“Saw X,” directed by Kevin Greutert and starring Tobin Bell, brings a fresh twist to the classic Saw storyline. This time, we follow John Kramer on a journey to Mexico after hearing about a revolutionary treatment for his terminal cancer. But guess what? It turns out to be a money-grabbing scam targeting vulnerable people. John’s not one to let such injustice slide. With his trademark elaborate traps, he sets out to hunt down and punish those responsible. It’s a gripping story that combines suspense, mystery, and John’s resolute determination to make things right for those whom this sinister scam has deceived.
Saw X (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
We know that John Kramer (Tobin Bell), aka Jigsaw, is battling terminal cancer, and time is running out for him. With just months to live, perhaps a year if luck is on his side, he decides to invent his sinister game to determine who deserves to live and who doesn’t. The movie begins with John setting his sights on a hospital custodian. This custodian, someone whose role is to care for patients, is stealing from the very people he should be helping, selling their belongings for his own gain. John, or Jigsaw as he’s known, decides it’s time to put this custodian to the test. The custodian is placed in a harrowing Eye Vacuum trap, where his very life hangs in the balance.
To escape having his eyes painfully sucked out, all he has to do is turn a dial located near his hand. Seems simple, right? But John, in his twisted creativity, has attached a trap to the fingers of his other hand. Every turn of the dial results in a slow, excruciating process that breaks his fingers. We watch in suspense as the custodian struggles with this impossible choice. Should he endure the agony of broken fingers to save his eyes or let the Eye Vacuum do its gruesome work? Unfortunately, the man fails the test, and we witness the horrifying consequence as his eyes are inexorably drawn into the vacuum. But all of this is only playing out in John Kramer’s mind, setting the stage for the chilling games that are about to unfold in the Saw franchise.
Why Does John Kramer Fly to Mexico?
As John battles terminal cancer, he reconnects with an old support group friend, Henry (Michael Beach), who drops a bombshell. Henry shares that there’s a doctor out there doing something amazing to cure cancer. He hands John a link, and suddenly, a glimmer of hope lights up in John’s eyes. John eagerly signs up for this procedure, and the excitement builds as he receives a call from Cecelia (Synnøve Macody Lund), who informs him that he’s been chosen. She goes on to explain that this procedure is called the Pederson Method, a two-part treatment that uses Pederson’s special cocktail and surgery to remove the tumor. When these two steps are combined, they yield incredible success, curing over 90% of patients.
John arrives in Mexico, where he’s led to an old house situated outside the bustling city. The caretaker of this house, Gabriella (Renata Vaca), shares her own remarkable story with him. She used to suffer from a malignant tumor, but thanks to Cecelia’s treatment, she’s now completely cured. Cecelia introduces John to a group of patients who, like him, have traveled far and wide, all seeking freedom from the disease that’s been slowly consuming them from the inside. Some are battling thyroid cancer, while others are fighting different forms of blood-related illnesses.
Despite their diverse backgrounds, they all share one common thread – their faith in Cecelia’s plan to save them. As the day of the operation arrives, Cecelia reveals the details to John. Her doctor will be performing an awake craniotomy, a procedure in which John will drift in and out of consciousness during the surgery. The morning after the operation, John awakens to the news that the surgery was a success and he’s now cancer-free. But there’s one more important step – he’s advised to diligently take his medications on time to ward off any potential infections.
John decides to say his goodbyes to Gabriella before leaving the country, but when he returns to the place where he underwent the procedure, he’s in for a shock. The place is deserted, with no medical staff, caretakers, or proper equipment in sight. What’s even more surprising is that he finds a disk containing videos of awake craniotomies, suggesting that everything he believed about his own treatment was a sham. It becomes painfully clear that Cecelia had lied to him and taken advantage of his condition to take his money. Unfortunately, what Cecelia doesn’t know is John Kramer is not some regular old man; he’s a genius serial killer who’ll hunt her to the judgment day.
A still from Saw X (2023).How Does Mateo and Valentina Meets Their End?
John’s revenge plan kicks into high gear when he kidnaps Diego, the phony Dr. Cortez. He straps pipe bombs to Diego’s hands and tells him that the only way out is to cut off his own hands. Desperate to survive, Diego tries to use a knife to free himself, and somehow, he manages to disarm both bombs. True to his word, John spares Diego’s life. But the story doesn’t end there. John then kidnaps Cecelia, Valentina, Gabriella, and Mateo. Cecelia isn’t a real doctor at all. She’s a scam artist who preys on people’s fear of death. She targets people with terminal illnesses, convincing them to gamble away their savings in the hopes of a miracle cure.
John gets in touch with his apprentice, Amanda (Shawnee Smith), and together, they take action against each of Cecelia’s team members. John straps Valentina with a bone marrow trap that threatens to decapitate her when not disarmed in time. The only way for Valentina (Paulette Hernandez) to escape the trap is by amputating her own leg, which would release bone marrow from her femur, deactivating the deadly device. In an attempt to save her life, Valentina makes the agonizing decision to sever her own leg.
Tragically, despite her brave effort, she doesn’t manage to do it in time and loses both her head and life. However, it appears that Amanda is starting to feel pity for Gabrielle. She even tries to convince John to let her go, but the latter denies it. Parker Sears (Stevan Brand), one of Cecelia’s patients, arrives at the old chemical factory to demand his money after discovering that he has been duped.
John sets up a truly nightmarish trap for Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa). It’s a brain surgery trap, of all things, that clamps around Mateo’s head. The only way out? Mateo has to cut into his own head and transfer pieces of his brain into a glass box to get the key. At first, Mateo tries to wriggle out of the trap, but Cecelia advises him to follow through with the twisted game. So, in a desperate bid to save his life, Mateo grabs a drill and starts drilling into his own scalp. He plucks out pieces of his brain and places them in the glass box, all while enduring agonizing pain and screaming in sheer torment. Sadly, despite his efforts, Mateo falls short of completing the task in time. The trap closes in on him, melting his face.
Saw X (2023) Movie Ending Explained:
What Happens to Gabriella and Cecelia?
John puts Gabrielle through an intense radiation therapy trap. She’s suspended high above, hanging on by just one hand and feet, while he subjects her to brutal radiation beams. To escape this nightmare, Gabrielle has no choice but to shatter her own legs and hands with a blunt iron. It’s a gut-wrenching choice to make, but her life is on the line. Miraculously, Gabrielle manages to break free from the trap, but not without suffering severe burns from the merciless radiation.
Sears seizes an opportunity, and with John and Amanda at gunpoint, he demands that they release Cecelia. And here’s the twist: Sears was in cahoots with Amanda from the get-go. His role was to make Amanda’s target believe in the effectiveness of her treatment. In a surprising turn of events, Cecelia and Sears turn the tables on John and Amanda, forcing them into their own chains. Cecelia also kills Gabriella by pushing her sharp heels into her head.
Towards the end of “Saw X,” Cecelia brings in Carlos, a boy whom John had befriended during his time before the surgery in Mexico. John pleads with Cecelia to reconsider, arguing that Carlos is entirely innocent and should not be involved. But Cecelia is determined to proceed and places both John and Carlos in a waterboarding trap. However, this isn’t your typical waterboarding setup; it releases blood instead of water. To make matters worse, the only way to escape this horrific ordeal is to pull a lever and allow another person to endure the torture.
John, driven by his unwavering moral compass, refuses to let an innocent child suffer in front of his eyes. He seizes the lever with all his might, ensuring that the trap only inflicts pain on himself and not on Carlos. Unexpectedly, the trap deactivates, but not because of John’s actions. It’s Cecelia’s own misstep that triggers it. She makes a grave error by picking up a money bag, unknowingly sealing herself and Sears inside the room.
John, despite not being a superhero like Batman, has always been a few steps ahead of Cecelia. He’s a master of contingency plans, and he’d anticipated that Parker and Cecelia were in cahoots. That’s why he took the precaution of emptying Sears’ magazine while he was unconscious. In a final, high-stakes move, John starts filling the room with deadly gas, creating a life-or-death situation for Cecelia and Sears. The only way to survive is to breathe through a hole, setting them against each other in a desperate bid to stay alive. In the end, Cecelia makes a horrifying choice – she kills Sears to save herself, exactly as Amanda had speculated earlier. The movie concludes with John, Amanda, and Carlos walking out together.
Who is Amanda? “Saw X” (2023) Movie Post-Credit Scene Explained?
Amanda Young first appears in the original “Saw” movie, which came out in 2004. Her journey begins as one of the unfortunate individuals ensnared in one of Jigsaw’s intricate traps. It’s that famous “I want to play a game” moment, and she’s the one with the horrifying reverse bear trap contraption strapped to her head. Miraculously, Amanda manages to survive this nightmarish ordeal, making her a rare exception in the world of Jigsaw’s games. However, Amanda’s story doesn’t end there.
Rather than simply moving on from the traumatic experience, she develops an intense fixation on Jigsaw’s philosophy and his twisted sense of justice. She sees it as a way to bring purpose and meaning to her life, which had been troubled even before her encounter with Jigsaw. She ends up becoming his apprentice. In the post-credit scene of the movie, John straps a scar-tissue trap onto Henry’s chest, the man who had shared the information about Cecelia with him. Furthermore, we catch a glimpse of Detective Mark Hoffman, who had a complex history with Jigsaw. Initially, Hoffman was determined to catch John, but as the franchise unfolded, he eventually adopted John’s philosophy and joined his team.
