Adam Stanheight

For the swimmer, see Adam Faulkner (swimmer).

Adam Stanheight
Saw character
Leigh Whannell as Adam Stanheight in Saw (2004)
First Episode Appearance	Saw (2004)
Final Episode Appearance	Saw X (2023)
Created by	James Wan Leigh Whannell
Character played by	Leigh Whannell
In-universe information
Full name	Adam Stanheight
Alias	Very Fucking Confused
Origin	Saw (2004)
Occupation	Freelance photographer
Association(s)	David Tapp (client; deceased)
Status	Deceased

Adam Stanheight is a fictional character created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell in the Saw franchise. He is one of the main protagonists of the franchise, and first appears in the original Saw film released in 2004 as the main character alongside Dr. Lawrence Gordon. Portrayed by Leigh Whannell himself, Adam is introduced in Saw as a freelance photographer who has been abducted by the Jigsaw Killer and placed in a trap with Dr. Gordon. He is the first character ever seen in the franchise.

Whannell would reprise his role as Adam in Saw III (2006), in which he would appear in flashbacks to show Amanda Young's role in his abduction, and would also appear in subsequent films through archive footage, special effects and being mentioned. Despite only physically appearing in two of the films, Adam became one of the most popular characters of the entire Saw franchise as well as a fan favorite amongst fans of the films.

Fictional character biography

Saw

In the 2004 film Saw, Adam is introduced as a freelance photographer who is making a living by spying on others and taking photos of them for money. Adam was working for discharged police detective David Tapp (Danny Glover), who (using the name "Bob") hired Adam to observe oncologist Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) for $200 a night, as Tapp had suspected Dr. Gordon of being the Jigsaw Killer, a serial killer who put his victims in traps putting people in deadly scenarios. However, Adam's work would make him a target of John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the actual Jigsaw Killer.

"Rise and shine, Adam. You're probably wondering where you are. I'll tell you where you might be. You might be in the room you die in. Up until now you simply sat in the shadows watching others live out their lives. But what do voyeurs see when they look into the mirror? Now, I see you as a strange mix of someone angry, yet apathetic. But mostly just pathetic. So are you going to watch yourself die today, Adam, or do something about it?"

— Adam's tape left to him by the Jigsaw Killer in Saw

At the beginning of the movie, Adam awakens in a large dilapidated industrial bathroom alongside Dr. Gordon. They were both chained by their ankles in opposite corners of the bathroom where in the middle of the room was a supposed dead corpse laying in a pool of blood, with a revolver in one hand, and a tape recorder in the other. Both men would later find envelopes in their pockets containing microcassette tapes, with Adam retrieving the tape recorder so they could listen to their tapes. Adam's tape urges him to survive, while Dr. Gordon's tape says that he must kill Adam by six o'clock or else his wife Alison (Monica Potter) and his daughter Diana (Makenzie Vega) would be murdered and Dr. Gordon himself would be left to die in the bathroom. Dr. Gordon's tape ended with whispering that said 'Follow your heart'. They find a heart symbol drawn on a toilet near Adam, leading to Adam finding a bag containing two hacksaws. The pair try to saw through their chains, but Adam's saw breaks, and Lawrence's attempts are unsuccessful as well. This leads Dr. Gordon to deducing that him and Adam have been abducted by the Jigsaw Killer, whom Dr. Gordon knows about as he was once a suspect.

Adam's distrust towards Dr. Gordon would start growing. Therefore, he picked up a glass shard and threatened Dr. Gordon with it, saying he would cut him if he didn't tell Adam what was going on. However, Adam noticed the glass shard belonged to a one-way mirror. He threw pieces of broken tile from the floor at the mirror, destroying the glass completely to reveal a hidden camera. Soon after, Dr. Gordon wanted to show Adam a photo of his daughter Diana. He says his favorite photo was at the back of his wallet, however, Adam finds a photo of Alison and Diana gagged up which he hides from Dr. Gordon. On the back of the picture, a clue said: "X marks the spot. Sometimes you see more with your eyes shut."

Later on, Adam suddenly asked Dr. Gordon to turn off the bathroom lights. They find a lit-up "X" sign painted on the wall with Dr. Gordon using his hacksaw to break part of the wall off only to find a small box inside the hollow space. The box contained a cellphone, two cigarettes, a lighter and a note that said the cigarettes were harmless and that he didn't a gun to kill Adam. Adam asks for the cigarette but is ignored by Dr. Gordon, who tries to use the cellphone to call the police, which is unsuccessful, as the phone is designed so it could only receive calls and not make them. Dr. Gordon becomes increasingly suspicious of Adam. He wanted to know how Adam knew to turn off the lights, which causes them to have an argument. Adam finally shows Dr. Gordon the photo of Alison and Diana gagged up, which makes Dr. Gordon worry about the safety of his wife and child. After a brief silence, Dr. Gordon tries to come up with an escape plan. He turns off the lights and whispers to Adam to play along with the plan, which consists of him giving Adam the cigarette from the box, Adam smoking it, and then faking his death. They carried out the plan, and it first looked as if they had succeeded, but Adam randomly received an electric shock from his chain. This causes Dr. Gordon to get angry at Adam and blame him for the failure of their escape route. However, this also causes Adam to remember his abduction; he returned home to develop his photos of Dr. Gordon in his darkroom only to fall asleep and find a puppet in his apartment when the lights went out and was then subsequently attacked by someone with a pigmask.

After Adam explains his abduction, the cellphone suddenly rang. Dr. Gordon answered the phone to the voice of his wife Alison, who told him not to believe Adam's lies and that Adam knew everything about him prior to now. Dr. Gordon confronts Adam about what he really knew, with Adam finally admitting that he had been paid to spy and secretly photograph Dr. Gordon and also showed him photos he took of Dr. Gordon that were in the bag that Adam found the hacksaws in but hid. He also revealed that he had knowledge of Dr. Gordon's affair with one of his medical students whom he had visited the night he was abducted, with Dr. Gordon deducing that the affair is the reason why he is being tested. Dr. Gordon then asks Adam who hired him to take the photos. He initially is unable to get anything out of him, but when Adam describes the person as "a tall black guy who has a scar around his neck", Lawrence deduces the person to be that of Detective Tapp who had become obsessed with the idea that Dr. Gordon was Jigsaw after his partner, Detective Steven Sing (Ken Leung), was killed a few months earlier. After Adam accuses Dr. Gordon of cheating on his wife, this causes the two men to have yet another argument, with Dr. Gordon insisting he did not cheat on her.

After the pair went into another brief silence, Adam notices that one of the pictures was not taken by him and had a man in it staring out a window. Dr. Gordon recognises this man as Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson), an orderly at his hospital who is the one monitoring the two on the cameras and is holding Alison and Diana Gordon hostage, leading them to believe Zep is Jigsaw. However, Adam realises that it is now six o'clock and the game is now over. The cellphone rings again and to Dr. Gordon's surprise, it was Alison who called him after freeing herself from Zep. Only moments later, he also hears several gunshots and the desperate screams of his daughter, Diana. Dr. Gordon starts to have a mental breakdown, but suddenly loses consciousness after receiving an electric shock from his shackle, similarly to how Adam did earlier. He soon regained consciousness and the cellphone rung again but was now out of reach, which made Dr. Gordon panic even more. Adam desperately tried to calm him down but the doctor refused to listen and in a last-ditched attempt to save his family, grabbed the hacksaw and began to saw his foot off, with Adam screaming with horror in the background. After freeing himself from the chains, Dr. Gordon crawls to the middle of the room and takes the revolver from the corpse and, despite Adam's pleas not to shoot him, shoots Adam in the shoulder, causing him to fall immediately. Moments later, Zep opens the door and enters the bathroom. He examines Adam's body and prepares himself to kill Dr. Gordon, telling him that he was too late and "it's the rules". However, Adam (who survived being shot) attacks Zep and brings him down to the floor. After a brief wrestle for Zep's gun, Adam disarms his enemy and bludgeons him to death with a toilet tank lid, believing him to be their captor. After killing Zep, Adam begins sobbing due to his shoulder injury. Lawrence tells Adam he must leave and get help, and that he would bleed to death if he stayed with him. Despite Adam's efforts to make him stay, Dr. Gordon slowly crawls out of the bathroom, promising Adam that he would bring someone back.

After Dr. Gordon leaves, Adam searches Zep's body a key only to find a tape recorder, which reveals that Zep was not Jigsaw and the killer himself had poisoned him and to get the antidote, he had to kill Alison and Diana Gordon in the event Dr. Gordon failed his test. After this tape ends, the "dead corpse" rises from the floor and reveals himself as John Kramer, the actual Jigsaw Killer in a twist ending. He tells Adam that the key to chain is in the bathtub, but Adam remembers pulling the plug when he first woke up at the beginning of the film, drowning the key. Adam tries to shoot John with Zep's gun, but John incapacitates him with another electric shock. Afterwards, John switched off the lights and reached towards the door. Adam screamed his lungs out as John slammed the door shut, leaving Adam to die in the bathroom, with his screams carrying on in the end credits. His ultimate fate is left a mystery.

Full Disclosure Report

Adam is both pictured and mentioned in the 2005 mockumentary short film Full Disclosure Report, which is an in-universe documentary focusing on Jigsaw's crimes that is set between Saw and Saw II. After Adam was abducted, detectives searched his apartment and found an e-mail on Adam's computer from Detective David Tapp, who was using his alias "Bob", as well as Adam's photos of Dr. Gordon and the ventriloquist puppet that Adam destroyed in the events leading up to his abduction.

Saw II

Adam is not seen or mentioned in Saw II until the scene where Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) and Daniel Matthews (Erik Knudsen) enter the bathroom, where Adam is confirmed to have died sometime after the events of Saw as his decomposed corpse can be seen. Archived audio from Saw of Adam is also present during this scene. Adam's corpse appears again in the scene where Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) enters the bathroom and is subdued by Amanda, who is revealed to be the new apprentice of Jigsaw.

The Scott Tibbs Documentary

Adam briefly appears and is mentioned numerous times in the 2006 pseudo-documentary short film The Scott Tibbs Documentary, which is included on the Special Edition DVD of Saw II and takes place between the events of Saw II and Saw III. After Adam's sudden disappearance, his best friend Scott Tibbs, leader of the "Wrath of the God" rock band decides to make a documentary about Jigsaw and his motives. At the very beginning of the short film, Scott presents a picture of Adam to the viewers. He also suspects Adam is most likely dead and theorises that Jigsaw had major involvement in his disappearance. Throughout the short film, Scott usually talks badly about Adam whenever he mentions him.

Saw III

Adam makes another brief reappearance in Saw III; his corpse is firstly seen again when Eric Matthews escapes the bathroom at the beginning of film. However, Adam's character would be expanded in this film through flashbacks; one of these flashbacks reveal that Amanda Young was the one who abducted Adam from his apartment and assisted Jigsaw in setting up the bathroom game.

Another flashback shows Amanda being haunted with guilt and having nightmares about Adam escaping the bathroom and his ghost haunting her. Therefore, Amanda returned to the bathroom shortly after Adam's game had ended only to find a severely weakened but still alive Adam. She puts a plastic bag over his head and attempts to suffocate him in an act of mercy. Despite his likely malnourished state, Adam desperately tried to fight Amanda off, but was unable to. Eventually, his head smashed against the toilet, ultimately causing him to lose consciousness and die by asphyxiation. This is the last time we see Adam alive in any film and also the last time Adam physically appears. Archival footage of Adam is also seen at the end of Saw III.

Saw V

In Saw V, Adam's name is seen amongst others during the scene where Special Agent Peter Strahm browses through FBI documents of potential Jigsaw victims. His name is listed as 'Adam Stanheight'.

Saw VI

At the end of Saw VI, archive footage of the final shot of the original Saw film (where Jigsaw seals the bathroom door on Adam) can be seen.

Saw 3D

Adam's now skeletal remains are seen in Saw 3D, when Dr. Gordon, who is revealed to have survived the events of the first film, captures Mark Hoffman and places him in the bathroom, chaining him to the same pipe as Adam was years prior. Dr. Gordon leaves Hoffman to die in the bathroom. Archived footage of Adam from Saw is also seen as well archival audio.

Saw X

Adam's decomposing corpse is seen again in the post-credits scene of Saw X, which takes place between the events of Saw and Saw II, chronologically making it Adam's first appearance as a corpse.

Removed and altered content

The original script of Saw had a lot more elements surrounding Adam's backstory that were ultimately changed and didn't make it into the final cut of the film:

• Adam's name was originally Adam Radford and he was 25 years old.
• Part of Adam's abduction flashback is actually included at the beginning of the script. The scene includes Adam arguing with one of his neighbors as well as Adam feeding a cat with milk outside the front door of his apartment while a shadow figure sneaks in without Adam noticing. The flashback ends here and the rest of the flashback is shown later on in the script.
• In the original script, Adam is implied to possibly be suicidal; Adam's tape orginally said "So many days you've wanted to die - today your aim is to live. To get out this room alive. Either way, you win, yes?" Later on in the script, Dr. Gordon asks Adam why he wanted to die, with Adam answering "because it's preferable to living". Dr. Gordon states that death is not an alternate version of life and that "you're either alive or you're nothing". Adam replies with: "Yeah well, I'm alive and I'm nothing".
• In the scene where Adam finds the photo of Alison and Diana Gordon gagged up, Adam says that he wanted to grow up to be a veterinarian, but realised it was an unlikely possibility after seeing the grades needed to do so. Dr. Gordon would dismiss these claims, stating he has seen kids with brain tumours finishing high school from hospital. Adam replies saying that it is too late for him to become a veterinarian, with the doctor replying back saying: "It's never too late".
• In the second flashback that shows Adam's abduction, we hear a voicemail from Adam's mother coming from his answering machine. This reveals that his father was angry at Adam an unknown reason, but his mother says that he is not angry anymore and "we just want to know if you're alright".
• When Dr. Gordon is about to shoot Adam after amputating his own foot, instead of saying "You have to die" as he does in the film, he says "You wanted to die".

The DVD for Saw III also includes a deleted scene which shows Adam and Amanda meeting before she kidnaps him for the bathroom game. Adam compliments Amanda's hair, gave her a flyer promoting a friend's band concert, and took a picture of her.

In other media

Saw II: Flesh and Blood

While Adam does not physically appear in the video game Saw II: Flesh and Blood, he is mentioned by Detective Tapp on tapes and audio recordings found by his son, Michael. According to these files, Tapp first became aware of Adam through one of his colleagues named Bernie, who had hired Adam sometime in the past to bring him evidence for his wife's marital infidelity, implying this was likely the reason why Tapp hired Adam.

Reception

Despite Whannell only physically appearing in two of the films, with those being Saw and Saw III, Adam became one of the most popular characters of the entire Saw series as well as a fan favorite amongst fans of the franchise, many of whom think Adam was undeserving of his fate at the hands of Jigsaw. In a list curated by James Metcalfe of WhatCulture of the top ten movie characters who should never have died, Adam was ranked at number 1, with Metcalfe stating:

Easily the most watchable and entertaining character in the history of the franchise, Adam Stanheight is one of the two protagonists trapped in the infamous bathroom from the first Saw film. Played by writer Leigh Whannell, Adam is snarky and sarcastic, but showcases more than enough resourcefulness throughout the film that really should have resulted in a better ending for the character. In truth, the guy never really had much of a chance. After failing to cut through his chains and recalling how he had ended up in the bathroom, Adam is shot by Dr. Lawrence Gordon in the film's finale. Zep Hindle, another one of Jigsaw's players, arrives to kill Gordon, but is brought down by Adam who smashes his head in with a toilet lid. If ever there was an example of Jigsaw's philosophy about the human will to survive in action, it's Adam's recovery of a gunshot to the shoulder and the brutal killing of a guy trying to kill him. But no, Adam ends Saw having been left alone to die in the bathroom, still chained to the same pipe from the beginning. Whilst his death is given a little bit of wait in Saw III where he's shown to have been mercy-killed by Amanda Young, Adam's demise remains a real waste of a potentially brilliant character and really shouldn't have happened the way it did.

Angelo Delos Trinos of Screen Rant also named Adam as one of the characters in the Saw franchise who didn't deserve their deaths, describing Adam as someone who "may have been a shady photographer, but he was just a regular guy who didn’t deserve a fate worse than death". He would go on to add: "By Jigsaw’s own rules, Adam shouldn’t have been left to die in the bathroom but this is his fate nonetheless". In an overview of over 80 kills in the franchise, Adam's death scene was ranked 56th, with author Matt Donato stating: "He deserves a better (more epic) kill in my eyes".

Leigh Whannell's performance as Adam in the first Saw film received mixed responses. Zachary Doiron for Film Inquiry had a mixed reaction, commenting that while "[Leigh] Whannell does a solid job" as Adam and believed Whannell's performance was more believable than that of Cary Elwes' portrayal of Dr. Lawrence Gordon, he would go on to say both actors should have given better performances which could have helped make Saw a better film. Steve Pulaski spoke positively on Whannell's performance on his website, stating: "Both Elwes and Whannell do great justice to their roles and play them convincingly". The Corvid Review praised Whannell's performance along with Michael Emerson and Shawnee Smith's, while Andy Patrizio of IGN gave a less favorable review, stating: "Whannell is a newbie so I can forgive that, although it struck me as convenient that he gave himself all the best one-liners. In the future, he should stick to cameos in his films". On Robin Baxter's (WhatCulture) list of "9 Distractingly Bad Performances In Otherwise Great Movies", Whannell and Cary Elwes' portrayals as Adam and Dr. Gordon were ranked number 2, stating while he believes Whannell is a talented writer, director and producer, he felt Whannell gave "a very annoying and unconvincing performance as Adam".

Nonetheless, Whannell was nominated for a Teen Choice Award in the category for "Choice Movie: Scream Scene" for his portrayal as Adam, particularly during the final scene in Saw in the 2005 edition of the award show.