SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
A criminal mastermind unleashes a twisted form of justice in Spiral, the terrifying new chapter from the book of Saw. Working in the shadow of his father, an esteemed police veteran (Samuel L. Jackson), brash Detective Ezekiel ‘Zeke’ Banks (Chris Rock) and his rookie partner (Max Minghella) take charge of a grisly investigation into murders that are eerily reminiscent of the city’s gruesome past.
Unwittingly entrapped in a deepening mystery, Zeke finds himself at the center of the killer’s morbid game.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Spiral / Spiral: From the Book of Saw / Saw 9 / SAW IX Video Summary
Spiral / Spiral: From the Book of Saw / Saw 9 / SAW IX Plot Summary and Synopsis
The movie opens on the 4th of July in an unnamed city in which all the previous Saw universe movies took place in the previous eight installments. At a parade, off-duty Metro Police Det. Marv Boswick (Dan Petronijevic) chases a purse thief into sewers.
He finds a human-like figure sitting on a chair in the dark. Detective asks the figure to raise the hands, but it doesn’t move, as it is not a human, but merely a mannequin in a white hat.
Boswick kicks the mannequin but suddenly is attacked himself. A person wearing a pig mask puts a bag on Boswick’s head and smashes him unconscious.
When he wakes up, the detective finds himself in a subway tunnel, on a sloppy wooden bench with the only thing attached to something being his tongue. It is firmly locked in something strongly resembling a locksmith vise. His hands are wired with a barbed wire; feet are bare.
The Pig Man via pre-recorded video message informs Boswick that the train arrives in 2 minutes, and it is up to him to decide how to act: wait for the train and die, or tear off his tongue and, well kind of, continue to live.
The Pig Man also explains the reason behind his decision to capture Boswick – the corrupt detective put many innocent people in jail. Thus, ripping off the tongue which was used to lie and deceive so much is Boswick’s ‘reward’.
Boswick is terrified and in pain but manages to tear the barbed wire. The train approaches with no way a half-sleeping subway driver to be able to hit the brakes in time. The detective tries his best to rip off his tongue but fails. The subway train hits him at the full speed. Det. Marv Boswick is no longer on the team of living beings.
Meanwhile, Det. Ezekiel ‘Zeke’ Banks (Chris Rock) is taking part in an undercover and, as it is revealed later, unsanctioned, drug raid. Banks infiltrates later to the scene without backup and finds three murdering thieves before the backup group arrives.
This leads to a tense confrontation between Banks and the police chief Capt. Angie Garza (Marisol Nichols). She is mad at Banks because he turned into a corrupt cop.
As a punishment to Banks, Garza partners him with idealistic rookie Det. William Schenk (Max Minghella), and tasks the pair with investigating the train crime scene. Banks reluctantly heads to the tracks, where he realizes that the dead man is, in fact, his closest, and perhaps the only friend on the force.
During the investigation of Boswick’s death scene scarred Det. Fitch who previously ignored Banks’ call for backup which caused him to be shot, is abducted.
Fitch is placed in a trap where he must rip his fingers off to avoid electrocution in a filling water basin. Ultimately, he dies.
Spiral delivers a message: ‘I am here to help reform the Metro Police’. The reform in his interpretation means systematical murders of the corrupt cops for the same crimes Boswick was killed – murdering civilians, tampering with evidence, and lying under oath.
The creepy message prompts Garza to escalate the case and put the entire team to work — much to the chagrin of Banks, who understandably doesn’t trust any of his colleagues.
The police agree that the new maniac, who calls himself Spiral, is one of many of Jigsaw’s copycats.
Eventually, Banks has no other choice but to ask his dad, Marcus Banks (Samuel L. Jackson), former chief of the Metro Police, for help. Marcus doesn’t see Zeke as a reliable person.
Another box arrives at the police station, with a puppet and Schenk’s tattooed skinned arm inside. Zeke goes to a butcher shop where his dad used to take him, only to find skinned corpse identified as Schenk.
Outside the city, Marcus arrives at a warehouse and Garza goes missing. She is placed in a trap in the precinct’s cold storage where she must sever her spinal cord on a blade to avoid having hot wax pour from a pipe onto her face. She manages to win the game but dies of her injures. Her body is soon found by Zeke who vows to bring the killer to justice.
Zeke arrives at the warehouse and is captured. He is placed handcuffed to a pipe with a hacksaw, which he escapes using a loose bobby pin.
While exploring the warehouse, Zeke discovers Pete, his former partner who he reported for murder. Pete is killed in another trap, where glass shards puncture him at high speed, despite Zeke’s attempts to save him.
Spiral / Spiral: From the Book of Saw / Saw 9 / SAW IX Plot Summary and Synopsis Ending
The final twist reveals that the mysterious copycat Jigsaw killer / Spiral is Zeke’s partner – Det. William Schenk, whom he meets alive and sound. Schenk faked his death by using Fitch’s skinned corpse. He kills corrupted cops in revenge for the death of his father, who was killed by Marcus’ partner.
Schenk gives Zeke a gun with one bullet and offers him the final test: to kill him or to save his father. The final test involves Marcus being drained of blood until Banks uses his father’s last bullet to either hit a target that will save Marcus but allow Schenk to escape, or to kill Schenk and let his father bleed to death. Zeke shoots the bloodsucking machine above Marcus’s head to save him.
Schenk offers Zeke a deal – recruit him as Schenk’s partner in his mission to kill corrupted cops. Zeke refuses and Schenk attacks him.
Arriving SWAT raids the building. They bust the cable to cut out all the light, but the backlight of the bloodsucking machine. Marcus is posed as having a shotgun aimed towards them, resulting in him being shot dead much to Zeke’s horror. Zeke watches as Schenk slips away in the elevator and leaves unnoticed. Zeke screams in distress over his father’s dead body.
Ending Explained
The new maniac is on the loose with police being able to do doing nothing about him. It is unlikely the protagonist is going to become his apprentice as this twist was used multiple times in the previous installments; not to mention Schenk’s complete lack of evil charisma. The pursuit plot for next installment is on the table.
Cooncel Rating
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