The first Spiral reboot. Likewise, while the major events of most movies tend to happen sometime in the story's present day, a number of important events involving Jigsaw's creation and evolution happened before Saw begins.
These various preceding events would be revealed to audiences as part of flashback scenes in each Saw installment, with more about John Kramer's pre-Saw past being clarified as the franchise went on. In some ways that became a detriment, as the mountain of flashbacks sometimes served to take away from the suspense of what was currently happening to the characters, including those forced to play Jigsaw's twisted games. On the other hand, the flashbacks do help viewers learn what makes John tick, and why he did what he did to people.
As convoluted as the overall Saw timeline became, it's worth taking a look at what Jigsaw got up to before Dr. Lawrence Gordon and Adam Stanheight woke up chained to the floor of a disgusting bathroom. It turns out he was quite the busy man. He first targeted Cecil Adams, the junkie who had caused the death of Gideon. Cecil was placed in Jigsaw's first trap, and ended up failing his test, dying in the process. Meanwhile, John discovered an experimental treatment that might save his life, only for his insurance company to deny coverage, effectively ensuring his death. Insurance executive William Easton, who made the decision, would later be Jigsaw's main test subject in Saw 6, a plan carried out after John's death by apprentice Mark Hoffman. Not long after the denial, John embarked on his first big game in 2003, which resulted in Logan Nelson, the medical examiner who'd mixed up John's diagnosis, almost dying due to a mistake made by John. Feeling it unfair for Logan to die due to an error beyond his control, John patched him up, and Logan became Jigsaw's first apprentice.
That summer, Detective Hoffman murdered his sister's killer, but made it look like a Jigsaw kill. Angered, John revealed himself to Hoffman and essentially blackmailed him into becoming apprentice #2. Hoffman and John's first game came at the expense of Paul Leahy, who had repeatedly attempted suicide, and failed to overcome his razor wire test. Then there was the first Saw movie's Amanda Young, who ultimately survived the infamous Reverse Bear Trap, and became Jigsaw's third apprentice. Hoffman and John would next test a man named Mark Wilson, who faked illness for sympathy, then planted evidence to point the finger at Dr. Gordon. Finally, only a short time before Saw begins, John kidnapped and tested a man named Jeff Ridenhour. His game was interrupted by Detectives David Tapp and Steven Sing, with the latter being killed by a shotgun booby trap in Jigsaw's lair.
Tragically, it wasn't John's own cancer diagnosis that turned him into trap-making Jigsaw killer of the Saw franchise was truly born.
