- "There it is. If WCKD's got Minho, that's where they're keeping him. Lawrence has been trying to find a way in for years. Place is crawling with soldiers. They got surveillance everywhere. Scanners on every floor."
- — Gally, Thomas, and Newt gazing out at WCKD Tower
WICKED Tower is WCKD's base of operations, located inside of the Last City. In the books, the building was replaced by a complex based in the mountains. the tower also has two smaller towers on either side of the main building.
History and break-in
The building was one of the main locations in the film, aside from the city itself. Several scientists had been getting on with their workings. Held captive inside the building was test subject A-7, also known as Minho, whose friends had attempted to steal him from WCKD earlier during a train heist. Minho was providing promising results, which greatly boosted WCKD's hopes of finding a cure for the deadly Flare virus.
The serum produced from Minho's test results proves to be a disastrous failure, when the test subject's Flare symptoms get the upper hand. As it turns out, the serum only shields the symptoms of the virus. Chancellor Paige realizes that the Flare virus has now become airborne and has started infecting around half of the city's current population. The assistant director, Janson, tries to get her to evacuate the civilians and set up at another safe zone further north. However, she refuses as doing that will do nothing against the Flare virus.
However, unbeknownst to them, Minho's friends, led by his close friend, Thomas, have arrived to break him out. Enlisting the help of Gally and some of his Crank friends, they are able to get past the city's walls and scramble WCKD's security beyond recognition. They disable the wall-guns so that they can no longer be used. They force Teresa to get them into the tower. Once inside, they also free the captive Immune teenagers and find the serum as their friend, Newt, has been infected by the virus. However, their teammate and friend, Brenda, is forced to flee with the Immune teenagers to prevent capture by the authorites. Their friend, Frypan, saves them and dumps the group out side of the city. Meanwhile, Minho has escaped the medical labs by stabbing the guard in the thigh with Teresa's hairpin and injecting the doctor with a sedative.
Thomas and Newt are separated from Gally and are pursued by WCKD guards. When they are cornered by Janson, Teresa abandons ship and flees. They successfully evade Janson. While fleeing, they confronted by Paige, who Thomas tries to kill. However, Janson catches up to them and they have to flee. While battling the guards, Thomas and Newt run into Minho after he saves them from another guard. They run into a room and hide. Janson breaks down the door. Thomas, Newt and Minho manage to jump out and land in a nearby pool of water, where Gally saves them from the WCKD soldiers.
Destruction
Lawrence rallies his Crank army outside of the city and breaches the walls at the cost of his own life. WCKD's security forces started battling with the Crank army. Teresa uses a sample of Thomas' blood from earlier and realizes that he is the cure and that he can help save Newt like he did Brenda. To tell him about this, she broadcasts her voice throughout the entire city. Thomas is unfortunately forced to murder Newt when his Flare infection goes out-of-hand. Thomas returns to the tower and confronts Paige, asking her if it was true. Before she can finish her answer, Janson kills her and incapacitates Thomas. Thomas wakes up in one of the other two WCKD buildings. Teresa and Janson help produce a cure. After realizing that Janson is not interested in curing everyone else, Teresa turns on him and attacks him with a glass bottle. Thomas and Janson battle while the Cranks repeatedly strike the WCKD buildings with missiles. Janson is eventually killed by two Cranks. Thomas and Teresa go to the roof. A Berg arrives with Thomas' friends, including Minho, Gally, Frypan, Brenda, Jorge, and Vince. After some struggling, Thomas finally gets onboard, but Teresa dies when the building collapses and gives way, ending WCKD's threat for good.