test on his own which in fact never happened. He receives support from Cale, his publicist Nina, his lawyer Suzanne and his wife Joyce, with the latter being the only one who doesn’t know about his lies.
During an autograph session, John Kramer talks to Bobby and hints at his lie before leaving with a signed copy of his book.
John finds out about an experimental therapy developed by a Norwegian doctor from Henry Kessler and asks William Easton to bear the treatment costs which he repeatedly denies due to the low probability of success, resulting in a dispute between them.
William Easton denies coverage for the treatment costs for Harold Abbott who suffers from a heart disease, ultimately resulting in Harold’s death.
Tara and Brent Abbott sue the Umbrella Insurance Company.