David Tapp

In film In Saw, David Tapp is a police detective who 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 McGillicutty. Saw II later reveals these missing pieces have been intended to show the missing survival instinct of Jigsaw's victims. At one of the crime scenes, Tapp and his partner, Detective Steven Sing, discover a penlight with fingerprints on it. Forensics indicate that the fingerprints belong to Dr. Lawrence Gordon, who is taken to the police station for questioning. Saw V later revealed that Jigsaw accomplice Mark Hoffman had planted this penlight to arise suspicion on Lawrence. 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 also appears in a flashback, inquiring Lawrence about the penlight Hoffman planted. Danny Glover was originally set to make a cameo appearance as Tapp in Saw V, but could not show up due to scheduling issues. The scene was originally for Tapp to attend Seth Baxter's murder scene, but was changed with Hoffman instead. For Spiral: From the Book of Saw, it was briefly played around the possibility of having Tapp be related to Detective Zeke Banks, the main protagonist of the film, but according to co-writer Josh Stolberg, the idea did not "pass the smell test". In video games Saw: The Video Game In the video game adaptation of Saw (2009), set after the events of the first film, Tapp is revealed to have survived his gunshot wound and is healed back to health by Jigsaw. 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 test is to save Amanda, the woman he interrogated during Saw, unbeknownst 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. Believing Tapp could have prevented his partner's death, Melissa began to blame him for her misfortunes. Upon Tapp finding and saving her, Melissa leaves Tapp to deal with his other tests. ==Characterization==

Initially, Tapp is introduced in Saw as a typical police figure. When investigating the Jigsaw murders, Tapp begins to overlook police procedures and protocols in order to apprehend Jigsaw. This eventually gets his partner murdered and his own throat slashed. Tapp then becomes mentally unstable and develops an extreme obsession with Jigsaw to avenge his partner. UGO described Tapp as "A good man who was driven mad by evil circumstances ..." and noted the choice he had between saving victims and catching Jigsaw. Tapp's most distinguishing attribute, his thickly scarred neck, was acquired early in Saw; his scars have made his voice hoarse. Similar to other detectives in the Saw franchise, Tapp is seen wearing civilian clothing while on the police force; the exception is Saw V which shows a photograph of him in his uniform. MobyGames felt that while Earl Alexander did well at voicing Tapp for the game, he felt he sounded nothing like Danny Glover, which detracted from the game experience and pointed out the contradiction of Tapp's clear voice in the game despite his scarred throat. The reviewer went as far as to jokingly compare Earl Alexander's voice as being closer to Samuel L. Jackson's (who later joined the franchise as Marcus Banks in Spiral) than Danny Glover's. ==Danny Glover==

During an interview with Spike, Danny Glover commented on his character, David Tapp, and his obsession, saying, "What happens in the process of trying to find him, I'm overcome because of this obsession I have. I mean most police detectives at least provide you with the image that they know everything, and they're so heady to some extents, so above the others that we can figure this stuff out. But the process of figuring this stuff out, as I come closer to this, I come closer to something else that's happening and maybe I come closer to my own fear to some extent. And certainly my worst fears come to bear when I'm shot, and wounded, and my partner is killed. Then there's another level of obsession that now translates itself into this film or becomes apparent in this film. And the obsession that's connected with anger and guilt, to some extent, along with fear is pretty potent in this sense. And all of that brings about a kind of psychological breakdown, a psychotic breakdown in terms of this character. I think the obsession in some sense drives us, you know? It's obsession that drives you in a different way that's not fulfilled or completed in some way. It certainly leaves a whole 'nother kind of space there that is a very dangerous space for Tapp, the police man. Certainly coupled with the fact that my partner is lost because of essentially my own inadequacy because of me. That transforms the situation." In the same interview, Glover commented on his attraction to the film and the prospect of playing Tapp in Saw, stating, "I saw 10–12 minutes of video of the first scene here and I was really impressed with it. I was impressed by the way of the shot, the way the camera moved, and the kind of subtlety and the language of the story. Sometimes you look at a story and you're looking at the language of the story and how does the person use language, you know? and I like all of that how does the director or the filmmaker use language in order to shape or tell the story, and I like that." ==References==