Deadly Game

Around a month ago, I did a Saw movie marathon on a lazy Saturday. I have already watched the first movie, but didn't get to watch the rest. Over the years, it’s said that Saw franchise was the most thrilling and gore movies. Some of my friends have already watched the entire series. Some recommend it; the others can’t stand to watch it because of the blood and eeriness of the scene. Now, I have a habit to Wikipedia certain movies which I find mind-blowing. Saw is on the top of my list at that time.

So, the antagonist and main character is John Kramer. John is an engineer; he builds a lot of tools and traps for his victims. He or his disciples drugged them and put them in a situation which then his victims have to choose between life and death. He began by putting a recording of Bill the Puppet saying “I want to play a game.”

“Live or die. Make your choice.”

To live, the victims must overcome sets of traps before the time runs out. These traps will sometimes cause the victims to sacrifice part of themselves, or others. John perceived his games as a test for the victims to prove that they are worthy of the gift of lives. He thinks that people waste their lives by doing wrong things to others. They don’t embrace the gift of lives, so they now have to be tested to redeem their right to live.

Oddly enough, all of the victims chose to live. I had thought that if I were put in that situation, I might choose to die instead of having to sacrifice my body parts or others. In essence, what I get from the movie was nobody wants to die. It sounds like a good thing when there is one victim trying to survive. But then on one of the episode, it’s amazing how fast people turn on each other when faced with death.

On one of the episodes, John had already said that he wants the 5 victims to work together. He even said that they will eagerly want to betray each other selfishly, but he insists for them to do otherwise. Yet on every stages of the game, one of them is sacrificed by others because of their own selfish mind. It’s uncanny how this John character can predict human nature to the point where he doesn't even need to be with them to know what they would do.

It makes me think though, is human behavior really that easy to predict? Would you sacrifice a drug addict to save your own live? Would you rather die or live with only one arm? Would you kill someone to protect others and yourself? Would you die willingly if you know you had done something terribly wrong in the past? What do you think?