Saw: Traps Ranked

If there is one thing that you know about the Saw franchise, is that there are some truly terrifying traps. Usually, the participants don't make it out in one piece, if they are lucky enough to make it out at all.

Saw was released in 2004 with James Wan directing and Leigh Whannell starring and writing. This little movie ended up spawning a huge and well-loved franchised focused on the gore and horror of humanity.

The initial movie had a mystery around the Jigsaw killer (later discovered to be the cancer patient, John Kramer) who was setting up these traps. And, honestly, this movie has some pretty decent traps considering the small budget. So, this will be a ranking from the worst traps to the best traps in the original movie.

The Razor Wire Maze.

A naked man wakes up at one end of the trap, looking through a maze of razor wire crisscrossing over the only way out of this. A tape plays, letting him know that he has two hours to find a way to the other side. At the two-hour mark, the door will close and he will be trapped inside forever.

Or, at least, until someone finds him.

In terms of simplicity, this is a great trap. There's no poison. Just a naked man trying to climb his way through razor wire. The reason that this trap ranks so low is because of why the man was placed in the trap. And that was him attempting suicide with a straight razor. It just seems a little harsh.

The man does not make it across the maze, instead due to his panic severally cutting himself and bleeding out.

The Drill Chair.

We don't really know much about the man that was strapped to the trap. This is mostly because two police officers arrive and are tasked with releasing him, not chasing after Jigsaw, before this man gets killed. There is the constant threat of the drills digging into his skin and causing him to bleed out.

They do save him, it's just that the man didn't have to do anything to get out. This raises the question of what he was supposed to do in order to save himself.

Due to interference by the police, there's a lot less of an understanding of what he was meant to do or why he was there. But, at least he survived.

Zep Hindle’s Game.

The thing with Zep is that he wasn't a bad person and one would think that John Kramer would appreciate someone like him. He works at a hospital, knows his patients' names, and seems to care about their well-being. But, he still is placed in this game, one that intertwines with the main plot of the movie.

The game that Zep is set to play makes sense in the scheme of the main game, but not so much in the scheme of the world. He’s not a bad person, one would think that John Kramer would be a Zep fan considering he is close to the patients that he works with.

His task is to kidnap Dr. Lawrence Gordon’s wife and daughter and kill them if he is unsuccessful in killing Adam during the game. And he was. There doesn’t seem to be any repercussions to Zep’s side of the game.

But he does end up being killed while trying to get rid of Gordon and Adam, after failing to kill the family.

Flammable Jelly.

This trap is one of the more complicated traps presented in this movie. Maybe more complicated than it needed to be, but it's a bit of fun.

There is (yet another) naked man covered in a flammable jelly. He only has a candle that is fairly short with a safe in the middle of the room. The walls are covered in numbers that might be the combination to the safe. Which is the only way for him to survive the trap.

He ends up burning to death when the candle melted all the way down, lighting up the jelly that covered his body.

Reverse Bear Trap.

This is the most famous trap in the entire series. It makes multiple appearances throughout the series but we don't actually see it in action in the 7th movie.

The trap is pretty much what it it. It is a reverse bear trap that is placed into the mouth of the victim. When the timer goes off, it rips the mouth open creating unbelievable trauma.

Amanda Young is given the task to cut through a person paralyzed with a drug and remove the key from their insides. She then could use that key to unlock the trap. And she does. This is the first person we see survive.

The Bathroom Game.

The main game in this movie is easily the best. This game focuses on Dr. Lawrence Gordon and Adam. Both are chainged by one foot in probably the nastiest looking bathroom I have ever seen in my life.

The task is simple, Dr. Gordon needs to kill Adam and get out of the bathroom before time is up. Not only will he and Adam die, but Dr. Gordon's daughter and his wife will be killed. This isn't as easy as it sounds.

Things end up going sideways as Dr. Gordon ends up cutting his foot off and not killing Adam. When Zep shows up, he manages to escape with promises to Adam that he would find someone to save him.

Neither one of them expects for the corpse that had been laying in the center of the room to stand, revealing himself as John Kramer, the Jigsaw serial killer.

This movie really did become a titan in the horror genre. Although it is a very popular series, it is definitely not something for the faint of heart.