Summary

• Jigsaw's timeline twist revealed Kramer's first apprentice, creating confusion.
• Final Destination 5 did the timeline twist better, making it more impactful and with a purpose in the franchise.
• Saw II and Saw IV also played with timelines, but Jigsaw's twist was just to shock viewers.

As is tradition in the Saw saga, The Saw saga seemed to have reached its end in 2010 with Saw 3D, also known as The Final Chapter, and though it gave a surprising but satisfying end to the franchise, it was brought back to life seven years later with Jigsaw. Directed by the Spierig Brothers, Jigsaw is set a decade after John Kramer’s (Tobin Bell) death.

Jigsaw sees the start of a new “game” with five new “players”, and everything about the game has Kramer’s signature style. This makes the authorities believe they are looking for a Jigsaw copycat killer, and Detectives Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) and Hunt (Clé Bennett), along with pathologist Logan Nelson (Matt more), begin to investigate. Jigsaw had a double twist with the reveal of the killer behind the games and a timeline twist, and for those who liked this trick, there’s one movie released six years before Jigsaw that did the timeline twist better.

Final Destination 5 Did The Timeline Twist Better Than Jigsaw

Final Destination Had A Great Timeline Twist At The End

Jigsaw made the audience believe that the barn game was happening at the same time as Halloran and Logan’s storyline, when it actually happened before the first Saw movie.

The first big twist in Jigsaw is that Kramer was behind the “game” at the barn that the audience follows from the beginning of the movie – except that it’s set in the past. Kramer didn’t survive his death nor was he resurrected, and instead, Jigsaw made the audience believe that the barn game was happening at the same time as Halloran and Logan’s storyline, when it actually happened before the first Saw movie. The barn game was Jigsaw’s first game, and the copycat killer (who recreated the barn game in the present timeline) was Logan.

Despite several clues throughout Jigsaw to its plot twists, they took many viewers by surprise, but Final Destination 5 pulled the same trick six years earlier, and it did it a lot better. Directed by Steven Quale, Final Destination 5 follows Sam (Nicholas D’Agosto), his girlfriend, and his friends and colleagues as they escape death after Sam has a premonition that the bridge they are driving on on their way to a company retreat will collapse.

In a truly surprising twist, Final Destination 5 reveals they are boarding the plane from Final Destination.

Following the rules of the previous Final Destination movies, Sam and company begin to die in freak accidents in the order they would have been killed on the bridge, and at the end of the movie, only Sam and his girlfriend, Molly, survive. Two weeks later, Sam and Molly board a plane to Paris as Sam got an apprenticeship there, but in a truly surprising twist, Final Destination 5 reveals they are boarding the plane from Final Destination, as they see Carter and Alex fighting and being removed from the plane with Ms. Lewton, Todd, and the rest. Sam and Molly die in the plane’s explosion.

Final Destination 5, then, is a prequel to Final Destination rather than a sequel to the fourth movie, and unlike Jigsaw, the timeline twist added to the franchise rather than making it more confusing. As part of its twists, Jigsaw revealed that Logan was Kramer’s first apprentice, but that left many questions about where he was in the previous movies and if he ever met Kramer’s other apprentices.

Final Destination 5 also made Tony Todd’s character, William Bludworth, a lot more important.

Final Destination 5, on the other hand, showed that Alex’s case wasn’t the first and that Death truly couldn’t be fooled, as there was no way around its plan as hard as they tried – and not even killing others would save them from death. Final Destination 5 also made Tony Todd’s character, William Bludworth, a lot more important, as he had seen many of these cases before.

The Saw Saga Had Already Had Double Timelines Before Jigsaw

Jigsaw Wasn’t The First Saw Movie To Play With Timelines

Saw II did it first, and it pulled the same trick as Jigsaw by showing a game that had already taken place.

Jigsaw is best ed for its timeline twist, but it wasn’t the first time the Saw saga played with timelines. Saw II did it first, and it pulled the same trick as Jigsaw by showing a game that had already taken place. Throughout Saw II, the police are trying to find the place where Kramer’s latest game is taking place, and in the third act, they reach the video’s source and discover all the footage they thought was live was pre-recorded, and the game happened days before.

Saw IV also had a second timeline as Kramer’s backstory was explored, but this was more a flashback than a second plot.

Saw II’s timeline twist had a purpose in the story as it was part of Kramer’s plan to lure Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) into a trap, while Jigsaw’s was just to shock the audience. Although Jigsaw’s timeline twist added to John Kramer’s backstory, it did more harm than good as it only made it more confusing and created more plot holes.

Final Destination 5 & Jigsaw Were Supposed To Close Their Franchises

Final Destination & Saw Aren’t Dead Yet

Jigsaw didn’t end the Saw franchise, as it continued with the standalone sequel Spiral.

Another thing in common between Final Destination 5 and Jigsaw is that they were supposed to be the final chapters in their respective franchises, which might have been a strong reason for their timeline twists. Jigsaw didn’t end the Saw franchise, as it continued with the standalone sequel Spiral, widely regarded as one of the franchise’s worst movies. The Saw saga was revived again with Saw X in 2023, but it’s a sequel to the first movie and a prequel to Saw II.

Final Destination is coming back to life in 2025 with a sixth movie titled Final Destination: Bloodlines, directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein. Final Destination: Bloodlines is said to explore the backstory of William Bludworth, but it’s to be seen if it will also jump between timelines. Jigsaw’s timeline twist wasn’t bad, but Final Destination 5 did it much better.