What actually happens
A mask with a very bad lock
The movie opens with Michael Marks, a police informant, waking up in a room with a spiked mask locked around his neck. A screen shows Billy the Puppet, who says the key is behind Michael's eye, but Michael can't bring himself to cut it out. The mask closes. Detective Allison Kerry finds a note addressed to her former partner Eric Matthews, who then leads a SWAT team to the factory that made the lock. They arrest John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer. He points to monitors showing eight people in a house: Amanda Young, who survived one of his earlier games, Eric's son Daniel, and six others named Xavier, Jonas, Laura, Addison, Obi and Gus. The house is filling with a nerve agent that will kill them in two hours. John says Eric will find Daniel in a safe place if he follows the rules of the game, and Eric agrees to talk with him to buy time for the tech team.
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A pit of needles, with Amanda as the doormat
A tape in the house tells the group that antidotes are hidden in the rooms, and gives a riddle for the one in the safe. Xavier ignores a warning, uses the key on the door, and sets off a revolver in the peephole that kills Gus. In the basement Obi, who helped abduct some of the others, dies in a furnace while going for two antidotes. The scene people dread is Xavier's test, which comes in the middle. He needs to dig a key out of a pit of syringes in two minutes, so he throws Amanda in instead. She gets the key, and Xavier still fails to open the door in time. The group works out that everyone except Daniel has been locked up before. Meanwhile John tells Eric that the others are people Eric framed when he was a corrupt cop.
Xavier solves the puzzle by hurting people
Xavier spots a number on Gus's neck, works out that these numbers are the safe's combination, kills Jonas and starts hunting the others. Laura dies from the nerve agent after finding a clue that reveals Daniel is Eric's son. Addison, angry about it, goes off alone and finds a glass box with an antidote, but her arms get trapped in openings lined with hidden blades. Xavier finds her and reads the number off her and walks away, leaving her trapped. Amanda and Daniel find a tunnel to a rundown bathroom with two bodies in it, Adam and Zep. When Xavier corners them, Amanda taunts him that nobody will read him his number, so he cuts a piece of skin off his own neck to read it himself. He then charges at them, and Daniel kills him by cutting his throat with a hacksaw.
The tape was recorded days ago
Eric sees Xavier chasing his son on the monitors, hits John and forces him to take him to the house. Kerry realizes the footage everyone thought was live was recorded days before John was caught. When Eric's timer runs out, a safe in the factory opens and shows Daniel inside, tied up and wearing an oxygen mask. Eric does not know that, and he goes into the house alone. In the bathroom a figure in a pig mask knocks him out. He wakes up chained to a pipe by one ankle with a tape recorder left by Amanda. She says she became John's accomplice after surviving her first trap, helped him set up Eric's test, and plans to carry on his work after he dies. Amanda then shows up in person and seals the door.
The ending, explained
Eric's timer runs out and a safe at the factory opens to show Daniel alive, bound, with an oxygen mask. Eric does not know and goes into the house alone, where a pig-masked figure knocks him out. He wakes up chained at the ankle with a tape from Amanda, who explains she has been working with Jigsaw since her first game. She appears, locks the door and leaves him to die. Outside, John hears Eric's screams and smiles. Xavier, Jonas, Laura, Addison, Obi and Gus are all dead, and so are Michael Marks and the two bodies in the bathroom. Daniel and Amanda survive, and Eric is left chained to the pipe.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Saw II scary?
Saw II is a 5 out of 10 with medium dread. It is mostly gory traps and tension over who will survive, with some jump scares.
How does Saw II end?
Daniel is found alive in a safe at the factory, while Eric is chained in the house by Amanda and left to die. John hears him scream and smiles.
Does the dog die in Saw II?
No dog dies in Saw II. The pig head that shows up is a mask, and no animals are harmed on screen.
Is there a post-credits scene in Saw II?
No. Saw II has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who is working with Jigsaw in Saw II?
In Saw II, Amanda Young is working with John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer. After living through her first trap she joined Jigsaw, and she helped build the test Eric Matthews faces.
