Saw (2004) - 37 mistakes

Revealing: After Dr. Lawrence cuts off his leg and is crawling towards the gun, if you look at his dismembered leg, you can make out the shape of his foot hidden beneath his ripped up slacks.

Continuity: When Adam pounds on Zep with the toilet seat, he grabs his shoulder in pain. In the first shot of him holding his shoulder, his hand is soaked in blood. In the second shot, however, his hand is much cleaner.

Continuity: When Alison gets the gun from Zep and aims it at him, the gun is in her left hand. In the next shot it's in her right hand, and then it moves back to her left hand again. This is not an artifact of changing camera angles, you can clearly see the different hands holding the gun.

Factual error: Dr. Gordon is seen in a close-up to be sawing through his leg, some inches above the ankle joint and the shackle around it. Considering the long bones of the leg (fibula and tibia) are very tough in a young man, it would take a long time to saw through by hand, during which Dr Gordon should have passed out from pain-induced hyperventilation then died from shock.

Factual error: The Swedish subtitlers made Amanda's situation even more tragic, incorrectly translating her dead cellmate as her dead soulmate.

Continuity: When Larry is desperately trying to reach for the cell phone, he uses the box that it came in. When that doesn't work he throws it off to the side (his left) but when we see it again the box is back where it originally was (on his right).

Continuity: When Dr Gordon begins to saw his foot off, the blood seen covering his neck and top disappear in subsequent shots.

Continuity: When the victims first find the saws and are vigorously trying to cut the chains: The wide angle of Larry sawing, shows him cutting at the chain. Close up he is cutting the padlock.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene when Adam walks around his apartment with his camera (because the lights were out) the filmmakers put lights in the set so the actors wouldn't walk into walls, and also letting the audience see what's actually happening. In the movie, though, there are supposed to be no lights on at all. However, just before Adam opens the closet door with Jigsaw in it, you can see the reflection of one of the set's lights on the top of Adam's camera.

Continuity: When Larry takes the box out of the wall, it turns itself around from when he's holding it, to when it's on the floor (keep an eye on the box's padlock).

Continuity: When Adam is taking the photo of Lawrence in the parking lot, the first two times we see the scene his camera flash goes off, the shutter snaps, and that's it. However, the the third time we see the scene the flashbulb emit a loud, rising pitch sound as the flash recharges just like it did when he was taking pictures in his apartment before being abducted.

Revealing: When Adam is searching Zep for the key to the chain once he has found the tape recorder watch Zep's tummy - he's breathing.

Continuity: In the scene where. Lawrence and Adam find the 'X' on the wall, there is a continuity error. Right after they find the 'X', the lights are turned on and there is the shape of a square on the wall (the cavity where the box is hidden). Before they find the 'X' there is no box or any dirty lines where the cavity is.

Visible crew/equipment: You can see the shadow of the camera on Dr. Gordon's sleeve when he is talking to Diana sitting on her bed.

Visible crew/equipment: After the first call when Dr Gordon gets on the cell phone, a boom mike shadow is visible on the bathroom door.

Continuity: When Dr. Gordon gets out of Tapp's car and is talking to him at the car window, the amount of shirt sleeve showing under his jacket changes between shots.

Revealing: In Adam's flat just as he starts beating Jigsaw's doll (Billy) up, you can see that he's not actually hitting the proper puppet, but a cheap replica. You can tell by the red lines on it's face, and there is no red marks where it's mouth is.

Continuity: Adam's hacksaw blade snaps almost as soon as he gets it. However, later on (just after he gets electrocuted) we see it lying beside him with the blade in one piece.

Continuity: When Adam is walking into his apartment, his camera has a short lens on it. He then rounds the corner and goes into the darkroom and the camera has a long lens on it.

Continuity: When Larry looks at the picture with Zep at the window, from one angle the picture is all crumpled but in the first person view, it's smooth. This changes several times.

Continuity: Adam grabs the bat with both hands right after he sees the laughing doll in his apartment (the view is from behind him). The very next shot shows the front of him, but he has the bat in one hand, and the camera in the other.

Continuity: When Dr Gordon is going crazy, he throws the box to his right, but in the next shot it's on the left, then on the right again.

Continuity: When Dr. Lawrence opened his envelope he got a key in it. When he tried it on the lock on his chain and it failed to open, Adam then asks to try it. Right when Adam asks for it, he puts his tape and envelope down separate, but when reaches for his tape again, it has ended up inside the envelope.

Factual error: After the doctor speaks on the cell phone for the first time and the line goes dead, there is a dial tone. There is no dial tone on a cell phone.

Audio problem: When Larry goes out into the hall after seeing to his daughter, Ally starts to talk to him but her mouth doesn't move with the words.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Larry leans over to get the picture that Adam tossed his, as he leans over, near the door you can see wires and cords belonging to the camera equipment.

Continuity: When Adam throws the picture that he found in Lawrence's wallet to him, the picture lands next to the rectangular piece of tile that Lawrence uses in the immediate next shot to bring the picture closer to him. The tile moves from in front of him (given it's proximity to the photo) to right beside his right arm/hand. It "moved" about two feet.

Continuity: When Tapp and Sing go to Jigsaw's place and find the guy strapped to the chair they uncover him then re-cover him to see what Jigsaw is going to do. When Jigsaw pulls the sheet off, one side is still caught on the drill bits. But when he starts the drills the sheet is completely clear of the drills.

Continuity: In the car chase scene, Zep is seen driving a late 80's Ford Bronco II (could be a Ranger pickup because we only see the front). When he arrives at the warehouse, the truck has changed to an early 90s Ford F-150.

Continuity: When Adam retrieves the bag with the saws from the toilet, he places it on his right side. At one point you can see that there is nothing on his left side, but the next shot shows Adam grabbing the bag from his left side and tossing it into the tub.

Audio problem: When Dr. Gordon is dialing 911, we hear one low tone then two higher tones. On touch-tones phones, 1, 4, and 7 are the lowest tones while 3, 6 and 9 are the highest. Gordon would have dialed a 1, 4 or 7 first and then a 3, 6 or 9 twice in succession. Possibly 1-9-9 for Emergency?

Continuity: When Dr Lawrance first notices the clock on the wall and tells Adam about it, the time on the clock is around 4 o'clock, but in a later scene after he is told he must "kill Adam by 6 o' clock," the time on the clock is much earlier, around 11-12 o'clock. That much time wouldn't have passed between seeing the clock and finding the tapes.

Continuity: The mark on Larry's face changes throughout the film.

Other: When Larry is taking the cigarettes out of the box, look at his hand. It has a white paint drop or white dust on it, but throughout the scene it disappears and reappears.

Other: Danny Glover's wall has hundreds of newspaper clippings attached to it. At one point in the film, we are shown some of the headlines, i.e. "Psychopaths teaches sick life lessons." If you actually read the text below you'll find that it bears no relevance to the headlines whatsoever. (You may need to use the zoom facility.).

Other: After Cary Elwes saws off his foot, he throws the hacksaw across the room. However, no blood spatters on the floor (from the blade), as one might expect.

Continuity: Jigsaw's thumb moves between shots after Adam gets the mini cassette recorder out of his hands. You can see Jigsaw's thumb, in the closeup shot, slide down to a position where it's lying horizontal and flat on the floor as the mini cassette recorder is being slid out of his hand. In the next shot, an overhead, you can see that his thumb has moved and is now more curled and in a more vertical position to where just the tip is touching the floor. Jigsaw isn't dead, so he could have moved, but this shot is an *instant* cut, he had no time to move.