Every 'Saw X' Trap, Ranked by Difficulty

Saw X is the latest in the iconic and gruesome horror franchise, seeing a return to form as it follows the iconic villain Jigsaw as he enacts his revenge upon a group who prey upon and scam cancer patients. In the way that only Jigsaw could provide, he and his accomplices soon entrap the con artists and force them to partake in a series of painful life-or-death games, as their last chance of fighting for survival.

The traps of the Saw series are easily the most iconic aspect of the series, and Saw X thankfully delivers another selection of highly engaging and terrifying traps. As is the case with the other films in the series, not all of Saw X's traps are created equally, and while each are gruesome in their own right, they range from mildly difficult to genuinely impossible. While there's no possibility that anyone in real life would have to participate in these death traps, it makes for an interesting hypothetical to consider which traps are the most difficult to overcome.

8 Eye Vacuum Trap

The trap most prominently used in the film's promotion and the first trap of the film, the Eye Vacuum trap is a relatively simple yet effective trap with less than lethal yet equally terrifying consequences. The trap sees a thieving hospital cleaner with two suction vacuums attached to his eyes, which are set to go off and suck his eyes out if he doesn't turn a dial five times, which will subsequently break each finger on his hand.

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"You'd be surprised what tools can save a life."

Despite the nightmarish consequences of failing the trap, the Eye Vacuum trap has a seemingly simple yet painful solution of simply turning the dial all the way and brute-forcing the pain of every finger breaking at once. While very painful in the moment, it's considerably better than the alternative of having eyeballs individually sucked out. Even if the user fails the trap, such as how the hospital cleaner fails, the consequences technically don't result in death, but instead a much more terrifying permanent disability.

7 Radiation Therapy Trap

The Radiation Therapy Trap sees the young Gabriela coming face to face with a chemotherapy radiation machine, turned up to full blast and slowly burning away her skin. Her only hope of escape is to use a sledgehammer to break her wrist and her ankle, so that she can get out of the shackles holding onto her and out of the path of the radiation beams.

While it's difficult to inflict such bone-breaking pain upon yourself, especially when uncomfortable suspended in the air, a broken ankle and wrist are far from the most painful solutions to a Saw trap. This is seen when Gabriela is one of the few who is actually able to win her designated trap, although not before getting a considerable amount of pain and damage caused by the machine. However, she isn't able to survive for much longer after, as she is soon killed, not by Jigsaw, but by another one of the victims, Dr. Pederson.

6 Blood Waterboarding Trap

One of the rare two-person traps, the Blood Waterboarding Trap has both participants chained down to a board at an angle, forcing the lower of the two participants to be drenched in blood, causing a waterboarding effect. The only way for said person to stop the constant flow of blood is for the other person to pull their lever, which causes the other person's platform to lift, but it then lowers the lever puller, forcing them to face the waterboarding.

The waterboarding trap is much more philosophical and friendship-based than previous traps, as it assumes that both players would rather not see the other die, and encourages sacrifices in the name of protecting the other player. In a standard sequence of how this trap would theoretically play out, it would go until one player eventually succumbs to the waterboarding, meaning that surviving is relatively simple if a player is willing to sacrifice their friend. However, the trap plays out very differently in Saw X, as it is actually a ploy by Jigsaw in his scheme to ensnare those who have overtaken the game after he and a young child are forced to partake in the trap.

5 Burning Gas Chamber Trap

The final trap of the main story of the film, the Burning Gas Chamber Trap acts as a culminating final entrapment for the main scammer duo of Dr. Cecilia Pederson and her partner, Detective Parker Sears. As a way to punish the duo for always making incorrect choices throughout the course of the movie, they are trapped in a room slowly filling with toxic gas, with a singular hole of safety. The once inseparable duo soon find themselves fighting for their lives against each other in order to be the one to survive the trap, eventually leading to one toxic lover ending the life of another.

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You might want to keep an umbrella handy.

Rooms filling with toxic gas are a staple of the Saw series, even being the primary trap of Saw II, and its implementation in Saw X is a welcome and simple reinterpretation of a classic trap. The simple premise of multiple people fighting over a singular spot of safety is a tried and true death trap hypothetical. Survivability in this trap is entirely dependent on the other person involved, as we see with the duo in Saw X, brute force is far from the only answer, as crafty usage of a sharp weapon gives the edge in the end.

4 Pipe Bomb Trap

The trap that kicks off Jigsaw's revenge against the scammers, taxi driver Diego is forced to partake in a trap in which pipe bombs have been surgically implanted into his forearms. On top of this, his hands have been completely covered in duct tape, with a scalpel attached on the ends of both hands, his only tools to cut into himself and surgically remove the pipe bombs before they go off.

The Pipe Bomb Trap is a great modern reinvention of the stylings of classic Saw traps, combining self-mutilation, a short ticking timer, and explosive consequences, making it one of the best traps in the film. It's also a trap that seems especially painful and difficult to deal with, as the bombs are deeply inserted into the forearms, making their removal highly difficult, especially with the lack of precision provided. Despite the difficulty of the trap, Diego is successfully able to remove the bombs from his arms, becoming one of the few survivors of the film.

3 Scar Tissue Trap

This final trap is briefly shown off during the post-credits scene of the film, the Scar Tissue trap is Jigsaw's revenge upon Henry, the fake cancer survivor who was the first step in Jigsaw being conned by the con artists. Henry was convincing because of the fake scar tissue on his stomach, so this trap is one that is sure to give him a real stomach scar for his role in conning innocent cancer patients.

Very little of the scar tissue trap is actually shown in the film, as the post-credits scene is more focused on the return of fan-favorite character Detective Hoffman, showing his continued support to Jigsaw. While the film doesn't provide any actual rules for the game, or how Henry is supposed to survive, considering the fact that the trap begins going off at the end of the scene, it's safe to assume that he will achieve life-altering and possibly fatal wounds no matter what.

2 Bone Marrow Trap

Easily one of the most gruesome traps in the film, the Bone Marrow Trap sees false nurse Valentina as she is forced to cut off her own leg using a Glgli saw, and extract bone marrow from her leg to fill a vial on the side. If she does not accomplish the task in the allotted time, the machine that she is attached to will activate, and begin using a similar saw to cut off her head.

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"Game over."

It's easy to see that an act of cutting off your own leg is one of both intense difficulty and a massive chance of death via blood loss even if she accomplishes the trap in time. The time factor especially shows itself to be a major hurdle in the trap, as even after Valentina successfully cuts off her own leg, she simply isn't able to extract bone marrow fast enough to stop the timer, and eventually succumbs to the trap. Cutting off one's own body parts may have appeared in previous Saw traps, but the massive size and scale of the leg being removed puts this trap above the rest in brutality.

1 Brain Surgery Trap

Easily the most creative yet terrifying trap of the bunch, the Brain Surgery Trap forces the fake surgeon Mateo as he is forced to drill into his own skull and perform brain surgery on himself. If he does not then remove a piece of his own brain and place it in a vat of acid to be dissolved in the allotted time, the machine will close in on itself and end his life.

Brain surgery is such a highly precise and calculated operation that, especially when someone is quickly performing the act on themselves under a time limit, there's no shortage of ways the operation could severely go wrong. The brain is simply too fragile and important of an organ to self-operate upon, especially when considering the impact after the brain is removed. The Brain Surgery trap is easily the most brutal and least survivable trap in the film, as it's a trap that just as easily could kill its user before the timer even goes off, if even the slightest mistake in the surgery happens.

NEXT: 12 Best Traps from the 'Saw' Series, Ranked

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