Saw 2’s Venus Fly Trap Mask Was The First Hint At Dr. Gordon Twist

Saw 2’s Venus Fly Trap mask contained the first hint about the fate of Dr. Gordon. Saw announced the arrival of future horror auteurs James Wan and Leigh Whannell. Wan directed while Whannell wrote the script and played Adam in Saw, which revolved around two men locked in a dingy bathroom by a killer known as “Jigsaw.” He’s a killer who puts his victims through extreme games to test their will to survive, with Cary Elwes’ Dr. Gordon tasked with killing Adam before the timer runs out, or his family will die.

While it’s regarded as progenitor of the “Torture Porn” subgenre, Saw is more of a thriller. The focus isn’t really on the traps and there’s surprisingly little gore, which is down to the film’s low-budget and short filming schedule. It became a word of mouth smash for Wan’s creative visuals, the smart script and its fantastic twist ending. Starting from Saw 2, the sequels put more and more emphasis on the traps and gore, introducing nasty games like the nightmarish Needle Pit or Saw III’s Rack.

Saw 2 isn’t a perfect sequel but it featured some iconic setpieces and the scenes between Tobin Bell’s John Kramer and Detective Matthews are the movie’s strongest. Aside from the aforementioned Needle Pit, the movie’s most memorable game involves the Venus Fly Trap mask – AKA the Death Mask. This iron maiden-style device snaps together, with the unlucky wearer Michael Marks given the choice between cutting out his eye to recover a surgically implanted key or dying when the mask closes. This scene also contained an early hint that Dr. Gordon was still alive.

Dr. Gordon ended Saw having cut off his foot and escaping the bathroom to seek help – though given the fact he was bleeding to death and trapped in an isolated building, his odds didn’t look great. In Saw 2 and subsequent sequels, his fate was deliberately kept ambiguous. This was partially down to Elwes being involved with a lawsuit against Lionsgate over his salary for Saw, but fans speculated that not only had he survived, but he was a secret Jigsaw apprentice. The Venus Fly Trap contained a couple of hints, with Kramer unlikely to have the surgical skills needed to implant the key in Marks’ eye, and the latter sees a video of a hooded figure performing the surgery.

Of note is the fact this “surgeon” is limping, which would make sense for Gordon given the previous movie. Saw 3D finally confirmed this, revealing Gordon was recruited by Jigsaw following the original movie and helped set up several traps and victims. A flashback also revealed he was the figure seen in the Venus Fly Trap video. While speculation it was Dr. Gordon seen in Saw 2 started almost immediately after the movie’s release, this wasn’t the original intent.

Director Darren Lynn Bousman discussed this fan theory on the movie’s commentary, revealing he was one playing the hooded figure and he limped to add “flavor” to the performance, but it wasn’t intended to be a Gordon easter egg. Nonetheless, it fits perfectly, which is why it was made canon in Saw 3D. Bousman also revealed on the Saw 2 track that the Venus Fly Trap scene was almost nastier, with Marks’ eye supposed to pop out after the mask snapped closed. The effects team couldn’t make this work, so it was dropped.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3485 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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