Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

The film is a direct sequel to the 2014 film The Maze Runner and the second installment in The Maze Runner film series. It was directed by Wes Ball, with a screenplay by T.S. Nowlin.

Adding to the original film’s cast of Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Patricia Clarkson, Ki Hong Lee, Dexter Darden and Alexander Flores, the new supporting cast includes Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, Barry Pepper and Lili Taylor.

The plot of The Scorch Trials takes place immediately following the previous installment, as Thomas (O’Brien) and his fellow Gladers have just escaped from the facilities of the powerful World Catastrophe Killzone Department (WCKD), which had imprisoned them. On the run in the desert and ruined cities, they must escape WCKD soldiers and face the perils of the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with dangerous obstacles. Filming began in Albuquerque, New Mexico on October 27, 2014, and officially concluded on January 27, 2015.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was released in select international territories starting September 9, 2015, in 2D, 3D, 4DX and Barco Escape, and was released on September 18, 2015, in the United States in 2D and premium large-format theaters by 20th Century Fox. It was originally set to be released in IMAX, but this was canceled, except Japan (converted to 3D), as Everest had all worldwide IMAX screens booked until the release of the film The Walk.

The Scorch Trials received mixed reviews: some commended its action sequences and performances; others criticized the film for its lack of plot and character advancement. Like its predecessor, the film was a commercial success grossing $30.3 million on its opening weekend, making it the ninth-highest grossing debut in September. The film went to the number one spot at the box office during its opening weekend, and grossed $312 million worldwide.

The concluding entry, titled Maze Runner: The Death Cure, was released on January 26, 2018.

Thomas and other children are placed in a moving maze in a place known as the Glade as part of the scientific testing.

Years later, shortly after being rescued from the Maze, Thomas and the remaining Gladers are taken to a facility run by Mr. Janson. He says that the facility is a haven protecting them from the “Cranks”, infected humans that were zombified by the Flare virus. Under Janson’s care, they discover that they were not the only people in the experiment and that many more Mazes were constructed aside from their own.

Thomas becomes suspicious of Janson and investigates the facility. With help from Aris, the first Maze survivor to arrive in the facility from another Maze, Thomas discovers that WCKD’s leader, Ava Paige, is still alive, and Janson is working for WCKD when they discuss experiments on the Immunes and that Janson has yet to find a resistance group in the mountains known as the Right Arm. The Gladers, including Aris, rescue Teresa and escape the facility to the desolate outside world, the Scorch. Janson sends troops to track them down.

The group arrives at an abandoned shopping mall and encounters hordes of Cranks. They escape, but Winston gets infected by one of them. By morning, Winston’s infection becomes worse, which forces the others to let him kill himself to prevent his transformation. While crossing the desert, the group takes shelter in the abandoned facility from a deadly lightning storm. Inside, they meet Brenda and Jorge, who leads a dangerous band of survivors. Brenda and Jorge agree to take them to the Right Arm and abandon the other survivors.

WCKD locates the facility and storms the place. Thomas and Brenda are left behind, as the rest escape with Jorge. As Thomas and Brenda escape the Cranks, Brenda is infected. Thomas experiences a flashback of him and Teresa working for WCKD in which Thomas tries to warn Teresa of WCKD’s plans, only for both to be apprehended by WCKD’s soldiers. As Thomas and Brenda reunite with the rest of the group, Jorge interrogates Marcus, a survivor who secretly works for WCKD, into revealing the location of the Right Arm.

The group eventually arrives at a roadblock, where several people ambush them. However, two young women, Harriet and Sonya, recognize Aris and stands down. They take the Gladers, Brenda, Jorge, and Aris to the Right Arm’s outpost camp, where other immune survivors are present. Vince, leader of the Right Arm, greets them.

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, due to him becoming disillusioned with WCKD and having helped the Right Arm take down WCKD’s illegal major operations ever since.

As Mary halts Brenda’s infection by using an enzyme cure, Mary explains that the enzyme must be harvested from an Immune’s body, not manufactured, and that arguments over the methods of manufacturing the cure with Paige led to Mary’s departure from WCKD. Teresa calls WCKD to their location since she still believes that WCKD’s motivations are good, which leads to them being attacked by WCKD. Soldiers quickly overwhelm the rebels and line up the survivors in front of Paige and Janson,

Who arrive in a Berg (a very large aerial vehicle employed by WCKD as transportation). Teresa explains to Thomas that she got her memories back from WCKD whilst with Janson. Mary is shot and killed by Janson, and WCKD troops take the immune survivors, including Minho, Aris, and Sonya. With only a fraction of the survivors left at the site, Thomas plans to kill Paige and save everyone from WCKD.