I can picture how many people must have left the movie and dashed to the bookstore to buy the full series when “The Maze Runner” was released in 2014. The first picture had the audience in such a state of anticipation that everyone, including me, had to be concerned by it “Oh, my goodness! So, what is next?”
Welcome to “The Maze Runner,” a wonderful trilogy based on James Dashner’s 2009 novel of the same name. The first film in the trilogy, “The Maze Runner,” was released in 2014 and starred Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie, and others. It was directed by debutant Wes Ball and starred Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie, and others.
The plot follows young Thomas, who wakes up in a rusted elevator and finds himself in a functioning society with no recollection of his past. The region was in the heart of a maze that was constantly changing and was teeming with vicious beasts known as Grievers. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, the sequel to the prequel, was released in 2015 with the same cast and crew as the prequel, as well as a few new supporting cast members such as Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, and others.
The audience would have to wait another three years to see the conclusion. What a torment! Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the series’ final entry, was released in 2018. The movie was set to be released in 2017, however, Dylan O’Brien was injured during filming and had to wait a long time to heal. Let us transport you to the world of Maze, where young lads fight for survival while attempting to escape the Maze.
The Maze Runner (2014)
Thomas, the protagonist, woke up in the ascending elevator with a few supplies marked with WCKD. He was terrified and didn’t remember anything from the past. Soon the elevator stopped, a door opened, and Thomas was pulled up amidst a group of boys, laughing at him. He frantically started running but stumbled and fell, finally getting up and was surprised to find himself in a place surrounded by massive walls.
He was consoled by another boy named Alby, who told him they all had appeared similar to him. He stated that he would soon remember his name but not his past, while they had named the grassy habitat “Glade” and called themselves Gladers. He also stated that everyone performs their task according to their abilities, while a vast maze surrounding the Glade is their only way out.
There were designated people who ran during the daytime to search for a way out of the Maze and returned before nightfall when the massive gate closed. He also claimed that no one had ever returned from the Maze if he couldn’t come back before the gates closed due to the presence of deadly monsters called Grievers, who patrol the Maze.
At night, when everyone celebrated, Gally, the leader, asked the boy to fight with him, and that’s when he remembered his name, Thomas. Apart from Alby, Thomas also befriended Newt, Chucky, and Frypan. At night, Thomas kept dreaming of many images, especially a woman who kept saying, “Wicked is good.”
Suddenly, the next day Thomas was attacked by a runner named Ben, who kept blaming Thomas for everything. Ben had been stung by a Griever and passed through a phase called” The changing.” Whoever was stung by the Griever had to suffer tremendous pain and become highly aggressive. As there was no cure for the infection, Ben was forced inside the Maze to be prey for the Grievers. The Gladers were concerned as they had never witnessed a Griever attack during daytime.
The next day, Alby went inside the Maze along with the other runners. Everyone became concerned when they didn’t return while it was almost nighttime. They stood in front of the gate when they saw the chief runner Minho carrying Alby, who seemed to be significantly injured.
The gates were closing, and they were unable to make it. When Thomas jumped into the Maze when the gates closed behind them. Thomas and Minho tied Alby with the vines and suspended him at a high point so that the Grievers couldn’t reach them. We had a clear view of what Griever actually was at this time.
They were techno-organic monsters resembling gigantic spiders, with robotic legs and tails. The Griever’s tail was similar to a scorpion’s tail to grab the victims. Thomas ran for his life as the Maze changed itself, and he somehow lured the Griever to chase him and get squashed within the colliding walls.
Though Newt, Chucky, and a few others were ecstatic to see them return from the Maze, Gally and his group were furious as they felt that Thomas was breaking the rules ever since he had arrived and threatened their lives in the Glade.
Suddenly, the elevator came up with a girl who said, “Thomas,” and passed out. She was carrying a note which said, “She’s the last one ever.” Thomas went back to examine the carcass of the Griever with other Gladers, where they found a device, had an electronic display of number seven and marked WCKD just like the supplies.
The girl remembered her name as Teresa, but she was as scared and confused as anyone who appeared there for the first time. Thomas tried to calm her down and talked to her as he recognized the girl he had seen as his co-worker in his dreams. Thomas was locked up as a punishment for breaking the rule, but he was also made a runner. The following day, Minho and Thomas went to the Maze as they were guided by the strange device and reached an unexplored area. The device opened a new tunnel for them, but anticipating the Griever attack and the section doors closing, they somehow managed to escape back to the Glade.
Teresa was carrying two syringes containing a serum. Seeing the deteriorating condition of Alby, Thomas injected the serum, and surprisingly, Alby became better. But that night, the Maze entrance didn’t close while the others also opened, allowing the flock of Grievers to enter and wreak havoc.
Alby, Zart, Clint, and several other Gladers were killed. Thomas understood that the Griever sting helped bring back more memories. So, he took a severed Griever stinger and stabbed himself. This time Thomas remembered that he worked with WCKD along with Teresa, while all the Gladers were unknowingly the subjects of an experiment.
Enraged, Gally and his group decided to sacrifice Thomas and Teresa to the Grievers and restore peace to the Glade. But many Gladers followed Thomas to free themselves from the Maze though many of them got slaughtered by the Grievers on their way towards a possible exit. Eventually, they found the door leading them to a lab full of dead scientists.
A video recording by Ava Paige, the leading doctor of WCKD, informed them that the earth had been destroyed in a solar flare, followed by a pandemic of a deadly virus called Flare. She also stated that they had been the part of the experiment required to develop a cure for the virus. Paige was then seen to shoot herself.
Before they reacted, Gally appeared, stung by a Griever, and pointed the gun towards Thomas. Within a second, Minho impaled Gally with a spear, but accidentally Gally shot the gun, which killed the young Chucky. As they all mourn Chucky’s death, masked armed men took them all in a helicopter and flew over a vast deserted land where the Maze was built, and approached a ruined city.
But the scientists of the lab were not dead. They held a meeting in a room while Ava Paige stated that the experiment had been highly successful and the survivors were entering the next phase.
“The Maze Runner” has been considered as one of the best young adult adaptations ever produced. The film was a massive blockbuster grossing $348 million worldwide against a budget of $34 million. The film received positive feedback related to “strong performances and creepy, mysterious atmosphere.
With the nail-biting suspense and thrilling actions, it keeps the audience glued to the seat. The Maze itself was so intricate and elaborate that it steals the show. If you are already dying to know what happens next, let’s take you to the next part, “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.”
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)
The film commenced with thousands of people gathered around a quarantined area. A very young Thomas was brought by his mother and handed over to the securities. He was taken on a train with other children, where he met Ava for the first time. Thomas was then found ascending in the elevator of the Maze when his friends awakened him from his flashback dreams.
Thomas, Newt, Teresa, Minho, Frypan, and Winston were brought to a desolate city in the helicopter. They were safely taken to a facility run by Mr. Janson. He told them that his facility would provide them with food, shelter, clothes, and protection from the virus, “The Flare.” They saw many other boys and girls at the cafeteria who had also survived the Maze challenge. Frypan then pointed to a very introverted boy who had been in a girl-dominated Maze for the longest time. Janson then walked in and called out the names of several people who were being relocated to a better place. Teresa’s name was taken, and she walked out with the other people.
That night, Aris suddenly appeared in their room and guided Thomas through the vent to show him where they took several people, but none of them came out. Thomas had an uncanny feeling about the facility. The next day Thomas created a false scuffle and stole the id-card of one of the guards.
That night Aris and Thomas again sneaked out and, with the id-card, entered the room where they found that all the people who were taken out for relocation were hung up with experimental setup, as something was being taken out of their bodies. Eventually, he saw Janson talking to Ava through projection.
Thomas understood that Janson had been running tests to determine who was immune to the virus. He was also trying to locate a group called “The Right Arm” and “Safe Haven” habitat. Thomas realized that Janson worked for WCKD or World in Catastrophe Killzone Department.
After putting up quite a fight, Thomas managed to free themselves, including Aris and Teresa, as their group escaped from the facility. Outside in the vast deserts, they decided to find the Right Arm, to protect themselves from WCKD. They reached an abandoned building where they tried to gather some supplies.
But as soon as Minho turned on the power, they were attacked and chased by zombie-like creatures called Cranks. They had turned highly violent and savage after being infected with the virus “Flare.” Cranks lost all sanity, and their only target was to devour any living organism that crossed their path. As the group escaped from the fierce Cranks, Winston got scratched by a Crank in the stomach.
As the Gladers moved through the desert, Winston collapsed and begged for mercy-killing, to which others sadly agreed. Soon, they encountered a massive lightning storm, and the group took shelter in another building. They saw many chained Cranks inside the building when Brenda appeared suddenly and introduced them to her father figure, Jorge.
The tattoos at the back of the Gladers’ necks revealed that they came from WCKD while looking for the Right Arms. Hence, they proved to be quite valuable to Jorge. But soon, the entire building was raided by Janson and his army of WCKD. After passing through many hurdles, the group found the right person, Marcus, who revealed the location of the Right Arm.
The group took Marcus’s car and drove to the mountains, but they were surrounded and cornered by many armed people led by two female shooters, Harriet and Sonya. Suddenly, they recognized Aris, as he was in the same Maze as they were, and realized they posed no threat to them.
So, they decided to take them to their leader, Vince, and the remaining of the Right Arm force. Suddenly, Brenda collapsed as a Crank bite infected her. Vince was about to shoot her, but he was stopped by their scientist, Mary Cooper, also a former scientist of WCKD. She informed that Thomas had acted as the informer to share the information of WCKD with the Right Arm. Mary also needed Thomas’s blood to create the serum for Brenda.
Mary informed Thomas that when she used to work with WCKD, they truly intended to discover a cure for the virus. Only a few people like Thomas were immune to the virus due to a particular enzyme created in their brains. When the scientists failed to replicate the enzyme, they decided to take their blood directly and separate the enzymes from their blood. That’s how WCKD was ruining the lives of many young people. Mary prepared the serum and gave it a shot to Brenda.
That night, Teresa revealed all this while she had been working with WCKD, as WCKD helicopters were seen approaching the mountains. Thomas ran to warn everyone, but it was too late. The choppers started firing towards the Right Arm as the armed men descended and attacked the people.
Janson shot Mary, and eventually, a fierce battle ensued between the Right Arm and WCKD. The WCKD people were forced to retaliate, but Ava, Janson, and Teresa managed to take many Gladers with them, with injured Minho. Thomas helplessly watched them as the leading craft took off and escaped.
The next morning, survivors of Right Arm were totally devastated and seemed to lose all hope when Thomas informed them that he was determined to infiltrate WCKD, rescue Minho and others, and kill Ava. At first, Vince was reluctant with Thomas’s idea, but then they were all ready to help Thomas and give a new challenge to WCKD.
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trial grossed $312.3 million against a budget of $61 million. According to New York Times, “the many chases and ludicrous narrow escapes offer respectable doses of adrenaline.” The thrill and chill aggravated in this movie with the introduction of the scary cranks.
The cranks were very scary and grotesque, capable of giving nightmares. The pace, special effects, and set designs build up the suspense for the next sequel. The plot of the movie deviates from the book, but that doesn’t affect the dramatic action of the trilogy.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)
Maze Runner: The Death Cure commenced with the Gladers running after a WCKD train to rescue Minho and other people captured by them. Thomas and Vince tried to get on the running train while Jorge and Brenda lured the WCKD army men flying the copter. Thomas and Vince separated the main train and the carriage where the captivated people were held. Meanwhile, Jorge, Brenda, and others hijacked the copter and lifted the carriage to their hideout. But even after such an achievement, Thomas was disappointed because Minho was not in that carriage.
Minho, along with some others, were taken to WCKD headquarters. Janson knew very well that Minho was the reason Thomas attacked their train. So, he put Minho in a virtual reality simulation, where he imagined himself back into the Maze and was chased by a Griever. As Minho struggled with the experience of the simulator, the scientists extracted the blood from his body. Ava watched Minho without any expression as he was just another subject for her, but Teresa felt sorry for betraying Thomas and his group.
Meanwhile, Thomas, Newt, and Frypan left their hideout silently to reach WCKD headquarter and rescue Minho. After crossing the last infection checkpoint, they were attacked by some cranks as they passed through a tunnel. They managed to shoot them, but soon a large crowd of cranks approached them. Luckily, they were saved by Brenda and Jorge and reached the last surviving city, surrounded by enormous walls to protect the city from the infected cranks and the unwanted people.
The group arrived at the city’s entry gate, where many people gathered to protest against WCKD. But there were rounds of firing, thus scattering the protestors. Thomas and the group fled from the spot but were abducted by a few masked men. Soon one of the masked men was revealed to be Gally, who was thought to be dead.
Enraged, Thomas started hitting him as Gally was responsible for Chucky’s death, but Gally apologized as he was not in his senses in the infected state. Gally led the group to a rebellion leader, Lawrence, whose face had been disfigured, infected with the virus. Lawrence offered to help Thomas sneak into the city on condition that he help them in return.
In the meantime, Teresa created a serum using Minho’s blood sample and tested it on a little girl, but the experiment failed utterly. Gally informed Thomas that though they had entered the city through a hidden way, they needed Teresa to enter the WCKD headquarters.
Soon, Newt revealed that he got infected by a crank attack in the tunnel but didn’t inform anyone except Thomas. The group abducted Teresa and headed towards the headquarters. As Gally fetched the serum and freed the captive people, Thomas and others freed Minho. The captive victims were taken in a bus driven by Brenda and finally lifted by Frypan with a crane until the bus landed outside the city.
Teresa was stunned to see Brenda alive without any further medication as she knew that Mary was dead. She took the bandage with Thomas’s blood which she had used to remove the locator of WCKD inside Thomas’s neck and tested the sample. She found that Thomas’s blood was able to kill the “Flare” virus. That was the reason Brenda was still alive. Thomas, Newt, and Minho were chased by Janson, who jumped out of a window and landed in a pool.
Meanwhile, Lawrence gathered his army and attacked the city with explosives setting the city ablaze. The entire city was under siege by Lawrence and his men. Amidst the commotion, Newt’s condition deteriorated considerably as Minho went to fetch the serum, and Thomas tried to keep him in his senses. Teresa broadcasted throughout the city that Thomas’s blood was the cure to the virus, and he needed to surrender to cure the infected people. Before Minho could bring the serum, Newt died after handing Thomas a necklace with a cylinder.
Devastated, Thomas went back to Ava, surrendering himself provided they would release all the captive people. Ava agreed to his words, but immediately Janson shot her and took Thomas to the lab, where Teresa prepared the serum from his blood. Teresa was spellbound when she heard Janson say that the serum would be used only on those people, decided by WCKD. She attacked Janson and freed Thomas.
In the final confrontation, Janson shot Thomas and almost killed Teresa when Thomas broke the glass wall, allowing cranks to attack Janson. Teresa helped Thomas to get on the terrace as the building was engulfed in flames. Jorge and the others tracked them and brought the copter close to the terrace as Teresa pushed Thomas to get onboard, but before Teresa could be rescued, the building collapsed; as Teresa fell to her death and the injured Thomas collapsed.
As Thomas regained consciousness, he found himself on a beach, a safe haven for all the survivors. As everyone greeted Thomas, Minho handed him the necklace Newt had given him. Thomas found the last letter from Newt inside the necklace, who thanked him for everything. The survivors started carving names of the loved ones they had lost in their fight. Thomas walked alone on the beaches, holding the serum in his hand and looking at the distance,
The last of the trilogy is the perfect conclusion of the trilogy. Though some people found it prolonged, I found it quite interesting, and the plot never slackened. The strong character of Thomas gives a substantial moral value to the young generation, which is highly required today. Overall, the movie is very entertaining and deserves the attention of all. The action, thrill, and chill genuinely deserve appreciation, making it worth a blockbuster.
Why should you watch Maze Runner?
The maze runner trilogy is an exceptional young adult adaptation of the book by James Dashner, and it is great to see a book come alive on screen. The trilogy renders utter entertainment from the beginning to the end and is full of action, horror, drama, and suspense complemented with outstanding performances of the cast. The direction, special effects, set designs create the perfect atmosphere of a dystopian science-fiction horror film. Maze Runner is a must-watch as I assure you that this trilogy touches the right cord at the right moment.