| “ | There's so much left to do. So many people I have to talk to. This can't be it. | ” |
— Laura talks to Daniel[src]
| ||
Laura Hunter is a fictional character from the Saw franchise as well as a supporting protagonist in Saw II. She was portrayed by Beverley Mitchell.
Biography
Early Life
Laura Hunter was an insecure, young woman who got into conflict with the law at one point in her early life. On one occasion, she was innocently framed and arrested by Detective Eric Matthews, after the latter had faked the evidence in one of his cases. (Saw II)
Abduction
Obi Tate abducts Laura in her car
Although she was eventually released from prison, her connection with Detective Matthews caused her to become a target of John Kramer, better known as the Jigsaw Killer. One night, when she entered her car, she was suddenly attacked from behind by a man named Obi Tate, who had hid on her backseat. Surprised by the attack, she wasn't able to fight him off when he chloroformed her and ultimately passed out. She was then taken to a run-down house. John Kramer and his apprentice, Detective Mark Hoffman, took her unconscious body to a room with a large safe and trapped him there along with seven other people: Daniel Matthews, the son of Eric Matthews, Jonas Singer, his manager Gus Colyard, the prostitute Addison Corday, the drug dealer Xavier Chavez, her abductor Obi Tate and Amanda Young, a former heroin addict who was in fact a Jigsaw apprentice on her own. John placed a tape recorder behind a brick wall and helped Hoffman to install a booby trap connected to the lock of the room's only door. Having finished all of their preparations, John and Hoffman left the room and locked the door. (Saw II, V)
Test
Shortly afterwards, the prisoners woke up and were immediately frightened by the situation. Jonas tried to wake up Amanda, who was the last one who was still unconscious, while Addison yelled that someone should open the door. Xavier sarcastically commented that no one was listening, to which Laura responded that someone was and pointed at a camera. However Daniel, who squatted in a corner out of fear, said that those kinds of cameras didn't record sounds. The group's concerns grew worse when Gus suddenly started to panic. Gus talked about a movie he had seen about a man who had been trapped in a room for nine years, which frightened the others, especially Laura, and caused a discussion with Xavier. They were quickly interrupted when Addison heard a ticking on the other side of the door. However before they could find out what it was, Amanda suddenly woke up. Playing her role as another victim, she immediately pretended to panic and searched the room until she finally found the instruction tape as well as the key and the message which warned them not to use the key to open any door in the room.
Laura and Xavier witness Gus Colyard's death
The tape told them that they were all breathing in a deadly nerve gas since the moment they arrived in the house. While the doors would open after three hours, the gas would already kill them after two hours. In order to survive the prisoners had to find syringes with the antidote which were hidden in the house with one of them being in the safe. Additionally Jigsaw told them that they all had a connection and told them that the clue to this connection was marked with a "X". After listening to the tape Xavier grabbed the key. Amanda begged him to listen to the message which warned them not to use the key to open any door in the room. However he refused to do so and tried to open the door which activated the booby trap and caused the magnum on the other side to go off and shoot Gus Colyard right in the eye. When Gus' blood splashed on her face and clothes, Laura immediately started to scream. Xavier tried to calm her down. However this attempt remained unsuccessful. While the other prisoners panicked, Jonas demanded Amanda to tell him how she knew about the tape. She then told them about Jigsaw and his games and therefore also revealed that she had survived one of his tests before.
The group enters the basement
As they now knew the dangerousness of their situation, the group began to search the whole room. Daniel picked up Gus' jacket from the floor and used it to cover the latter's mutilated head. Moments later the door of the room finally opened. Jonas was shocked when he saw the magnum trap which had killed Gus. Amanda tried to remove the gun and take it with her, albeit unsuccessful. Therefore the group left the room behind. In the hallway, Xavier found a nail-studded baseball bat. When he wanted to go further, Jonas voiced his doubts that there even was an antidote and tried to convince him and the others to make up a plan. Xavier however was too impatient to listen and went on, followed by the rest of the group. Shortly afterwards, Addison also found a lamp, which she took with her. While making their way to the entrance hall, Jonas discovered a tattoo on Xavier's arm and asked him about it, as he recognized it from Joliet, but Xavier wasn't interested in talking to him. When they eventually reached the entrance hall, he tried to open the front door with the key from the first room and angrily threw it away when it didn't work. However Jonas grabbed the key and put it in his jacket. Furious and angry Xavier tried to smash the door with the baseball bat. After this attempt failed as well he got into a fight with Addison until Jonas intervened. Only moments later Laura found a door which led them down to a boiler room.
Xavier took the lamp from Addison and slowly went down the stairs, followed by the others. Upon entering the basement, they found a mysterious hooded figure sitting at the table. Xavier placed the lamp in front of it and prepared to kill the figure, if he or she would move. However when Jonas took the hood from its head, they realized it was merely a mannequin. A small envelope with the name "Obi" written on it was attached to the mannequin's chest with a knife. Xavier grabbed it and opened the envelope, which contained an audio tape. When they played it, using the recorder from the starting room, it revealed to them that their fellow prisoner, Obi, had assisted Jigsaw in their abductions. Furthermore, the tape told him that in order to redeem himself, he had to crawl into the large furnace in front of them, where two syringes with the antidote were waiting for him; one for him and one for another prisoner of his choice.
Laura witnesses Obi's death
Upon this revelation, Laura recognized him as her abductor. Therefore, the group and Obi engaged in an argument during which Daniel asked who'd get the second antidote. Xavier yelled at him that they'd talk about that later on and instead threatened Obi with a knife and demanded to tell them how to get out. When Obi said he didn't know how to get out, Xavier slowly cut his throat to fear him. However, he was interrupted when Daniel accidently knocked down a large metal tub. Eventually, Obi agreed to crawl into the furnace, but demanded that one of the syringes was for him. However, when he grabbed the second syringe the door of the furnace was suddenly locked and the furnace itself was activated. As the flames came closer to him Obi started to panic and desperately tried to get out of the oven. While Jonas and Xavier tried to save them, the others watched in horror while Obi was burned alive. Due to his screams and the fire, Laura ultimately suffered a mental breakdown and started to scream hysterically. Eventually, Daniel found a window on the other side of the furnace. When Xavier smashed it, Obi tried to crawl out but ultimately died in front of them. When they realized that the syringes were burned as well, the remaining prisoners left the basement, while Amana remarked that it was his own choice that had eventually killed Obi.
Daniel comforts Laura
Shortly afterwards the group divided. While Jonas, Xavier and Addison went upstairs Amanda, Daniel and Laura, who had managed to calm down again, decided to stay on the ground floor in order to look for more of Jigsaw's clues as well as the antidote. While searching the entrance hall, Laura, who was already severely weakened by the gas, collapsed and was comforted by Daniel who held her hand and promised her that they'd get out alive. Then he asked Amanda about the reasons for her first test. Therefore Amanda revealed to him that she was a drug addict and also harmed herself to deal with emotional stress. She further told him that she was no addict before her time in prison and that she was innocently framed. However, she didn't tell him that it was actually Daniel's father who arrested her. When she was about to go upstairs she was surprised by Jonas who told them that they had found a door which caught their suspicion due to being the only one without a lock. Amanda, Laura, and Daniel followed him, while Daniel helped Laura to climb the stairs.
When the group went upstairs, Addison tried to open the door but remarked that it was stuck. Therefore Xavier angrily shoved her away and attempted to open it by brute force to which Amanda responded that the room was most likely a trap. Xavier sarcastically told her that the whole house was a trap and went on until he finally managed to open the door. Unfortunately, this caused a metal pin to be pulled out of a timer which was connected to another door. Daniel told Laura to wait in the hallway and followed the rest of the group into the room. An audio tape left for Xavier by Jigsaw told him, that there was another antidote behind the second door. However, it would be locked permanently if he didn't manage to find the key in time. Moments later Daniel found a pit full of thousands of used syringes hidden under a bed. According to Jigsaw, the key to the door was somewhere in the pit.
After listening to the tape, Xavier demanded that one of the others had to crawl into the pit and get the key. However, when they refused he grabbed Amanda who immediately started to panic. As the remaining members of the group were afraid of Xavier they stood back and watched how he ruthlessly threw her in the pit. While the needles were piercing her skin Xavier became more and more angry and yelled at her to hurry up. Frightened and in pain, Amanda rifled through the syringes until she eventually found one which had the key attached to it. When she threw it out of the pit Xavier grabbed it and tried to open the door while Daniel helped Amanda to climb out of the pit. Unfortunately, Xavier didn't manage to open the door in time and angrily tried to attack Amanda but was only held back by Jonas. Moments later, Laura entered the room as she had heard Amanda's screams. When Addison reminded the group that they had to work together to find the connection between all of them, Laura admitted that she had been imprisoned once, just like the other prisoners, but refused to reveal the reason for it when Jonas asked her. Afterwards, Xavier left them and finally separated from the group for good. (Saw II)
Death
Laura's corpse
Shortly afterwards, Amanda managed to calm down and stayed with the group to look for more of the antidote. While she was searching the house along with Daniel, Addison and Laura, the latter suddenly collapsed in a hallway as she was seriously weakened by the gas. When Amanda tried to comfort her, Addison told them they couldn't stay as they didn't have much time left. Fortunately, when Laura noticed a picture on the wall which had large scratches on it which were shaped like an "X", she remembered Jigsaw's first tape and realized this was the clue to their connection. Upon investigating the picture Addison found a photo attached to its backside which showed Daniel and his father, Eric. This caused the group to finally realize that Daniel's father was the cop who arrested all of them by faking the evidence. Seconds later, Laura suffered from a seizure and died in Amanda's arms who had desperately tried to save her. Laura's death and the revelation of their connection caused both Addison and Amanda to leave Daniel. When they went away Xavier shouted for them and claimed he had found a way out. (Saw II)
Post-Mortem
Xavier checks Laura's number
At this point, Xavier had found out that they all had numbers written in the back of their necks, which all belonged to the combination to the safe in the starting room of the game. Therefore, he went after the other prisoners to obtain their numbers and thereby came across Laura's corpse. He turned her over onto her belly in order to see her number: a purple "8". Moments later, Amanda and Daniel crossed his path. He told them not to run away. Despite this they tried to flee and ran to the first room while Xavier pursued them.
As the game went on and eventually came to an end, Amanda and Daniel were the only survivors of the massacre. Therefore, the time for the next part of Amanda and John's plan had come. Amanda subdued Daniel and injected him with the antidote from the safe. Afterwards she took his unconscious body with her and brought him to the Wilson Steel Plant, where John was already waiting for her to arrive.
The room was found approximately two days later when Daniel's father, Eric, reached the Nerve Gas House as he had been provided with the recordings of the game by Jigsaw and thought that his son was still trapped inside. Thereby, he also came across the corpse of Laura. However, as he was abducted only minutes later, he wasn't able to tell his colleagues about the house's location. (Saw II)
Following the end of the game and the abduction of Eric, Detective Mark Hoffman returned to the Nerve Gas House, where he disposed of the traps as well as the corpses of the other prisoners. Additionally, he renovated the entire building and even refurnished it, giving it the appearance of an average residential house. (Saw V)
Personality
Laura was a very insecure and, to a certain point, mentally unstable young woman. Due to this, she seemed to be very shy and wasn't able to handle stressful situations well. She easily took fright and even suffered an emotional breakdown during the events occuring in the Nerve Gas House. Besides this, she apparently was a kind-hearted person, who generally refused to oppose other people.
Appearances and References
| Films | |||||||||
| Saw | Saw II | Saw III | Saw IV | Saw V | Saw VI | Saw 3D | Jigsaw | Spiral | Saw X |
| Absent | Flashback, Recording, & Corpse | Archive | Absent | Flashback, Pictured, & Mentioned | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| Other Media | |||||
| "Saw" (2003 Short) |
Saw: Rebirth (2005 Comic) |
Full Disclosure Report | The Scott Tibbs Documentary | Saw: The Video Game | Saw II: Flesh & Blood |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |