In Saw 1, Adam Stanheight is locked up in a bathroom with Dr. Lawrence Gordon. Adam is left to die in the bathroom, and when he was alone, he searched Zeps body for a key to his shackle. To his surprise, he found another tape recorder in Zeps pocket, which revealed that Zep was just another pawn in Jigsaws game. The tape instructed Zep to kill Gordons family if he failed to kill Adam by 6 oclock. At the end of the movie, Jigsaw reveals himself to Adam and tells him that the key to his chain is in the bathtub. Adams cellmate is given precise instructions to kill Adam by 6 oclock, but Adam is never really given a chance to escape.

There is some debate among fans about whether Adam was meant to die in the original Saw. Some believe that Dr. Gordon was never actually supposed to kill Adam, as the method given to him (using a cigarette with toxic blood) would not have worked. Others argue that Adam could have survived by shooting the chain off his foot with the gun Jigsaw had and asking Gordon for the bullet.

In Saw: The Final Chapter (aka Saw 3D), it is revealed that Gordon made it as far as a steaming pipe in the corridor outside the bathroom. He used the hot metal to cauterize his stump, but he didnt find help and he didnt go back for Adam, despite saying that he would. In another Saw III flashback, Amanda goes back in after this game over moment and suffocates Adam with a plastic bag. She puts him out of his misery, killing him quickly instead of letting him starve to death. Adam is definitely dead, then, and his rotting corpse had plenty of cameos in the later films.