Spiral: From the Book of Saw is the latest installment in the Saw franchise, and the film was a passion project of star Chris Rock as a way for him to spend some time in the horror genre. It follows Rock's character, Det. Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks as he attempts to track down a particularly viscous copycat of the infamous Jigsaw killer. This copycat killer seems to have missed a rule that the original Jigsaw -- John Kramer -- found fundamental to his entire crusade: Jigsaw's puzzles could be survived.
Kramer's whole premise behind his puzzles was to teach a lesson and expose an individual's fatal flaw. He, in a supremely twisted way, is trying to teach his victims the value of life. One of the most iconic victims of the series is Amanda Young, who was the young woman with the bear trap helmet contraption. She survived her trial and the ordeal helped her recover from her heroin addiction. She goes on to work with Kramer and help facilitate his puzzles after she says that he helped her. The point is, Amanda survived her challenge, and Kramer's puzzle served its intended purpose in that it helped her find the will to live actively in her life.
On the other hand, the copycat killer in Spiral, who is revealed as Zeke's new partner William Schenk, does not have the same survivability in his traps. He is a Jigsaw copycat, but his mission is revenge, and therefore his traps are lacking the objectivity of Kramer's. Schenk's father was killed by a corrupt cop, so he decided to target those involved in the systemic corruption. He modeled his traps after the Jigsaw killer, but his traps were not designed to be escaped.
Schenk's traps had the illusion of being escapable, a sense of hope that the ordeal could be survived, but in reality, the victim in the trap was doomed to die from the moment they were caught. So while Zeke is prepared for the challenge and has the ability to eventually catch up to Schenk, it was all in vain, because unlike with Kramer, catching up wasn't enough to put a stop to the traps. Therefore Zeke can't save his captain, Angie Garza, or his father, former police chief Marcus Banks.
While the copycat killer in Spiral may have been inspired by the Jigsaw killings, Schenk and his traps are missing a fundamental element of Kramer's original vision for his traps. Schenk's entire motivation is revenge so he creates his traps to have the illusion of survivability, when in reality they are designed explicitly to kill those who wronged him and his family. John Kramer, on the other hand, created his traps in an attempt to inspire his victims to reconnect to the value of life and choose to fight to survive. While there were very few survivors of Kramer's traps, he always did leave an attainable way for them to survive. Schenk was obviously inspired by Kramer's work, but he fell short in actually living up to his legacy.