Winston

"I'd rather get a sunburn than get my head attacked by some ball of steel. Let's go!"

Winston is a Glader and the Keeper of the Slicers. He might have been named after Robert Winston, a British scientist, or possibly Winston Churchill.

Biography

The Maze Runner

In The Maze Runner, Winston is introduced as the Keeper of the Slicers. When a Gathering is called to discuss Thomas' actions and the consequences of going into the Maze overnight, Winston states that he thinks what Thomas did was brave, but he should be punished for what he did or it would set a bad example for others. He follows Thomas to escape the Maze and survives.

The Scorch Trials

In The Scorch Trials, Winston is first made notable in the events following the entrance into the Flat Trans, where he and another Glader, Frankie, are attacked by a strange liquefied metal that seeks out and solidifies on contact with a human head. Thomas manages to stop the metal from encasing Winston; however, Winston is left with most of his hair ripped out and raw wounds covering his head. He goes missing in the lightning storm, along with Jack, Stan, and Tim, presumably killed by a lightning strike.

Film

The Maze Runner

In the Maze Runner film, Winston is first seen when Thomas arrives in the Glade, When Gally stops Thomas from walking into the Maze, Winston and the Gladers join Gally in stopping Thomas from walking into the Maze, Later, at the bonfire, Newt points Winston out to Thomas, explaining that he is the Keeper of the Slicers and that he and the other Slicers often receive treatment from the Med-jacks for cuts.

Winston and the Gladers watch Thomas wrestle with Gally before Gally sends Thomas down to the ground, causing him to remember his name.

Later, at Minho's request, Winston accompanies him, Thomas, Frypan, and Zart into the Maze to examine the Griever corpse.

When Grievers attack the Glade, Winston fights them off alongside the other Gladers. He assists Minho and Frypan in restraining an angry Gally from punching Thomas again, the latter blaming Thomas for all the trouble he caused ever since he came up in the Box.

As Gally plans to sacrifice Thomas and Teresa to the Grievers, Winston expresses doubt over Gally's choice, telling him that it does not seem right. Eventually, he and Jeff leave with the others to try to escape the Maze.

Winston and the Gladers fight off the Grievers, arrive in the WCKD lab, receive a video message from Ava Paige, see Minho impale Gally in the chest with a spear and Gally shoot Chuck in the chest, and get taken to a helicopter by masked soldiers.

The Scorch Trials

In the Scorch Trials film, Winston is one of the few Gladers to escape the WCKD facility. After arriving at an abandoned building, Minho manages to turn on the power, alerting the Cranks which lurked there. As the Gladers run away from the Cranks, they come across a door where Winston offers to hold off the Cranks with a gun. During the process, however, he gets scratched across the abdomen by a Crank, which later becomes infected and begins to spread through his body. Seeing his inevitable fate to become a Crank, Winston pleads the Gladers to let him kill himself so he won't become a Crank. Newt then places the gun in Winston's hands, Winston thanks him in return. As the Gladers continue on with their journey, a sound of a gunshot rings out, signaling Winston's suicide.

The Death Cure

Although Winston obviously doesn't make an appearance in the Death Cure film, three figures resembling him, Alby, and Chuck are present in Minho's dream of the Glade. Near the end, Winston's name is seen engraved on the rock along with the names of the victims in the war with WCKD.

Physical Appearance and Personality

In the books, Winston's only mentioned physical characteristics are that he was short and muscular, with bad acne. After the incident with the Metal ball in The Scorch Trials, he loses his hair, receives burns and scabs to most of his face, and is almost unrecognizable. He is very stubborn.

In the film adaptations, Winston is depicted as a dark-haired boy who has warm brown skin, dark eyes, and no acne.

Trivia

In the book Inside the Maze Runner (as well as a deleted scene from the Maze Runner film), Winston is quoted saying that if Minho trusts Thomas, then he trusts him.