Detective David Tapp is a fictional character from the Saw film franchise, portrayed by Danny Glover. Introduced in Saw (2004), he is a police detective investigating a series of crime scenes linked to the same murderer, later revealed to be the Jigsaw Killer, and serves as one of the film's protagonists. Tapp has also made appearances through archived footage and from being mentioned in Saw III (2006), Saw IV (2007), and Saw V (2008). He appeared as a playable character in both Saw: The Video Game (2009), in which he was voiced by Earl Alexander, and Dead by Daylight (2016), in which he was voiced by Dave Blake.
Appearances
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 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, causing 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 still believes that Lawrence is Jigsaw, and continues to spend much of his time harassing and pestering him. During this time, he had hired a freelance photographer named Adam Stanheight. Using the name "Bob", he paid Adam $200 a night to observe Lawrence. Soon after this, Adam and Lawrence are both abducted by the Jigsaw Killer, while Tapp is unaware of this. His obsession causes him to stake out Lawrence's 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 and Tapp engage in a brief struggle that ends with Zep shooting Tapp in the chest and leaving him to die.
In Saw III, Tapp is seen during the montage of the first three films at the very end of the film. In Saw IV, the scene where Officer Daniel Rigg is watching Jill Tuck's interrogation at the Metropolitan Police Department features a picture of Tapp. He is briefly seen as Rigg looks through a folder containing pictures of several police officers he has lost.
In Saw V, a memorial service is held for the deceased officers from the Jigsaw murders. Tapp's police picture is among the pictures of the deceased officers. 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 didn't "pass the smell test".
