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The Maze Runner Movies are movies based off the young-adult dystopian science-fiction series The Maze Runner written by James Dashner's. The movies are directed by Wes Ball. The first movie The Maze Runner was released in 2014, the second movie Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was released in 2015. The third and final installment titled Maze Runner: The Death Cure is planned to be released in early 2017.
The Maze Runner
The Maze Runner is a film based on the 2009 novel of the same name written by James Dashner. The film was directed by Wes Ball and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Development began in January 2011, filming began on May 13th and ended on July 12, 2013. It was released on September 19, 2014.
Thomas, a teenager, arrives in a glade at the center of a giant labyrinth. Like the other youths dumped there before him, he has no memory of his previous life. Thomas quickly becomes part of the group and soon after demonstrates a unique perspective that scores him a promotion to Runner status -- those who patrol the always-changing maze to find an escape route. Together with Teresa, the only female, Thomas tries to convince his cohorts that he knows a way out.
A 16-year-old boy wakes up inside an underground service elevator with no memory of his identity. A group of male youths greet him in a large grassy area called the Glade that is enclosed by tall, stone walls. Every month, a new boy and supplies arrive in the elevator. The boys, who call themselves Gladers, have formed a rudimentary society with each assuming specialized tasks. Alby, their leader and the first to arrive in the Glade, says every boy eventually recalls his name, but none remember their past. The boy learns that a vast Maze surrounding the Glade may provide the only way out. During the day, designated Runners search the Maze for an escape route, returning before nightfall when the entrance closes. No one has ever survived a night inside the Maze.
While in a competition with another boy, named Captain Gally, the boy suddenly remembers his name: Thomas. The next day, Thomas is attacked by Ben, a Runner delirious from being stung by a Griever – deadly techno-organic creatures that roam the Maze at night. Ben is forced into the Maze and left to die as there is no cure for what the Griever infected him with. Minho, the lead Runner, and Alby later retrace Ben's steps inside the Maze. Minho reappears at dusk dragging Alby, who is stung, but they are unable to reach the closing entrance in time. Thomas spontaneously runs into the Maze to help but all three are trapped. During the night in the Maze, Thomas and Minho tie Alby up high on the Maze wall to hide him from the Grievers, but Minho abandons Thomas when a Griever emerges from the center of the Maze. Thomas slides under the Maze wall, managing to hide from a Griever. Later, Thomas finds Minho and his actions during the night keeps them alive, and he kills a Griever by tricking it into a narrow, closing passageway thus causing it to be crushed, making him the first to ever survive a night in the Maze and kill a Griever. To the other boys' astonishment, they return the next morning.
The next morning, the first-ever girl arrives in the elevator. She apparently recognizes Thomas though he cannot remember her. A note says that "She is the last one ever". Thomas, Minho, Frypan, Winston and Zart enter the Maze. They locate the Griever corpse and remove a beeping mechanical device from inside it. Gally claims Thomas has jeopardized the fragile peace between the Gladers and the Grievers and wants him punished, but Newt, the group's Second-in-Command, instead designates Thomas a Runner. Minho shows Thomas a scale model of the Maze he has built, based on his three years of exploration. The Maze's numbered sections open and close in a regular sequence that might be a code. The device is numbered to correspond to a certain section within the Maze. With the mechanical device, they may be able to find an escape route.
The girl, Teresa, has two syringes filled with an unknown substance. One is used on Alby, and he gradually recovers from the Griever sting and begins regaining his memories. Minho and Thomas venture back into the Maze and discover a possible exit but are nearly trapped, barely making it back to the Glade.
That night, the Maze entrance does not close while others open, letting Grievers pour in. A massacre ensues as the Gladers, practically defenseless against the Grievers, struggle to fight back or hide. Alby, Zart, and several others are killed during the attack. Thomas is assaulted by Gally after the chaos, who blames him for everything that has happened. Thomas, who has had disconnected memory flashes since arriving, stabs himself with a severed Griever stinger in an attempt to revive his memory. The others inject him with the last anti-venom. Unconscious, he recalls that he and Teresa worked for the organization that created the Maze, W.C.K.D. (World Catastrophe: Killzone Department); the boys unknowingly have been test subjects for an experiment. Thomas awakens and shares this information with Newt, Minho, Chuck, and Teresa. Thomas then exposes himself and Teresa and confesses that he and she worked with these people and studied the boys for years.
Meanwhile, Gally has taken command and intends to sacrifice Thomas and Teresa to the Grievers to attempt to restore the peace. Most of the Gladers are swayed to free Thomas and Teresa and attempt escaping the Maze, but Gally and a few others refuse to leave. Fighting Grievers as they go, Jeff and a few others are killed. The survivors (Thomas, Teresa, Newt, Minho, Chuck, Frypan, and Winston) eventually enter a laboratory strewn with dead scientists and technicians. A woman named Ava Paige in a video recording explains that the planet has been devastated by a massive solar flare, followed by a pandemic of a deadly, incurable virus called the Flare that affects the brain of the afflicted. We learn that the Gladers appeared to be Immune to the virus. The Gladers learn that they were part of an experiment studying the way their brains worked as a resistance to the virus. At the end, the woman in the video shoots herself as the lab is being attacked by men with military-style weapons but dressed more like mercenaries. Gally suddenly appears armed with a gun he found. Delirious from a Griever sting, he insists they must stay in the Maze, then aims at Thomas intending to kill him in revenge for the Glade's destruction. Minho kills Gally with a spear, but not before Chuck is fatally shot protecting Thomas, who is devastated by his friend's death. Masked armed men rush in and take the group to a helicopter. As they fly over the Maze, it is revealed to be placed in a vast desert wasteland. Eventually, the helicopter approaches a ruined city.
The scene ends with the supposedly-dead scientists meeting in a room. The leader, Paige, notes that the experiment has been a success; the survivors are now entering Phase Two.
Ki Hong Lee as Minho
Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt
Randall D. Cunningham as Clint
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is a film based on the 2010 novel The Scorch Trials written by James Dashner. The film was directed by Wes Ball and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Filming began on October 27, 2014 and ended on January 27, 2015. It was released on September 18, 2015.
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials takes place immediately after the previous installment. Transported to a remote fortified outpost, Thomas and his fellow teenage Gladers find themselves in trouble after uncovering a diabolical plot from the mysterious and powerful organization WCKD. With help from a new ally, the Gladers stage a daring escape into the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with dangerous obstacles and crawling with the Flare-infected Cranks. The Gladers only hope may be to find The Right Arm, a group of resistance fighters who can help them battle WCKD.
A young boy, Thomas, is taken in by Ava Paige and troops from the organization WCKD, alongside other children, after being dropped off by his mother for his own safety. Years later, shortly after the remaining Gladers escaped The Maze, the Gladers - the now teenage Thomas and Teresa Agnes, former workers of WCKD and creators of the Maze, Newt, Minho, Frypan and Winston - are taken to a facility run by Mr. Janson. He explains that the facility is a safe haven for Immunes of the Flare virus, protecting them from WCKD and the Cranks, and providing them clothes, food, and sanitation, where survivors of other mazes are also present. Thomas becomes curious about their activities and manages to find out what is really happening behind the closed doors. With help from Aris Jones, the first maze survivor to end up in the facility, it is revealed that WCKD's leader, Ava, is still alive and that Mr. Janson is working for them as the two discuss the lethal experiments being conducted on the Immunes and that Janson has yet to find The Right Arm, a resistance group located in the mountains. The group, including Aris, escapes the facility as Janson orders his WCKD troops to track them down and they find themselves in the deserted outside world - the Scorch.
The group arrive at an abandoned marketplace, where they first encounter the Cranks, humans zombified by the Flare. In the process, Winston gets infected by one of them. When morning comes, they find the city has turned into ruins and that WCKD is still searching for them. Winston's infection gets worse, forcing the rest of the group to leave him alone to die by shooting himself, preventing his transformation. The group continues to venture the desert until one night, while sleeping in the middle of the desert, Thomas wakes to discover civilization on the distant horizon. As a thunderstorm emerges, they run to an abandoned facility for shelter. To the group's relief, Minho survives being struck by a bolt of lightning. They manage to enter the facility, only to find that it is filled with chained Cranks. The group meets Brenda and Jorge, who lead a dangerous band of survivors and have used the Cranks as their own guard dogs. When the two find that the group had come from WCKD and is looking for The Right Arm, the two agree to take them to the Right Arm, abandoning their group of survivors. Moments later, WCKD, led by Janson, storms the place, only for the facility to be destroyed by Jorge's explosives, however, Thomas and Brenda are left behind as the rest have escaped with Jorge. Thomas and Brenda manage to escape the Cranks, only for Brenda to get infected by a Crank in the process. Thomas experiences a flashback of when he and Teresa were working for WCKD, in which Thomas tries to warn Teresa of WCKD's plans, only for the two to be separated by WCKD's troops. As Thomas and Brenda reunite with the rest of the group, Jorge interrogates Marcus, a survivor who secretly works for WCKD, into revealing the whereabouts of The Right Arm.
The group eventually arrive at The Right Arm's relief camps, where other innocent survivors are present, and are greeted by Vince who leads the Right Arm and is in charge of deciding whether they can stay or not. As Brenda's infection gets worse, Vince threatens to shoot her, only to be stopped by Mary Cooper, a former WCKD scientist who reveals that Thomas was their informant. As Mary halts Brenda's infection using an enzyme cure, Mary explains that the enzyme can only be harvested from an Immune's body, not manufactured, and that arguments over the methods of manufacturing the cure with Ava led to Mary's departure from WCKD. That evening, Teresa informs WCKD of her location, believing their motivations are good, leading to an ambush by the organization. Ava and Janson arrive and confront the Right Arm before WCKD troops capture survivors for experimentation, including Minho, while Janson shoots Mary dead. After Thomas and the Right Arm fend the WCKD troops off, Ava, Janson, and Teresa retreat with their captured survivors. With only a fraction of survivors left at the site, Thomas plans an infiltration into WCKD and is determined to take them down to save his friends and civilization, with Vince and the Right Arm agreeing to help and prepare to fight back.
Ki Hong Lee as Minho
Kaya Scodelario as Teresa Agnes
Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt
Patricia Clarkson as Ava Paige
Alan Tudyk as Blondie
Kathryn Smith-McGlynn as Dr. Crawford
Luke Gallegos as Young Thomas
Lora Cunningham as Thomas' Mother
Bryce Romero as Jack
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
Maze Runner: The Death Cure is an upcoming movie based on the 2011 novel The Death Cure written by James Dashner. The film will be directed by Wes Ball and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Filming will begin on March 14, 2016. It is set to be released on February 17, 2017.
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Ki Hong Lee as Minho
Kaya Scodelario as Teresa Agnes
Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt
Trivia
- Maze Runner: The Death Cure will be set one year after Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.