Τimeline

Before Saw

• Detective Eric Matthews planted evidence to get convictions on the people he arrested.  One of these people was  Amanda Young, who he framed for possession.  Her time during jail is what made her addicted to drugs, specifically heroin. 
• John Kramer meets Jill Tuck and they marry.

• He helps her open a health clinic with his motto "Cherish Your Life".

• Hoffman's sister is brutally murdered by her boyfriend, Seth, who is sentenced to 25 years in prison.

• 3 years pass

• Jeff's son is killed by Timothy Young.

• Judge Halden sentences Timothy to 6 months in prison.

• 2 years pass

• John and his wife lose their son Gideon when Cecil, (accompanied by Amanda Young) pushes the doorknob into Jill’s stomach.

• John finds out he has cancer from Lawrence Gordon

• He goes to William Easton to get money for treatment, he's denied and attempts suicide by driving of a cliff.

• John kidnaps Cecil using the 1st version of the pig mask.

• Cecil is tested in John’s first trap, knives in the face to release arm/leg restraints.

• Trap breaks, but Cecil still ends up in a barb wire box.

• Several tests occur and John Kramer is given the nickname "Jigsaw Killer" by the general public.

• Seth Baxter is released from prison on a technicality after serving only 5 years.

• Hoffman kidnaps Seth and sets him up in a rigged trap made to look like a Jigsaw trap, and watches Seth die.

• John finds Hoffman, knowing that he killed Seth and gives him a choice: help him test other people or arrest him, subsequently ruining his own life since John will turn him in for Seth’s murder.
• John and Hoffman kidnap Paul Leahy and set him up in the Razor Wire Maze Trap. A penlight of Lawrence Gordon is put at the crime scene, so that Tapp will suspect Lawrence Gordon.
• Mark Rodriguez Wilson is kidnapped by John and put in a room covered with highly flammable liquid on his body with a safe and the combination is written on the walls, and he has to find it with a candle without burning himself.
• Detective Tapp along with partner Steven Sing and Allison Kerry find Mark's body and the penlight with the fingerprint of Lawrence Gordon on it.
• Detective Fisk then finds Seth Baxter and phones Hoffman to go to the crime scene. Hoffman identifies Seth.
• Amanda is tested in the Reverse Beartrap, and survives.
• Dr. Lawrence Gordon is interrogated and found innocent.
• Amanda tells her story to the police as Dr. Gordon listens in.
• John recruits Amanda to help him test people, she does not know about Hoffman.
• Detectives Tapp and Sing find John's lair using the tape from Amanda's game.
• Sing saves a man (Jeff, but not to be confused with Jeff in Saw III) from the Drill Chair (Saw).
• Sing is killed by 4 suspended shotguns attached to a tripwire. Tapp suffers a breakdown and later loses his badge for searching the warehouse without a permit.
• 5 months pass

Saw

• Adam is hired by Tapp to stalk and take pictures of Dr. Gordon, who Tapp still believes is the Jigsaw Killer.
• John kidnaps and tests Zep, leaving him a tape telling him to kidnap Dr. Gordon’s daughter and wife to kill them when the bathroom game ends in order to get the antidote to the poison in his blood.
• Meanwhile, Amanda (and John suspectedly) kidnap Adam Stanheight and Dr. Lawrence Gordon and take them both to the The Bathroom.
• The bathroom game plays out.
• Zep fails to kill Alison and Diana Gordon, and leaves for the bathroom with Detective Tapp in hot pursuit.
• Dr. Gordon cuts off his foot in despair.
• Adam is shot in the shoulder by Dr. Gordon and plays dead.
• Detective Tapp attempts to shoot Zep but he accidently shoots himself.
• Zep comes into the bathroom to shoot Lawrence but is bludgeoned to death by Adam with the toilet cover.
• Dr. Gordon crawls out of the bathroom, promising to return with help, and leaves Adam chained to the pipe.
• John stands up from the middle of the room and slams the door on Adam.

Saw: The Video Game

• David Tapp wakes up in a mental asylum with the reverse bear trap on him. The events of the video game take place.

Between Saw and Saw II

• John finds Dr. Gordon unconscious in the hallway outside the bathroom and nurses him back to health.
• Amanda comes back to the bathroom later out of guilt and suffocates Adam with a plastic bag.
• John visits Jill to warn her about her patients, he shows a drug free Amanda to her, and Jill becomes an accomplice.
• Dr. Gordon's family leaves him and he becomes a willing apprentice to John.
• 6 months pass
• Dr. Gordon puts a key behind Michael Marks' eye for his test in Saw II.
• Obi kidnaps Laura (and maybe more) for John.
• Hoffman helps John set up the traps in the nerve gas house.

Saw II

• Michael is tested by having to cut his eye out to remove the key, but he dies.
• The Nerve Gas House Game plays out in real time, ending in The Bathroom, which is somewhere under the house.
• Everyone from the house dies except Amanda and Daniel Matthews.
• Amanda kidnaps Daniel and puts him in the safe in Jigsaw’s lair with oxygen.
• Detective Eric Matthews figures out clues and finds Jigsaw’s lair.
• Tapes are playing to lead the police to believe that the house scenes are playing in real time when they are really a recording.
• Detective Matthews beats up Jigsaw and demands to be taken to the house where his son was.
• The SWAT team gets an address by tracing the video feed of the tapes they are watching and head there.
• The SWAT team realizes that they are at the wrong house and what they were watching was a recording.
• The timer runs out as Detective Kerry waits at Jigsaw’s lair.
• The Safe opens up to reveal Daniel is safe.
• Detective Matthews makes his way to the bathroom under the house.
• Amanda pops out of the bathtub, injecting Detective Matthews with a sedative.
• After Detective Matthews passes out she chains him to a pipe and leaves him to die.
• When Detective Matthews wakes up, he finds a tape next to him, and when he plays it, Amanda's voice is heard speaking to him, revealing that she is Jigsaw's successor, and that he is her first test subject.
• Amanda appears at the bathroom door, closing it on Detective Matthews.

Between Saw II and Saw III / IV

• The events of Saw II: Flesh & Blood take place.
• Detective Matthews escapes the bathroom by breaking his foot.
• Amanda hears him escape and comes back to kill him.
• They fight and she leaves him for dead in the hallways by the bathroom.
• Hoffman comes and takes Detective Matthews to brace him on the foot, then leaves him in a cell for six months.
• 6 months pass
• Dr. Gordon advises Jigsaw to kidnap Lynn.
• Dr. Gordon kidnaps Trevor and Art and they play out the trap with Trevor's eyes and Art's mouth sewn shut.
• Hoffman brings supplies to the hotel room, and sets up the ice block/electricity set.
• Troy is killed in the chain trap by Amanda. (Saw III)

Saw III and Saw IV

• Hoffman and Kerry investigate the scene of the Chain Trap.
• Amanda kidnaps Detective Kerry and with the help of Hoffman and puts her in the Angel Wing trap, killing her.
• Amanda and Hoffman set up Jeffs game by kidnapping the people that had anything to do with his son’s death and setting them up in their traps.
• Hoffman kidnaps Brenda and the principal and his wife, for Riggs game.
• Hoffman kidnaps Jeff and his daughter.
• SWAT team finds Detective Kerry’s body in the Angel trap. Riggs busts through the unsecured door.
• FBI comes in to help with the investigation, Agent Perez and Agent Strahm.
• Riggs goes home to find his wife leaving him.
• Riggs falls asleep, hears a noise, wakes up, Hoffman sedates him and sets up the start of his game.
• Hoffman kidnaps Timothy Young, Amanda and him argue.
• Jill comes to beg John to stop what he's doing, he gives her the key to the box containing the new reverse beartrap.
• Amanda puts Jeff in the box and then kidnaps Lynn.
• Hoffman places his blackmail letter to Amanda in desk.
• Jigsaw is on his death bed talking to Hoffman about testing Amanda and give him an assignment for his next game.
• Hoffman escapes out the back door of the room Jigsaw will die in.
• Amanda comes in with Lynn and puts the shotgun collar on her.
• Hoffman and Detective Matthews are setup in the ice block/electricity trap.
• Riggs wakes up and starts his game by helping the woman pimp from the hair trap.
• Jeff wakes up and begins making his way through the different rooms to get to his sons killer.
• Saw III and Saw IV with Jeff and Rigg play out at the exact same time.
• Jigsaw melts wax over a micro-cassette and swallows it while talking to Lynn.
• Jeff makes it through his game and makes it to the lair.
• Amanda shoots Lynn in the back.
• Jeff shoots Amanda in the neck, then she dies from blood loss.
• Jeff kills Jigsaw with a saw.
• Lynn is killed when Jigsaw's heart stops, causing the shotgun collar to go off.
• Jigsaw presses play on tape that tells Jeff he shouldn’t have killed him because his wife is now dead and since Jigsaw is the only one who knows where Jeff's daughter is.
• At the same time Rigg breaks through the final door of his game: Detective Matthews shoots Rigg, Rigg shoots Art, and the door opening causes the ice blocks to smash Detective Matthews head, killing him.
• Hoffman stands up from the electric chair, revealing himself to be Jigsaw's other accomplice, and then shuts the door to the room, leaving Rigg to die.
• Agent Strahm hears Jeff kill Jigsaw and goes into the room and shoots him when Jeff waves his gun at him.
• Hoffman slams the door on Agent Strahm locking him in the room with Jigsaw, Amanda, Jeff and Lynn’s bodies.

Saw V

• Agent Strahm sees the glow in the dark paint on the wall indicating a door.
• A tape warns him not to continue but he does anyways.
• Hoffman jumps Agent Strahm, sedates him and sets him up in the water box trap.
• Agent Strahm almost dies, but gives himself a tracheotomy so he doesn’t drown.
• Hoffman emerges from the building with Jeff’s daughter as if a hero.
• Agent Strahm is rescued and taken to the hospital.
• Jigsaw's body is recovered and an autopsy is performed.
• A tape is found in Jigsaw's stomach for Hoffman.
• Hoffman sets up the game that Jigsaw gave him.
• Hoffman listens to new tape.
• Hoffman kidnaps the 5 people at sets them up in the room with the necktie trap.
• Agent Strahm figures out that Hoffman has been helping Jigsaw since the beginning.
• The 5 people in the main game (SAW V) play through their game, leaving only 2 survivors.
• Hoffman takes one of Strahm's cell phones and plants it in the room at the end of the game, framing Strahm.
• Strahm follows Hoffman to a building and finds himself in a room with a large box filled with glass, and a tape.
• The tape tells Strahm that the only way to survive the game is to get in the box and lock it.
• Strahm shuts the tape off before it finishes, as Hoffman creeps around the corner and walks into the room.
• Strahm jumps him from the shadows and shoves him in the glass box instead.
• Agent Erickson traces Strahm's cell phone and finds it in a room monitoring the game with the 5 people. Making it look like Strahm was the one on the inside.
• The box Hoffman is in turns horizontally and decends into the floor as the walls in the room come together, smashing Agent Strahm.

Between Saw V and Saw VI

• Others being tested at random times.
• Sidney's test
• Brad, Ryan, and Dina's test. Dina dies.
• The boys are later apporached by Dr. Gordon to be his accomplices.
• William Easton denies Harold Abbott coverage for his heart disease, "killing him" in the process
• Harold succumbs to the disease and dies.
• Hoffman kidnaps Simone and Eddie.

Saw VI

• Simone and Eddie's test, Eddie dies and Simone loses an arm.
• Hoffman plants Strahm's fingerprints with his severed hand.
• Erickson and Hoffman investigate the scene. It's revealed that Perez is alive and well.
• Pamela Jenkins goes up to Hoffman and tells him she knows about the box John left Jill.
• Hoffman decides to start the next game right away, he goes to Jill's clinic and tells her that he is working alone from now on and threatenly takes the envelopes.
• Hoffman kidnaps William Easton, Hank, Allen, Addy, Debbie, The carousel victims, and Tara and Brent.
• William Easton's Test begins
• Hoffman Kidnaps Pamela Jenkins.
• Hoffman kills Erikson, Perez, and another agent; later burns the evidence and plant's Strahm's fingerprints.
• William arives at the final room, with Pamela Jenkins, and Tara and Brent behind the cages. In a video, John says Tara has to choose weather William can continue living or not. She can't decide, so Brent chooses to let him die.
• William dies from the Hydrofluic acid.
• Jill tuck electricutes Hoffman, cuffs him to a chair, and puts the Reverse Beartrap 2.0 on him.
• Jill leaves Hoffman to die, but manages to escape, with part of his cheek ripped open.

Saw 3D

• Hoffman escapes to hide out with medical supplies
• Jill goes to Matt Gibson and reveals Hoffman as the other accomplice to Jigsaw.
• Hoffman sets up another game to find Jill and kill her.
• Hoffman gets kidnapped by Dr. Gordon, Brad and Ryan, and get's put in the Bathroom Trap.
• Dr. Gordon takes Hoffman's only chance to escape the Bathroom: the hacksaw, and tosses it far out of the bathroom.
• Dr. Gordon shuts the Bathroom door, leaving Hoffman to die.

Notes

• Actual dates appear in the Saw films but some contradict others. According to Kevin Greutert, the director of Saw VI and 3D, Jigsaw's tests span two years.