| “ | It was my husband's fault. Why am I being punished for something that he did? | ” |
— Anna lies about the loss of her baby[src]
| ||
Anna is a fictional character from the Saw franchise as well as the secondary antagonist of Jigsaw.
She was portrayed by Laura Vandervoort.
Biography
Early Life
Anna argues with Matthew
Anna was a young woman and the wife of a man named Matthew, with whom she had a baby. At one point, their neighbor, John Kramer, was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo physically exhausting chemotherapy. During that time, the young couple cordially supported him in whatever he needed. However, their own relationship was severely strained, and the two of them engaged in heated arguments on an almost regular base. Anna became more and more unable to cope with her emotional stress caused by both her marital problems and her parental responsibility. (Jigsaw)
Family Tragedy
Anna, moments after killing her baby
One night, Anna's desperation reached its peak when her baby didn't stop crying and, thereby, prevented her from sleeping. At first, she tried to calm down her baby, but quickly lost her self-control and began screaming at her child. When the infant still didn't stop crying, she smothered her child with a pillow in a fit of rage. After coming back to her senses, Anna realized what she had done and became worried about the consequences. Eventually, she put her baby's corpse next to her sleeping husband. When Matthew woke up and realized that his baby was dead, Anna insinuated that Matthew had smothered their child by turning over the baby while he was asleep. When the police arrived at their home, Anna unjustly blamed her husband for the death of their baby. Matthew, who believed Anna's lies, was arrested and taken to a psychiatric hospital, where he eventually committed suicide by hanging. (Jigsaw)
Abduction
Anna and the other prisoners
Unbeknownst to Anna, John Kramer overheard how she screamed at her child that night and rightfully came to the conclusion that she had unjustly incriminated her husband. When John later assumed the identity of the Jigsaw Killer, he targeted her for her deeds. One day, he subdued Anna and took her unconscious body to an abandoned pig farm, which belonged to the family of his ex-wife, Jill Tuck, but had been closed down after an outbreak of Aujeszky's disease. Once they arrived there, John trapped her in a room along with four other people - Carly, Mitch, Ryan, and Dr. Logan Nelson - who were also abducted for previous misdeeds. John fettered each of them with metallic neck shackles, which were attached to long chains leading to five doors on the other side of the room. Additionally, he put buckets with eye slits on their heads. Those were connected to their shackles by two laterally attached metal pins. After finishing all of his preparations, John left the room through a hidden door. (Jigsaw)
First Test
Shortly afterward, the prisoners were awakened by an audible alarm. As the lights turned on and they came back to their senses, they were initially confused, but quickly started to panic upon realizing that they were trapped. Anna desperately begged Ryan for help, as he stood right next to her. Ryan, however, angrily pushed her away. Driven by fear, Anna and the others tried to free themselves from their shackles. These attempts were eventually interrupted by John, who spoke to them over a loudspeaker. He accused all of them of having harmed other people with their lies and demanded that they had to confess their sins to save themselves. Furthermore, he explained that they all had to offer a sacrifice of blood if they wanted to get out of the room alive.
Anna makes the sacrifice of blood
Following John's speech, the chains were tightened, and the prisoners were dragged towards the five doors on the opposite side of the room. Attached to each of these doors were several rotating circular saw blades in various sizes. After they initially tried to fight back, Anna finally realized that each of them had to sacrifice a small amount of blood and, therefore, reluctantly cut her arm on one of the blades. Thereby, she only suffered a superficial slash wound and was able to take the bucket from her head. As she told the others what to do, Mitch and Ryan followed suit and managed to get free as well. Only Carly made a stand against Anna, who tried to help her. Thereby, Carly was jerked into the blades. Although she was freed from her bucket as well, she received a flesh wound on her back. After that, their doors opened, and they were dragged to the next room by their chains. Logan, however, who only woke up near the end of the game, couldn't react fast enough and was pulled into the blades, despite Anna's attempt to tell him what to do. (Jigsaw)
Carly's Test
Anna in the second room
Moments later, the doors closed behind them, and the chains stopped to pull them forward any further. While Mitch tried to kick in another door nearby, Anna grabbed a cloth to take care of Carly's wounds. Even though Carly was highly distrustful and initially snapped at everyone who touched her, she ultimately allowed Anna to help her. When Mitch spotted a camera and demanded to know what their abductor wanted from them, Anna reminded him that they were told to confess their sins if they wanted to earn their freedom.
Anna and the others are pulled towards the pulleys
Suddenly, the group heard a noise and saw two red-glowing dots at the rear of the room. These dots quickly turned out to be the glowing eyes of a mechanical ventriloquist puppet, which slowly approached them on a red tricycle. Hanging around its neck was a tape recorder as well as a note with the word "Confess." written on it. Despite its frightening appearance, the puppet eventually came to a standstill, seemingly posing no threat at all. However, when Mitch decided to make another try at opening the door, which was secured by a combination lock, the puppet started to mockingly laugh at them. At the same moment, the chains were tightened once more, and the group was pulled forward towards a series of large, upright standing pulleys. Anna immediately tried to prevent this from happening by winding her chain around a nearby pillar. The pulling force, however, was too strong and she was pulled forward nonetheless, thereby receiving a minor slash wound from a string of razor wire wound around the pillar. When Anna desperately yelled at the others to confess their sins, Mitch made a start and told the others how he once sold a motorcycle to a young man who died in an accident about ten minutes later. However, he put all the blame on his customer, stating that it wasn't his fault that the latter wasn't able to handle the bike properly. Anna was the next one to confess and revealed that she and Matthew had lost their child because her husband made a mistake, suppressing the fact that it was actually her who murdered her baby. When Ryan angrily stated that marital problems were not the kind of sins that their abductor was aking for, Anna admitted that she let their marriage break apart, but still refused to reveal the truth about her baby.
Anna, moments after escaping death
As they were dragged even further, Mitch got close enough to the puppet to grab the tape recorder and, in doing so, he pulled on a hidden wire attached to it. This triggered a mechanism, which caused the pulleys to fall to the ground, stopping the chains from pulling the prisoners further across the room. Anna, while initially relieved, was shocked when she realized that their abductor seemingly intended to hang them. Just as they managed to calm down, Ryan told Mitch to play the tape when suddenly, a metallic contraption was lowered from the ceiling. The contraption held three syringes, each one marked with a different numerical sequence - 964583.4, 2034.23, and 3.53. Mitch played the recording, which introduced the group to their second test. Jigsaw's voice warned them that more blood would be shed, and all of them would be judged if they refused to confess their misdeeds. He accused one of them of being a purse snatcher, whose actions once caused the death of another human. This person had been injected with a deadly poison before the start of the game and would die if they didn't get the right medication. Jigsaw explained that one of the syringes contained the antidote, another one held a saline solution, and the last one was filled with an acid that would cause a painful death. If the purse snatcher chose the right one, all of them would be released from their chains. Otherwise, all of them would die. Jigsaw asked what a life was worth to them, thereby ending the tape and starting the game.
The group tells Carly to make a choice
As all of them remained silent, Ryan pointed out that they would all die if the person addressed by the tape didn't confess. Anna immediately told the others to check themselves for injection marks as Jigsaw had claimed that one of them had been injected with poison. As Carly was the only one who didn't do so, the others concluded that she was the purse snatcher. Therefore, Ryan picked up the syringes and told Carly to choose one, much to her dismay. As she started to panic and was too afraid to make a choice, Mitch and Ryan tried to convince her, with Ryan being much more aggressive. Hoping that a confession might be enough to free them, Anna asked her if Jigsaw was telling the truth about her. Carly admitted that she stole purses from other people years earlier, but claimed that she didn't kill anyone in the process. Just when Ryan angrily accused her of lying, Carly finally revealed the truth. She once stole a purse from an asthmatic woman, not knowing that it contained her inhaler. Even though this action resulted in the woman's death, Carly still claimed that it wasn't her fault. As their time was running out, Ryan aggressively yelled at her and threatened her with the needles, saying that he'd stick all three of them into her if she didn't choose one. The others tried to hold him back, and Mitch told Carly to look at the numbers on the syringes to see if they meant anything to her. Despite her panic, she ultimately realized that the needle with the sequence 3.53 was referring to the amount of money she stole from the asthmatic woman, concluding that this was the answer to Jigsaw's question of what a life was worth to her.
At this moment, the metal contraption formerly holding the needles was moved back to the ceiling. As their time was over, Ryan desperately begged Carly to tell him which needle she wanted. However, despite knowing which syringe was the correct one, she refused to choose one as she was too afraid that she might pick the acid. Eventually, the chains around their necks began to pull them upward, strangling them in the process. In an attempt to save their lives, Ryan grabbed Carly and tried to stab her with the syringes. Anna wanted to prevent him from doing so but was unable to hold him back. After struggling with Carly several feet above the floor, Ryan ultimately managed to stick all three of the needles into her neck. This action immediately released all four of them from their shackles, causing them to fall to the ground and allowing them to breathe. Moments later, however, Anna, Mitch, and Ryan witnessed the deadly effects of the acid as Carly started to bleed from her eyes and her neck. Although she ripped out the needles, the acid ate its way through her skin, killing her.
Anna and Mitch examine the syringes
Shocked by Ryan's actions, Anna angrily attacked him for murdering Carly, although he pointed out that he had saved the three of them in the process. When Mitch eventually intervened, Anna managed to calm down again and remembered Carly's last words of a life being worth 3.53$. While she covered Carly's mutilated head with her jacket, Mitch examined the needles and thereby found another sequence - L24R45L23. It was written on a metal piece inside the syringe but hadn't been visible until the piston was pushed. Assuming that this was the combination to the locked door, Mitch tried to open it once more and was finally successful this time around. (Jigsaw)
Ryan's Test
The group enters the next area
The group carefully entered the next room. After a few steps, the lights turned on, and the door slammed shut behind them, scaring them witless. Mitch wasn't able to open it again, leaving no other option than moving forward. Ryan took a look out of a barred window and realized that they were somewhere in the countryside. However, he couldn't make out any landmarks. Scared by the recent events, Anna slumped to the ground right next to the door and asked who did this to them. She also asked Ryan about his sin, to which he responded by listing several dishonest misdeeds such as selling bad mortgages, selling cocaine, committing tax fraud, and cheating on both of his wives. When he wanted to know about her sins, Anna went on with her lies and told him how her husband accidentally smothered their baby by rolling over it while sleeping. Ryan made it clear that he didn't believe her story of being innocent, causing Anna to get angry again and ask why she was punished for her husband's mistake.
Seeing no point in discussing the matter any longer, Ryan suddenly grabbed a shovel and approached a nearby door with the words "NO EXIT" written on it. Mitch immediately tried to hold him back, pointing out that they should heed Jigsaw's warnings as there were two other doors. Ryan, however, refused to listen to him as he wasn't willing to go where Jigsaw wanted them to go. Although Anna immediately sided with Mitch and tried to convince him, Ryan still didn't want to drop his plan and kept them at a distance with the shovel. As they finally backed off, he prepared himself to open the door by destroying the padlock. However, as he was about to strike a blow, a part of the wooden floor beneath him broke away. Moments later, his right leg was trapped in a hollow space under the deck boards as several razor-sharp wires wrapped around his shank. Ryan immediately panicked and begged the others for help. Anna removed another wooden board and looked into the hollow space. Thereby, she saw that the wires were connected to a series of pulleys, and also discovered a lever. Mitch used the shovel to break off more of the bords and spotted a tape recorder on the ground. At this moment, the wires tightened around Ryan's leg, causing him to scream in agony. Mitch then picked up a leaf rake and wanted to use it to obtain the key. However, when he accidentally touched one of the wires, they grew even tighter around Ryan's leg as well as the rake, causing it to break.
Angered and terrified, Ryan yelled at Mitch and told him to grab the tape. Albeit Mitch initially refused to do so, he eventually gave in to his demand as Ryan had saved his life in the previous room. Mitch slowly and carefully reached out his hand while avoiding the wires and, thereby, finally managed to retrieve it. When he gave it to Ryan, who played the tape, Jigsaw announced that he'd make an example of Ryan's attempt to break the rules and told him that he had to pull the lever to set himself free. Assuming that this task wouldn't be as simple as it sounded, Ryan burst into tears.
Anna at the window
With Ryan being incapable of acting, Mitch tried to kick in the other door while Anna took another look out of the window in hopes that she might discover any hints about their location. Suddenly, the lights in the room turned off, whereas another light turned on in an adjacent room. As Mitch and Anna followed the light, they noticed that the room was a large, cylindric silo. Upon entering, two TVs turned on simultaneously, one in the silo and one in the hollow space where Ryan's leg was trapped. A remote was hanging from the ceiling. With Mitch's help, who gave her a leg-up, Anna managed to obtain it. However, as she did so, the door of the silo slammed shut, trapping them inside. Having no other option, Mitch used the remote to start a video feed. Jigsaw's puppet appeared on-screen and once again accused all of them of being liars and criminals. It explained that Anna and Mitch would be buried alive in the silo unless Ryan pulled the lever and freed all of them.
Anna is buried alive
After giving them their instructions, the puppet disappeared. Instead, Anna and Mitch were able to see Ryan on the TV screen, while Ryan was able to see them as well. Moments later, huge masses of grain started falling on them. As the grain filled the silo quickly, the prisoners immediately panicked. They tried to break out of the silo and desperately begged Ryan to pull the lever. Albeit Ryan was shocked by watching what happened in the silo, he couldn't bring himself to do so. Anna and Mitch weren't able to open the door on their own, and therefore, they were buried shoulder-deep until the grain suddenly stopped falling. However, seconds later, several sharp and pointy farming tools were thrown down on them, including knives, saw blades, and pitchforks. Although most of the implements just missed them, they received some minor injuries. One of the knives impaled Mitch's left shoulder, whereas Anna was injured by three nails piercing her left arm. Seeing that the others were about to die, Ryan finally got over himself and pulled the lever, which opened the doors and allowed Anna and Mitch to escape from the silo. However, the handle also caused the wires to tighten one last time, severing Ryan's leg in the process. (Jigsaw)
Mitch's Test
The next game is revealed to Anna and Mitch
The others took Ryan to the next room and lay him down on a cuboid hay bale. While he was screaming in agony, Anna tried to stanch the flow of blood by tightly wrapping her blouse and a belt around his stump. The pain and bloodloss ultimately caused him to pass out, but by checking his pulse, Anna was relieved to discover that he was still alive. At the next moment, the headlights of a car turned on. Mitch opened the engine hood, which had a red "X" drawn on it. Under the hood, he found a tape recorder with his name. As Anna reminded him of what would happen if they didn't follow the rules, Mitch reluctantly played the recording. Upon doing so, a rope tightened around his legs before he had any chance to react. Despite Anna's attempts to help him, Mitch was suspended above a large, funnel-like metal construction with a red, spiral-shaped blade in its center. Meanwhile, Jigsaw's voice confronted him with his story of how he once sold a motorcycle to a boy, which eventually caused the latter's death in an accident. However, contrary to Mitch's confession earlier in the game, Mitch had caused the accident by his carelessness because he knew that the brakes were faulty, but deliberately concealed that fact. Jigsaw revealed that the boy was his nephew and went on to explain the rules of the next game to Mitch. Once the game started, the red blade would start rotating and eventually mangle him unless he pulled a brake handle below the spiral. Doing so would deactivate the construction's power source, which was, in fact, the engine of the bike Mitch sold to John's nephew.
Anna jams the motorcycle
When the tape ended, the blade began to rotate with immense speed, and Mitch was slowly lowered down. As he desperately begged Anna for help, she grabbed a long metal spike and climbed up to a wooden roof beam. While she made her way up, Mitch tried to reach the handle but was injured by the blade as he moved too hastily. Eventually, Anna jumped over a gap and reached the motorcycle, which was mounted on another beam and powered the spiral blade. Seeing no other way to save Mitch, Anna used the spike to jam the gear that connected the cycle with the deadly construction and, thereby, managed to stop it. Mitch was immediately relieved and thanked Anna for saving his life. However, only moments later, the spike broke under the pressure, and the blade started spinning again, brutally mangling Mitch's body in the process. Covered in his blood, Anna watched in horror as Mitch's severely mutilated corpse was hurled on the floor. (Jigsaw)
Attempted Escape
Anna tries to escape
After witnessing his gruesome demise, Anna decided to flee from the barn. While ignoring Ryan's cries for help, Anna returned to the previous room and covered the hollow space, in which Ryan lost his leg, with a wooden board. Afterward, she grabbed the shovel and destroyed the padlock. As Anna wasn't able to fully prize open the door, she attempted to squash through the narrow door crack. Although she almost got out, her hopes of escape were in vain as Jigsaw suddenly appeared before her, his face covered with a pig mask. Surprised and unable to defend herself, Anna was injected with an anesthetic and passed out immediately. (Jigsaw)
Death
Anna wakes up
Jigsaw took her and Ryan to a milking room and chained them across each other by their legs. After doing so, he gave his attention to a construction in the middle of the room. Just as they woke up again, he removed the hood from his head and revealed himself to his prisoners. Anna, shocked by recognizing him as John Kramer, immediately panicked and wanted to know what he wanted to do to them. When John explained that they were going to face their final test, Ryan claimed to have passed his test already by sacrificing his leg. John, however, denied this, pointing out that the loss of his leg wasn't his test, but a sanction for his attempt to break the rules. Furthermore, he revealed why he had chosen Ryan for this game. When Ryan was still a high school student, he went on a car trip with two of his friends. As he was drunk and cocky, Ryan stood up from the back seat of the moving cabriolet and thereby distracted the driver, who was his best friend. When the latter angrily told him to sit down and tried to drag him back onto his seat, Ryan fell out of the car. Moments later, the cabriolet collided with another vehicle and caused an explosion, which killed Ryan's friend as well as the other driver. Afraid of the consequences, Ryan lied to the police and blamed his best friend for having caused the car crash. Upon being confronted with his misdeeds by John, Ryan finally confessed, but also begged him to let him live. As he listened to his pleading, John told him that he had cancer. However, his brain tumor had entered an inoperable state because the resident at the hospital, Logan Nelson, accidentally mixed up John's X-rays with those of another patient.
Afterward, John spoke to Anna, who tried to convince him to let her go as she supported him after his terminal diagnosis. John explained to Ryan that Anna used to be his neighbor and helped him during the time of his chemotherapy. However, he revealed to Anna that he knew the truth about her baby's death for which she had unjustly incriminated her husband. After listening to him, Ryan asked John what he was going to do to them, to which the latter responded that they finally had to assume responsibility for their crimes. As he did so, he eventually finished his work on the metal contraption, which turned out to be a mechanical holding device. In a final attempt to gain John's mercy, Ryan told him that he'd do anything he wanted if the latter allowed him to leave. John, however, once more ignored his begging and instead introduced them to their final game. He told them that they had to realize that they had been doing everything "backwards" and now had the opportunity to "turn it all around." Afterward, he took out a shotgun and showed them a single shell, which he described as their "key to freedom." After loading the gun, he placed it on the holding device and left the room along with his pig mask, before he closed the door behind him.
Anna takes the gun
Once they were alone, Anna and Ryan quickly concluded that John wanted them to shoot each other. Convinced that she had to kill Ryan to save herself, Anna promptly got up and grabbed the shotgun. As she aimed the weapon at Ryan, the latter burst into tears and desperately begged her not to shoot him, when he suddenly realized the true meaning of Jigsaw's previous hints. However, before he could warn Anna, she pulled the trigger and was killed when the gun backfired. Moments later, Ryan discovered that the keys to both of their shackles had been hidden inside the shell. They were destroyed when Anna pulled the trigger, robbing him of any chance to escape. (Jigsaw)
Post-Mortem
Anna's and Ryan's corpses
Following the game, Ryan soon died of blood loss. When John returned to see the aftermath of their tests, he lay down Ryan's corpse right next to Anna's and covered them with a blanket. Their bodies were left there to rot for over a decade until Logan Nelson returned to the barn. Unbeknownst to Anna and Ryan, Logan had been the fifth prisoner who was seemingly killed by the rotating saw blades in their first game. In fact, however, he was saved by John and thereby became his apprentice. About ten years later, long after John's death, he used the barn to set up a new game on his own. By lying a false track, Logan had lured Halloran, a corrupt homicide detective, to the barn and rendered him unconscious. After that, he took Halloran to the milking room and put a metallic collar around his neck. Having finished all of his preparations, Logan himself put on a similar collar and pretended to have been trapped as well. When Halloran woke up again, Logan told him that someone had subdued him and pointed out that there were seven laser cutters attached to each collar. Upon hearing this, Halloran started to panic as he knew how easily these lasers could cut through human tissue. Moments later, John's voice spoke to them over a loudspeaker and introduced them to their game. All they had to do to survive was to confess their sins. Otherwise, they'd be killed by the lasers. After 60 seconds, one of them would be chosen to begin unless one of them decided to go first by pressing a button in front of them.
Anna's and Ryan's rotten remains
Halloran told Logan that he'd begin as they couldn't avoid their fate either way. However, he pressed Logan's button instead, whose collar was activated in the process. Logan immediately pretended to panic and confessed that he had carelessly mixed up John Kramer's X-rays. Nonetheless, the lasers turned inward and appeared to slice his head. Faking his death, Logan fell to the floor in a puddle of fake blood. Afterward, Halloran's collar was activated. After some initial hesitation, Halloran ultimately confessed that he faked evidence and took bribes, imprisoned innocent people, and allowed criminals to avoid their punishment. Eventually, his collar turned off, and he was relieved. However, only moments later, he saw that Logan's lasers hadn't left any burning marks on the ceiling as opposed to the collars of his own collar. After that, Logan arose, revealing his collar to be a harmless mock-up. Just as Halloran realized that Logan was responsible for the most recent murders, the latter revealed Anna's and Ryan's rotten corpses and told Halloran about the game, which had taken place about ten years ago. While explaining to Halloran how he had recreated the game, he put the blanket back on Ryan, leaving Anna's body uncovered. He also blamed him for the death of his wife, Christine, who was killed two years earlier by a criminal named Edgar Munsen after Halloran had freed him from jail. Having reached his goal, Logan reactivated Halloran's collar, and the lasers cut his head into eight pieces. Just as his dead body collapsed, Logan closed the door, leaving Halloran along with the corpses of Anna and Ryan. (Jigsaw)
Personality
Anna was a notably selfish, manipulative, and evil woman with a limited ability to deal with emotional stress. While she mostly seemed like a genuinely kind-hearted person, she was actually an extremely ruthless individual, willing to throw everyone under the bus to benefit herself. Although it can be assumed that Anna loved her husband at some point, her marriage eventually broke apart due to her increasing irritability. When facing the consequences of her actions, she would always put the blame on others as she was too much of a coward to admit her misdeeds and receive her rightful punishment.
Nonetheless, Anna wasn't entirely incapable of showing empathy for others, which she proved multiple times over the course of her game. Throughout her imprisonment, she rarely hesitated to support her fellow prisoners and even openly expressed her anger towards Ryan after the latter had killed Carly. In the first place, however, Anna's true loyalty belonged to no one but herself. While her supportive acts might have been genuine, her willingness to help quickly reached its limits whenever it would stand between her and her advantages. This was especially obvious when she chose to leave Ryan behind and later tried to kill him in their final game, even though Ryan saved her life twice before.
Appearances and References
| Films | |||||||||
| Saw | Saw II | Saw III | Saw IV | Saw V | Saw VI | Saw 3D | Jigsaw | Spiral | Saw X |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Flashback & Corpse | Absent | Absent |
| Other Media | |||||
| "Saw" (2003 Short) |
Saw: Rebirth (2005 Comic) |
Full Disclosure Report | The Scott Tibbs Documentary | Saw: The Video Game | Saw II: Flesh & Blood |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |