How to beat every trap in ‘Saw X’

Not only did Saw X bring back franchise mainstays in John Kramer and Amanda Young, but it introduced us to a handful of new traps, each one more horrifying than the last.

Armed with nothing but the will to survive, do you think you’d make it out alive? We already walked through the easiest traps to escape in the entire franchise, but how about escaping this new batch of torture devices?

Eye Vacuum Trap

The Eye Vacuum Trap marks the second instance in the entire Saw franchise where one of Jigsaw’s traps occurred in a dream sequence, the first being the Pain Train from Saw 3D, used against Jill Tuck by Mark Hoffman. When John catches a custodian handling a patient’s possessions in a hospital, he thinks up the Eye Vacuum Trap as form of punishment, should the custodian carry out the thievery.

When the trap plays out, the custodian fails, but how could he have made it out relatively unharmed?

• It might seem counter-intuitive, but the simplest solution is sacrificing the fingers to keep the eyes. Turning the dial all the way immediately and breaking every finger simultaneously would be excruciatingly painful, but it would be much less agonizing than breaking each finger individually.

Pipe Bomb Trap

Diego, the Mexican taxi driver who escorted John to Cecilia Pederson’s facility, finds himself in the Pipe Bomb Trap. He awakens to find pipe bombs embedded in his forearms and scalpels duct-taped to his hands. John instructs him to cut the bombs out of his forearms using the scalpels before they detonate. When Diego lunges forward, the three-minute timer begins.

Diego demonstrates how to survive this trap the hard way, but there are some other solutions you could try.

• Use one of the scalpels to cut through the duct-tape on your hands, then use the free hand to carefully pry the bomb out of your flesh. Rinse and repeat. It isn’t the most practical, but it hurts a lot less than a scalpel.
• As Diego does, use your teeth to remove the bomb rather than the scalpel. Again, it isn’t the most practical or sanitary option, but it might be less invasive.

Amputation Trap

For the Amputation Trap, Valentina—who posed as a nurse under Cecilia’s operation— finds herself in a situation where she must amputate her right leg with the gigli saw and then extract bone marrow from the stump to tip a set of scales to avoid decapitation.

There are a few options for how to avoid certain death here, but every escape method is dependence on a number of factors, so nothing is guaranteed.

• You could take the gigli saw and use it to slice through the rope securing your neck to the pipe, then when the timer runs out, simply duck your head to avoid decapitation.
• Kicking the machine that powers the saw is another possibility, although it isn’t foolproof.

Brain Surgery Trap

Unless he wants to get his face fried, Diego must cut through his skull, remove some cerebral matter and place it in a beaker. When it dissolves, the key to his freedom will be unlocked. There are ways to survive this trap, but none of them are painless.

Your arms and legs are free, so that’s a bonus, but there’s a lot that could go wrong here, so these methods of escape are temperamental at best.

• The most viable solution would be to just do as John says and cut open your skull. It isn’t the most favorable option, but it’s the most reliable in this scenario.
• Another possible option would be to use the bone-cutter to cut through the metal lock securing the collar around your neck.

Radiation Therapy Trap

Gabriela gets stuck in a pickle when she’s hanging by two shackles —one around her wrist and the other aound her ankle— in front of an x-ray machine beaming out cancerous rays. Although Gabriela survives by breaking her hand and foot, she doesn’t overpower Cecilia, who finishes her off without hesitation.

Smashing your bones is the most obvious survival tactic, but are there any other ways?

• Smashing your ankle is a given because you need the momentum to swing. You could try swinging to the same beam that the x-ray machine is attached to and position yourself behind or under it to avoid the rays.
• Freeing your ankle and hoisting yourself up is another alternative, but you would need to have serious upper body and core strength to pull that off.

Bloodboarding Trap

In this trap, which was designed for Cecilia, two individuals are laid flat on a metal grate, chained down by cuffs around their legs, arms, and neck. Intermittently, a flow of blood will rain down and waterboard them. This was planned out all along by John and Amanda, who implemented failsafes in the event something should go wrong. But John needed to sell it.

Carlos’ tactic of taking it in turns to share the bursts of blood is effective, but it only works for so long.

• Alternatively, you could endure the blood spurts by either holding your breath or turning your head to the side to get some air periodically, similar to swimming. This could work until the blood runs out.
• As we see in the movie, the shackles are easily removed and aren’t meant to be tightly secured. However, you wouldn’t know this unless you were privy to the information in advance. Still, it would be worth a try if you were left in the dark.

Gas Chamber Trap

In the Gas Chamber Trap, only one person can make it out alive. The room is filling with poisonous gas and there’s only one head hole in the wall to allow someone oxygen. John relies on test subjects acting selfishly, which is precisely what Parker and Cecilia do. They both fend for themselves, but eventually Cecilia comes out on top.

Parker tries smashing the windows, so that’s a no-go. But what else could you do?

• It’s an option to use a piece of clothing as a makeshift gas mask as soon as the gas starts pouring in to at least trap some fresh air and buy yourself some time.
• Covering the vent with an object around the room or attempting to break the vent could work too.
• If all else fails, just do what Cecilia did and kill the other person, that seems to work out.

And now you’re fully prepared if you ever find yourself in a Saw trap. Don’t blame us if you don’t get out of it though.