Saw III | Saw IV | Saw 3D | Spiral
All spoilers for the final movie will be unmarked ahead. Read on or go back—make your choice.
- In the Public Execution Trap:
- Brad originally thrusted the saw into Ryan, impaling him and making Dina and Brad the survivors. The script was changed to make Dina the loser and Brad and Ryan the winners of the trap.
- According from an earlier script, the scene was going to begin from the view of a child (named Ethan in the script) with his mother.
- In the same script, the trap's location was going to be a toy store rather than a home improvement store, with a build-up involving a toy train that the aforementioned child follows to a sign reading "Don't touch the glass", with a pair of messages reading "Two clowns with all too familiar spirals on their faces" on its sides (while another toy plays a rendition of "Hello Zepp"). When Brad and Ryan wake up, they would appear with costumes of Billy the Puppet; meanwhile, Dina would be in a ballerina costume.
- A woman would be seen trying to break one of the windows with a suitcase, only for her to be shot by a mounted shotgun.
- The scene would end with a shot of John among the crowd, who had been watching the game unfold.
- Speaking of the Public Execution Trap, there was a different opening trap before it that involved various victims forced to push each other off a rooftop on a tall building in order to survive.
- Kevin Greutert stated on Twitter that the Public Square where the Public Execution Trap takes place was once meant to be the location for Bobby's final trap.
- Early on, Hoffman would be already packing things up to leave the city, only to stop for a moment when he sees a photo of Bobby on a wall. Interestingly, the safe Daniel was found inside in Saw II was going to be seen here in the background.
- There were going to be more scenes at the safe house Jill is transferred to, such as her giving a grocery list to an officer who would go to buy food for her.
- Originally, Evan, the racist skinhead played by Chester Bennington, was meant to live through the Horsepower Trap and be hospitalized afterwards. Because Bennington was under a very tight schedule at the timenote , and only had the one day for shooting, the filmmakers didn't have time to shoot his hospital scene, so Evan was rewritten to having died.
- Daniel Matthews was meant to appear at the survivors' meeting, but Erik Knudsen was unavailable at the time of filming. Pamela Jenkins and Brent Abbott from the previous film also did not return in the scene due to Samantha Lemole and Devon Bostick's scheduling conflicts. Brent's case means that his absence (in direct contrast with his mother's presence) strongly implies that he has likely been brought to justice for his killing of William Easton at the end of Saw VI.
- The original draft for a seventh film was meant to end with a Sequel Hook: the reveal that Gordon was still alive; an eighth film would have then explained how he survived. Due to the disappointing box office performance of Saw VI, the ideas for Saw VII and VIII were condensed by Executive Meddling into Saw 3D.
- According to Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan in the movie's DVD commentary, the original pitch for Saw VII's ending was not to have Gordon trap Hoffman in the bathroom, instead focusing on Bobby's fate after his game (which was left unknown for the following movies). In the pitch, Bobby was taken to the hospital, where he would meet Gordon.
- Melton has also stated that the Horsepower Trap was meant to be the opening trap for Saw VII, with the Public Execution Trap being slated for Saw VIII.
- Speaking of the original VII and VIII, there are plenty of scrapped scenes and plot points involving Gordon, some of which were carried on to earlier drafts of 3D itself, including:
- Gordon listening to John going on a monologue that closes with the line "Are you ready to save lives?" (this line done on a voice-over during a flashback to the Public Execution Trap showing Gordon with John in the crowd).
- Gordon placing the ankle brace for Eric's broken foot before the latter is put in the Ice Block Trap in Saw IV.
- The Jigsaw accomplices revealed at the end weren't going to include just Gordon, Brad and Ryan, but also the majority of the Jigsaw Survivor Group, whose recruitment was another task given to Gordon. According to an earlier script, this was going to be shown in a flashback where every member of the group would give a testimony of their survival experience to Gordonnote after he speaks to them with a message originally written by John.
- Another deleted scene involved Bobby finding a photo of him at the Jigsaw Survivor Group's meeting at an unknown point during his trial, followed by a flashback of him staying at an entrance away from the group until Gordon tells him that "the first step is always the hardest."
- Yet another deleted scene showed Bobby and Cale in a bar where while having drinks, they saw a Jigsaw survivor on television. From there, Cale suggests Bobby pretend to be a survivor himself and tells him he knows two women who can handle the publishing (Nina) and legal issues (Suzanne).
- In relation to this scene, Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan stated that the survivor who appeared on the TV was meant to be Joyce. Bobby would be "taken" by her, and her story would resonate and motivate him. Joyce would then push Bobby further into the lie because she liked the fame and attention it bought them. Bobby in turn was overwhelmed with all the attention coming their way; and when he got cold feet about lying, Joyce would push him right back into the facade. According to Melton, Joyce was supposed to be a survivor who had "fallen off the rails."
