10 Most Amazing Lessons You Can Learn From Jigsaw

1. During the lowest time of your life, you will be able to find your purpose in life.

In Saw IV which unravels the back story of almost everything of the first three movies, it started showing that John Kramer (The real name of Jigsaw) is just a normal citizen who works as an engineer, and how a devoted husband he is to his wife Jill Tuck while the lovely couple is expecting for their first child which they are planning to name Gideon.

However, in an unfortunate incident that happened in the hospital where Jill is working, a drug addict named Cecil Adams stormed out from the scene and bumps into Jill then tried to rob her, after that Cecil ran and due to his carelessness he pushed the door repressing Jill’s womb resulting in her having a miscarriage.

In one of the scenes in Saw II, that John commits suicide however he was lucky to be alive and survive. And this the time that John Kramer understands the meaning of being alive by finding his purpose. Though, this purpose brought deaths to his subjects. Yikes!

via GIPHY

2. People waste their lives because they are taking it for granted, while other people wanted to live but are terminally ill and will die soon.

In most of the death traps that Jigsaw made for his “Test Subjects“, he always mentions that people are lucky to be alive but they are wasting it by doing deeds like drugs or even adultery.

Take Cecil Adams and Amanda Young who are drug addicts, though Amanda found her purpose after being saved by John Kramer and since then she acts as an assistant and taking care of the severely ill John Kramer.

You see, the knowledge of death changes everything. If I were to tell you the exact date and time of your own death, it would shatter your world completely. I know. ” – John Kramer, Saw II

If you pay attention to Jigsaw’s death traps, he is always giving the victims a chance to survive in exchange for sacrifice, because all he wants is the victim will learn to appreciate life and change their ways of living. Which later was rigged by some of his apprentices not giving the victims the chance to survive the death traps.

via GIPHY

“Yes, I’m sick, Officer. Sick from the disease eating away at me inside,

Sick of people who don’t appreciate their blessings, Sick of those who scoff at the suffering of others.

I’m sick of it all!”

– John Kramer

3. Everyone deserves a chance to survive and live their lives, even those who are terminally ill.

The Saw VI movie revolves around William Easton an executive of an insurance company. That was responsible for reviewing every clients’ request for the coverage of treatment costs. Which they will decide who gets the requested coverage. 

William developed a complex formula. Due to this formula, several seriously ill people were denied their coverage despite paying their monthly premium to the company. In most of these cases, William explained that his decisions to the angered clients with false reasons that all the clients believed. In a conversation between William and John…

“Well, it’s a formula.

It’s pretty complicated, actually, but in essence,

it breaks down to monthly payments multiplied by lifespan,

minus the probability of illness, and if its sum is positive, we consider coverage.”

– William Easton

And John Kramer responds…

“So in a sense, you choose who lives or dies.

But you are not taking into consideration the most important human element of all… The will to live.

Until a person is faced with death, it’s impossible to tell whether they have what it takes to survive.”

– John Kramer

After John was diagnosed with cancer, he reached out to William saying that he found a cure for his cancer which holds a lot of promise. John asked William for his insurance coverage.

As John explains to William that there is a doctor in Norway where doctors develop a new therapy for Cancer by injecting therapeutic cells called “Suicide Genes” into cancer tumor cells which give the patient to survive and recover their cancer with a 30-40% success rate.

But William denied John’s request as he finds that John’s age and his illness which is not feasible with the policy of insurance coverage claims. And the therapy opposites the policy of their insurance firm.

via GIPHY

4. Panic will get you killed.

In the first Saw movie, the ending shook the audiences for the big reveal of Jigsaw. In the last test of Adam Stanheight, he was placed in a bathtub filled with water. The key to unlock his shackles was placed on top of his belly. 

But when Adam woke up he panicked and because of that he accidentally removed the bathtub drain cover resulting to drain the water. And yep, along with his shackles key.

In this situation, Jigsaw showed that people always tend to react without first thinking or analyzing the situation or environment. This is also reflected in human’s weakness to make rash decisions.

What is Jigsaw teaching to his test subjects is they should follow the rules of his game and never make rash decisions since we have to think first before we say or do things. 

That is why in an emergency scenario the first thing on the list to do is “Don’t panic.” even in the water or ocean, the more you struggle the more you will sink or will heighten the risk of getting drown.

via GIPHY

5. People should live with values and integrity.

John Kramer’s victims mostly are corrupt or people who don’t have integrity. But what is integrity? According to Webster’s dictionary…

“Integrity is firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values: 

in other words INCORRUPTIBILITY.”

It is where you are still doing the right thing even if nobody is watching you. Doing what is right and just.

Our world right now is filled with corrupt officials and politicians, taking advantage of the weak and poor. This is a disease that should be eliminated if we want this world to be a better place.

Anyhow, in the movie Spiral the protagonist is a man with integrity and values that is why he was hated by his colleagues because he is doing what is right. Though he was tested if he will do what is right or be blind and do what is wrong.

via GIPHY

6. Some people even if you wanted to help them, they don’t want to help themselves.

During the time that Jill was recovering from her miscarriage, she mentioned to John what she wanted to do is to help those drug addicts under her rehab program where Cecil Adams and Amanda young are part of.

But after what happened to Jill, it shows that most of them don’t want to be helped. Just like Cecil Adams.

“You can’t help them, they have to help themselves.”

– John Kramer

Just like in most people nowadays, we reach out our hands to help them regardless if it’s in life or business, but a lot of people are stubborn and refused to receive help from others.

This is ironic if you ask me because if those people refused help and suddenly they decide to ask for help, there will be nobody around them anymore since they drove them away due to their pride and stubbornness.

7. Forgive and move on. People shouldn’t waste their lives with vengeance.

In the Saw III movie, the story revolves mainly around Jeff and Dr. Lynn Denlon. A husband and wife whose marriage went through so much leading both individuals.

One is living a life full of vengeance which is also losing his compassion towards their other child which is Jeff, who is trying to find the killer of their son Dylan. While on the other hand, Lynn, losing the love and commitment to her marriage committed adultery which both individuals became the target of Jigsaw.

The husband and wife are abducted by Jigsaw due to personal reasons, he wanted to teach Jeff a lesson about forgiveness and he wants Lynn’s help for his brain surgery.

Since Jeff is driven by vengeance despite the warnings of Jigsaw and his bleeding wife telling him to stop. Jeff decided to kill Jigsaw not knowing that Jigsaw’s heart rate is an indication to activate the improvised shotgun collar around Lynn’s neck. And that Jigsaw is the only person who can tell the whereabouts of their daughter… Sheesh! Wrong move Jeff!

via GIPHY

In this scene, we can relate it in our lives, Should we get revenge on those people who hurt us? Should we get back at them to call it “Quits” or even?

Just like how Jigsaw is teaching Jeff in this movie, our life shouldn’t be wasted by vengeance, people will hurt us and even walk over us. But it is never a valid reason to take revenge on them. 

Instead, we should focus on forgiveness and healing our hate to process it, and turn it into something that can help us move on and be better versions of ourselves.

8. Never take over someone’s legacy and use it for your gain.

The Saw Franchise has its twists and turns in its timelines. Due to the secret backstories that will be the main plot of the next film.

Jigsaw has made several apprentices behind the scenes which will serve as a backup in case the current apprentice went out of control.

Just like how Amanda and Mark Hoffman did who became the acting “Jigsaw” from Saw IV until Saw 3D: The Final Chapter.

In these films, Mark Hoffman took the persona of Jigsaw and commits crimes for his gain, framing and setting up clues to reflect that Jigsaw/John Kramer is the one who made all the killings.

Hence, John Kramer who already knew that Mark will go out of control made some apprentices behind the scenes to make sure to stop Mark from his doings.

If you relate it to real life, people tend to use or imitate other people, dress like them, act like them, etc.

There is nothing wrong with that, it just that some people tend to overuse other people’s persona or way of living, which turns them into a copycat.

What people should know is that all of us are made uniquely by our makers, that is why we have unique DNA, unique fingerprints, and more.

It proves that we can live to make our path and be the unique person that we wanted to be, not just a person who is following the same path that others went through. And that we have the freedom to make our legacy.

9. Always follow the rules, going against them will create chaos.

John Kramer is very clear to his apprentices that they should follow the rules that John gave them. Such as giving the test subjects chance to survive so they can change their ways of living, and never rig the “game”.

But Amanda and Mark Hoffman disobeyed John’s rules and make their own resulting in the deaths of some test subjects. That is why John makes backup games specifically to aim at Amanda and Mark.

A lot of people tend to disobey rules and just do what they want, without even thinking rationally about the possible outcomes of their actions. Is it because of our “Free Will“? or are we just carefree when it comes to following rules?

“The rules of our game have been made very clear. You need to abide by those rules.”

– John Kramer

10. Live your life according to the situation, if it’s bad then make something out of it to make it better.

During the fourth installment of the franchise, John confronted Cecil Adams about his actions which led to the miscarriage of Jill.

“You see, things aren’t sequential. Good doesn’t lead to good, nor bad to bad.

People who steal, don’t get caught, live the good life.

Others lie, cheat and get elected.

Some people stop to help a stranded motorist and get taken out by a speeding semi.

There’s no accounting for it. How you play the cards your dealt–that’s all that matters.”

– John Kramer to Cecil Adams

John Kramer found the meaning of his life after he tried to kill himself, he understands the true meaning of being alive.

And he finds it unfair for those people who are using their wrong actions as an excuse, and those who don’t appreciate life.

If you try to relate this in life, all of us have our own challenges to face, and it is our responsibility to find the opportunities that we have in our current situations and use them to improve our lives.

Just like how John Kramer sees it, we can still make the most of our lives by making the right decisions and changing our injustice ways to correct them.

Many of us tend to manipulate other people for our gain, and some people even if they already have the opportunity to correct their ways still are doing the same and unfair actions towards other people.

Conclusions

Yes, John Kramer committed a lot of murders in the movie. However, he is also a man with principles and integrity.

A lot of us did not even try to find purpose in our lives, just taking advantage of it by doing things to hurt other people and even give hell to someone.

Some commit adultery and some did not want to move out of drug usage and some wanted to make other people’s lives miserable.

This is what John Kramer is pointing out that these people are wasting the “Gift of being alive”.

“The cancer isn’t what started me in my work.

It was the moment I decided to end my life that started me in my work and brought meaning to it.

I had literally driven myself to suicide, and I had failed.

My body had not been strong enough to repel cancer cells, yet I had lived through a plunge off a cliff. But to my amazement, I was alive. ”

– John Kramer

He wanted his victims to realize how lucky they are being alive and healthy, but they are wasting it by doing wrong decisions such as drug abuse, etc.

Life is given to us to live the best out of it, we must learn to appreciate by choosing love rather than hate, forgiveness rather than vengeance, we must not waste it by doing bad things rather do something good and put an effort to help other people and make this world a better place.

Our world is already suffering from war and hate that is going on around the globe, a simple good gesture we give to other people can fix this world, one step at a time.