Before Saw
John abducts five people and puts them to Jill’s abandoned barn to his very first game of The Murderers’ Trial. The victims of this trap were: Mitch, Anna, Ryan, Carly and Logan Nelson.
During the initial Bucket Head trap, Logan failed to wake up until the four others had freed themselves and begun to move on to the second test, not allowing him to hear Anna’s realization that to be released from the headpiece, they would need to cut themselves.
Before he could be pulled further into the blades, John entered the room and released Logan from the bucket headpiece, deciding that Logan should not have to die because of his own unintentional miscalculation. John proceeded to take him back to his lab and mend his wounds. Feeling gratitude towards John for sparing him, Logan began to work alongside him as his first disciple.
After all the traps were survived and everyone but Anna and Ryan died, they kidnapped again and taken to another room by John, who gave them their last chance to follow his rules to survive.
Anna accidentally shoots herself with a reverse-engineered shotgun created by John to shoot backwards, and Ryan also dies of massive blood loss due to his severed leg.
John disappears, leaving his two dead test objects behind.
A while after the games in Jill’s abandoned barn, John Kramer and his very first accomplice, Logan Nelson, built the original Reverse Beartrap.
For unknown reasons, their partnership seems to end sometime later and both go their separate ways.
Paul Leahy unsuccessfully attempts to commit suicide by cutting his wrists.
Detective Mark Hoffman abducts Seth Baxter and puts him into a trap. As the trap was rigged to be inescapable, Seth has no chance to survive even after completing his task, resulting in him being killed by a giant pendulum in front of Hoffman’s eyes, who cuts a jigsaw piece out of his victim’s skin in order to make the murder look like another one of John Kramer’s tests.
After finding Seth Baxter’s corpse, Detective Mark Hoffman and Detective Fisk investigate the crime scene.
John Kramer gathers evidence that Hoffman murdered Seth and sends him an anonymous message, stating that he knows about his secret.
John abducts Hoffman straps him to the Shotgun Chair.
John reveals himself to be the Jigsaw Killer and asks Hoffman to help him set up his future games, telling him that, if he did not, John would ensure the police would discover that Hoffman was behind the murder of Seth Baxter. After a short argument, Hoffman finally agrees.
John and Hoffman attack a drunk Paul Leahy in his car, while the latter attempts to commit suicide again. After subduing him, Leahy is put into the Razor Wire Maze, but fails to fulfill his task and dies from blood loss while being observed by his abductors.
While watching Paul die, Hoffman warns John that Detective Tapp is after him. John gives him a penlight he took from Dr. Gordon and tells Hoffman to lead his colleagues on the doctor’s trail.
After finding Paul’s corpse a few weeks later, Detective David Tapp, Detective Allison Kerry and Detective Steven Sing investigate the crime scene.
The real estate agent Brit Stevenson hires a drug dealer to burn down an apartment building so she can buy the estate for a low price and also bribes the city planner Luba Gibbs in order to be granted a building permit.
The dealer offers drug addict Mallick Scott an ounce of heroin for burning down the building.
Mallick, thinking that the building was abandoned, burns it down, causing the death of eight people still living there.
Mallick’s father bribes the fire inspector Ashley Kazon so she fakes the accident report and the Herald’s investigative journalist Charles Salomon so he doesn’t publish the truth about the arson.
Special Agent Peter Strahm and Special Agent Lindsey Perez investigate Brit, Mallick, Luba, Charles and Ashley for arson, but when the dealer suddenly disappears without a trace, the FBI gives up on the investigation.
Detective Mark Hoffman and John Kramer abduct Mark Wilson and put him into the next trap, known as either the Flammable Jelly Trap or the Candle Trap. After witnessing Mark’s death, Hoffman places Dr. Gordon’s penlight at the crime scene.
John Kramer abducts Amanda Young and Donnie Greco, forcing the former into the iconic Reverse Bear Trap. Donnie is killed by Amanda, who cuts him open in order to get the key to escape her trap from inside his stomach, making Amanda the first person to survive one of Jigsaw’s traps.
After finding Mark’s corpse, Detective David Tapp, Detective Allison Kerry and Detective Steven Sing investigate the crime scene. Detective Kerry discovers the peepholes Jigsaw uses to observe his victims and also finds the penlight.
John Kramer goes to the Angel of Mercy Hospital for a routine examination.
Detective Tapp and Detective Sing confront Dr. Gordon and take him to the police station.
When being asked about his alibi, Dr. Gordon tells his lawyer, Brett, about his affair with Carla and that they were together during the time of Mark Wilson’s death.
Upon Detective Sing’s urging, Dr. Gordon witnesses the interrogation of Amanda Young by Detective Tapp during which she states that Jigsaw helped her by putting her in the trap.
John abducts Jeff Ridenhour.
By investigating Jigsaw’s video tape from Amanda’s crime scene, Detective Tapp and Detective Sing discover Jigsaw’s hideout in an abandoned mannequin factory on 213 Stygian street.
Detective Tapp and Detective Sing enter the factory without a search warrant and find Jeff Ridenhour.
Jigsaw enters the hideout and starts Jeff’s trap, (The Drill Chair), forcing the detectives to act quickly.
While Sing destroys the trap, saving Jeff, Jigsaw slashes Tapp’s throat and flees. While pursuing him, Detective Sing runs into a tripwire, triggering the Quadruple Shotgun Hallway Trap and dies.
Following his partner’s death, Tapp suffers a mental breakdown and is dismissed from the police force.
As he’s convinced that Dr. Gordon is involved in the Jigsaw murderers in some way, Tapp rents a flat right across from Gordon’s apartment in order to be able to observe him.
John Kramer visits Jill at her clinic and shows her a seemingly purified Amanda in order to convince her of the necessity of his actions.