BEFORE SAW I

- John Kramer owns real estate and is married to Jill.
- John starts his workshop
- Jill becomes pregnant with John's child.
- One night as Jill is leaving work, a drug addict named Cecil forces his way inside the clinic Jill works at and on his way out he inadvertantly slams a door on Jill, who is 7 months pregnant, causing a miscarriage.
- John is diagnosed with terminal cancer of the frontal lobe (brain) by Dr. Lawrence Gordon.
- John tries to take his own life by driving his car down an embankment, he survives.
- John decides to take on his life work of making others appreciate their lives because of the loss of his son and the realization of how precious life is.
- John creates the Knife Trap, his first trap, and tests it on Cecil.
- Cecil passes the test but tries to kill John only to be entangled in barbed wire and bleeds to death.
- Jill comes to see John and sees the pictures of Cecil and sees the "new John"
- John warns her, for him and herself, to leave and never come back.
- John sets up Amanda's Reverse Bear Trap, Paul's razor wire trap, and Mark's flammable jelly trap.
- Amanda passes her test and John recruits her to carry on his work after he dies.
- Jigsaw and Amanda set up the Bathroom trap.

SAW I

- Detective Tapp and Sing investigate Dr. Gordon in the Jigsaw murders and release him because his alibi checks out.
- Tapp and Sing go after Jigsaw and find his hideout when Sing dies in the Quadruple Shotgun Trap.
- Adam and Dr. Gordon wake up in a bathroom and are tested.
- Zep is tested and kidnaps Gordon's family.
- Tapp, believing Gordon is Jigsaw, goes to Gordon's apartment and finds Zep holding his family captive.
- Gordon is contacted by his abducted family which causes him to escape the trap by sawing off his own foot.
- Zep gets to the bathroom and is killed by Adam.
- Gordon crawls out of the bathroom and Jigsaw gets up and leaves Adam to rot in the bathroom.

BETWEEN SAW I AND SAW II

- Amanda goes back to the Bathroom trap and suffocates Adam in a mercy kill.

SAW II

- Michael is tested a in the Venus Fly Trap and fails.
- Detective Matthews discovers Jigsaw is looking for him when the wall at Michael's test reads: LOOK CLOSER DETECTIVE MATTHEWS.
- Obi helps Jigsaw abduct Laura.
- Gus, Xavier, Addison, Daniel, Obi, Amanda, Laura, and Jonas wake up in the Nerve Gas House.
- Gus dies in the Revolver Keyhole trap.
- Obi dies in the Furnace trap.
- Amanda passes the Needle Pit Trap.
- Laura breathes in the gas and goes into a fatal seizure and dies.
- Xavier kills Jonas with the spiked baseball bat.
- Xavier chases Daniel and Amanda back to the Bathroom trap from Saw I where Daniel cuts Xavier's neck with a saw.
- Detective Matthews, Detective Kerry, and SWAT Commander Rigg and SWAT storm Jigsaw's hideout. One of the SWAT member's breaks their shins in the Electrified Staircase Trap.
- Matthews meets Jigsaw and talks to him, then succumbs to his anger and beats Jigsaw very severely. Jigsaw takes Matthews to the Nerve Gas House to find Daniel, his son.
- It is revealed the video feed of the Nerve Gas House is not live.
- Daniel is revealed to have been in a safe in Jigsaw's hideout.
- Matthews finds his way to the Bathroom Trap from Saw I and is rendered unconscious by Amanda.
- Matthews wakes up and is shackled to a pipe.
- Through a tape, it is revealed Amanda is Jigsaw's apprentice.
- Amanda closes the door to the bathroom leaving Matthews to rot/

BETWEEN SAW II and SAW III

- Matthews escapes the shackle by breaking his foot. He crawls out of the bathroom and attacks Amanda. Amanda kicks his broken foot and leaves him. As she leaves Matthews says, "You're not Jigsaw, bitch".
- Detective Hoffman at some point agrees to help Jigsaw out and eventually become his true apprentice.
- Hoffman drags Matthews into a cell and gives him an orange jumpsuit and an iron boot for his shattered foot.
- Over 6 months, Matthews is fed and eats rats while in the cell.
- Art, Jigsaw's ex lawyer, is placed in the Blind/Mute Trap and succeeds. He is instructed to keep Matthews and Hoffman alive in Rigg's Final Test.

SAW III and IV
- Troy is murdered by Amanda in the Chains trap. Hoffman, Kerry, and Rigg investigate and discover this was not done by Jigsaw because it was inescapeable.
- Kerry is abducted by Hoffman and placed in the Angel Trap and dies.
- Hoffman and Rigg investigate Kerry's death and find that there is another accomplice to Jigsaw through the work of Agents Strahm and Perez.
- Hoffman leaves an envelope in the wearhouse for Amanda telling her of his involvement.
- Hoffman abducts Jeff, Lynn, and Rigg.
- Rigg wakes up and learns that he will be faced with several people who need to save themselves and he can't interfere or he will fail. He is also told that Matthews has only 90 minutes to live because he is being hung standing on melting block of ice. He also learns Hoffman will be electrocuted if Matthews hangs.
- Jeff wakes up in a box and breaks out. He learns that he will be put through a series of tests based on his ability to forgive people who had something to do with his son's death.
- Lynn wakes up in Jigsaw's new hideout and learns that her shotgun collar is linked to Jigsaw's heart rate monitor.
- Rigg finds Brenda in the Hair Trap. He releases her halfway into the trap and Brenda tries to kill Rigg believing he will arrest her (according to her tape).
- Jeff stumbles upon the Ice Room Trap and fails to save Danica in time.
- Rigg moves onto the Hotel Room trap where he has to capture Ivan and place him in a trap where he must save himself. Ivan fails.
- Jeff finds the Pig Vat trap and saves the judge while burning his son's belongings he has clinged to.
- Lynn does emergency surgery on Jigsaw to stop the swelling in Jigsaw's brain.
- Rigg moves onto the Classroom Trap where he must give a woman a key to save herself from a trap she is in. She escapes.
- Jigsaw swallows a tape containing information on Hoffman's game.
- Agent Strahm and Perez find Perez's trap in the school and Perez is wounded by shrapnel from a bomb in the puppet.
- Jeff finds the Rack Trap, the trap involving his son's killer. Jeff must get a key that is attached to the trigger of a shotgun to help Timothy. Jeff gets the key but kills the judge in the process and is unable to save Timothy, and Timothy dies of his neck being broken.
- Art, who has to make sure Matthews and Hoffman stay alive in their traps, hands Matthews a gun for his final test.
- Matthews learns that the door to the Final Test is rigged and if it opens before the 90 minutes are up, he will die.
- Art finds a button that is supposed to release them after the 90 minutes are up.
- Rigg arrives at his Final Test with little time left. And runs through the door but is shot by Matthews in order to stop him. The door opens and Matthews' head is crushed by two ice block. Thinking Art is helping Jigsaw, Rigg shoots Art and finds a tape telling him he failed his test.
- Jeff completes his test and finds the room with Jigsaw, Lynn, and Amanda. Amanda shoots Lynn which causes Jeff to shoot and kill Amanda.
- Before dying Amanda learns Lynn's test was actually her test and all she had to do was not kill Lynn.
- Jeff kills Jigsaw out of vengeance and learns through a tape that Jigsaw's heart monitor is linked to Lynn's coller. He also learns that Jigsaw was his final test of forgiveness and that because he failed he will never find his daughter who is in a room with limited oxygen.
- Agent Strahm, who by now has followed Rigg to the wherehouse, stumbles upon Jeff in the room with Jigsaw and shoots and kills him after Jeff threatens him.
- Hoffman gets up out of his chair and walks out locking Rigg away and stating "Game Over".
- Hoffman locks Strahm away in Jigsaw's room.
- Jigsaw's body is found and an autopsy is done.
- The coroner finds a tape in Jigsaw's stomach which Hoffman listens to and learns that just because he is the only one left, does not mean he will go untested.
- Hoffman takes over as Jigsaw's apprentice.