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Film Data

Title: The Maze Runner Director: Wes Ball Date of Release: September 19, 2014 Country: United States  Genre: Science-fiction action thriller Budget: $34 million Box Office: $166,914,185 Source: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mazerunner.htm

Synopsis *SPOILERS WARNING*

The film begins with a boy (Dylan O'Brien) stuck in a metal elevator racing its way to the top of...something. Once the elevator reaches its destination the doors open to sunlight and a crowd of other young boys staring down into the metal elevator, The Box. As the crowd helps the boy up he attempts to make a run for it, falls, and stands to reveal the setting of the movie. He is in a field surrounded by large metal walls. The leader of the crowd of boys, Alby (Aml Ameen), helps to calm the new boy down, tells him he is in The Glade, and asks him if he remembers anything. The new boy doesn't even know his own name and Alby tells him that it's normal, it's happened to all of them. Alby introduces the new boy to The Glade, showing him how The Gladers, as they call themselves, live in the enclosed space. Alby introduces the new boy to Chuck (Blake Cooper) a younger boy who helps him set up a hammock where he will sleep. The new boy wonders what is outside of the walls but Chuck warns him to never go beyond them.

There is a party that night to welcome the new boy. Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), second-in-command, explains to the new boy that outside of the walls there is a maze. The maze is the only way out of The Glade, but only runners are allowed to go into the maze. The runners leave at dawn when the maze opens, and return by dusk when the maze closes. No one has ever survived a night in the maze. Newt explains that The Box comes up every month with supplies and a new arrival. Newt explains that everyone has a job to do in their community and points out the different groups such as; gardeners, builders, and runners. The new boy wrestles with one of the runners, Gally (Will Poulter), and during the fight suddenly remembers his name; Thomas.

The following day Newt sends Thomas to collect supplies in a wooded area in The Glade. Inside the woods one of the runners, Ben (Chris Sheffield), appears deranged and attacks Thomas. Thomas runs for help and the rest of the Gladers pin Ben down. It is revealed that Ben has been stung by one of the monsters inside the maze known as Grievers. Since there is no known cure the Gladers force Ben into the maze to die. In an attempt to retrace Ben's steps and see if he survived the night, Alby and Minho (Ki Hong Lee), the leader of the runners, go into the maze. At dusk the Gladers anxiously wait for the two boys, and Minho appears at the last second dragging an unconscious Alby. The two boys are too late and the maze closes after Thomas runs inside to aid them.Minho and Thomas are able to survive the night in the maze, and Thomas is even able to kill a Griever - large spider-like monsters who are a cross between living and mechanical. Thomas, Minho, and an unconscious Alby return to the amazement of the rest of the Gladers. Gally is worried that Thomas, who broke the rules by going into the Maze, is disrupting the peace in their fragile community by killing a Griever and wants him punished. Newt decided to make Thomas a runner instead. The next day Thomas, Minho, and other volunteers go into the maze to look for the Griever's corpse and return with a numbered mechanical part of the Griever. Minho reveals to Thomas that the number on the part corresponds to one of the 8 sections of the maze. 

Minho and Thomas are able to survive the night in the maze, and Thomas is even able to kill a Griever - large spider-like monsters who are a cross between living and mechanical. Thomas, Minho, and an unconscious Alby return to the amazement of the rest of the Gladers. Gally is worried that Thomas, who broke the rules by going into the Maze, is disrupting the peace in their fragile community by killing a Griever and wants him punished. Newt decided to make Thomas a runner instead. The next day Thomas, Minho, and other volunteers go into the maze to look for the Griever's corpse and return with a numbered mechanical part of the Griever. Minho reveals to Thomas that the number on the part corresponds to one of the 8 sections of the maze. 

The Box comes up again, despite the fact that it's only supposed to arrive once a month, and with it comes the first ever girl (Kaya Scodelario) with a note in her hands that says she is the last one ever. The girl, Teresa, recognizes Thomas, and only speaks to him after she wakes up. Teresa gives Thomas two blue syringes that were in her pocket and the Gladers decide to use one on Alby in an attempt to save him from the Griever's sting. The syringe works and he recovers from the sting, as well as his memories.

Thomas and Minho decide to venture into the section of the maze that corresponds to the mechanical part from the Griever. They find an escape route and are forced to retreat, barely making it back to the Glade. They tell the others, who appear skeptical to run and suddenly they realize the maze doors aren't closing. That night Grievers pour into the Glade killing many of the boys, including Alby. After the survivors successfully push the Grievers back into the closing maze Thomas stabs his leg with a Griever's stinger to trigger his memories. Thomas remembers that he and Teresa are part of the organization who set up the maze and put the boys into the Glade, claiming all of it to be a test.

Gally blames Thomas and Teresa for the chaos they brought and attempts to execute them but some of the other Gladers stop him and decide to follow Thomas through the escape route. Those who survived through the route end up in a lab where there are various corpses of men and women in lab coats. They reach what seem to be the headquarters and find a recording of a woman. The woman explains their situation; the planet had been destroyed by increased solar activity, followed by a deadly epidemic. The Gladers were part of an experiment that researched their apparent resistance to the epidemic. During the recording the background shows the lab being attacked, and at the end she shoots herself in the head. Gally suddenly appears, stung by a Griever, and armed with a gun. He attempts to shoot Thomas but Minho stabs and kills him. However, the gun shot ended up killing young Chuck. The lab opens and masked men come to lead the group to safety, physically dragging a sobbing Thomas away from Chuck's body. The maze is revealed to be in a vast desert and the group is taken into a helicopter. The woman in the video and the rest of the scientists are revealed to be alive; the woman states the experiment is a success and the survivors are now heading to phase two.

Commentary

The Maze Runner is a film that by all intents and purposes should have been predictable and repetitive. It is clear that the film was made in lieu of all the recent success of films that have been adapted from young adult dystopian novels, i.e. The Hunger Games and Divergent. Audiences evidently enjoy this genre of movies and The Maze Runner fits nicely into the package. Having said this, the film presents themes of dystopian societies in a refreshing manner. As opposed to staying within the cookie cutter frame of these recent young adult book to movie films, The Maze Runner encourages the audience to not only ask questions about society in general, but also forces audience members to look introspectively. The film is able to present these macro and micro themes through the use of its main symbol; the maze.

The Maze Runner’s achievements are its mise-en-scène and engaging theme. The director, Wes Ball, and production designer, Marc Fisichella, effectively create an earthly dystopian setting that doesn’t rely heavily on CGI. The main hint of a post-apocalyptic setting is the overwhelming maze that surrounds the Glade. The maze’s design is made to look old; the maze looks as though it has been an obstacle for these boys for many years. The walls are covered in vines, the metallic parts of the maze contain rust, and the sound effects of the maze changing during the night and opening and closing in the day point to its age. Without these elements of time and wear, the maze would not be the intimidating and frightening main obstacle of the film. Mazes in general tend to be symbols of the unknown, confusion, and the human unconscious. The film adequately presents these interpretations through the use of design and cinematography. The walls of the maze are almost always shown through a low angle of the camera, highlighting the boys’ helplessness and its menacing nature. 

The juxtaposition of the maze and the Glade’s design also reinforces the maze’s menacing nature. In one of the first scenes of the movie, the camera uses a pan shot to introduce the maze, that is, introduce the overbearing walls that surround the Glade in which Thomas, and the audience, have suddenly been thrust into. The Glade is surrounded by luscious green nature. The color scheme of the Glade is bright and joyous, signalizing its safety. The Gladers have managed to create a community where all the boys do their part and manage to survive as long as they don’t step into the dangerous maze. The Glade in the film can symbolize a person’s consciousness; there is nothing scary about the personality and ego that one consciously presents.

In sharp contrast there stands the maze; always shown in darkness. The film characterizes the maze from within with the use of deep shadows and a sense of claustrophobia by showing the scale of the walls. The characters in the film are tiny in comparison to the massive ever changing walls of the maze. One of the scenes that depicts how scary the maze is, is the scene where Thomas runs into it as its closing in order to save Minho and Alby. The night the boys spend in the maze is totally in darkness, and they must come face to face with the monsters within; the Grievers. The tension leading up to the encounter with the grievers is exemplified by denying the audience a complete look at the monsters until the final second. Thomas hides in a crevice of the walls and all the camera allows us to see is Thomas’s point of view, mainly, the griever’s mechanical and spider-like legs.

The moment we finally see the total creature is when it attacks Thomas. The monsters in the maze serve to symbolize the fears we hold about our unconscious such as doubts or aspects of ourselves we really don’t like. Some, like Thomas, venture willingly into the unconscious, the maze, and confront their fears. On the other hand the film also gives an example of those of us who are comfortable in the safety of our consciousness, or the glade. The character who represents this fear of the unknown is the antagonist Gally.