The process of creating the script of "Saw 10": Prioritizing the timeline

The first Saw film was essentially a self-contained story about two men put to the ultimate test in a terrifying game of survival. As the series has continued, though, all that simplicity has gone. With each new Saw film, save for the soft reboot Saw: Maelstrom, the premise has gotten more and more complex, introducing new events that complicate the plot both before and after the first film. Now, with Saw 10, the creative team has returned to one of the most complex mythologies in cinema, and keeping it coherent has been incredibly difficult.

Saw 10 is magically set just three weeks after the first movie. Although Tobin Bell, the lead actor, has aged 20 years since the first movie, the chainsaw killer he plays is still a 52-year-old man with advanced brain cancer. It is a difficult task to trace back events that have lasted for 20 years to ensure the continuity of the timeline. However, according to director Kevin Groot, this is also their top priority.

Kevin Groot said in an interview: "When making a Saw movie, you have to study it carefully, think about it and pay attention to details. There are too many places where mistakes can be made, and fans can always see them, so it's easy to be criticized."

Groot has another trick up his sleeve, though. He's actually worked on all of the Saw movies except Saw: Maelstrom. He edited the first five films, then directed the sixth and seventh. He also has a creative team with a lot of experience to lean on, including producers Mark Berg and Oren Cullors. Cullors said the clarity of the plot and timeline was set before they started figuring out what game Saw wanted to play.

"We deal with the script first. So we work on the timeline, work on the logic, work on the story. Then we put a placeholder for the trap. So the trap is something that is considered at the last step," he said.

Focusing on the series' continuity was very useful for Saw 10, and it also changed a pretty important detail in the movies.

"With this film, especially when we decided to take place in the timeline between Saw II and Saw III, Kevin Groot raised the issue and said, 'Yeah, but the relationship between [Amanda] and [John] is different. So if you want to have that relationship between them in the script, as we wanted in the script, it needs to take place more between Saw I and Saw II, otherwise it doesn't make sense.'" Berg revealed.

Saw 10 is now in theaters.