Saw II

Saw II
File:SawIIposter2.jpg Saw II film poster
Directed by	Darren Lynn Bousman
Written by	Leigh Whannell Darren Lynn Bousman
Produced by	Gregg Hoffman Oren Koules Mark Burg
Starring	Donnie Wahlberg Tobin Bell Shawnee Smith Erik Knudsen Franky G Glenn Plummer Emmanuelle Vaugier Beverley Mitchell Timothy Burd Dina Meyer Lyriq Bent Noam Jenkins Tony Nappo
Music by	Charlie Clouser
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment
Release dates	October 28, 2005
Running time	93 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$4,000,000 (estimated)

Saw II is the sequel to the 2004 horror film Saw, making it the second in the series. The entire film (apart from external shots) was filmed in one building over the span of 25 days. It was released in most parts of the world on October 28, 2005, but not released in Australia until December 1, 2005. Darren Lynn Bousman took over directing duties, and also co-wrote the story's script with Leigh Whannell, the original film's co-writer.

The film features the antagonist of the previous film, the Jigsaw Killer, finally being apprehended, but trapping the arresting officer in one of his own games while showing another "game" of eight people in progress at the same time. It also explored the character's back story, explaining why he became a serial killer.

The film is currently #16 on Bravo's Even Scarier Movie Moments. Following the film's opening weekend gross of $31.5m, Lions Gate Films commissioned Saw III, released on October 27, 2006.

Taglines:

• Oh yes... There will be blood
• New game. Different pieces

Plot

Template:Spoiler The film begins in a darkened room where Michael, a snitch, awakens in a chair, wearing an iron maiden-like device around his neck. He learns that he is in a trap constructed by the Jigsaw Killer and is being punished for his dishonest ways. In order to stop the device from springing and crushing his skull, Michael must cut out his eye with a scalpel and retrieve the key from the inside of his eye socket within sixty seconds. However, he is unable to do so, and is killed as a result.

After arguing with his rebellious teenage son Daniel, Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) investigates Michael's death. Realizing that the mask bore a Wilson Steel logo, he gathers a SWAT team and arrives at the company's abandoned factory, which has now become Jigsaw's headquarters. However, the building is booby-trapped, and several officers are killed before the others discover Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) upstairs. Jigsaw, considerably weakened from the effects of cancer, reveals a set of television monitors, showing several people trapped in a mysterious house, with Daniel being among them. There is also a timer counting down, with less than two hours left.

In the room, the characters begin to awaken and one of them is revealed to be Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith), the only known survivor of Jigsaw's traps. The characters learn from a tape recorder that a toxic nerve gas is leaking into the house and that they only have a limited time to find antidotes for themselves, one of which is in a safe in the room, the combination to which they are unaware. The action in Saw II now switches between the captives in the house and the team trying to save them in Jigsaw’s office.

Inside the house, embezzler Gus is quickly killed while peering out the door's eyehole and the others proceed to the basement. Once there, they find a message for Obi (Tim Burd), revealing that he helped in the capture of everybody in the house. They then discover a furnace holding two antidotes in syringes. Obi, an arsonist, tries to retrieve the syringes but is killed when the furnace starts, fulfilling the ironic nature of Jigsaw's murders.

In the headquarters, Jigsaw informs Matthews that, in order to save his son's life, he must talk with him; Matthews agrees as the other officers try to trace the video signal being fed to the monitors. Jigsaw explains that he decided to become the Jigsaw Killer after being diagnosed with terminal cancer and a failed suicide attempt, in order to teach the others the value of life. He also explains that his "signature", a stamp of a jigsaw puzzle piece left on the victim, is symbolic of that person missing a crucial part of themselves; the survival instinct.

In the house, another tape is found, in which Jigsaw condemns Xavier for being a drug dealer; a large pit of hypodermic needles is then found, with a key hidden somewhere inside. Xavier throws Amanda into the needle pit instead of going into it himself. As she is a former heroin addict, the ironic nature of the needle pit is still apparent. Amanda retrieves the key, but Xavier fails to gain access to the antidote in time.

Matthews is frustrated with Jigsaw's philosophical ramblings, and Jigsaw reveals that the people trapped in the house are all criminals who were framed by Matthews at one point, and that his son will most likely be killed should the others discover this. A tech team arrives to trace the signal and Matthews begins destroying several of Jigsaw's plans, who remains unmoved. Meanwhile, Xavier abandons the others and searches for a way to escape, eventually finding a colored number written on the back of Gus' neck. Realizing this is the part of the combination to the safe, Xavier kills Jonas to retrieve his number and begins stalking the others, who now know Daniel is Matthews' son. Addison leaves and Laura succumbs to the poison.

Addison stumbles upon a glass box containing an antidote, but falls victim to the device, revealed to be one of Jigsaw's traps. Xavier comes to tempt Addison, but to only obtain her number, leaving Addison to scream in anguish while she dies. Xavier then discovers that Daniel is Matthews' son and hunts him down. Watching this, Matthews loses control and violently assaults Jigsaw, nearly killing him and ultimately forcing him at gunpoint to take him to the house. As they depart, the tech team discovers the signal and follows it. Xavier discovers other numbers and then follows Amanda and Daniel through a trapdoor, which leads to the Bathroom trap from the first film, featuring a severed foot of Dr. Gordon and the remains of Zep Hindle and Adam Faulkner in an advanced state of decomposition. It is revealed that Dr. Gordon, from the first film, did not succeed in finding help, as he promised, and that Adam did not survive the bathroom trap. Daniel and Amanda stare in terror at the gore and decaying matter around them. Screams and dialogue from the victims (Adam, Dr.Gordon, Zep) of the previous film are replayed, as well as Jigsaw's voice. Xavier arrives and threatens Amanda for her number, in which she tells him that he still does not know his own number and asks how will he get it if she doesn't tell him. Xavier has no choice, but to slice off the skin from the back of his neck to retrieve his number. Daniel pretends to pass out, but when Xavier tries to attack him, Daniel surprises him and slashes his throat with a hacksaw found on the ground, in which Dr. Gordon used to saw his foot off in the previous film.

Meanwhile, Matthews arrives at the last house on the left (an allusion to one of the film-maker's inspirations, Wes Craven) and makes his way inside, eventually finding the trapdoor. The SWAT team, meanwhile, arrives at the location of the video signal; they realize that the monitors were actually showing a tape recording; that the events in the house took place on a previous occasion, and that the SWAT team is in the wrong house. Meanwhile, in the correct house, Matthews arrives in the bathroom and is stabbed in the thigh and knocked unconscious by a person wearing Jigsaw's pig mask. Back at Jigsaw's headquarters, the timer expires and a safe opens, revealing a barely-conscious Daniel.

In the bathroom, Matthews awakens to find himself chained to the pipes. An audio tape lying next to him reveals that Amanda, now Jigsaw's protégé, has put him there. In a series of flashbacks, we learn that Amanda will now continue Jigsaw's work after his death, and that her first trap will involve Matthews. Matthews is hopeless, like Adam from the first film, screaming in fury as Amanda appears, closing the bathroom door and abandoning him while a barely-alive Jigsaw waits in the car outside. Slowly, Jigsaw forms a smile. Template:Endspoiler

The dialogue for this film can be found here.

Cast

Actor	Role
Donnie Wahlberg	Detective Eric Matthews
Shawnee Smith	Amanda Young
Tobin Bell	John Kramer / Jigsaw
Emmanuelle Vaugier	Addison
Franky G	Xavier
Beverley Mitchell	Laura
Glenn Plummer	Jonas
Lyriq Bent	Rigg
Tim Burd	Obi
John Fallon	Tech
Tony Nappo	Gus
Erik Knudsen	Daniel Matthews
Dina Meyer	Detective Kerry

Critical reaction

Even more so than in the previous film, critics found Jigsaw's diabolic "games" to require a large amount of planning and fortuitous timing in order to succeed, causing some to liken his murderous schemes to Rube Goldberg machines. Tobin Bell addressed some of these criticisms by saying, "My sense is that [Jigsaw] is so detail oriented that I think he thinks in terms of worst case scenario. I think he’s a very good judge of character, so his sense that, for example, that Detective Matthews was going to play right into his trap, which he did, was right on. Now, it seems to me that he’s got plan 2 always in place. And there’s probably been a number of plan 2s. I mean, we’ve only seen three movies. Maybe there are six more somewhere where he failed, where something didn’t play out."

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the aggregate rating of this film was only 35%, with several reviewers revolted by the explicit gore and torture scenes. Of the few critics who provided positive reviews, some remarked that it was a worthy follow-up, providing plenty of what fans of the first expected. As with its predecessor, however, the film garnered far more positive reception with the public than with critics. It currently holds a rating of 74% by users at Rotten Tomatoes, and a score of 6.9 at the Internet Movie Database.

Soundtrack

Main article: Saw II (soundtrack)

Uncut Edition

Saw II has been released on a standard as well as a "Special Edition" uncut DVD. Differences in this edition include:

• When the police are entering Wilson Steel, three short cuts are shown of Jigsaw upstairs, realizing the police have arrived. When he realizes this, he calmly goes back to what he was working on.
• When the police are approaching Jigsaw several scenes are added where he is eating Cheerios (as stated in the commentary on the original R-rated DVD).
• Jigsaw has a few extra lines of dialogue with Detective Matthews, mentioning that he has "wiped the slate clean", and that most people are merely "sleepwalking".
• When Obi is trapped in the oven, he attempts to break the glass on the far side as he is burning alive.
• The scene of Amanda thrashing around in the syringe pit is extended.
• In the bathroom, Charlie Clouser's score begins as Xavier begins cutting off his skin, and continues until he dies from his throat being slashed.
• The opening scene with "The Venus Headtrap" is extended and the song "Irresponsible Hate Anthem (Venus Headtrap Mix) is playing in the background.
• The scene where Matthews is beating up Jigsaw is extended with one extra punch.

This is the shortest unrated version in the series at 93 minutes, whereas Saw and Saw III's unrated versions are close to two hours.

Box office gross

• Made for only $4 million, Saw II grossed over $144 million worldwide, which includes $87 million in the United States.

Trivia

• One of the posters for the film Scary Movie 4 parodied the "severed fingers" poster for this film. But instead of a two, three fingers form the number four, and one has a Hello Kitty bandage. The tagline is "The funniest thing you ever sawed."

• When Jigsaw tells Kerry over the walkie-talkie the location of the file containing information everyone in the house, he says "Brown desk, second drawer". The desk the file is found in, however, is white.

• The code / combination for the safe is (Red) 2, (Orange) ?, (Yellow) 16, (Green) 11, (Blue) 9 , (Indigo) 25 , (Violet) 8 , according to the Director's Commentary, Daniel never had a number.

• Some of the items from the Nerve Gas house were in Jigsaw's lair, hinting to the audience that the camera feed was not in fact live. When the camera keeps panning from left to Jigsaw and right to Eric, the picture with the X on it can be seen in the background. Also, when Eric threatens to destroy Jigsaw's work, the rope Amanda picked up in the house was in one of the boxes. Another item in the house was Billy the puppet's tricycle, which was later seen being used by the doll when a few SWAT members were trapped.

• Contains several references to the 1972 film The Last House on the Left. Most obvious when John tells Eric that his son is in "the last house on the left".
• When Kerry and Eric are talking at the station, Darren Lynn Bousman is seen (with an afro) on a wanted poster. He also wore a robe to act out the part of Jigsaw for Michael's tape at the beginning of the film.
• When Kerry gets the idea to threaten to destroy his work, a drawing of the Razor Box trap can be seen in the background.
• The house number 237 is also the same number of the room in The Shining

External links

• Official website
• Saw II at IMDb
• Saw II at Rotten Tomatoes
• Saw III: Jigsaw Cuts Loose Video interview with Tobin Bell on MTV.com
• Donnie Wahlberg interview for Saw II