Saw X

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Saw X

Saw XI

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Saw X is an American-Mexican horror film directed by Kevin Greutert and written by Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger. It is the tenth film in the Saw franchise and released on September 29, 2023.

A sequel, Saw XI, was announced on December 11, 2023 with initial release date of September 27, 2024, before being changed to September 26, 2025.^[1]

Plot[]

In-between the events of the first two films, John Kramer learns from his doctor after his CT scan results that he only has months to live and that he should consider retiring but John adamantly refuses, still wanting to continue his work. Before leaving the hospital, John spots a custodian trying to steal a patient's belongings at the room and John envisions a trap on him where the janitor was restrained to a chair locked in a mask with tubings in each of his eye socket that would gouge out his eyeballs, which he fails as he didn't turn the dial and break all his fingers; in reality, the custodian, noticing John's presence, immediately returns the things and immediately left the room with John telling him he made that right choice.

Soon, John meets with one of his fellow partners of the cancer supporting group, Henry Kessler. He claims that he got his terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis and tells John that he was cured by an experimental Norwegian cancer treatment named The Pederson Project led by an Norwegian doctor Finn Pederson. Without hesitation, John calls the doctor's daughter Cecilia Pederson. They discuss more about the project and operation which is now held in Mexico and decide to meet in the said destination.

Upon arrival, John meets his assigned taxi driver Diego who is driving him throughout the city. En route, the two are confronted by a group of masked gunmen but upon recognizing John, they escorted him into their van and drive him to the clinic which was held at an abandoned chemical plant behind the hacienda. John gets to meet Cecilia and her team: anesthesiologist Mateo, nurse Valentina, and his assigned surgeon Dr. Ramón Cortez. Along the way, he meets Gabriela, a former patient who claims is very thankful that the Pederson project "saved her life"; Parker Sears, another patient being treated with stage 4 Thyroid cancer; and a young boy named Carlos, who forms a friendship with John after he helps fix his bicycle.

John undergoes his surgery the next day from Cortez and Cecilia's team. After the operation, Cecilia informs him that he is now cancer-free. Happy to have a new lease on life, John discards his notebook detailing further games and traps, willing to now retire as Jigsaw. John later returns to the hacienda with a bottle of tequila to gift Gabriela, but when he arrives, he finds the house empty with Cecilia and the others' absence. John enters the plant where the operation took place, finding the clinic trashed after leaving. He found a home video of an actual brain surgery during Cortez's operation as seen from the monitor and as John takes off his head bandage, he is distraught to discover that the group never operated him at all while taking away his money; the surgery was a scam all along. Horrified and enraged by their deception, John smashes the bottle, plotting his revenge against them.

Diego, who is escorting a couple of tourists at a local park at night, is captured by John who had identified him as "Dr. Cortez" earlier from the operation. He is taken to the plant where both of his forearms are coiled with pipe bombs attached to steel cables and a pair of scalpels bounded in each of his hands. When Diego breaks his restraints, the explosives activate a three-minute timer. He is forced to cut through his flesh to pull out the bombs before it explodes, passing his test. After nursing Diego’s injuries, John contacts his accomplice Mark Hoffman to locate the other scammers. Afterwards; John, with the aid of his accomplice Amanda Young, manage to capture Valentina, Mateo, Gabriela, and finally Cecilia.

The four awaken at the chemical plant, chained up, with Valentina being restrained in a chair with a wire saw near her neck. John and Amanda arrive at the plant where they beg for their freedom and forgiveness. John admonishes the group for scamming vulnerable cancer patients and robbing them of their hope. He tells the group that they can prove their forgiveness and win their freedoms if they can each win their individual game. Starting with Valentina, John and Amanda supply her with a Gigli saw; and instruct her to amputate her right leg and extract three ounces of bone marrow from the femur. John advises her to play the game, for if she fails to extract enough marrow in three minutes time, the saw near her neck will cut through her and decapitate her. As Valentina’s game begins, she is able to successfully amputate her right leg with the Gigli saw and extract the bone marrow, but fails to extract enough in time; resulting in her being decapitated by the saw.

From the office, John and Amanda discuss who will be the next person to play their game. John picks Gabriela, but Amanda, empathising with Gabriela due to relating to her drug addiction, is able to convince John to prepare Mateo’s game instead. John implores Amanda to continue his work once he passes away, and for now to focus on ensuring Cecilia’s group play their games, which Amanda expresses her disdain to them; knowing now that some people will never redeem themselves for their sins. Meanwhile, Cecilia and her remaining companions notice the former's phone ringing at the drawer. To reach it, Cecilia disembowels Valentina's corpse and uses her intestines to pull the drawer and retrieve her phone to call for help. But her plan backfires as Cecilia gets tasered by Amanda, who also confiscates her phone as she was confronted for their attempted escape. At 5pm, Parker breaks into the factory to reclaim his stolen money but gets captured by Amanda and was restrained to the office. After Parker woke up, he was horrified when he saw the games to the remaining subjects upon seeing Valentina's decapitated head. John urges Parker to cooperate without his gun that was stored inside a locker while being forced to watch their trial as Amanda chose to test Mateo next.

Mateo is strapped in a wheelchair, restrained with an electric collar around his neck that would shock him if he does not follow the rules. Billy arrives with a tray of medical supplies, with Mateo’s tape instructing him he has three minutes to extract a piece of his brain matter and place it in a vat of acid, which will dissolve and free Mateo. Mateo begins to saw the top of his skull open and is able to extract a piece of brain matter to place in the acid; however it does not dissolve in time, resulting in a mask to close over Mateo’s head, burning him alive. John frees Parker and tells him to observe Gabriela’s game.

Gabriela plays her tape, but quickly turns it off out of fear. John speaks over the intercom, telling Gabriela that she must play her game. She is then suspended in the air by her wrist and ankle, with a radiation machine aimed at her. John instructs her to free herself using a mallet to break her ankle and wrist before the radiation machine sears her flesh and kills her. Although struggling due to the pain of the radiation machine, Gabriela is able to free herself from the path of the machine by smashing her ankle with the mallet and then her wrist, completing her game. As John tells Amanda to take Gabriela to the hospital, Parker holds them at gunpoint and forces them to free Cecilia before ordering John to chain himself to her trap. Amanda is also chained up in Mateo’s chains. John begs Cecilia and Parker to take an injured Gabriela to the hospital, stating she has won her game and has earned her life. In order to spite both John and Amanda, Cecilia kills Gabriela by breaking her neck. She gloats to John of her knowledge to him being the Jigsaw killer and his attempts to retaliate against her and her deceased conspirators which she's been using them on the recent scams to take away their efforts for herself. As Parker suggests chaining Amanda next to John, they heard Carlos outside as Cecilia escorts him inside the plant and locks him into the trap instead to challenge John's sympathy. John and Carlos are forced to take turns drowning themselves when the tank gradually pours blood onto them, although John is able to take control of the lever so he bears the brunt of the blood instead, all while Amanda helplessly watches as Cecilia and Parker began to leave the plant.

While John and Carlos struggle, Cecilia and Parker enter the office and found the former's duffel bag containing the stolen money on top of the closet. But when she retrieves it, a tripwire sets a timer in ten minutes while the blood tank from the trap stops, saving Carlos and John as the latter and Amanda release their shackles with it's hidden lock before freeing Carlos. Cecilia and Parker check the bag to find the money and as Cecilia panics, the office door automatically closes, trapping the two inside. The couple attempt to barge the door open and as Cecilia attempts to shoot down the knob, they realized John had rigged Parker's gun earlier after he was abducted to the office. Cecilia got suspicious of how they knew of Parker's true identity besides herself and the others; until it was revealed from John's earlier interrogation to Diego after his test that he is able to identify the scammers including Parker which Hoffman is unable to locate him. Therefore, John had tricked Cecilia while setting up the games into luring him to the plant.

An audio-recorder plays to Cecilia and Parker; having worked out to play their roles for the scams which they now have to fight against each other, as a deadly gas from the chemical tanks fill in the room. As Parker attempts to break the room to get out, it unveils a narrow opening that they could only breathe through. Cecilia and Parker fight for their way in to save themselves as John, Amanda, and Carlos watch from outside. Cecilia ultimately gains the upper hand and stabs Parker to death with the box-cutter blade before sticking her head to the hole where she is forced to watch them walk away from the plant as Cecilia angrily calls out John while she was trapped inside the office until the timer expires. John retrieves his sketchbook as well as a bag of Cecilia’s money, which John gives to Carlos, having praised him for being a warrior. John, Amanda and Carlos then leave the plant, leaving Cecilia to angrily curse them as they leave.

In the mid-credits scene; John enters the bathroom and approaches a victim chained to the ceiling who turns out to be Henry, also part of Cecilia's group in faking his surgery evident from his scar which John finds Henry no longer possesses. As John attaches a contraption that will disembowel Henry, Hoffman appears to chastise him on dragging John into the scheme, deeming it as “epic bad luck”. As Henry pleads for his life out of mercy, John begins his game as Hoffman activates the trap and Henry helplessly screams in horror.

Cast[]

Tobin Bell as Jigsaw/John Kramer
Shawnee Smith as Amanda Young
Synnøve Macody Lund as Cecilia Pederson
Steven Brand as Parker Sears
Renata Vaca as Gabriela
Joshua Okamoto as Diego
Octavio Hinojosa as Mateo
Paulette Hernández as Valentina
Jorge Briseño as Carlos
Costas Mandylor as Mark Hoffman
Michael Beach as Henry Kessler
Isan Beomhyun Lee as Custodian
Dave Alfano as Doctor
Katie Barberi as Cancer Support Group Leader
Lucía Gómez-Robledo as MRI Technician
Donagh Gordon as Dr. Finn Pederson
Sebastián Torres as Masked Gunman
Cristo Ruiz as Tattooed Guy
Baltimore Beltrán as Carlos' Father
Kerry Ardra as TV Host
Natasha Goss as Cancer Victim 1
Craig Hurley as Cancer Victim 2
James Burg as Boy in Park
Bailey Guidry as Coffee Shop Worker

Production[]

In April 2021, Saw X was reported to be in development. Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger, who wrote the screenplay for the previous two entries in the franchise, confirmed that the script was completed in December 2021. In August 2022, Bloody Disgusting reported that the film would be directed by Kevin Greutert, who edited most of the previous installments and directed Saw VI and Saw 3D.

In October 2022, Tobin Bell was confirmed to reprise the role of John Kramer. In December 2022, Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand, and Michael Beach joined the cast in undisclosed roles. Shawnee Smith was revealed to reprise her role as Amanda Young. That same month, Renata Vaca, Paulette Hernandez, Joshua Okamoto, and Octavio Hinojosa were cast in undisclosed roles.

Principal photography took place in Mexico City from late October 2022 to February 2023.

Marketing[]

The song "The Air That I Breathe" by Hollies was used in the trailer

The Saw Instagram and X pages did a Pictionary style challenge where they provided fans with a phone number to text guesses to which trap Billy had drawn and provided a clue. Each correct response was provided with a piece of an image that, when all four are connected, reveals a poster for Saw X. The traps in the challenge were the Death Mask, Reverse Bear Trap, The Rack, and Eye Vacuum Trap.

A challenge was included on X where fans had to "like" four posts which unlocked a clip of the Eye Vacuum Trap.

Release[]

Saw X was initially set to be released on October 27, 2023, before Lionsgate announced at San Diego Comic-Con that it would be moving up to September 29, 2023 (likely to avoid competing with Universal's Five Nights At Freddy's).

Reception[]

The film received mostly positive reviews than any other Saw film. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an score of 80% based on 149 reviews, surpassing its original first film and also became the highest RT score in the franchise.

Soundtrack[]

The tenth film's official soundtrack composed at Lakeshore Records by Clouser was released digitally on September 29, 2023; the same date as the movie's release. The first track, "Blood Board" was released on September 22.

Original Score[]

1. Prognosis

2. Henry Hope

3. Meet Gabriela

4. Tequila

5. Crainiotomy

6. What Happens?

7. Abandoned

8. Hello Diego

9. Skylight

10. Main Room

11. Hello Valentina

12. Gabriela's Next

13. Parker Arrives

14. Hello Mateo

15. U Guys R Sick

16. Hello Gabriela

17. Playtime's Over

18. Blood Board

19. Blood Board (Edit)

20. Zepp X

21. Walk Out

22. Post Credits X

Trivia[]

Despite the title appearing to include a Roman numeral, TV spots confirmed that the "X" in Saw X is actually a letter.
Saw X is the first Saw film to take place outside the United States.
Saw X has the longest runtime in the franchise at 118 minutes.
This is the first Saw film where the Metropolitan Police Department doesn’t appear.
This is the first time John Kramer appears alive not including flashbacks since Saw III.