Obi Tate

Movies

Video Games

Obi Tate
Biographical Information
Appearances	Saw: The Video Game
Status	Alive
Age	28
Role	Supporting Character
Reason Tested	Desired to be tested by Jigsaw
Relationships	David Tapp (savior)† John Kramer (idol and abductor)
Portrayed by	Mark Carr

“	You're throwing away your life chasing Jigsaw. Can't you see he is giving you a gift?	”
	— Obi scolds David Tapp for hunting Jigsaw.

Obi Tate is a fictional character from the Saw franchise. He was a supporting character in Saw: The Video Game.

He was voiced by Mark Carr.

Biography

Desired to be Tested

Obi Tate was a 28-year-old man fascinated with John Kramer, better known as the Jigsaw Killer, who put his victims in deadly traps and forced them to fight for survival. Seeing Jigsaw's games as a gift, the young man had put up a newspaper ad to contact the killer as he desired to be tested. This attempt was successful when Jigsaw told Obi to come to the abandoned Whitehurst Insane Asylum. Upon his arrival, Jigsaw subdued him and trapped him inside a furnace in the asylum's crematorium. (Saw: The Video Game)

David Tapp's Test

When Obi woke up inside the furnace and was greeted by Jigsaw, the prisoner was happy and expressed his admiration for the killer's work, reaffirming his wish to participate in one of Jigsaw's games. However, the latter asked him what the point of his game was if he wasted his life looking for a way to be tested. Obi asked Jigsaw about the rules of his game and how he was supposed to free himself. To his dismay, Jigsaw told him that he could not save himself. Instead, Obi had to rely on the help of David Tapp, a discharged homicide detective, to escape the crematorium. Obi begged Jigsaw for another test, stating he wanted to feel the pain of going through it without anyone's help. Jigsaw responded that he first had to be saved by someone else to learn the true meaning of his games. Ignoring Obi's attempts to convince him otherwise, Jigsaw left him behind for his game to play out.

Shortly afterward, Tapp entered the crematorium and reached the oven where Obi was trapped. As he approached him, a TV turned on before them. A mechanical ventriloquist puppet named Billy appeared on-screen and confronted Obi with his desire to be tested by Jigsaw. Besides that, it also told him that he would be burned alive due to the increasing heat, with Tapp being his only hope of salvation.

When the tape ended, the furnace started heating up. Tapp tried to reroute the gas lines leading to the oven's burners. Eventually, he finished his task and opened the furnace's door, allowing Obi to escape. However, Obi was ungrateful for his salvation and angrily yelled at Tapp, accusing him of ruining his game. To Tapp's surprise and shock, the young man had put up a newspaper ad to be tested by Jigsaw. Even though Tapp was shocked and called him crazy, the men continued their way together. (Saw: The Video Game)

A Gift

When they passed a hallway, they found an audiotape on a table. The recording informed Tapp about the next victim he had to save - a man who had attempted to commit suicide and was therefore abducted by Jigsaw. After that, he and Obi went up a stairwell when Obi suddenly confronted Tapp about his obsession with stopping Jigsaw. As he saw his games as a gift and a way to salvation, he merely believed Tapp to be ungrateful and blinded and decided to leave him. Tapp did not bother following him and instead continued his way to reach the end of his game. (Saw: The Video Game)

Escape

Later that night, Obi was released after Tapp had chosen to let go of his pursuit of Jigsaw in exchange for the freedom of all the victims trapped at Whitehurst. (Saw: The Video Game, Saw II: Flesh & Blood)

Personality

Obi Tate was a mentally unstable individual who admired the Jigsaw Killer and his work, seeing his deadly games as a gift instead of something evil. As he felt unsatisfied with his life, he eventually developed an obsession with being tested himself.

When imprisoned by the killer, Obi stated he did not know how to live on without undergoing one of Jigsaw's gruesome tests, showing his admiration for the latter. Throughout their conversation, he repeatedly expressed his urge to face the pain of Jigsaw's game and was devastated when he found out that his life was in someone else's hands.

Upon his salvation by David Tapp, Obi scolded the former detective for supposedly having stolen his opportunity to be tested. Feeling betrayed, he left Tapp behind shortly afterward as he could not endure the presence of someone unable to see that Jigsaw's games were necessary to learn the value of life.

Trivia

• In early demos and trailer previews for Saw: The Video Game, Obi's character model was used as a placeholder for the game's protagonist, David Tapp. In an early demonstration video, similar to the beginning of the main game, Obi was shown waking up in a bathroom with the Reverse Bear Trap on his head and having to unlock it before the timer ran out. As it was initially intended for the game to have multiple playable characters, it is unknown if Obi would have been one of them.
• The addition of both Obi and Jeff Ridenhour indicates that the game was originally supposed to be a canon prequel/sequel bridging the events of SAW and SAW II, however Obi's backstory in Saw II retconned the events of the game.

Appearances and References

Films
Saw	Saw II	Saw III	Saw IV	Saw V	Saw VI	Saw 3D	Jigsaw	Spiral	Saw X
Absent	Flashback, Pictured, & Recording	Flashback	Absent	Flashback, Pictured, & Mentioned	Absent	Archive	Absent	Pictured	Absent