Saw III

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Saw III
Saw III film poster
Directed by	Darren Lynn Bousman
Produced by	Mark Burg Oren Koules
Written by	James Wan Leigh Whannell
Starring	Tobin Bell Shawnee Smith Bahar Soomekh Angus Macfadyen
Music by	Charlie Clouser
Cinematography	David A. Armstrong
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date(s)	October 27, 2006 October 27, 2006 November 2, 2006 November 15, 2006 November 30, 2006 December 7, 2006 February 1, 2007 March 9, 2007
Running time	107 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$12,000,000 (Approx)
Preceded by	Saw II
Followed by	Saw IV
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Ratings
Argentina:	18
Australia:	MA15+
Canada (Brit.Col):	18A
Canada (Alberta):	18A
Canada (Ontario):	18A
Canada (Quebec):	16+
Chile:	18
France:	18
Germany:	18
Ireland:	18
Mexico:	C
Netherlands:	16
Norway:	18
Portugal:	M/18
Singapore:	R21
Sweden:	15

Saw III is the third installment in the Saw horror film series. The film is a joint effort of both Saw's writers/directors, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, and Saw II's writer / director, Darren Lynn Bousman.

The film has been dedicated to Gregg Hoffman, producer of the first two movies. Hoffman died on December 4, 2005, shortly after the official Lions Gate Entertainment announcement of Saw III.

According to producer Daniel J. Heffner, the film was toned down 7 times to obtain the "R" rating. The Unrated DVD, released on February 23, 2007, features a 113-minute cut of the film that includes more gore. On the commentary track, Bousman notes that this is not his original, two-hour-plus cut of the film, and that it may see release on DVD in the future.

Taglines:

• Suffering? You haven't seen anything yet...
• This year, he's pulling out all the stops.
• Legends never die.
• Opening wide this Halloween.
• If it's Halloween, it must be Saw.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 3 Cast 4 Production 5 Promotion 6 Response 6.1 Box office 7 DVD 8 Soundtrack 9 Trivia 10 See also 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Jigsaw has disappeared. With his apprentice Amanda, the dying vigilante has eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him, Dr. Lynn Denlon and Jeff Reinhart are unaware that they are about to become the latest pawns on his vicious chessboard.

[edit] Plot

The film begins with Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) chained by his leg in the same dilapidated bathroom in which he was imprisoned at the end of Saw II. He quickly discovers a hacksaw next to him, but his attempts to cut the chain prove futile. After seeing Dr. Gordon's severed foot, he realizes he must saw his own foot off to live. After trying to bring himself to complete such a task, he realizes that he cannot go through with it. He decides to crush the bones in his foot with the toilet's tank cover, so that he can slip out of the ankle cuff.

Elsewhere, Rigg (Lyriq Bent) leads a SWAT team inside an abandoned room which is welded shut where they find scattered remains of a body. A forensic expert informs Detective Kerry (Dina Meyer), the "Jigsaw expert", that the corpse is not Detective Matthews, as she initially feared, but a man named Troy.

In a flashback, Troy wakes in the abandoned room with numerous chains hooked through his body. One chain latched to the floor end with a large ring that had been pierced through his mandible. A television screen turns on, and Jigsaw's puppet, Billy, is shown. Billy speaks to Troy about how, despite the many advantages he was given at birth, he's been in and out of prisons and seems to find more comfort in chains than in being free. To live, he must break free of numerous chains (with terminal links affixed through various body parts). The television screen turns off, and he notices a bomb planted nearby, with a 1 minute and 30 second countdown. Troy failed to free himself in time. Kerry notes that this particular trap does not fit Jigsaw's usual pattern, as Jigsaw's "games" give their victims a chance to escape if they were successful. The door to the room was welded shut, and would not have allowed Troy to escape regardless.

Kerry takes the recovered tape home to review, but is kidnapped herself when she attempts to investigate a camera source that is videotaping her live inside her own room. Kerry wakes up hanging from a ceiling in a metal contraption, the Angel trap, when a video starts on a nearby TV screen. We once again see the puppet. It then proceeds to tell her that she has spent all of her life living amongst the dead, and identifies with them more than she does the living. He reveals that the device she is wearing is hooked into her ribcage. Before her is a key in a jar of acid, and she has one minute to get the key and release the contraption from her ribcage before the key dissolves completely. She manages to get a hold of the key and unlock her chest piece. However, this does nothing, as the contraption is still lodged in her chest. A cloaked figure walks into the room, and Kerry immediately realizes who it is. She finally gives up and prepares to die. She lifts herself up from her chains as the device rips out her ribcage.

Elsewhere, Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) is getting out of her bed with a man named Chris to prepare for work. Chris says they need to talk. As she is walking out the door Lynn replies 'What is it you want from me, Chris?' Chris says 'A divorce.' This affects her performance at work as during the shift she saves the life of a young boy but it was almost too late and her co-workers become concerned. After she finishes her shift at the hospital she prepares to leave, but finds herself trapped in the locker room. Amanda kidnaps her and brings her to Jigsaw's new lair. Lynn wakes up to find herself tied to a wheelchair. She is wheeled to Jigsaw, John Kramer, who is resting in a makeshift hospital room. After asking Lynn how long he has to live, Jigsaw says, “I want to play a game.” Amanda equips Lynn with a bulky collar surrounded by shotgun shells. The collar contraption is linked with Jigsaw's heart rate monitor. If Jigsaw flat lines, or if she strays too far from him, or if she tries to take the collar off herself, the shells will fire, killing her. It is explained that another man is also being tested, and if he completes his tests before Jigsaw dies, she is free to go.

This man being tested is Jeff Reinhart (Angus Macfadyen), who wakes in a wooden crate suspended by a forklift. He finds a tape recorder which tells him that he is still consumed with hatred for those connected to the drunk-driving accident that killed his son Dylan (Stefan Georgiou). The tape also tells him that he must suffer and forgive in order to pass a series of three tests. Then, a final test will bring him face to face with the man responsible for the loss of his child. However, if he takes longer than two hours, the doors will lock and seal him inside forever. Jeff quickly breaks free and falls to the ground. In a flashback sequence, the viewer learns that the death of his son has still affected him deeply and seems to be plotting revenge against his son's killer. We also learn Jeff has a daughter. Switching back to the present, Jeff finds an open box containing a note that reads "Open the door, Jeff." Along with it is a piece of photograph (showing him) and a key.

Back to the makeshift hospital room, Lynn explains to Amanda that Jigsaw has a brain herniation and his only hope is to get care from a hospital, but Amanda won't permit leaving. After Lynn and Amanda stabilize Jigsaw, from a sudden seizure, Amanda asks for the tools needed to fix the hernia. Lynn tells her she'll need anesthesia and a power drill.

Nearby, Jeff enters a room with "FACE YOUR FEARS" painted on the door. The room is a freezer, and in the middle is where Danica Scott (Debra Lynn McCabe) is shown hanging by her arms, where two vertical poles spray her naked body with cold water. In her tape, it is revealed that Danica was the only witness at the scene of the car accident, but she fled rather than tell the police what she knew. Jigsaw gives Jeff the choice to save her or let her freeze to death. In this trap, behind freezing cold pipes, there is a key that Jeff can reach to save her. Jeff hesitates to do so, claiming that she did nothing to help his son. As he deals with his dilemma, Danica begins getting sprayed, screaming from the stinging cold and sheer terror whilst she pleads with Jeff and tells him she realizes she made a mistake. He eventually retrieves the key, but by the time he reaches Danica, she has already died. Jeff finds another box outside the room, containing another note: "One bullet will end it all." Inside, along with a single bullet, is another piece of the original photograph, this time showing his son.

In the hallway, he finds Billy lying motionless next to his tricycle. They are positioned in a manner that resembles his son's accident. Billy turns his head to Jeff and begins laughing in mockery. Upon entering the next room marked "TIME TO LET GO", Jeff hears the voice screaming for help. He climbs up a staircase to see a man pinned to the bottom of a silo by a chain across his throat. As he screams for help, Jeff plays the tape recorder hanging from the ceiling. Jigsaw's voice tells him that when the judge presiding over his son's murder trial sentenced the murderer so lightly, his soul never recovered. He now has the power to sentence the man's soul straight to hell, or he can choose to forgive. The man inside the silo is that very same judge. In order to get the next key, Jeff must activate an incinerator containing his son's possessions, which he had clung to for so long. As the tape ends, a series of large, interlocking saws connected to the silo begin to whirl and buzz, and a conveyor-like bar turns on sending out rotting pig carcasses. These are dropped onto the saw blades, and the liquefied innards pour into the silo, splashing over Judge Halden. After expressing his anger to the judge, he reluctantly turns on the incinerator and watches his son's possessions burn. Jeff is able to retrieve the key and climbs into the silo, narrowly freeing the judge before he can be completely submerged.

Lynn prepares to operate on Jigsaw under local anesthetic. She uses a power drill and then a bone saw to cut open a hole in his skull to relieve the pressure the tumor is causing. John's heart rate begins to decrease and he starts having flashbacks in which he is seen with his former lover, Jill. He soon stabilizes and Amanda watches as he holds Lynn's arm and says he loves her, still momentarily stuck in his hallucination. Jealous, Amanda leaves. Stricken with grief, she cuts herself on the thigh, a new addition to numerous scars assumed to be from the same practice before. She then has a flashback of her own, where we see Jigsaw preparing for the Reverse Beartrap from the first film. It is also revealed that he confronted her at her apartment after she escaped and asked her to be his apprentice, and her first task was to kidnap Adam Faulkner, who was one of the test subjects of the infamous Bathroom Trap.

After this, Amanda enters and attempts to talk to John, only to be told by Lynn that he can't hear her. Her cold and (to Amanda's perception) condescending tone infuriates Amanda. She slams Lynn against a wall and is about to pull a gun on her, when John wakes up and scolds Amanda.

Jeff and Judge Halden find a box with another piece of the photograph, this time with Jeff's daughter depicted, along with an ammunition magazine for a pistol and a note reading "One step closer to your revenge." They then enter a room with "HERE'S YOUR CHANCE" painted on the door. 'The Rack' is in the center of the room, where the next victim is bound. As Jeff plays his tape, Jigsaw's voice reveals that the man is Timothy Young, the drunk driver who killed Jeff's son. He implores Jeff to realize that Timothy's guilt over Dylan's death equals his grief, and to see him as a human being. Tim's head, arms, and legs are attached to the metal machine in the shape of a cross, each end able to twist 180 degrees. The key is connected to a shotgun, requiring Jeff to take a bullet to save the man. Jeff is crazed and hesitant at first, briefly making insight to the fact that he had wished to kill Tim for three years, and whether this really does make him a murderer, but he pushes his demons aside and tries to get the key off the chain. He realizes that the key can be removed without pulling the string, but when he tries to do so, the gun fires regardless. It narrowly misses him and instead kills Judge Halden. Tim's screams of pain can be heard during the ordeal, the rack twisting his arms and legs and snapping his bones. Jeff frantically searches for the place to put the key, but runs out of time as the rack twists Tim's head 180 degrees, snapping his neck.

Meanwhile, in the makeshift medical room, Jigsaw has a brief conversation with Lynn about her family and how she abandoned them. During the conversation, he reveals that he despises murderers. Amanda reveals that Jeff passed the third test. Jigsaw tells Amanda to release Lynn, but she enters an emotional meltdown and points her gun at Lynn. He attempts to calm her, claiming she would not be following the rules, but Amanda refuses to listen. Amanda lashes out at her mentor, claiming that no one learns anything from Jigsaw's games, citing Eric Matthews who she believed was the same person after his game that he was when he arrested her. Yet another flashback commences, where we discover that Matthews managed to escape the bathroom and followed Amanda down the hall to confront her. He reaches her and despite his injured foot, he viciously beats Amanda, demanding to know where his son is. However, she refuses to divulge this information, and instead takes advantage of his injury by kicking his broken foot before leaving him for dead. Jigsaw tells Amanda that he cleaned up her mistakes in this regard; what he meant is unknown. As we return to the present, Jigsaw continues to condemn his apprentice and it becomes apparent that Amanda never allowed any of the victims to actually leave the “games” alive.

Jeff continues to explore the warehouse, encountering a chain-link gate which can be unlocked with the key he found in the first box. He then finds yet another box, this one containing a pistol, a note ("Last chance"), and one more item that draws his attention. Loading the pistol with the magazine and bullet he picked up previously, he proceeds down the corridors toward the exit. Jeff arrives in the makeshift hospital room, and as Lynn goes to embrace him Amanda shoots her in the back. Lynn collapses in Jeff's arms. Jeff immediately raises his gun and shoots Amanda in the neck. A saddened Jigsaw tells Amanda that she was the one being tested (the film cuts back through to all the times when Jigsaw had been describing the game, and was looking at Amanda, not Lynn). Lynn and Jeff are actually married (the item in the box was the last piece of the photograph, which shows Lynn's face), and Jigsaw was the one who set up the boxes in the corridors for Jeff's tests. In his desperation to make her his true apprentice, after all the injustices she had committed with her murders, he gave her one last chance. He also claims that all the "games" that Amanda had set up were "unwinnable", referring to Troy's welded room and Kerry's torso device.

Jigsaw tells Jeff that Lynn is dying and offers to call an ambulance if Jeff cooperates in one final test. On a nearby table, there are various tools about that Jeff can use to exact his revenge on Jigsaw, or he can forgive him for the pain he's caused Jeff and Lynn. "Live or Die", Jigsaw says, "make our choice." Jeff claims he forgives him, but then brandishes a circular power saw. Lynn desperately tries to tell Jeff to stop, but she can hardly speak. Jeff slices Jigsaw's throat open, once again proclaiming, "I forgive you."

Jigsaw begins to flatline and reveals a tape recorder in his right hand. As he plays on it, the tape reveals that Jigsaw himself was the final test. For as he said earlier, Jigsaw was the man responsible for the loss of Jeff's child: his daughter. Only he knows where she is, and she is running out of air. By killing him, Jeff has failed the final test and learned nothing in his ordeal, or the location of his daughter; the only way to get her back is to play another game. Lynn's collar light changes from green to red. The doors of the warehouse all latch shut, since Jeff's two hours are up. When Jigsaw's heart monitor flatlines, Lynn's collar fires off all its shells. Scenes from all three Saw movies flash by the screen, as Jigsaw breaks down in tears and finally dies. Jeff then screams in horror as he realizes what he has done and the view fades to white from a close-up of Lynn's head, most of which is now spread across the wall behind her.

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Tobin Bell	John Kramer / Jigsaw
Shawnee Smith	Amanda Young
Angus Macfadyen	Jeff Reinhart
Bahar Soomekh	Dr. Lynn Denlon
Dina Meyer	Det. Kerry
Barry Flatman	Judge Halden
J. Larose	Troy
Debra Lynne McCabe	Danica Scott
Mpho Koaho	Timothy Young
Stefan Georgiou	Dylan Reinhart
Niamh Wilson	Corbett Reinhart
Alan Van Sprang	Chris
Kim Roberts	Deborah
Costas Mandylor	Hoffman
Franky G	Xavier (Dead)
Leigh Whannell	Adam Faulkner (Flashback)
Donnie Wahlberg	Detective Eric Matthews
Tim Burd	Obi (Hallucination)
Betsy Russell	Jill

• The full cast list can be found at the Lionsgate website, under "Production Notes."

[edit] Production

Saw III began production on May 1, 2006 and principal photography on May 8, 2006 in Toronto, Canada in preparation for the film's October release. The final shooting draft of the script was written in under a week in Toronto by Leigh Whannell based on an idea by creator and Saw director James Wan. Filming was completed in September 2006.

Despite the success of Saw II, director Darren Lynn Bousman was initially reluctant to direct the film and return to the franchise. "There was a lot of pressure after the popularity of the first two, and I didn’t want to let the fans down,"^[1] he claims, but later accepted the directing role. A majority of the Saw and Saw II production crew returned to the new production, which included the director of photography David Armstrong, production designer David Hackl, and editor Kevin Greutert. Many of the same Toronto locations were used and the crew was housed in the same hotels.^[1]

[edit] Promotion

A scene from Saw III was going to be shown when the action / thriller film Crank opened in theaters on September 1. However, the MPAA did not allow it, due to the scene's large amount of gore. For similar reasons, an early teaser trailer for the movie was removed from the official Saw III site. The next trailer released featured flashbacks of Jigsaw attaching the "reverse bear trap" to Amanda and applying his makeup for posing as the corpse in the bathroom from Saw. The ads played up Saw's yearly release dates with the tagline, "If it's Halloween, it must be Saw."

Around 1,000 special posters were made and sold for $20 each in support of Saw III. The posters were made with a small amount of Tobin Bell's blood (mixed with the printing ink). One such poster was also signed by the entire cast and crew of Saw III, and was auctioned off. All the proceeds from the auctioned poster were donated to the Red Cross.

At Spike TV's Scream Awards on October 10, 2006, Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith appeared on stage with director Darren Lynn Bousman. Smith pinned Bousman to a chair, saying "Payback's a bitch", while Bell staged sawing off the top of Bousman's head. Smith then found a blood-saturated piece of film on his brain. This led to a "World Premiere" trailer featuring the plight of Troy in the body chains trap.

In a promotional video featured on MySpace (with similar versions made for YouTube and Break.com), Billy, Jigsaw's puppet, addresses the viewer in the same fashion as in the videos in the film. He states, "Hello. Are you watching me on MySpace? Good. I'd like to play a game with you. Up until now you've...just sat there as a voyeur, watching other people in their videos without care about who that person is. Well, what do voyeurs see when they look into the mirror? Let's find out. Right now you are being watched. If you forget for one second that you're being watched, you will lose. Your only way out is to understand these numbers: 1, 0, 2, 7, 0, 6. Find the meaning and you will live. Just remember; knowledge changes everything."^[2] The numbers represent the release date of the film, October 27, 2006.

The original cut of the movie ran for over two hours, and several scenes have been confirmed to have been cut out, including a brutal fight scene between Amanda (Shawnee Smith) and Lynn (Bahar Soomekh), which was shown being filmed on Much on Demand and included on the DVD. A scene shown being filmed on www.iesb.net depicted an extended scene of Kerry and Rigg examining Troy's trap, where Kerry reveals to Rigg she has had nightmares about Eric, and she blames herself for what happened to him (this is also viewable on YouTube). There was also reference in an interview with Bousman of a scene that was not shown Jigsaw questioning if he was correct in his goal: He begins to question because he's near the very end, maybe this wasn't right. Maybe none of this really worked. Maybe he is a murderer. Maybe he is a killer....For the first time, we actually see him break down and cry. Imagine your entire life's work. You're on your deathbed. You know there's nothing else you can do and here's how you'll be remembered: as a killer, as a murderer. Not as someone who helped people. Not as someone who changed lives. Someone who took away lives. The one thing he didn't want to be and, as he's on his deathbed, he's realizing this.[1] The audio commentary also notes that Leigh Wannell's character of Adam had more screen time, including a scene in which he passes by Amanda at the entrance of his apartment that was also included on the DVD.

[edit] Response

As with its predecessors, the film has gained a positive response from movie-goers, but mixed reviews by critics. "Saw III is the sickest, most brilliant, most twisted, most clever and most emotional Saw yet", and, "has the strongest acting (in the Saw franchise) to date,"^[3] claims Fred Topel of CanMag.com. Other critics, such as Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times has scolded the film not for "the creativity of the bloodletting but the bleak view of human nature, specifically our talent for ruining the present to avenge the past."^[4] "Hardcore horror geeks will love the extreme nature of the bloodletting here, calculated to torture an audience almost as much as those suffering on film,"^[5] says John Monaghan of the Detroit Free Press.

At screenings in the United Kingdom three people were reported to have fainted at separate movie theaters due to the film's content, resulting in ambulances needing to be called.^[6]

[edit] Box office

Playing in 3,167 theaters Saw III grossed a total of $33,610,391 on its opening weekend.^[7] With a production budget of $9.98 million,^[7] the film was already considered a box office success. Saw III ended up grossing $80,238,724 domestically and $150,907,724 worldwide.

[edit] DVD

The DVD was released on January 23, 2007 in two versions, both of which have the same bonus features:

• R-rated (107 min.) Full Screen
• Unrated (113 min.) Anamorphic Widescreen, Full Screen
• Dolby Digital 5.1 & 2.0 tracks
• Three Commentary Tracks
  • 1. Director Darren Lynn Bousman, Writer Leigh Whannell and Executive Producers Peter Block and Jason Constantine
  • 2. Producers Oren Koules and Mark Burg
  • 3. Director Darren Lynn Bousman, Editor Kevin Greutert and Director of Photography David A. Armstrong
• Deleted scenes, including the fight scene between Amanda and Lynn, and the extra scene with Adam and Amanda.
• "The Traps of Saw III"
• "The Details of Death: The Props of Saw III"
• "Darren's Diary: Anatomy of a Director"
• Trailers

Also confirmed are two exclusive featurettes to the Blu-ray Disc release of Saw III, which includes a feature on the writing of Saw III, and an "Amanda: Evolution of a Killer" featurette. These featurettes were also included on an exclusive 2-disc edition, sold at Target stores in the US and Future Shop stores in Canada. They contain the Unrated Widescreen Edition on Disc 1.

[edit] Soundtrack

Main Article: Saw III soundtrack

[edit] Trivia

• During the flash back sequence at the end, no images of Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) are shown. But every other character was.
• This is the only other Saw film to show Dr. Gordon, although you never see his face.
• During the scene where you see Jigsaw preparing the original Saw game, Dr. Lawrence Gordon is visible in the background. However, he later disappears when Amanda is about to turn off the lights -- the other side of the room is empty.
• The name of the hospital where Lynn works is called Angel of Mercy Hospital.
• After the scene with The Rack you can see sketches behind Lynn of a foot and arm pinned down and twisting like The Rack.
• When the judge who gets shot during The Rack sequence, he is wounded on the opposite side of his head to where he was hit.
• Adam's corpse is differently positioned to see his rotted face.
• Obi (Timothy Burd) has a brief cameo in the hallucination sequence. He is credited for this cameo.
• The position Adam was in when he was dying is the one in Saw II
• According to the DVD Commentary, Mpho Koaho made a free style rap about his trap. Darren Lynn Bousman plans to put it on the Saw III Uncut DVD.
• When the camera moves from Troy's crime scene to Kerry being in the bathtub, Dina Meyer had to run, take off all her clothes, and jump into the tub. If you look closely, you can still see the water moving from when she got in.
• According to Leigh Whannell, Adam had a lot more scenes in the original film. One of which was the scene between Adam and Amanda, included on the Saw III DVD bonus features.
• Saw: Rebirth shows Billy the Jigsaw Puppet at the toy factory where John worked, while Saw III shows him making the doll himself.
• The original theater version showed Jeff stumbling over to Lynn, and screaming as the credits began. The original theater version was also missing a soundtrack that was meant to play during the scene with Timothy Young in the Rack.
• When Jigsaw is setting up Amanda's trap, an early version of the Reverse Beartrap is shown, looking similar to the Rack.

[edit] See also

• Saw (film series)
• Saw (film)
• Saw II
• Saw IV
• Twist ending

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official SAW Fan Club
• Official Website
• *Saw III Teaser Trailer No. 2 at Yahoo! Movies
• Saw III at the Internet Movie Database
• Saw 3 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Film clips and behind the scenes footage

The Saw Series
Films
Saw (short, 2003) • Saw (2004) • Saw II (2005) • Saw III (2006) • Saw IV (2007)
Characters
Jigsaw • Amanda • Adam • Detective Matthews • Lynn • Jeff
Film Soundtracks
Saw • Saw II • Saw III
Other
Traps • "Billy" the puppet • Saw: Rebirth • "Hello Zepp"
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