The, for the most part, not so beloved “Saw V” (2008) culminated with the
shocking death of special agent Straham, being crushed by 2 walls and carrying
the legacy of Jigsaw as his supposed successor. An ending that, thanks to a
strange deleted scene and an interview with David Hackl, we now know that it was
going to be longer, in addition to giving rise to a somewhat “different”
direction for the saga.
The deleted sequence.
A sequence that has attracted a lot of attention among fans of the “Saw”
franchise, is one present in the special features of “Saw V”, where we can
observe actress Betsy Russell, in her role as Jill Tuck, wandering through
the corridors of the subway rooms under the house of “Saw II”, along with
the box delivered by Jigsaw's lawyer.
In the brief sequence, Jill places different photographs on the walls and
can be seen mentioning “I know who you are” to who appears to be Hoffman,
before immediately turning around and walking away.
Explanation.
For many years the sequence in question remained a mystery as there was no
response from Lionsgate or those involved in the film. It was until 2018 that
David Hackl, director of the fifth installment, shared in an interview the
explanation behind the deleted scene, which was actually the original ending
of the film:
“Well, that was, that was the original ending that we wrote. And I think we
all, you know, when we shot we all felt like it didn't have the power that
we wanted, you know, for a 'Saw' ending, you don't close the door,
literally, on this one. We wanted something stronger, and it felt like we
left a lot of things open, a lot of questions. I think we weren't sure what
it was going to be at that point or what it meant, it just seemed better to
end on the fourth”.
Different direction.
In turn, the director was questioned about what else was in the box besides
the various photographs from the sequence. Hackl replied that, although he
couldn't quite remember, the box also contained puzzle pieces cut from the
victims, plus the photographs were of people who would carry on Jigsaw's
legacy:
“What they were hinting at, as was said before, is that there are more
people out there, a lot more people out there helping. And it gave rise to,
you know, as it happens on the internet, it gave rise to more people
starting to, 'I can do this, I can do this for Jigsaw,' people joining
Jigsaw's army, and people would start doing Jigsaw's work, so that's was
their motive, all these people that were involved”.
“I can't remember what was in the bags. I think they were puzzle pieces,
and I think that implied that all these people were part of the Jigsaw
puzzle, and there were things that we were going to use during the march,
they were puzzle pieces for other elements, pieces of the story that was
coming up”.
