Based on the young adult science-fiction dystopian book trilogy of the same name written by James Dashner, Maze Runner’s first movie was released back in 2014 and garnered instant success among young audiences. With Dylan O’Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Kaya Scodelario as the leading actors, the plot follows teenagers who are thrown into a maze with no recollection of their memories. After Thomas (O’Brien) becomes a new addition to the team, things start to rapidly change for the worse.
Besides Teen Wolf, this franchise provided O’Brien with the needed push to branch out into the world of Hollywood movies. Despite critical acclaim declining after the first movie, the Maze Runner franchise still managed to gain a big following to this day. With that being said, let’s look at all the movies in the franchise and their ranking.
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3 Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)
20th Century Studios
As the last installment of the three-part series, Maze Runner: The Death Cure was met with high expectations. Originally scheduled for release in the 2017, the release date was moved to 2018 due to O’Brien’s needed time for recovery from a major injury that he sustained while filming action sequences (as outlined by Vulture). Still, with the same ensemble cast of O’Brien, Scodelario, Brodie-Sangster, Dexter Darden, and more, the last-standing Gladers attempt to hijack the WCKD organization to retrieve the cure for the virus Flare, mainly for Newt (Sangster) who gets infected at last. As the guy whose blood turns out to be needed for the cure, Thomas (O’Brien) has a weight on his shoulders throughout the whole movie.
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Despite the criticism towards character developments and execution of the storyline, per The Atlantic, the cast’s acting performances were highly praised, especially O’Brien and Sangster’s. Just watch one of the most heart-wrenching scene out there when Thomas’ forced to fight and kill the most important person in his life, and you’ll see what we mean. Even if you did read the books and knew what was coming, the scenes with Thomas and Newt hurt just as much. It doesn’t help to know that the whole Maze Runnner, especially Newt’s character, are queer-coded.
2 Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)
After the immense success of the first movie, fans and critics were impatiently waiting to see whether the franchise would continue in the same direction. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials released just a year after the first installment, with additional actors such as Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, and more added to the ensemble cast. The plot takes place right after the Gladers managed to escape WCKED’s maze structure. Their hopes of starting a new life, free of the organization, gets quickly swept under the rug when they realize the Scorches are just another challenge to test their abilities. They’re quick to understand that the Maze was a safe haven in comparison to what’s out there: a higher chance of infection and the already infected ‘Cranks’ who are bloodthirsty for procreation.
In The Scorch Trials, we get to see new sides of the characters as they deal with the real world scorched by the Sun, and we get to observe their survival skills and teamwork under greater detail. The lack of plot that received the most criticism was overshadowed by the cast’s great chemistry on and off-screen. The production didn’t really need to worry about the critics’ reviews when the Maze Runner franchise had managed to build a devoted fandom, who, even now four years later, return to it to reminisce and feel a sense of nostalgia.
1 Maze Runner (2014)
Considered to be better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations prior, Maze Runner was the directorial debut of Wes Ball back in 2014. Based on a book series of the same name, the first installment follows a young boy Thomas (O’Brien) who wakes up in a rusty elevator with no recollection of his memories whatsoever. He meets the Gladers, who live in a Maze and for years have been trying to find their way out, while constructing a functional society among themselves. What makes the first movie the best and most exciting is the lack of knowledge we have of the world; the audience is essentially forced to learn about the rules and functions along with the main character.
Despite being so thoroughly diverged from the actual source material, Maze Runner was executed fantastically. The actors did a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life and giving them their own unique personalities. What caught our attention right from the beginning is how Thomas and Newt’s relationship was set up to be a “should have been a gay romantic tragedy”. The filmmakers didn’t even try to make Thomas and Teresa (Scodelario) a convincing pair. And what potentially keeps the franchise interesting up until the end is not the plot, but the relationships between characters as they grow, evolve, and cause pain.
