Amanda Young Saw: Who She Is, Who Plays Her and What Happens to Her

Amanda Young is a recurring character in the Saw series, introduced as a survivor of Jigsaw's traps and played throughout by Shawnee Smith. The credits call her "Amanda" in the early films and "Amanda Young" in saw x, so both names point to the same person.

Her first appearance is in saw 2004, directed by James Wan, where she is billed eleventh and is the rare survivor whose testimony Lawrence Gordon saw. She moves to the front of the story in saw 2 (2005), directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, where Smith is billed third. In saw 3 (2006), also directed by Bousman, she is billed second, behind only Tobin Bell as Jigsaw. Smith is also credited in saw 4 (2007) and saw 6 (2009), and she returns in Saw X (2023), directed by Kevin Greutert, again billed second.

Amanda is the series' clearest example of what the games can do to a person. Most victims die or walk away, whereas she stays on as John's helper, and that choice sets up the twists in Saw II and Saw III. For the full cast list, see saw cast, and for the rest of the ensemble, see saw characters.

Amanda's most important relationship is with John Kramer, and the films show it from both directions. In Saw II and Saw III she acts for him, and in Saw X she assists his plan against the clinic staff. The two cannot be separated, so the profile for john kramer saw is the natural companion to this one.

Her link to Eric Matthews is the harshest. In Saw II, the game she helps set up is built for him, and she is the person who leaves him chained in the bathroom. See eric matthews saw for what that does to him. Daniel Matthews, Eric's son, is the captive she works alongside inside the house, which is why the later reveal lands the way it does.

In Saw III, her relationship with Dr. Lynn Denlon is captor and captive. Amanda fits Lynn with the collar and refuses to remove it, yet she also admits to Lynn that she stopped believing in John's ideas. Jeff, the grieving father, is the man who ends her story.

Hoffman connects to her through Saw VI, where Jill Tuck surprises him with a letter he once wrote to Amanda Young. That ties Amanda to the next apprentice, covered under mark hoffman saw. Lawrence Gordon only knows her through her testimony in Saw (2004), and his profile at dr gordon saw shows how that thin link sits in the wider story.

In my opinion, Amanda's best moments are the ones where the film makes the audience reconsider what they have already watched. Three scenes stand out to me.

The first is the Saw II ending, where the tape shows she was John's accomplice. Until then she reads as one more frightened captive, helping Daniel while the house fills with gas. The reveal works because she is placed beside a teenager and then leaves Eric locked in the bathroom and seals the door, and it could be argued that this is the cleanest twist in the series after the original corpse reveal.

The second is her confession to Lynn in Saw III. She says she no longer believes in John's ideas and has rigged her traps so nobody could win. It is the moment the character stops being a copy of John and becomes his problem, and Shawnee Smith plays it with more fear than menace, perhaps because Amanda knows she is caught in the machine too.

The third is smaller. In Saw X, Amanda helps John plan his punishment of the clinic's staff and take Cecilia, Mateo, Valentina and Gabriela. It is a quieter payoff, yet it reframes the pair in the years before Saw II. If you are new to her, saw 3 is where I would start, followed by Saw II.