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John Kramer's resurrection in the eerie world of Saw X begs the question: How is he still alive?
The Saw movies go beyond traditional horror, immersing us in a world of moral uncertainty, darkness, and haunting costs to survive Jigsaw's cruel games. This puts Saw X in a unique position since it serves as both a prequel to Saw II and a sequel to the events of the original Saw film.
This chronological setting is what allows John Kramer to come back to life. Join us as we dive into a time when the original Jigsaw is still alive and eager to start his sinister games.
A twisted timeline: Saw X's unique position
The last time we saw John Kramer alive in the franchise, he was suffering from terminal cancer before being killed in the events of Saw III.
The story of Saw X begins with that very revelation: Tobin Bell's brilliant portrayal of John Kramer has been given an aggressive brain cancer diagnosis after the events of Saw I.
Director Kevin Greutert said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly,
"This film opens with that cancer diagnosis and John Kramer learning that there is some kind of experimental, semi-outlawed treatment that's available in Mexico City. He gets his operation and finds out, after thinking he's been cured, that maybe it's not all what it seems. And we go from there."
As he teams up with his apprentice, Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), John's reintroduction of his famed moral tests and the complementary diabolical traps they come with form the core of Saw X.
While all the people who conned him at the clinic, Dr. Cecilia Pederson (Synnve Macody Lund) and her teammates Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa), Valentina (Paulette Hernandez), and Gabriela (Renata Vaca) become victims of his newest games.
The mid-credits tease: The future of Saw
The film ends with the first post-credits sequence of the Saw saga, setting up the plotline of Saw II. The cause of John's cancer cure misadventure, Henry Kessler (Michael Beach), awakens strapped to a sinister-looking contraption within the confines of the iconic bathroom.
Fans are intrigued and speculating about what the reappearance of fan-favorite Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), another one of Jigsaw's students, may mean for the future of the franchise's timeline. Well, producer Oren Koules had this to say in his interview with Dexerto:
"One of the things that we’ve read a lot about is that Jigsaw always seems so ahead of everybody. So one of the tricks in this movie that we wanted to show is that he’s been dealing with Detective Hoffman for a long time. So when he’s been ahead of everybody—and knows things that people are doing—it’s a little nugget for the fans to realize that he’s been talking to Detective Hoffman a lot earlier than we previously saw him in a movie."
Koules also hinted at the prospect of a future Saw film focusing only on Hoffman's participation in the Jigsaw murders. One thing is guaranteed as long as Jigsaw's legacy exists: the games are far from done.
Saw X is playing in theaters now.
