David Tapp

David Tapp is a fictional character from the Saw franchise. While introduced as a supporting protagonist in Saw, Tapp did not become a major character until Saw: The Video Game, which featured him as the lead protagonist and player character. He was portrayed by Danny Glover in the films and voiced by Earl Alexander in the game.

The Jigsaw Case
Detective David Tapp investigates a series of crime scenes linked to the same murderer. The victims have been placed in to traps that attempt to teach them to appreciate their life, a quality they decidedly lack. The victims who fail these "tests" have a jigsaw piece cut out of their bodies. This has earned the killer the alias The Jigsaw Killer by newspaper writer Oswald Mcgullicuty. Saw II later reveals these missing pieces have beeb intended to show the missing survival instinct of Jigsaw's victims.

At one of the crime scens, Tapp and his partner, Steven Sing, discover a penlight with fingerprints on it. Forensics indicates the fingerprints belong to Doctor Lawrence Gordon, who is coaxed to the police station for questioning. Saw V later revealed that Jigsaw accomplice Mark Hoffman had planted this penlight to arise suspiscion on Gordon. While a few victims have already been discovered, one victim named Amanda Young manages to survive her test. Lawrence watches while Tapp interrogates Amanda for her testimony. After hearing her testimony, Tapp gives Lawrence a ride home and becomes more suspicious that Lawrence is Jigsaw.

Tapp recovers and studies the video tape left at Amanda's trap location and deciphers the location of Jigsaw's lair. Tapp and Sing find Jigsaw in his lair, but fail to arrest him due to Jigsaw non-fatally slashing Tapp's neck and Sing falling victim to one of Jigsaw's traps. Following Sing's death, Tapp becomes unstable and begins to obsess over catching Jigsaw. This causes him to be discharged from the police force and to be divorced from his wife.

As Jigsaw was able to hide his identity when his lair was raided, Tapp is still convinced that Lawrence is Jigsaw, unknowing that Lawrence had been abducted and is currently in a trap of his own. This causes him to stake out his home; he uses a video camera to watch it from another apartment. During this, Tapp sees Zep Hindle at the Gordons' house and then hears gunshots coming from the house. Tapp responds and discovers that Alison Gordon and her daughter Diana are being held hostage by Zep. A gunfight ensues, allowing Alison and Diana to escape. Tapp chases Zep to the site of another Jigsaw game, later revealed to be Lawrence's trap. Before discovering the trap site, Zep shoots Tapp in the chest, leaving him alone and wounded in a sewer.

Tapp's Test
Tapp is healed by Jigsaw after being shot in the chest and he is brought to the abandoned Whitehurst asylum where he is placed in the "Reverse Bear Trap" Amanda Young was in. He quickly escapes after Jigsaw scolds him for his lack of appreciation for his life and the lives of others. Upon escaping, Tapp ventures through the asylum where he faces others during their tests. Some of these tests involve Tapp in numerous ways. Tapp's first major test is to save Amanda Young, the woman he interrogated during Saw, unbeknown to him that she had become Jigsaw's secret apprentice. Upon saving her, she stages her kidnapping by another Jigsaw apprentice called Pighead and Tapp moves to his next test. The second test is for Jennings Foster, a fellow officer of Tapp's who had committed a hit-and-run which he framed an innocent person for. A conflicted Tapp saves Jennings who runs away and blames Tapp for being there.

Tapp's third test is for Melissa Sing, the widow of Tapp's former partner Steven Sing who has since become a neglectful mother to her son. Jigsaw informs her that Tapp had ignored calling for backup or getting a search warrant when searching Jigsaw's lair in the first Saw film, a careless step which was the reason Steven was killed. Believing Tapp could have prevented his partners death, Melissa began to blame him for her misfortunes. Upon Tapp finding and saving her, Melissa leaves Tapp to deal with his other tests.

Tapp proceeds to save Oswald Mcgullicuty, a newspaper writer who coined the alias "Jigsaw", and begins to accuse Tapp of being Jigsaw. After saving Oswald, Tapp rescues Obi Tate, an arsonist who wanted to be tested by Jigsaw. Tapp then proceeds to save his sixth victim, Jeff Thomas, who was in the "Drill Trap" when Tapp and Sing had raided Jigsaw's lair during Saw. After he survived his first test, Jeff becomes suicidal after Tapp harasses him to discover Jigsaw's identity. This causes Jeff to be placed in his second trap in which Tapp saves him.

After saving all of the victims in the asylum, Tapp kills Pighead and proceeds to Jigsaw. He labels Tapp as a murderer for killing Pighead and others in Whitehurst. Tapp finds and chases Jigsaw but finds two doors labeled "Truth" and "Freedom".

Fate
If the player chooses the "Freedom" door, Tapp escapes and is labeled as a hero, but he kills himself due to the stress of not being able to catch Jigsaw.

If the player chooses the "Truth" door, Tapp chases Jigsaw and catches him, but he finds that it was Melissa Sing. A tape recorder informs Tapp that Melissa was assigned by Jigsaw to watch over Tapp's test and that her son would be killed if he did not. Melissa then breaks free from Tapp but is killed by a tripwire trap, similar to the one in which her husband Steven was killed. Burdened by these deaths, Tapp becomes insane and is left in a functional asylum where he still believes he is playing Jigsaw's games.

Saw V
In Saw V, a memorial service is held for the deceased officers from the Jigsaw murders. Tapp's police picture is held next to his partner Steven Sing.