John Kramer - the Jigsaw Killer

John Kramer, known as the Jigsaw Killer, was a civil engineer whose life changed after his unborn child died and he was diagnosed with cancer. A suicide attempt that he survived led him to believe people must be tested to truly appreciate life. He created brutal traps to force victims to choose between dying or enduring grueling tasks, and his work continued through his numerous disciples even after his death.

Physicals

• Survived a car crash off a cliff that left him impaled on a long piece of shrapnel. (source)
• Sneaks up on and abducts a man using chloroform in a mask in a crowded street festival. (source)
• Quickly subdues a cop with a fast-acting sedative. (source) (Typically used for victim abduction; Jigsaw’s apprentices use the same sedative.)
• Dodges a strike from a heavily wounded victim, causing the victim to get trapped in a cage full of barbed wire. (source)
• Utilizes a hidden blade. (source)
• Wears body armor to take a handgun shot. (source)
• Wears body armor to survive a shotgun blast. (source) (The shotgun blast appeared to hurt him somewhat.)
• Poses perfectly still as a dead body for several hours. (source)
• Suffers from epilepsy and advanced cancer, leading to being bedridden and physically frail. (source) (Also bedridden (https://gfycat.com/creamymiserlyivorybackedwoodswallow).)

Mentality

• Believes his pursuits are entirely noble, forcing victims to appreciate life by completing his tests. (source)
• Does not consider himself a killer, as he gives the means of escape to most of his victims. (source)
• Uses peepholes or cameras to observe tests. (source) (Also uses cameras (https://gfycat.com/bogusjitteryastarte).)
• Cuts pieces of skin off his victims, meant to symbolize the survival instincts that people were missing if they failed a trap. (source)
• Displays medical knowledge and a deep knowledge of anatomy. (source) (Also has a deep knowledge of anatomy (https://gfycat.com/contentgoodnatureddoctorfish).)
• Masterminds the events of some of the movies, sometimes with cooperation from his disciples. (source)
• Records a test and plays it days later, making a corrupt police officer believe his son is currently in danger. (source)
• Secretly tests his apprentice, Amanda, at the same time that she is testing a doctor; both people must try to keep each other alive. (source)
• Had a second trap prepared behind him when his first trap broke. (source)
• Gives victims instructions via recordings or audio tapes. (source) (Also uses audio tapes (https://gfycat.com/crispexcellentape).)
• Listens in on people before abducting them to better emotionally manipulate them. (source)
• Has prepared a scheme to abduct a dirty cop while John himself was apprehended by police. (source)
• Set up contingencies to continue the games after his own death. (source)

Creations

• Created Billy the Puppet, used to relay instructions, act as a distraction, and can be modified to explode, filling investigators with shrapnel. (source) (Also functions as a distraction (https://gfycat.com/exemplaryofficialkiskadee) and can be modified to explode (https://gfycat.com/uniformportlyalaskanmalamute).)
• Created The Reverse Shotgun, modified to shoot backwards, killing the shooter. Contains keys to escape, ensuring victims are trapped if fired. (source) (Keys to escape are placed inside the gun (https://gfycat.com/thriftyperiodicegret).)
• Created a Neurotoxin Blood Puddle; incredibly toxic, causing death in minutes if ingested. (source)
• Created The Reverse Bear Trap, a headgear machine strapped to the jaw that pulls jaws open with great force if a task isn’t completed within a time limit. (source) (Activates to pull jaws open with great force (https://gfycat.com/fathonorablebutterfly). Examples of unsuccessful escape (https://gfycat.com/wellworndistinctamericanriverotter) and unorthodox escape (https://gfycat.com/flamboyantediblegermanshepherd).)
• Created The Venus Fly Trap Death Mask, headgear that closes and fills the victim’s face with rusty nails if a task isn’t completed within a time limit. (source) (Keys to escape are surgically implanted behind one of the victim’s eyes (https://gfycat.com/flatunconsciousgoshawk).)
• Created a simple nail-studded bat, a crude weapon for contestants to kill each other in the nerve gas house. (source)
• Created The Spine Cutters, a backpack-like device that can destroy a victim’s spine with metal pliers if commands are disobeyed. (source) (Never shown in effect.)
• Created The Bomb Collar, connected to John’s heart monitor, causing automatic shotgun blasts to the head if he flatlined or victims moved out of range. (source) (Triggers several shotguns pointed at the head (https://gfycat.com/unsungwelloffeft).)
• Created The Quadruple Shotgun Trap, where a tripwire triggers four ceiling-mounted shotguns to fire directly onto the victim. (source)
• Created The Magnum Eyehole Trap, a mechanism that fires a gun through a keyhole if someone tries to unlock a door. (source)
• Created an Electrified Staircase, rigged to collapse a step, break a leg, and then electrify the staircase and surrounding chain link walls, killing those who touch them. (source) (The staircase and chain link walls become electrified (https://gfycat.com/jampackedevilamericancrocodile). Used to kill a small group of SWAT officers.)
• Created an Automatic Sentry Gun, a modified machine gun that fires automatically at those in its line of fire. (source)
• Created The Leg Wires, where pre-cut planks break to snare the victim’s leg with razor wire, allowing escape by sacrificing the leg with a lever. (source) (A lever allows sacrificing the leg to escape (https://gfycat.com/abandonedinsidiousacouchi).)
• Created The Knife Chair, where a victim, bleeding from arm knives, must press their face into eight blades and a button with their forehead to escape. (source) (John’s first trap, it fell apart during the game (https://gfycat.com/bitterlinedhapuka).)
• Created The Razor Maze, where a victim with slit wrists must navigate a path surrounded by sharp wires within two hours before the exit locks. (source)
• Created The Flammable Jelly Trap, where a victim in a dark room with broken glass must use a candle to find a safe code on walls before the candle ignites flammable jelly smeared on their body. (source)
• Created The Furnace Crawl, where a victim crawls into a furnace for an antidote, triggering the furnace, and must crawl through fire to turn a valve to escape. (source) (Requires crawling through fire to turn a valve (https://gfycat.com/circularsparsedarwinsfox).)
• Created The Needle Pit, containing thousands of used syringes and needles, where a key must be retrieved within a time limit or the escape door locks permanently. (source)
• Created The Razor Box, containing a nerve agent antidote, where hands are trapped on razor blades when reaching in. To open, one must listen to a tape revealing a key location. (source) (Requires listening to a tape to find a key (https://gfycat.com/brokenperiodiccoyote).)
• Created The Bedroom Scythe Trap, where a victim strapped to a bed must choose to destroy their eyes with scythes within one minute or be torn apart by machinery. (source) (If not activated, the victim is torn apart by machinery (https://gfycat.com/forcefulslowkatydid).)
• Created The Marriage Pincushion Trap, where two people tied back-to-back are impaled by stakes (one fatally, one non-fatally); they must remove all stakes to escape, killing the first. (source) (Requires removing all stakes to escape (https://gfycat.com/anguishedtastycanadagoose), killing one person but only hurting the other.)
• Created The Glass Coffin, which protects a person by lowering into the ground from wall mechanisms designed to crush human beings flat. (source) (Protects from wall mechanisms that crush human beings flat (https://gfycat.com/impressivepinkbream).)
• Created The Oxygen Crush Trap, where two people are placed in contraptions that contract upon breathing; the goal is to out-hold breath, with the survivor set free when the other dies. (source)
• Created The Gallows, where a person must choose one of two others to survive, leading to the other’s death by hanging with barbed wire. (source)
• Created The Shotgun Carousel, where a victim must choose two of six employees to save by impaling his own hand, while the other four are gunned down by shotguns. (source) (Four victims are gunned down by shotguns at regular intervals (https://gfycat.com/dazzlinghonestbrontosaurus).)
• Created The Acid Injector, a contraption controlled by a lever that swings down many acid injectors to impale and inject a victim. (source)
• Created The Suspended Cage, opened by pulling a lever to release the bottom, requiring the victim to descend while avoiding spikes directly below. (source) (Victim must avoid spikes directly below the cage (https://gfycat.com/dimwittedmemorablegalapagospenguin).)
• Created The Wisdom Teeth Combination Lock, requiring victims to pull their own wisdom teeth to observe etched numbers for a locked door combination. (source)
• Created The Motorcycle Spiral, requiring a person to lower themselves toward a spinning spiral blade and pull a lever to escape. (source)
• Created The Drill Chair, trapping one person with drills approaching their head, requiring two others to find a key in a container to unlock them. (source) (Used by John as a distraction to escape. Requires finding a key in a container with many keys (https://gfycat.com/livepowerfulhummingbird).)
• Created The Mausoleum Winch Trap, where one person has eyes sewed shut, the other mouth, both pulled by chains to the room’s center, with escape keys attached to the back of the other’s neck. (source) (Keys are attached to the back of the other person’s neck (https://gfycat.com/ornatedaringfrillneckedlizard).)
• Created The Ice Block Noose, where a victim stands on a melting ice block with a noose; an ally must save them, but entering too early triggers ice blocks to smash the ally’s skull. (source) (If an ally enters too early, two ice blocks will swing down, smashing their skull (https://gfycat.com/politicalinfatuatedgenet).)
• Created The Scalping Seat, where a mechanism pulls on a victim’s hair, tearing their scalp off, requiring another person to free them before full scalping. (source)
• Created The Freezer Room, placing a victim in a freezer sprayed by cold water at intervals, requiring another person to free them before they freeze to death. (source)
• Created The Pig Vat, where a victim is strapped to a pit’s bottom while pig carcasses are ground up above, falling into the pit, requiring rescue before drowning in liquid entrails. (source)
• Created The Rack, a metal crucifix where limbs are twisted 180 degrees before the head is twisted, killing the victim. The key is attached to a shotgun, requiring taking a bullet to save the victim. (source) (Key is attached to a shotgun (https://gfycat.com/filthydefinitiveamurminnow). John’s personal favorite trap (https://gfycat.com/difficultlongbluemorphobutterfly).)
• Created The Neck Tie Trap, where five people have neck wires pulling them into blades if one moves too far from the wall; all can survive if they use a shared key on the opposite side of the room. (source)
• Created The Ceiling Bombs Trap, guiding multiple people into a room with ceiling jars containing real and fake keys needed to open safe capsules and avoid nail bombs. (source)
• Created The Electric Bathtub, requiring multiple people to electrocute themselves with cables and a bathtub to open electric door locks; safe with five, fatal for one. (source)
• Created 10 Pints of Sacrifice, requiring multiple people to cut their hands with saws to produce 10 pints of blood for escape. (source) (Splitting the blood production two ways has disastrous consequences (https://imgur.com/a/yth5hqn).)
• Created The Steam Maze, a two-player maze requiring steam diversion, burning one person to protect the other. (source)
• Created The Silence Circle, where a victim has a key attached to a fish hook in their stomach; it must be removed by another person in 60 seconds or four spikes puncture the throat. (source) (Any noise the victim makes causes the spikes to move closer (https://gfycat.com/regularparallelasiantrumpetfish).)
• Created The Impalement Wheel, where a victim is raised toward spikes; another person can prevent it by stabbing themselves in the sides for 30 seconds to free the victim. (source)
• Created The Grain Silo Trap, trapping people in a grain-filling room where sharp farming implements fall when grain reaches their shoulders. (source) (Escape requires another person to remove their own leg from the Leg Wires security trap (https://gfycat.com/annualshinybobwhite).)
• Designed The Gideon Meatpacking Plant, his first engineering project, named after his son. Served as his headquarters, featuring a large surveillance room, workshop, and makeshift hospital room where he died. (source) (Features a large surveillance room and workshop (https://imgur.com/a/Jv5ABfo).)
• Created The Nerve Gas House, a rundown house filled with deadly neurotoxin, packed with traps and weapons. (source) (John gleefully describes the nerve toxin.)
• Utilized The Rowan Zoological Institute (a former zoo) to test the insurance executive who denied his cancer treatment, forcing him to make life-or-death decisions about his employees.
• Utilized The Clear Dawn Psychiatric Hospital, a revised mental facility, to test Bobby Dagen, a man who faked being a Jigsaw victim. (source) (Mark Hoffman created traps that killed Bobby’s loved ones before making him undergo the trap he lied about completing.)
• Utilized The Pig Farm, an isolated farm formerly owned by his ex-wife’s family, modifying the barn to prevent escape and filling it with traps. (source) (Years later, apprentice Logan Nelson recreated the test there.)

Apprentices

• His apprentices assist with building traps, devising schemes, and abducting victims in the Pigmask outfit using fast-acting sedatives. (source) (Also involved in abducting victims (https://gfycat.com/excellentidolizedarachnid) in the Pigmask outfit (https://imgur.com/a/Ux3f8ot) using fast-acting sedatives (https://gfycat.com/welltodoformalchimpanzee).)
• Convinced people to join him after they escaped one of his traps, with the exception of Mark Hoffman, who was blackmailed. (source) (Mark Hoffman was blackmailed instead of escaping a trap.)
• Amanda Young operates as an abductor in the Pigmask costume and faked her role as a victim to manipulate tests from the inside. (source) (Also faked her role as a victim (https://gfycat.com/ordinaryliveconure).)
• Amanda Young creates inescapable traps, ensuring victims die without proper means of escape. (source)
• Amanda Young was shot and killed by the husband of one of her victims after John tested her again and her murderous ways continued. (source)
• Mark Hoffman, a detective lieutenant, became John’s successor, continuing the games after John’s death. He acts as a victim but is in charge of operations. (source) (Considered John’s successor.)
• Mark Hoffman is capable in physical encounters. (source)
• Mark Hoffman survives a reverse bear trap but is killed by Lawrence Gordon. (source) (Killed by Lawrence Gordon when trapped in a bathroom.)
• Lawrence Gordon, a surgeon, survived his test by amputating his own foot. John nursed him back to health and convinced him to help the Jigsaw enterprise. (source) (Was nursed back to health by John (https://gfycat.com/gleamingpoliteleech).)
• Lawrence Gordon killed Mark Hoffman in a modified trap, believing Hoffman’s murders went against John’s will. (source)
• Logan Nelson, Jigsaw’s first apprentice, was brought in early in John’s career; John paused his test when Logan was unconscious, deciding he shouldn’t die for an honest mistake. (source)
• Logan Nelson has proven to be a good sniper. (source)
• Logan Nelson is a talented schemer, executing a plan ten years in the making. (source)
• Logan Nelson created the laser collars, devices strong enough to cleave through flesh and bone. (source) (Capable of cleaving through flesh and bone like butter.)