Draft:Adam Stanheight

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. He is hired by former detective David Tapp to secretly follow and photograph Dr. Lawrence Gordon, whom Tapp suspects of being the Jigsaw Killer. Adam later becomes one of Jigsaw's victims and wakes up chained in a grimy bathroom opposite Dr. Gordon.

The two men find cassette tapes that give them instructions. Gordon is told he must kill Adam before six o'clock or his wife and daughter will be killed. They find hacksaws in a toilet tank and attempt to cut through their chains, realizing they are trapped in a deadly game. Tension builds as Adam admits he was paid to spy on Gordon and reveals knowledge of his affair with a medical student.

Clues in the room lead them to a box containing a cellphone, two cigarettes, a lighter, and a note suggesting Gordon could kill Adam without a gun. They attempt to fake Adam's death using a poisoned cigarette, but the plan fails when Adam is electrocuted. Adam later remembers being abducted by a masked figure after discovering a puppet in his apartment.

Eventually, the two suspect that Zep Hindle, an orderly from Gordon's hospital, is behind the surveillance and has taken Gordon's family hostage. As the deadline passes, Gordon saws off his own foot to escape the chain and shoots Adam in the shoulder. Zep enters the bathroom, but Adam survives and kills him with a toilet tank lid.

After Gordon crawls away to find help, Adam discovers a tape on Zep's body revealing that Zep was also a victim. He had been poisoned and forced to carry out Jigsaw's orders to get the antidote. The corpse in the middle of the room suddenly stands up and is revealed to be John Kramer, the real Jigsaw Killer. He tells Adam the key to his chain was in the bathtub and had been lost when Adam first woke up. Kramer leaves, locking the door behind him, as Adam screams for help.

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 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. Adam's whereabouts, however, still remain unknown at this point.Saw: Uncut Edition (DVD) Lions Gate Entertainment. 2005.

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.

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 II: Unrated Special Edition (DVD) Lions Gate Entertainment. 2006.

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.{{efn|The scene of Amanda's nightmare about Adam is only included in the director's cut of Saw III and is absent from the theatrical version of the film, but is still considered canon to the story.Saw III: Director's Cut (DVD) Lions Gate Entertainment. 2007.}} 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.

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'.

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.

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.

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.

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:Original Saw Script

• 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.

It is said that in earlier drafts for Saw IV, the events of the film were supposed to play out simultaneously with the first Saw film and this version of the film would have included a scene of Special Agent Peter Strahm finding and entering the bathroom only to discover Adam shortly after Jigsaw had left him to die there, as shown at the end of Saw. This would be followed up with Adam attempting to shoot Strahm out of fear, prompting the agent to shoot and kill him in self-defense, but this pitch was changed to have Saw IV coincide with Saw III instead.

While Adam does not physically appear in the video game Saw II: Flesh and Blood, a sequel to Saw: The Video Game, 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.{{cite video|title=Saw II: Flesh and Blood|type = Video game|date=2010|publisher=Konami/Lions Gate Entertainment}}

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.

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."{{Cite web |last=Trinos |first=Angelo Delos |title=Saw: 5 Jigsaw Victims Who Should've Lived (& 5 Who Deserved Their Fate) |url=https://screenrant.com/saw-jigsaw-victims-deserved-to-live-die/ |website=Screen Rant|date=February 23, 2020}} 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."{{Cite web |last=Donato |first=Matt |title=I Want To Play A Game: All 81 'Saw' Kills Ranked |url=https://www.slashfilm.com/554165/all-81-saw-kills-ranked/ |website=Slash Film|date=October 27, 2017}}

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.

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