The Big Picture

The Saw franchise has become convoluted over the years, with numerous sequels, prequels, and timeline changes. For those new to the franchise, watching the movies in order of release date is the simplest option. Saw X is a sequel to the original Saw and a prequel to Saw II, focusing on John Kramer’s struggle with cancer and his training of Amanda Young.

Saw started with a relatively simple idea. James Wan’s 2004 low-budget horror chained two men to a dingy bathroom, a horrifying puppet with the voice of Tobin Bell telling them a very simple order: “I want to play a game.” Across nine sequels and nineteen years, the franchise proceeded to lose its entire mind. Through endless twists, retcons, and timeline-fudging, the lore of the Saw series got more convoluted with each passing entry, turning the legend of the Jigsaw killer into a twisted game all its own. With yet another sequel having arrived, Saw X, you’re probably thinking about a rewatch, which…doesn’t immediately clear up the timeline as much as you think. Especially since Saw X is a sequel-prequel that takes us all the way back to the beginning of the franchise. Or, well, slightly after that.

However! We’re here to help. Below, you’ll find the simplest watch method, in order of release date, followed by a full breakdown of which Saw movies happen when, and chronologically. (Maybe save that second option until after you’re done.)

Saw Movies In Order of Release Date
Image via Lionsgate.

If you haven’t seen a single Saw movie or just haven’t finished up the franchise, start with this option to avoid spoilers. The timeline gets pretty wonky.

Saw Saw II Saw III Saw IV Saw V Saw VI Saw 3D (Also known as Saw: The Final Chapter) Jigsaw Spiral: From the Book of Saw Saw X

Saw Movies In Chronological Order
Image via Lionsgate

Beware: Spoilers ahead. This section is for anyone making their way through the Saw franchise who wants to check in and understand what the hell just happened/was retconned with a last-minute flashback. Here are the Saw movies in (relatively!) chronological order:

Half of ‘Jigsaw’
The actual test taking place in 2017’s Jigsaw, which sees five people—each with a horrible secret—wake up in a deathtrap-filled barn, is actually one of the very first games orchestrated by John Kramer, taking place well before the events of Saw.

‘Saw’
In terms of the main, current-day storyline being told by the Saw franchise, James Wan’s original film is the starting block. However, as revealed through many, many subsequent flashbacks, this isn’t even close to Kramer’s first trap, and by this point, he had already recruited two conspirators: Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) and Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor).

‘Saw X’
Saw X takes place just a few weeks after the events of Saw with John Kramer being given his cancer diagnosis and finding hope of a cure through a member of his cancer support group, which takes him on a trip to Mexico. However, when it turns out that the treatment is part of a scam, he works with protegee Amanda Young — who is still learning the ropes after surviving her trial just weeks earlier, and has reservations about one victim due to her own struggle with addiction — to give them a taste of their own medicine.

The film is also set roughly a year prior to Saw II and sets up Amanda’s apprenticeship and takeover of the Jigsaw handle and her rather close relationship with Kramer. This installment definitely holds ties to later films, as well, particularly Saw III, as it depicts Kramer working with Hoffman before the events of that film, and Saw VI, which ties into corrupt medical systems and Kramer’s desperation for a cure.

RELATED: ‘Saw X’ Slices Through Tough Competition to Claim Top Spot in Domestic Box Office Debut

‘Saw II’
The Saw II plotline that sees Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) apprehending the Jigsaw Killer and trying to find the whereabouts of his son, Daniel (Eric Knudsen), takes place about a year after Saw. The film’s actual Jigsaw test, eight people trapped in a house of horrors slowly filling with poisonous gas—Daniel and Amanda Young among them—is presented as happening concurrently but actually took place a few days prior to John being arrested.

PRE-SAW FLASHBACK: We see John Kramer survive a suicide attempt, inspiring him to become Jigsaw and give others the second chance he felt he was given.

Image via Lionsgate.

‘Saw III’ / ‘Saw IV’
In arguably the franchise’s wildest switcheroo, Saw III and Saw IV happen at the same time, six months after Saw II.

PRE-SAW FLASHBACKS: In Saw IV, we learn that an accident at a rehab clinic caused by an addict named Cecil Adams (Billy Otis) caused John Kramer’s wife, Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), to miscarriage. Soon after, Cecil became Jigsaw’s very first victim.

‘Saw V’
Saw V picks up very shortly after the events of Saw IV and the death of John Kramer.

PRE-SAW FLASHBACK: We learn the trap that opens this film, a gigantic pendulum that cuts convicted murderer Seth Baxter (Joris Karsky) in half, was actually created solely by Hoffman and made to look like a Jigsaw killing. John Kramer finds out and recruits Hoffman to his cause.

‘Saw VI’
Saw VI starts just a few days after the events of Saw V.

PRE-SAW FLASHBACK: We learn that health insurance executive William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), the subject of the film’s game, denied John Kramer coverage that may have saved his life. We also learn Amanda Young was partially responsible for Jill’s miscarriage, information that Hoffman used to blackmail Amanda into murdering Dr. Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) in Saw III.

‘Saw 3D’ (Also known as ‘Saw: The Final Chapter’)
Saw 3D takes place just a few weeks after the events of Saw VI. (Based mostly on the fact Hoffman’s face is mostly healed from getting bear-trapped to hell in Saw VI.) The film’s main victim, Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery), garnered fame by falsely claiming he escaped a Jigsaw game between Saw and Saw II.

Post-Saw flashback: We learn that Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) survived after the end of the first Saw long enough to cauterize his severed leg on a pipe and pass out. John Kramer discovered him in the hallway and eventually convinced him to become yet another Jigsaw acolyte, with Gordon working behind the scenes in every subsequent Saw movie.

Image via Lionsgate.

The Other Half of ‘Jigsaw’
The storyline in Jigsaw that follows Detectives Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) and Hunt (Cle Bennett) takes place ten years after the death of John Kramer.

‘Spiral: From the Book of Saw’
While Spiral: From the Book of Saw avoids placing itself in a specific year—and doesn’t pull a single timeline twist!—it’s safe to say the film takes place a few years after the modern-day storyline in Jigsaw.