Marcus Banks is a supporting protagonist in Spiral: From the Book of Saw.
Biography[]
During his childhood, Marcus had a distant father who only cared about his work, he would later treat his son, Ezekiel Banks, the same way, rarely giving him any true fatherly advice. He would eventually join the Metropolitan Police Department, becoming the Police Chief, and his son would eventually join the Police Department as well against Marcus's wishes.
One year, the police were given a new set of policies called Article 8, which granted police officers unrestricted power and authority to get rid of crime through any means nessecary to them. This inevitably led to various instances of police corruption, which both Marcus and Angie Garza helped to cover up, since Marcus felt that the streets became safer this way.
After Ezekiel witnessed and exposed one of Peter Dunleavy's crimes to the public, the corruption within the police force was exposed which worried Marcus not only because Zeke would lose the people's trust but also his son would now be labeled as a snitch. Zeke requested backup but Fitch and Drury refused to help him due to his snitch status, resulting in Zeke getting shot, the Paramedic arrives to help Zeke and Police Chief Marcus Banks arrives to find out who refused to help his son, He later found out it was Fitch and beat him for it. Sometime later Marcus retired from being the chief of police.
Twelve years later, Ezekiel started to investigate a copycat of the Jigsaw Killer along with his rookie partner William Schenk. Once Ezekiel arrived at their home, Marcus talked to him about going over the case together before leaving. Marcus later received a text from his son's phone that said to meet up with him on an old soap factory on 11th, in reality this text was sent by William Schenk, who was the killer all along. Once Marcus arrived at the factory, he started to look around the place with both his gun and a flashlight, there he found a wall that had written the word "Do you want to play a game Chief Banks?". As Marcus went deeper into the factory, he eventually found a room with a typewriter and a puppet, just as he started to send a text about his findings he was abducted by William.
Marcus was placed in a trap where he was being restrained in the air by a harness as his blood is also slowly being drained with IV drips. William then enters the room along with his son Ezekiel who had just started a test himself as William planned to recruit him so they could kill more dirty cops, once there William reveals to Zeke his father's corrupt history covering up crimes. Marcus was actually part of his son's final test, as Zeke has to choose whether to use his father's gun's last bullet to either hit a target that will save Marcus but allow Schenk to escape using an elevator, or to kill Schenk and let his father bleed to death. Ezekiel decides to shoot the target above Marcus, causing his restraints to loosen and lowering him to the ground, apparently saving him.
Death[]
Marcus's death.
After being released, Marcus told Ezekiel to go after William. Ezekiel started beating down William, when an arriving SWAT team found and cut open the door of the room they were in. In doing so, they also inadvertedly activated a tripwire hidden behind the door, and Marcus's body started being raised by the trap again. The SWAT team kicked down the door and held Ezekiel at gunpoint while the trap moved Marcus to its final phase, with the search lights behind him being turned on and a shotgun barrel sticking out as Marcus's right arm was being raised, giving the SWAT team the impression that he was going to shoot them. The SWAT team then responded by promptly shooting Marcus to death, much to Ezekiel's terror, while William escaped unnoticed.
Trivia[]
- He is played by the legendary Samuel L. Jackson, who also played Ray Arnold in Jurassic Park and Minister Garth in Def By Temptation.