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Most Memorable Traps From The 'Saw' Series

As we all know the Saw series is finally over which is a major downer to those like me who loved the series. Usually around this time a couple of years ago we would be hearing news of the new Saw movie usually due out in theaters around Halloween. So in honor of the Saw series hype that usually took place about this time I would like to highlight the best traps brought to us by the genius Jigsaw killer. Major props go to Sawpedia for providing all the descriptions below.

The Bathroom Trap



Adam and Lawrence woke up and found themselves shackled to pipes in this trap. The setting for much of the first film, this trap involved two victims, Adam Faulkner and Dr. Lawrence Gordon, who had both been confined in a grimy industrial bathroom. Both were chained by the ankle John Kramer (a.k.a. Jigsaw killer) lies just like a dead one, between Dr. Gordon and Adam at the dirty bathroom.

Two pipes at oppote ends of the bathroom. These pipes were connected to a remote electrical source and because the chains were metal, the electrical current conducted through them to shock Adam and Lawrence. Also present, in the middle of the room, lay a dead body, clutching a gun, lying in a pool of poisoned blood, just out of reach of the two prisoners.

One of the prisoners, Lawrence, was supplied with a bullet, with which to load the gun and shoot Adam. He was told that if he didn't kill Adam by a certain time, his family would be murdered instead, and he'd be left in the bathroom to die. A phone starts to ring in the middle of the room and knowing it is his family he grabs for it but it is too far away. In order to reach the phone, Lawrence saws off his own foot. The other victim, Adam, was encouraged by his tape to try to escape by sawing off his own leg and escaping the bathroom. It should also be noted that the hacksaws were only durable enough to saw through flesh and bone, but not the victim's chains. Both tried to find alternatives to escape, but ultimately found none.

Desperate to save his family, Lawrence eventually sawed off his own foot and retrieved the gun from the body in the middle of the room. He then attempted to fatally shoot Adam with it, but closer inspection revealed that Lawrence had only shot him in the shoulder, inflicting a minor wound. Lawrence then crawled out of the bathroom through the entrance to find help and assured Adam that he would be back for him. Adam, however, remained trapped in the room. The dead body on the bathroom floor was actually revealed to be a living person and, in fact, the Jigsaw killer. It is indicated that he had taken a muscle-relaxant before the test so as to only appear deceased. After ring from the floor, he informed Adam that the key to unlock his chain was located in the bathtub bede him. The bathtub was filled with water at one point, but Adam accidentally drained it when he woke up, unwittingly sending the key into the drain. According to commentaries on Saw III, Amanda was supposed to have tied the key around his neck before leaving him, but had instead just dropped it on his chest. In the original script of Saw III, it revealed that Amanda had tied the chain to the bathtub stopper to Adam's ankle without being told to by Jigsaw. When Adam awoke, he scrambled from the tub, pulling the stopper out and sending the key down the drain. Jigsaw then proceeded to turn the lights off in the bathroom and close the door behind him, sealing Adam inde.

The Magnum Eyehole



This trap wasn't meant as a test so much as a security device to keep Jigsaw's subjects inde the room for the required length of time. It consted of a large, metal, locked door with a revolver firearm attached on the other de of the peephole, connected by a pulley and chain to the doorknob on the other de. The barrel of the revolver was aimed directly at the peephole, and when activated, would fire a bullet into whomever was in the line of fire. A note given to the players told them not to use the supplied key on the door, but refung to listen, Xavier chose to use it anyway. Turning the key in the lock, he unknowingly activated the trap, turning the chain and caung the ridges of the pulley to set off the trigger of the gun. Gus was looking through the peephole at the time, and was shot in the head, through the eye, killing him. The door, on a timer, eventually opened on its own.

Needle Pit



This trap involved a pit in the middle of a room, filled with thousands of filthy, used syringes. A locked door in the room contained an antidote, but was set on a four minute timer. If the timer expired, the door would remain locked forever. This trap was meant for Xavier, a drug dealer, who would have to jump into the pit of needles to find the key to the door. The key was attached to a glow stick, and was hidden among the syringes, however, instead of going in himself, he picked up Amanda and threw her in to find the key for him. Although she discovered the key in time, Xavier fumbled with it and was unable to unlock the door before time ran out. This trap, unlike many of Jigsaw's other traps, would not kill the victim if they had failed the task, but was meant to be more of a punishment (although the victim would still die from the effects of the nerve agent unless an antidote was found).

The Classroom Trap



This trap featured Troy, who awoke in an empty school classroom, with eleven chains hooked into his flesh at various points on his body. Upon awakening, a televion placed directly in front of him switched on and Billy the puppet appeared on the screen, informing Troy that his reason for being tested was because he had been sent to jail on many different occaons (for unspecified reasons). The recording continued on to explain that if he wished to survive, he would have to break free of the chains attached to his body before a timer expired, which would detonate a nail bomb also placed in front of him, and he would die in the resulting exploon. The chains were hooked into his lower jaw, shoulders, arms, hands, obliques, legs, and achilles tendons. When the recording finished, the timer initiated and Troy began to painfully rip out the chain links from his skin, one chain at a time. Troy managed to detach all of the chains from his body with the exception of the one attached to his jaw. The chain ring was looped through his lower jaw, which appeared to be imposble to remove in time. Because he was unable to unhook this last ring, he was killed when the timer triggered the bomb.

The Angel Trap



Allison Kerry, a detective who worked on the Jigsaw cases, woke up suspended above the floor of an abandoned building, in a contraption which consted of a leather harness, hung from the ceiling by numerous chains, lining her torso with two sets of needles on either de. Upon further examination of her harness, she found that the two sets of needles attached to her torso were connected to her ribcage, each needle hooking into an individual rib. Each array of needles was attached to one of two metal arches resting behind her, that, for the time being, remained folded. Hanging before her was a jar filled with acid into which a key was dropped upon her regaining consciousness. The jar was also suspended by chains, and was tightly fastened so as to be unable to tip over. A televion turned on in front of her and delivered the instructions to Kerry's test. Billy informed Kerry that she was placed in the test because she was "dead on the inde," explaining why she was so adept at her job as a Forenc Detective. He also implied that the device Kerry was equipped with would tear her ribcage from her body, knowing that Kerry would understand from her experience with Jigsaw's previous tests. Billy told her that she would have one minute to retrieve the key from the jar before the key was dissolved by the acid and before the timer on the device ran out. After hetating, Kerry plunged her hand into the jar, severely burning it, but failed to grab the key. Screaming in pain, she plunged her hand in a second time and successfully retrieved the key. She pulled out her bloodied, severely corroded hand, and unlocked the padlock on her harness. Upon removing the lock, however, she found that she was unable to remove the harness itself. It is then that she realized that the trap was never intended to be escapable, as each of the pins were hooked directly into her ribcage, and there was a second lock at the back of the device that held it in place. As Kerry realized this, Amanda entered the room, revealing herself as the inventor of the trap. With that revelation, Kerry raised her arms and clenched the chains she was hanging from as the two arms attached to the harness swiftly arched upwards in a milar manner to a pair of wings (hence the name of the trap) meaning that the harness pulled her ribs apart. She then dropps her arms dead in the leather straps as her internal organs spill out onto the floor.

The Rack



Jeff, accompanied by Judge Halden, stumbled upon this trap after saving the judge from the Pig Vat. Timothy Young, the victim of this trap, turned out to be the man responble for the car accident that resulted in the death of Jeff's son. The victim was strapped to a device resembling a crucifix, his head held in place by a rotating lock, while his arms and legs were held in place by spikes through his hands and feet. Each section began rotating around 180 degrees, one by one, taking his arms, legs, and head along with it and breaking his bones. Jigsaw stated on Tim's tape that this trap was a particular favorite of his, referring to it as "The Rack." The only way for Jeff to free Tim was to obtain a key that was attached to the trigger of a shotgun, if the key was taken, the shotgun would have gone off and shot Jeff in the arm. As with the other tests, the key was also needed to leave the room and continue through to the next room. The shotgun and key were kept suspended in a glass box that Judge Halden attempted to break without success. Tim's arms and legs were rotated one by one, shattering and expong his bones, as the judge stood by and helplessly watched. Jeff managed to untie the key from the shotgun, holding onto the cord long enough to move his own body out of the line of fire, but as he let go, the cord set off the gun, instead shooting the judge in the head and killing him. Jeff rushed over to Tim just as his head began to rotate, however, he failed to locate the key-hole in time, and Tim's neck was fatally broken. The gears slowed down and halted after Tim's head twisted around 180 degrees.

Knife Chair



A drug addict named Cecil was placed in what was referred to, first in an interview, as the Knife Chair, later revealed to be Jigsaw's first created trap. He woke up with his arms bound to the armrests of a wooden chair, with blades jutting upwards into his forearms. A panel level with Cecil's face was connected to the arm restraints. Pushing it forward would have released the restraints and freed him. Jigsaw, who was present in the room, applied a large apparatus to the chair, consting of eight blades enclosed around Cecil's head. Jigsaw then instructed Cecil in what to do, telling him that to release himself from the chair, he had to force his face through the blades to push the panel, matching his "internal ugliness" by scarring his face. Cecil, after tting and screaming for help, began pushing his face through the knives while Jigsaw watched; however, before Cecil could complete his test, the faulty chair collapsed. Standing up with the restraints still lodged in his arms, Cecil threatened to kill John, and lunged at him. Jigsaw de-stepped, caung Cecil to fall into a pile of hanging razor wire where Jigsaw left him to die.

Mausoleum Trap



Trevor, woke up on the floor of a mausoleum with a locked collar around his neck, attached to a chain. He began to panic when he realized that his eyes had been sewn shut, rendering him blind. He started pulling on the chain to try to release himself, waking up another victim, Art Blank, on the other de of the room. Art realized that he was shackled by a milar collar to the oppote end of the same chain. Art's mouth had been sewn shut, rendering him mute. Between the two of them was a winding drum, with a trigger-tab in place inde of a large cylinder that the chain passed through. During Trevor and Art's ensuing struggle, Trevor knocked over a chair with multiple instruments on it, including a hammer, an axe, and multiple meat-hooks. As he began pulling on the chain, drawing Art closer to the machine, the tab was pulled out, activating the device. The cylinder began to rotate, slowly reeling in the chain and pulling both men closer together. They both pulled back and forth on the chain, each getting closer to the machine, though the lack of communication made it imposble for them to work together in solving the puzzle. Art spotted a key on the back of Trevor's collar and realized that it might open the collar around his own neck, unknown to him that it would also unlock Trevor's collar as well. Due to Trevor's loss of eyeght and Art's inability to speak, Trevor assumed that Art was an enemy and began attacking him as he made his way over to Trevor. Art armed himself with the axe to protect himself before the two men started fighting. Trevor swung a hook wildly, eventually stabbing Art in the leg. Art, however, still managed to get the key from the back of Trevor's collar after stabbing the hook into his shoulder. As Art attempted to unlock his collar, Trevor attacked again, and Art was forced to kill him by smashing his head in with the hammer. Finally, Art fumbled to try to open the lock on his collar. He managed to remove it, and screamed, ripping his mouth open.

The Scalping Seat



A woman named Brenda was dressed in a red cloak and a pig mask, chained to a device with numerous gears and a dial. A tape recorder was duct-taped to the palm of her left hand, and her long hair was twisted though a metal ring and wound up along an axle connected to the gears. She was trapped in a room in Rigg's apartment with dozens of photos of herself pimping young girls, posted and hung around the room, with the words, "SEE WHAT I SEE" scribbled above a bookcase bede her. Rigg entered the room, setting off a digital timer which began counting down from 90:00, and found Brenda panicking, trying to escape from her chains. A televion in front of her turned on, and Rigg was told by the Billy puppet that Brenda was a criminal and he advised him to just walk away from the tuation and let Brenda die instead of giving into his obseson of saving everybody. Rigg pulled the pig mask and cloak off of the woman, pulling a trigger-pin that was attached by a cord to the mask, activating the machine. A one-minute timer began counting down as the gears on the device began turning, arching Brenda's head back as her hair was pulled and wound along an axle. After having her gag removed, Brenda screamed for help, telling Rigg to hurry, and that the combination for the dial was hidden on the gears. She continued to scream for help while Rigg scrambled around looking for something to stop the device. Upon opening a drawer, he found a card that read "Time is wasting." Brenda's hairline began to rip and spurt blood before Rigg returned and tried shooting the machine with his handgun, caung the machine to stall for a few seconds before it reactivated and continued to scalp Brenda. Rigg began reading numbers on the cogs twisting her hair and programmed the code, 6-4-7, into the dial on the machine, releang Brenda, although half of her scalp had been torn from her head.

The Bedroom Trap



The next test began as Rigg entered room 261 of the Alexander Motel, presumably owned by a man named Ivan Landsness. In the room, Rigg discovered a box with a picture of his wife, Tracy tting atop it. The back of the photo had a note for Rigg that read, "SHE NEEDED YOU". Looking at the box, Rigg noticed some long strands of hair sticking out of it's de. Opening it, he found the infamous pig mask used by Jigsaw and Amanda Young, a tape recorder, and a photo of Ivan. The tape told Rigg that he would need to grab Ivan, but to do so, would have to conceal his identity from the motel cameras. To do this, Rigg put on the pig mask. Ivan knocked on the door, but was pulled in and ordered at gunpoint to enter the room oppote the one they were in, which had "FEEL WHAT I FEEL" scrawled on the door. In this room were several pictures of various dead women and a bed with four shackles connected to large posts propped upwards from the corners of the bed, each equipped with numerous chains connected to gears. Flashbacks later showed that a "G" was marked on one of the shackles. It was revealed by a video tape in the corner of the room that Ivan was a serial rapist, responble for raping and torturing the women in the photos. The tape recorder instructed Rigg to force Ivan into the trap so that he could be tested. Rigg ordered Ivan to strap himself in on the bed, where Ivan's head was placed in a vise and his hands and feet were shackled. Rigg, after reading a card that intructed him to "Hand him the tools that will save his life," supplied Ivan with two triggers. If Ivan activated both of them within one minute, two scythe-like arms attached to either de of the vise would drop down and gouge his eyes, as punishment for being a voyeur. Activating both of them would blind Ivan, but would deactivate the rest of the device and he would leave with his life. Rigg then left Ivan in the room to complete his test. Ivan only managed to blind himself in one of his eyes, failing to press the second trigger in time. As a result, the gears connected to the posts began to crank as the four posts were pulled and planted outwards, pulling Ivan's limbs and ripping them from his body.

The Pendulum Trap



Seth Baxter, a murderer who was initially sentenced to life in prison, was released a mere five years after his conviction on the grounds of an undisclosed technicality. Believing Seth didn't learn the impact of his crime, "Jigsaw" places him into a trap instead. Seth wakes up in a room, chained to a table, with two vices on either de of it. Above him, is a large, bladed pendulum that begins to swing after his tape is completed. Seth has to push buttons in the back of the vices that will crush his hands in order to stop the Pendulum from reaching his body, as his hands are the "tools" that caused harm to others. In xty seconds, the pendulum will cut him in half if he doesn't succeed. Seth inserts his hands into the vices, but quickly pulls them out in fear. Trying again, he succeeds in crushing his hands and the Pendulum ceases swinging for a few moments, but after a short pause, the Pendulum reactivates and descends far enough to begin cutting into his abdomen, and eventually slices him in half, confirming that the trap was inescapable. Tape: Hello, Seth. I want to play a game. Right now, you are feeling helpless. This is the same helplessness you bestowed upon others. But now, it's unto you. Some would call it Karma. I call it justice. Now, you served five years of what should have been a life sentence for murder. A technicality gave you freedom, but it inhibited you from understanding the inpact of taking a life. Today, I offer you true freedom. In thirty seconds, the pendulum will drop far enough to touch your body. Within xty seconds, it will cut you in half. To avoid the pendulum, all you have to do is destroy the things that have killed: your hands. You must insert your hands and push the buttons to start the devices before you. Your bones will be crushed to dust. Will you destroy the things that have taken the life in order to save one, Seth? Make your choice.

The Cube



Immediately after killing Jeff, and being locked in Jigsaw's operating room by Hoffman, Agent Strahm located a hallway revealed to him by glow-in-the-dark paint. In the hallway he discovered a cassette player that warned him not to proceed any further, lest the room become his tomb. Refung to comply, Strahm proceeded down the hallway and was then tranquilized by Hoffman. Strahm woke up with his head encased in a clear glass box with tubes connected to it, and his gun confiscated. The box started filling with water, eventually filling completely with the intent to drown Strahm. Thinking quickly, Strahm pulled out his pen and stabbed it into his throat, performing an emergency tracheotomy to sustain his breathing until help arrived. Strahm ultimately survived the trap, being wheeled out by paramedics, much to Hoffman's surprise. The irony is that Strahm managed to survive a trap that was constructed with no intended means of escape.

The Carousel



The fourth test, The Carousel Trap, was revealed in a teaser clip to promote Saw VI. The trap consts of x of William's junior associates: Aaron, Emily, Gena, Dave, Shelby, and Josh (in order of when they were stopped by the carousel), chained to a rotating roundabout-like object inde of a large metal cage. At the front of the cage is a large metal device attached to a shotgun which is pointing at the carousel. The carousel repeatedly slows to a halt with a random victim facing the gun. William is forced to make the choice to place his hand inde a metal box and press a button, caung a metal rod to pierce his hand in order to prevent the selected victim from being shot, or choose not to and let the victim be shot point-blank in the chest by the gun, thus killing the person that is in the gun's path. Unfortunately, William is told that he can only save two of the x people on the carousel and in the end, William chooses to save Emily, the second and Shelby.

The Reverse Bear Trap Jill

Jill agrees to disclose details about Hoffman's involvement with Jigsaw to the police in exchange for her protection and full legal immunity for any past crimes. Hoffman, however, manages to sneak past their security force and murder every officer reding in the building. Hoffman eventually reaches Jill and, after a brief struggle, knocks her unconscious and straps her into a chair with belts, milar in manner to how she placed the Reverse Beartrap 2.0 on him. Hoffman then pulls out the original Reverse Bear Trap (the exact same device that Amanda had been tested with in the first movie) and places it on Jill. Hoffman activates the timer and after a 60 second struggle, her mouth is ripped wide open by the contraption. This is the first time you see the reverse bear trap kill any of it's intended victims.

Theses are a few select deaths from saw that I enjoyed the most. Honest to God I cried watching the final Saw movie because I was so sad it had come to an end. What deaths did you enjoy the most?

All good choices but my favorite is still the hand trap from Saw II.

And my s can't even watch the ponytail trap. XD

All good choices but my favorite is still the hand trap from Saw II.

And my s can't even watch the ponytail trap. XD

Yeah the pony tail trap is just skin crawling! Personally my fave is The Classroom Trap. The Hand Trap in Saw 2 was also another very good one but probably the most frustrating one because she just goes for it and doesn't even think twice about getting the key hanging right in front of her!

Great list, but I feel the best is the Glass Coffin trap from 5. The irony was awesome.

I've only seen the first two so i'd have to say the barbed wire trap.

All good choices but my favorite is still the hand trap from Saw II.

And my s can't even watch the ponytail trap. XD

Yeah the pony tail trap is just skin crawling! Personally my fave is The Classroom Trap. The Hand Trap in Saw 2 was also another very good one but probably the most frustrating one because she just goes for it and doesn't even think twice about getting the key hanging right in front of her

Which one was the classroom trap? I can't remember that one.

It's hard to choose my favorite, at least 95% of them are super creative but I guess I have to go with the original film and say the bathroom trap. It lasted the longest and there was so much involved with it. The whole film was bacally about that trap and it has never been matched in any other film. GAME OVER!