Jigsaw, an engineer made his debut in the first film of the series, Saw, and appears in all subsequent installments, with the exception of Spiral, in which he is only mentioned and featured in photographs.

To both punish and enlighten the self-destructive, John creates lethal traps, devices, and scenarios that force his victims to inflict pain and anguish upon themselves or others in order to escape, though not always in one piece.

It is ultimately revealed that John Kramer has been posing as a bloodied corpse on the floor of the bathroom where Dr. Lawrence Gordon and Adam Stanheight's test is taking place.

Through a reunion with an acquaintance from his support group, he learns of an unauthorized operation in Mexico City where a groundbreaking new technique cures cancer patients.

In a flashback, it is revealed that Amanda, suffering from heroin withdrawal, was the one to convince Cecil to rob the clinic - inadvertently causing Jill's miscarriage and the couple's divorce.

[3] After Cecil became Jigsaw's first victim, John soon focused his sights on Amanda: seeing her as a good candidate for a trap due to her addiction and her role in Jill's assault.

Saw 3D features flashbacks of John meeting Bobby Dagen, a man who acquired quick fame and fortune after falsifying a story about surviving a Jigsaw trap, at a book signing.

In the ending, he faces either Michael (tempting him into becoming another apprentice) or Campbell Iman (offering him freedom but forced to lure him into a lethal trap when he tries to attack him).

"[7] Bousman mentioned that Saw III was intended to contain a scene in which Jigsaw showed remorse for his actions after seeing the results of his legacy: For the first time, we actually see him break down and cry.

In Saw: Rebirth, he is depicted doing extensive study in multiple fields to gain knowledge for designing his tests, and recurring director Bousman himself has described Jigsaw as being "extremely educated" in an interview.

[12] Lane Rozin Phifer writes that Saw X was less focused on traps "and mostly centers around John’s complex character, highlighting the hypocrisy of his own work against others doing things that are just as bad, if not, worse.

"[13] Chase Hutchinson writes that the events of the film "essentially birth Jigsaw into the maniac that will carry out even more harebrained torture schemes" and he is granted "a new lease on life" despite remaining sick.

It is this that gives Jigsaw's games their Deleuzian tone, the urgent revitalisation of life occasioning new experiences to be learnt and assimilated: such as the perverse, singular and aberrant situation of waking to find a man-trap secured around your neck.

Jigsaw might resort to discussing Darwin's "little trip to the Galapagos Islands" to provide a theoretical underpinning for his project and echo Nietzsche in talking of the will to survive, but this merely misdirects investigators and witnesses in the same way that the gruesome traps and freely flowing gore earn him his unsettling serial killer soubriquet.

Jigsaw's games are designed to crack open the world of their respective players: the challenges are nearly always relevant to the subject's lifestyle in a symbolic or literal way, bringing them to painful self awareness, prompting a reappraisal of their squandered potential.

'"[15] The pig mask is a thematic prop worn by John and his accomplices throughout the Saw film series to conceal their identities while abducting their "test subjects".

John received the nickname "Jigsaw" from the police and the press stemming from his tendency to perform such a ritual; however, he never encouraged that name and in fact disapproved of it.

Huntley argued that the jigsaw pieces that John cut out of the flesh of his failed test subjects was not intended as a mere stylized signature, but rather that it had a much deeper philosophical reflection.

He stated that: Far from being a stamp of final approval, a post-(mortem)-script to the game, the jigsaw piece represents the admission of the subject's missing survival instinct, the corporeal body's non-relational or "snagged" desire.

Huntley analyzed Jigsaw's intentions in taking in protégés as stemming from the terminally ill character's desire to overcome death itself, and argues that this is further evidence of his thought process being characterized by Deleuzian philosophy.

Jigsaw remains calm, neutral and impassive throughout the Saw films (not least because of his terminal condition) yet his only expressed wish, concern or desire, is that his legacy is maintained – the work of testing the fabric of humanity should go on.

"Jigsaw" – as the intensive site of being, a locus of desire, the body-without-organs – can survive the death of the organism John Kramer... What seems to be consistent thematically through the Saw films is that "Jigsaw" is a part for various players, an identity composed of pieces...[15]John was also assisted by Obi in the kidnapping of the victims of the nerve gas house, shortly before the events of Saw II, and Zep Hindle throughout the first film.

Kevin Greutert, the editor of Saw, Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV, and Saw V, and the director of Saw VI and Saw 3D, stated that Amanda, in particular, is "such a peculiar aspect of the Jigsaw character," citing that John had developed genuine "tender feelings" for her.

[23][24] John is usually seen wearing a black theatrical robe with a large hood and red lining when running traps or abducting victims.

[15] On the other hand, Mark Hoffman always wore the dark blue rain parka he'd worn since the murder of Seth Baxter when he donned the pig mask, further illustrating the gap between him and John.

A review of Saw II in the San Francisco Chronicle praised Tobin Bell and John as being "more terrifying than the movie villains in Hollywood's last five horror films put together; even though he's in a wheelchair and hooked up to multiple IVs.

"[26] Don Summer, a writer for Best-Horror-Movies.com, stated that "the villain, in Jigsaw, is brilliant and formidable" and that actor Tobin Bell has done a "fantastic job" for his role.

[28] Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, a reviewer for the Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies, remarked that Tobin Bell's Jigsaw had become such an entrenched staple of the Saw franchise, that the character's reduced appearance in Saw V was drastically felt.

[29] Similarly, several critics who reviewed Saw 3D lamented Bell's minimal screentime in the film,[30][31] with Eric Goldman of IGN writing that he found it "impossible not to be bothered by how little time was spent" with the character.

[32] Reviewing Saw X, Owen Gleiberman wrote that John Kramer was "so front and center that Tobin Bell has never given such a full-scale performance as the human behind Jigsaw.