FAQ for
Saw IV (2007) More at IMDbPro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for Saw IV can be found here.

No. The Saw series of movies -- Saw (2004) Saw II (2005), Saw III (2006), Saw IV (2007), Saw V (2008), Saw VI (2009), and Saw 3D (2010) -- all stem from an original screenplay by Australian screenwriters Leigh Whannell and James Wan (story). The screenplay for Saw IV was co-written by American screenwriters Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstand, and Thomas Fenton.

From Saw III, SWAT commander Lt Daniel Rigg (Lyriq Bent) and Forensics Lt Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) play major roles in Saw IV. Although he died at the end of Saw III, John "Jigsaw" Kramer (Tobin Bell) returns as does his wife Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), also playing major roles in the storyline. Jeff Denlon (Angus Macfadyen) returns, and Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) from Saw II reappears. Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), Detective Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer), and Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) are back albeit only in archive footage or minor flashbacks. Some of the minor characters from previous movies who make appearances in Saw IV include: (1) Addison (Emmanuelle Vaugier), one of the people in the house in Saw II, is seen as he approaches Jigsaw who is waiting to pick up Jill at the clinic, (2) Gus (Tony Nappo), one of the men in the health clinic, starts a fight, (3) Michael Parks (Noam Jenkins), the guy in the deathmask trap in Saw II, is sitting next to Gus in the clinic. Troy (J. LaRose) from Saw III and Paul (Mike Butters) from Saw I are also seen in the background in the clinic. When everyone leaves, Jill says goodbye to the man who was Amanda's "dead cell mate" in the first Saw.

Jigsaw is, for sure. His brains are removed during autopsy, leaving no doubt that he is dead. Amanda's bloody body can be seen lying on floor in the operating room next to Lynn Denlon.

This time the game is directed at Lt Rigg, who has become obsessed with saving all of Jigsaw's victims and with finding Eric Matthews, now missing for six months. Rigg receives a message from Jigsaw saying that Matthews is still alive, but he's hanging by the neck over a block of ice. Near him sits Lt Hoffman, bound to a chair and about to be electrocuted when the melted ice water reaches his feet. Rigg has 90 minutes to find them before they are both killed. Unfortunately, Jigsaw has also placed several other persons in perilous situations, i.e., a female pimp named Brenda (Sarain Boylan), a serial rapist/killer named Ivan Landsness (Marty Adams), and an abusive husband Rex (Ron Lea) and his wife Morgan (Janet Land). In order to find and rescue Matthews and Hoffman, Rigg is told that he must curb his desire to save those individuals so that he can learn what it means to truly save a life. Meanwhile, FBI agents Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Lindsey Perez (Athena Karkanis) attempt to interrogate Jigsaw's ex-wife Jill Tuck while looking for Jigsaw's accomplice and find that they, too, have been made a part of Jigsaw's games.

In a flashback, Amanda is seen dragging Matthews into a small room and closing the door. Eric is held prisoner there, with only a small opening through which he is given food. He reappears in Saw IV six months later to play his role in the game with Lt Rigg.

Yes. We discover in flashbacks that Jill was pregnant with John's child, until Cecil, (Billy Otis), a drug addict from her clinic, caused her to have a miscarriage by accidentally slamming a doorknob into her abdomen during a robbery. This is what leads John into becoming Jigsaw. His anger turns psychopathic. Cecil actually plays Jigsaw's first game, where he has to push his face into some knives in order to release himself from a chair. If he remains in the chair, he will bleed to death from the knives cutting into his wrists. When Cecil makes it out of the chair alive, due the chair breaking, he immediately attacks Jigsaw with one of the knives. Jigsaw simply steps aside and lets him fall into a cage of razor wires. Cecil probably ends up bleeding to death, although this is neither shown nor confirmed.

The first one was made as a toy for Jigsaw's unborn son Gideon. He now uses Billy to be the "front man" on videotape when teaching his victims the rules of a game.

We learn that Lt Hoffman wrote what was in the envelope and placed it in the drawer, but what is actually written on the page is not revealed until Saw VI.

At the end of Saw III, it was revealed that Jigsaw is holding Jeff's daughter Corbett. This leads into Saw IV, where Jeff is shot by agent Strahm. Hoffman is seen (chronologically prior to that) with a black teddy bear. When asked if he was married, he responds "I'm not. It's a short story, believe me." This teddy bear is more than likely for Jeff's daughter, a hint that Hoffman knows where she is. It is important to remember that, at the end of Saw III, Jigsaw stated that he is the only one who knows where she is. In the original script, however, after Hoffman locks Strahm in the room with the bodies of Jigsaw, Lynn, Jeff, and Amanda, he calls the police on the cellphone and tells them to get here. When they do, Hoffman emerges from the lair with Corbett and says that he saved her. However, this scene is not shown in Saw IV.

There is only a passing reference to Gordon. His office sign is shown on the door where Jigsaw went for cancer treatment. Fisk also mentions to Hoffman that another doctor is missing from the hospital, referring to Lynn Denlon. Dr Gordon's fate is revealed in Saw 3D.

They're the same body. The events of Saw IV take place more or less in synchronisation with the events of Saw III. The autopsy at the beginning of Saw IV chronologically takes place after the events of Saw III and Saw IV. Essentially, the entire movie occurs alongside the events of Saw III, after Detective Kerry's death. Therefore, Jigsaw died at the climaxes of both Saw III and Saw IV.

Most of you saw a movie still of a man trying to escape a box of glass. It is presumed that this was Jigsaw's second trap and was deleted from the movie. During the audio commentary for Saw IV, director Darren Bousman claims that the trap was used on the loud man in the hotel lobby, and that, since it has been shot, it will be shown in Saw V (it's not). It was apparently cut from Saw IV because it was deemed too violent, it was also not in the original script and was created by Bousman because he was tired of shooting dialogue scenes. The box does appear in Saw V during the final trap, but in a very different context.

Segments of bone removed from the skull during brain surgery are most often reinserted and wired back in place. The brain cannot be left exposed; it must be protected either by replacing the bone, adding a plate, or requiring the patient to wear protective head gear.

This is the Spine Pincer; it's set to go off if he presses the release button for the detectives too early. Art's presence early in the movie is a classic red herring, a plot device used to mislead the audience: it suggests that he is Jigsaw's secret accomplice, until the device on his back reveals that he is also one of Jigsaw's victims.

Rigg and Strahm arrive separately at the Gideon Meatpacking Plant. As Rigg goes in search of Matthews and Hoffman, Strahm trails Jeff Denlon, who is looking for his wife Lynn and daughter Corbett. With just a minute or two left on the countdown, Rigg finds the room holding Matthews and Hoffman and prepares to open the door. Matthews, knowing that he will die if the door is opened before the time is up, shoots Rigg through the glass in the door. With one minute left, Rigg bursts into the room, which triggers two huge blocks of ice that come crashing down on Matthews' head, killing him. Rigg then shoots Art, thinking he is the one responsible for the traps. Meanwhile, Strahm chases Denlon into the operating room (shown at the end of Saw III). He shoots Denlon, who attacks him while screaming, 'Where is my daughter?' Jigsaw can be seen lying on the operating table with his throat cut. Lynn's headless body and Amanda's bloody remains can be seen lying on the floor. Rigg finds a tape that details the rules of the game and how he violated them and that, if he had not violated them, Matthews and Hoffman would have lived. As Rigg tries to crawl to his feet, Hoffman releases himself from the chair and announces, "Game over." He then goes to the operating room and locks the door, leaving Jigsaw, Lynn, Amanda, and Strahm inside. In the final scenes, Jigsaw's voice on the tape recovered from his stomach can be heard, warning that the games are not over just because he is dead.

The fourth installment of the franchise got an R-rating for its theatrical release. This was also released on DVD and Blu-ray later as well as an Unrated Director's Cut that runs approx. 3 minutes longer. Looking at this cut one can conclude that the theatrical version was censored in many scenes. A detailed comparison between the theatrical version and the Unrated Director's Cut can be found here.