John Kramer (character)

John Kramer / Designer Saw is obsessed with teaching people to value their lives by subjecting them to tests that he calls "survival games" or "tests of the will." Trials often symbolically reflect the mistakes made by players on their path of life. All his traps cause their victims moral or physical suffering, and all of them cause the death of their victims if they are unable to act in accordance with the rules that he leaves them on audio or video cassettes (in the latter case, the doll voices the rules). He pre-designs each game, predicting each move of his victims.

Long before John became a “life teacher,” he had a wonderful family and a great job. Wife Jill worked in a clinic for the mentally ill and drug addicts, and John himself was engaged in civil engineering. Watching the treatment of drug addicts in his wife’s clinic, John turns the motto “Appreciate your life” into your permanent credo.

Once, at a charity banquet in a clinic, John meets with William Easton , president of Umbrella Health Insurance Company. After talking with him, John expresses the opinion that William does not separate those who should live and who will live. To which Easton replies, he simply predicts the fate of those who have the potential to live in good health. Despite some controversy, John is the one who trusts insurance payments.

Jill was about to give birth to a son, whom John decided to call Gideon in honor of his first constructed building. But in the clinic where she worked, an incident occurred: a drug addict and thief Cessil stole drugs from the department, and, running away, hit Jill in the stomach with a door. A miscarriage has occurred. John is completely discouraged.

After some time, attending physician John Lawrence Gordon diagnoses a brain tumor , which is a metastasis of colon cancer. Deciding not to give up, John goes to William to get insurance permits in order to go to Norway to see a special doctor. But William resolutely rejects his request, citing unfavorable conditions for the company, and John is convinced that Easton really decides who lives and who doesn't.

Being on the verge of despair, John pushes himself to suicide, but survives, despite numerous wounds. Realizing that, despite the disease, his body coped with severe injuries, John is fired up with the idea of ​​testing with life and as a result becomes a maniac.

Saw: A Game of Survival

For the first time, his voice was heard on tapes that he left to Adam and Dr. Gordon, where he explained to them the reasons why they were trapped, as well as the rules that they needed to win.

It later turned out that John was lying between the subjects in the bathroom, depicting a dead body. When Lawrence left the room, sawing off his foot, John got up from the floor and closed Adam in the room of one, saying to him: "The game is over!".

Saw: The Video Game

After the events of the first film, Saw locked detective David Tapp in an abandoned psychiatric hospital. John started David's game by putting the Jawbreaker on him. He also placed in the hospital all those who Tapp had once known - Amanda Young (for cutting her veins), Jennings, Melissa Sing, Jeff Ridenhor . In addition to them, Tepp was supposed to save reporter McGillicati, who coined John the nickname "Saw" and Obi Tate , who himself asked for the test. In this game, John appears an unknown assistant, who simultaneously tested the rest of the people in the hospital. Who this man is will remain unclear - David, having won the battle, will leave him to die, and continue the pursuit of John. At the end of the game, John invites Tepp to give all the victims he has saved freedom or to continue the pursuit of truth. David, having learned the lesson, leaves the hospital and is declared a hero, and John begins to prepare the tests shown in the second part of the franchise.

Saw 2

The events of the second film reveal that John, sensing a near demise, found a successor. She became Amanda Young. With the help of Amanda, John decided to test police officer Eric Matthews . But Eric could not cope, and Amanda locked him in a room with the corpses of Adam and Zapp . Having revealed his identity to the whole world, John and Amanda disappear.

Saw 3

Six months have passed since the disappearance of the maniac Pyla and his accomplice. John is weakening more and more from cancer, but still decides to conduct the last test in which he wants to check Amanda before he transfers his legacy to her. John instructs Amanda to test the fallen family of Jeff and Dr. Lynn Denlon . But Amanda’s ambitions interfere with the tests, which turns out tragically for everyone: the vengeful Jeff kills Amanda, and then John himself.

Saw 4

This part is the midquel of the third part. Leaving Amanda to follow Jeff and Lynn, John instructed his second assistant to test the surviving Detective Matthews, lawyer Art Blanck , Officer Rigg , Detective Hoffman , and FBI agents . As it turned out, the assistant was Hoffman himself, who arranged the game.

Saw 5

After the events in the fourth part, John left Detective Hoffman a message that he was the next to accept John's challenge. In addition, John appears in Mark's flashback flashback .

Saw 6

The sixth film reveals John's past even deeper. Despite the fact that after turning into Pyla, John divorced Jill and asked her not to come to him again, he decided to prove to her that his idea really works, that he is not the killer that society considers him to be. Flashbacks show how John leaves his legacy to Jill so that she disposes of it at the right time.

3D Saw

In this series, John appears only in flashbacks . At the presentation of the book "How I defeated Saw" a man approaches Bobby Dagen and asks to sign on the cover. Not knowing that Saw himself is standing in front of him, Bobby signs the book and patiently answers the provocative questions of the newcomer. John warns Bobby that he will soon have to pay for the lie. In parting, John tells him that they will meet again.

This series also reveals that John, locking Adam in the bathroom, caught Dr. Gordon down the hall and saved him. Later, John turned to surgical assistance from Gordon several times and before his death it was he who was instructed to monitor the end of the last tests (according to the cassette-will of Pila, Dr. Gordon had to look after Jill So in case of her death - punish the guilty). After the death of Pyla, his successor is continued by Mark Hoffman (former detective, also a maniac). But for the murder of Jill So Dr. Gordon catches Hoffman and closes him in the bathroom, shown in several episodes of the film.

Saw 8

John appears in a flashback with traps on a farm, where he tests 5 people. As explained in the movie, this is John Cramer's first joint trap. It also appears in the flashback that his first assistant was Logan Nelson.

Saw always knows what will happen during the games - he achieved perfection in predicting the course of human thoughts, which causes some fans and critics to discontent. Tobin Bell personally responded to such comments, saying that he believes that Pila always has a backup plan, and that he calculates everything based on the most unfavorable outcome ^[1] .

The best action John described James Van :

He does not actually punish you for your sins. He wants to help you, believing that if you go through one of his traps, you will become better as a person

Original text

He's not exactly punishing you for your sins. He wants to help you, and he thinks that if you make it through one of his traps, then you'll be a better person.

In their comments on the Blu-Ray Saws 3D, screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan said that it was John himself who founded the Survivor Group meetings.

There is a fan theory that John Kramer is the matured Kevin McCallister of One House . Macaulay Culkin, who played Kevin and James Van, the director of the Saw film series, approved this theory, saying that it is quite possible that Kevin could grow up and become John Kramer. ^[2]

It's amazing. I should have known that Macaulay Culkin would grow into John Cramer! I think it's cool. I am very flattered that people take the time to have fun with all these fan theories. I think that’s why I make these films. I want fans to have fun with them ^[3] .

• Tobin Bell has twice been nominated for the MTV Film Award for Best Villain for his role as John Sramer in the films Saw 2 and Saw 3 .

In the Russian dubbing, it is duplicated by Viktor Bohon (“ Saw: A Game for Survival ”), Nikita Prozorovsky (“ Saw 2 ” - “ Saw 3 ”), Dalvin Shcherbakov (“ Saw 4 ” ( Billy's voice)) and Alexander Novikov (“ Saw 4” "-" 8 ").

• The official website of the film (English) .