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I have shown you a lot of places, but there is one that will be perhaps the most meaningful to you...
— Jigsaw's final words to Dr. Gordon[src]

The Bathroom is a fictional location from the Saw franchise, as well as the main location of the first Saw film.

Layout and Structure[]

The bathroom was a huge, white tiled room, which was located in an underground tunnel network, which could be entered through several buildings above ground. There was a bathtub in the back part of the room, two toilets and two urinals on one side of the room as well as three vanity basins with wall mirrors and three showers on the other side. Behind one of the wall mirrors was a hollow space with a hidden camera. At several points in the bathroom, there were multiple heating and water pipes. The room was connected to the rest of the underground hallways by a heavy sliding door. (Saw, Saw II)

History[]

Adam Stanheight and Lawrence Gordon's Test[]

Nothing is known about the origins and the constructor of the bathroom, nor about the reasons why it was left to decay at some point. Several months after starting his series of murders, John Kramer, better known as the Jigsaw Killer, used it for one of his deadly games. Along with his accomplice, Amanda Young, John abducted his oncologist, Dr. Lawrence Gordon, and photographer Adam Stanheight, who had been hired by the former homicide detective David Tapp to observe Gordon over the course of several days as he was convinced that Gordon was the Jigsaw Killer.

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John pours the fake blood on the floor

Shortly after the unconscious doctor had already been chained to a pipe in the corner of the bathroom, Amanda arrived with Adam, who she had abducted from his apartment. As she entered the room, John stood in front of a mirror and applied fake blood to his head, which made it look as if he had shot himself in the head. When he ordered Amanda to shackle Adam to a pipe in the back corner of the room by his left leg, Amanda removed his belt and shoes and shackled him with a metal brace. After that, she heaved him into a bathtub filled with water and threw the key to his chain onto his lower chest. Meanwhile, John poured a bucket of fake blood on the floor in the middle of the room and injected himself with a medicament that slowed his heart rate and relaxed his muscles. Once they had finished all of their preparations, Amanda took Adams shoes and belt as well as the things they had used to set up the game, and was about to leave. John, however, stayed in the room and lay down in the puddle of blood with a tape recorder in one hand and a revolver in the other, which fully gave him the appearance of a suicide victim. Then, Amanda turned off the light, left the room and closed the heavy sliding door behind her. (Saw, Saw III)

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Gordon in the bathroom

Shortly afterwards, Adam woke up and gasped for breath after he had completely sunken into the water while he was unconscious. When he scrambled from the bathtub, he inadvertently pulled the plug and didn't notice how the key, which Amanda had left in the bathtub, went down the drain. He immediately started to panic and screamed for help, when he suddenly heard a man's voice in the darkness. When this man eventually found a switch and turned on the light, Adam realized that it was Lawrence Gordon, who was chained to a metal pipe in the opposite corner of the room just like him. However, he pretended not to recognize his cellmate. Instead, he further panicked when he saw the body of John Kramer, which was covered in blood. Gordon, however, managed to calm him down. After introducing himself, he asked Adam whether he knew the dead man or remembered how he ended up in the bathroom, which he denied. Despite his fear and distrust, he finally told Gordon his name as well. Meanwhile, the latter pointed out that their abductor could have killed them already and concluded that he or she wanted something from them. As he further examined the room, he noticed a clock on the wall, which was factory-fresh, as opposed to the environment, and thereby concluded that their abductor wanted them to know what time it was.

While Gordon tried to open the sliding door, which was within his reach, Adam suddenly found a white envelope with his name on it in his pants pocket. It included a cassette with the message "Play me" written on it. Gordon also found such an envelope in his pocket. Besides another cassette, it also included a key as well as a single bullet. He immediately tried to use the key on his shackle. As this attempt remained unsuccessful, he threw the key to Adam, who couldn't free himself either. Moments later, Adam noticed the tape recorder in John's hand. However, as it was out of reach, he tried to use his shirt to get possession of it. When this didn't work, he eventually tied the plug from the bathtub to one of the sleeves. After some more attempts, he finally managed to obtain the recorder when the plug got caught up in a loop attached to it.

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Adam plays the tape

When he put the tape into the recorder and started the recording, a distorted voice gave him a gruesome ultimatum. His abductor mockingly confronted him with his voyeurism and his work, which basically consisted of spying on other people. On this day, he would watch himself die, unless he did something about it. Once the tape was over, Gordon asked him for the recorder so he could listen to his own recording. Out of fear that he could destroy the recorder by throwing it across the room, Adam refused and demanded the tape from Gordon, which Gordon eventually threw to him after briefly protesting against it. His tape had been recorded by the same distorted voice, which confronted him with the fact that he gave people the news of their impending death on every day of his working life. Now it was his task to cause the death of another human himself. The voice demanded that he killed Adam by 6 o'clock. Otherwise, his daughter, Diana, and his wife, Alison, would be killed, while he himself would be left to die in the bathroom. Furthermore, the voice told him that there were numerous clues and useful tools hidden in the bathroom, which could help him to solve his task. One of these clues was a cryptic message, according to which an "X marked the spot for the treasure." Additionally, the voice told him about the seemingly dead John Kramer, pointing out that the only thing left to do, when there was that much poison in one's blood, was to shoot oneself.

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Gordon realizes the true purpose of the saw

Once the recording ended, Gordon once again demanded the recorder from Adam, which the latter now gave him without hesitation. Upon repeatedly winding the tape back and forwards, he discovered one final clue. At the end of the recording, he heard the voice whispering the words "Follow your heart." Seconds later, he noticed a heart drawn on the water tank of a toilet right next to Adam. Despite his disgust, Adam searched the dirty toilet, albeit unsuccessful. Just when he searched the tank, he found a black plastic back inside, which contained two hacksaws as well as his photos of Gordon. Adam immediately tried to saw through his chain, while he threw the other saw to the doctor. Unnoticed by his fellow prisoner, he threw the bag with the photos into the empty bathtub. As both of them tried to cut through their chains, Adams saw broke after a few seconds. He angrily threw it towards one the mirrors on the wall, causing a single shard to break out. When Gordon's attempts to free himself remained unsuccessful as well, the latter eventually came to the conclusion that the saws weren't meant to cut through their chains, but rather to cut off their feet. Thereby, he realized that they had been abducted by the Jigsaw Killer and told Adam, how Jigsaw had tried to frame him for one of his murders when he had left Gordon's penlight at a crime scene five months earlier.

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Adam threatens Gordon with the glass shard

Even though he was shocked by the things Gordon told him about Jigsaw, Adam distrust grew further and for a moment even lead him to the conviction that Gordon himself had something to do with his abduction. In a fit of rage, he grabbed the shard from the mirror and threatened to kill Gordon if he didn't tell him what was going on around them. However, he stopped when he realized that the shard belonged to a one-way mirror. With pieces from broken tiles, he smashed the mirror, causing the glass to break entirely. In doing so, he discovered a camera, which was positioned behind the mirror. To his anger, it was protected by a second, shatterproof glass pane. Gordon tried to convince him to calm down and concentrate on Jigsaw's clues instead of becoming exasperated with the camera. When Adam subsequently asked him whether he even thought about the things Jigsaw could do to his family in the meantime, Gordon told him about the final conversation with Diana at the night of his abduction.

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Adam finds the photo

Thereby, he managed to put oil on troubled waters and told Adam about his family. Adam asked him whether he wanted more children, Gordon denied this as it was already hard enough for him and his wife to do justice to Diana. During their conversation, Gordon threw his wallet to Adam so he could take a look at some photos of Diana. However, when Adam searched the wallet for a picture of Gordon's wife, he made an unnerving discovery. Instead of the photo he was looking for, he found another picture, which was signed with the word "Regards" and a drawn jigsaw piece. The photo showed Gordon's family, who were gagged and tied up in the bedroom of apartment. As he didn't want to worry him, Adam didn't tell him about the picture and instead gave him the wallet back, claiming that the photo of his wife wasn't there. While the confused doctor searched the wallet, Adam unobtrusively took another look at the picture. On the back side of it, Jigsaw had written the message "X marks the spot. Sometimes you see more with your eyes shut."

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Adam and Gordon find the "X"

When Adam's uncooperative attitude caused another argument between him and Gordon, he finally asked him to turn off the light, which Gordon did, despite being sceptical. Upon doing so, they spotted glowing "X" on the wall, which hadn't been visible in the light, leading Adam to the conclusion that it had been drawn with a special fluorescent paint. By using his saw, Gordon smashed the marked part of the wall and thereby discovered a hollow space with a small box hidden inside. Gordon managed to open it with the key he had found in his envelope at the beginning of his game. It contained a mobile, a lighter, two cigarettes as well as a written message, which told Gordon that the cigarettes were harmless, that he didn't need a gun to kill Adam and that "smoking was only poisonous when it ended in bloodshed." When Adam, who didn't notice any of this, asked him for a cigarette, Gordon denied his wish and instead tried to call the police. To his disappointment, the mobile couldn't be used to make calls, but only to receive them. However, this caused him to remember the night of his abduction, where something similar had happened to him in a parking garage, before he was attacked and subdued by a person with a pig mask.

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Adam smokes the cigarette

After telling him about this, Gordon suddenly asked him how he knew that they had to turn off the light. When Adam claimed it was due to his instinct and obviously tried to avoid the question, the men began to argue once again until Adam finally revealed the photo of Gordon's abducted family to him. Prompted by his fear for Diana and Alison, Gordon thought about another way out and came up with a plan. Unnoticed by Adam, he dipped one of the cigarettes into the blood of the lifeless body of John Kramer, which, according to Jigsaw's clues, had to be poisoned. Afterwards, he turned off the lights and told Adam about his plan, which required him to fake his death. When he turned the lights on again, he threw the second, harmless cigarette and the lighter to Adam. Moments later, Adam pretended to collaps due to the poison. However, their plan failed when Adam received an electric shock from his shackle, which caused him to panic once again, while Gordon was angry and blamed him for the failure of their plan. The shock, however, caused Adam to remember his own abduction.

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Adam shows the photos to Gordon

After he told Gordon about his abduction from his apartment, the phone rang. When Gordon answered the call, his frightened daughter begged him to save her and her mother. Afterwards, he also spoke with Alison, who warned him not to trust Adam as he had known him long before their game began. When Gordon confronted him with that warning, Adam finally admitted that he had observed and photographed him throughout the previous days and showed him the photos, which he had found in the bag with the hacksaws. This resulted in an argument, during which Adam revealed that he had followed Gordon to rendezvous with his student and mistress, Carla, at the Hotel Barfly. Angered by this, Gordon asked him who hired him, as he was convinced that Adam's client was also their abductor. However, when Adam described the man as a "tall black guy with a scar around his neck", Gordon realized that it was Detective Tapp, who was convinced that Gordon was the Jigsaw Killer and blamed him for the death of his partner, Detective Steven Sing, five months earlier.

When the two of them lapsed into silence again, Adam suddenly noticed that one of the photos wasn't from him. It showed a man standing at the window of Gordon's bedroom, but Gordon claimed that, besides Diana and Alison, nobody had been in their apartment the night before. Therefore, Adam showed him the picture, causing the shocked doctor to recognize the man as Zep Hindle, an orderly at the Angel of Mercy Hospital, where Gordon worked as well. Seconds later, Adam realized that the time of their game was over. Shortly afterwards, the mobile rang again. To Gordon's surprise, he heard his wife's voice, who had managed to free herself from the sadistic orderly. However, only moments later, he also heard several gunshots and the desperate screams of his daughter. Therefore, Gordon started to cry, but suddenly lost his consciousness when he received an electric shock from his shackle.

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Gordon cuts off his foot

Adam immediately tried to wake him up and was afraid that Gordon was dead, when the latter regained his consciousness. However, due to the events, Gordon suffered a breakdown, which became even worse when the phone rang again but was beyond his reach, as he had inadvertently thrown it away when he was electrocuted. In a last desperate attempt to save his family, he used his shirt to stanch his leg and, despite Adam's attempts to calm him down, began to cut off his foot. After he had managed to free himself from his chain, he crawled to the middle of the room and took the revolver from John Kramer's hand. Then, he used the bullet from his envelope and shot the frightened Adam, who collapsed immediately. Shocked by what he had done, Gordon screamed at the camera and begged for the life of his family.

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Adam begs Gordon not to leave him

Moments later, the door was opened and Zep Hindle entered the bathroom. Gordon frantically tried to shoot him, even though he had no more bullets. Unimpressed by this, Zep aimed his gun at him and wanted to kill him as he didn't finish his task in time. However, before he could do it, he was attacked by Adam as the bullet had only injured his shoulder. As the two of them lay on the floor and fought with each other, Adam managed to disarm his enemy and smashed his head with the lid of the toilet tank. When Gordon finally convinced him to stop, Adam started to cry due to his pain. Gordon told him that he'd bleed to death if he stayed with him and promised to get help. Despite Adam's desperate attempts to hold him back, the severely injured doctor crawled out of the room.

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John reveals himself to Adam

When he was alone, Adam searched Zep's body for a key to his shackle. To his surprise, he found another tape recorder in his jacket pocket, which contained a message for Zep. The latter had been poisoned by Jigsaw and was forced to abduct Gordon's family and kill them if he failed his test, in order to obtain the antidote. Therefore, Adam realized that Zep was also just another victim of Jigsaw, when the actual killer, John Kramer, got up from the floor and removed his mask. Then, he told Adam that the key to his chain was in the bathtub. As Adam realized that the key had gone down the drain, he aimed Zep's gun at John, who incapacitated him with another electric shock. While Adam lay on the floor shivering, John turned off the light, closed the door and left the screaming young man with the words "Game Over." (Saw)

Adam Stanheight's Death[]

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Amanda suffocates Adam with a plastic bag

Shortly after he was left to die, Adam was severely weakened by his bullet wound and the lack of food, which made it hard for him to remain conscious. Some time later, Amanda Young returned to the bathroom because she felt guilty for his faith and was haunted by nightmares. In an act of mercy, she tried to suffocate him with a plastic bag. Despite his weakened state, Adam desperately tried to fight her off. However, he couldn't overcome Amanda. In his death throes, his head hit the toilet, which ultimately caused him to lose consciousness and die by asphyxiation. (Saw III)

Henry Kessler's Test[]

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Henry Kessler's Test

Few short months after the game had passed, John placed one of his cancer support group attendees; Henry Kessler in this room to face a test for appointing him to a miracle treatment system that turned out to be a scam in which he was a part of, as evidenced by the lack of scarring on his stomach where he had supposedly been treated. John, with the help of Detective Mark Hoffman, another one of his accomplices, attached a device with sharp objects to Henry’s chest, designed to make his supposed wound a reality. The rules for this game are unexplained and Henry’s fate is unknown. Regardless of the outcome, there was no trace of Henry at the room afterwards. (Saw X)

The Nerve Gas House[]

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Amanda and Daniel in the bathroom

After their deaths, the corpses of Zep and Adam were left in the bathroom. Several months later, the decomposition of his body had significantly progressed, when the bathroom became the location of another deadly game. Several people were trapped in a house connected to the tunnel network and were exposed to a deadly nerve agent. In order to find syringes with the antidote, they had to overcome Jigsaw's tests. On the run from Xavier Chavez, a dangerous murderer and participant of the game, Daniel Matthews found the bathroom, accompanied by Amanda, who played as a victim herself. When Xavier entered the room shortly afterwards, Daniel pretended to be dead. Xavier told them that they all had numbers written on the back of their necks, which were part of the combination to a safe that contained a dose of the antidote. When he demanded to see their necks, Amanda reminded him that he needed her to tell him his own number. After some hesitation, Xavier used a knife to cut the skin from his own neck, while screaming in agony. However, when he approached Amanda afterwards, Daniel jumped to his feet and slashed his throat with the hacksaw that Gordon had used to cut off his foot. After Xavier died before them, the two of them left the bathroom. (Saw II)

Eric Matthews' Test[]

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Amanda subdues Eric in the bathroom

The next day, Amanda returned to bathroom and hid in the bathtub, where she waited for Daniel's father, Detective Eric Matthews. When the latter finally reached the room and searched it for his son, he was attacked by Amanda, who covered her face with a pig mask and injected him with an anesthetic. After he passed out, she chained him to one of the pipes and only left him his flashlight, his empty gun and a tape recorder with a message for him. When he woke up and played the tape, he realized that Amanda, who he thought to be a victim, was the accomplice of Jigsaw. She wanted to take revenge on Eric because at some point in the past, he faked the evidence in one of his cases and therefore arrested her and sent her to prison even though she was innocent. Moments later, Amanda closed the door and left him to die with the words "Game Over." (Saw II)

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Eric tries to cut off his foot

Out of fear, Eric tried to grab his gun. As it was beyond reach, he used one of his shoes to pull it towards him. However, he immediately realized that the magazine was empty. After that, he used his shoe to obtain his flashlight, which was the only remaining source of light in the pitch-dark room. In his desperation, he tried to smash the pipe he was chained to. When this attempt remained unsuccessful, he eventually found the hacksaw. He initially tried to saw through his chain, but when he saw the severed foot of Lawrence Gordon, he realized that he had to cut off his own foot in order to escape. At first, he tried to free himself that way, but ultimately couldn't bring himself to do it. However, he finally managed to escape nonetheless, when he grabbed the lid of the toilet tank used by Adam to kill Zep Hindle and smashed his own foot. Thereby, he was able to free himself from his shackle. After that, he took his flashlight and left the bathroom. (Saw III)

Peter Strahm's Investigation[]

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Strahm finds the bathroom

Approximately six months later, Special Agent Peter Strahm, who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, found the underground tunnels when he pursued Hoffman, who became Kramer's eventual successor after the latter's death. While exploring the hallways, Strahm noticed a blood trail on the floor, which led to the door of the bathroom. However, he decided for a different path to continue his pursuit of Hoffman. (Saw V)

Mark Hoffman's Execution[]

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Hoffman is trapped in the bathroom

Some time later, Lawrence Gordon returned to the underground room. Since his escape he had become John Kramer's accomplice and was chosen to fulfill his final request, being that in the event that Hoffman murders John's ex-wife, Jill Tuck, that Gordon acts on his behalf. Following John’s orders after Hoffman executes Jill in the Reverse Bear Trap, he takes Hoffman down to the same bathroom where Gordon himself, many years ago had his test, and shackles him to the same pipe that Adam Stanheight still was. Then Lawrence enters the room one final time. The loud sounds from the lights starting up disturb Hoffman and he wakes up. In a panic, he attempts to reach the hacksaw, which Lawrence pulls out of his reach. Deciding not to give him that advantage, Gordon throws it out of the room. Ignoring Hoffman’s angry protests, Lawrence takes one last look at his rotted foot, before turning off the light, and closing the door, leaving Hoffman to die with the words "Game Over." (Saw 3D)

Trivia[]

  • According to an interview with Leigh Whannell, Adam and Lawrence were originally planned to be trapped in an elevator or a basement.
  • According to the audio commentary of Saw 3D, Hoffman supposedly died in the bathroom.
  • The audio commentary of Saw 3D revealed, that the two men, who helped Lawrence to abduct Hoffman, were originally planned to be Brad and Ryan from the beginning of the film.
  • As there had been no plans for a sequel at the time of the first film, the entire set had to be rebuilt for Saw II.
  • When Lawrence cut off his foot at the climax of Saw, the cell phone disappeared and wasn't seen again for the rest of the film or any of the future sequels.
  • In Saw and Saw 3D, Lawrence's foot was lying on its right side, but in Saw II and Saw III, it was lying on its left side.
  • Adam's flannel shirt was in the bathroom throughout the first film, but in the later movies, it isn't seen again.
  • In Saw, Saw III, and Saw X, Adam was chained by his left ankle, but in Saw II, his corpse was chained by his right ankle.
    • Despite Saw III immediately taking place after Saw II, Adam's corpse in III is completely bald and his head is facing upright.
  • In Saw and Adam's death scene in Saw III, his gunshot wound was on his shoulder. However, in Saw II and the opening scene of Saw III, it was just above his chest, while in Saw 3D, it appeared to be on his corpse's abdominal area.
    • Those errors led to several theories of fans, according to which Adam was saved and his corpse was replaced with that of Detective Tapp.
  • Chronologically, after Saw, the S&W revolver Lawrence used in the Bathroom Trap is never seen again, until the mid-credits scene of Saw X.
    • Zep Hindle's pistol is also missing in post-Saw bathroom appearances.
  • Although the toilet tank lid Adam used to bludgeon Zep Hindle in Saw broke in half, it appears as a full, undamaged piece in Saw X.
  • Likely due to a continuity error, in Saw 3D, the toilet closest to the back of the bathroom is shown with its tank lid seated, despite it being displaced and shattered in Saw.
  • The props used for Adam and Zep's corpses in Saw II were originally used in a different film for reshoots. Special FX designer Greg Nicotero provided Saw II's crew with the props to be reused.[1]
  • A total of 10 characters have been in the bathroom throughout the series. These people consisted of John, Amanda, Hoffman, Lawrence, Eric, Daniel, Adam, Henry, Xavier & Zep.
  • Everytime a Saw movie that includes the Bathroom concludes filming, the set would be taken apart. Kevin Greutert confirmed that The Bathroom set used for Saw X is still intact as rebuilding it would always be grueling. This leaves a chance for The Bathroom to return in later installments if needed.

References[]

  1. The Making of Saw II (2005) - YouTube. Timestamp 52:06 - 52:29.

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