The Maze Runner is a 2014 American dystopian science fiction film directed by Wes Ball, in his feature directorial debut, based on James Dashner's 2009 novel. It is the first installment in The Maze Runner film series and was written by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers and T. S. Nowlin. The film stars Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter and Patricia Clarkson. The story follows sixteen-year-old Thomas, portrayed by O'Brien, who awakens in a rusty elevator with no memory of who he is, only to learn that he has been delivered to the middle of an intricate maze, along with many other boys, who have been trying to find their way out of the ever-changing labyrinth—all while establishing a functioning society in what they call the Glade.

Development of The Maze Runner began in January 2011 when Fox purchased the film rights to Dashner's novel with Gotham Group and Temple Hill Entertainment as producers and Catherine Hardwicke intended to direct. In 2012, Ball was hired to direct the film adaptation after presenting an animated short film titled Ruin with a similar tone and was initially considered for a feature-length adaptation. Principal photography began in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on May 13, 2013, and officially concluded on July 12, 2013.

The Maze Runner was released on September 19, 2014, in the United States by 20th Century Fox. The film received positive reviews, with praise for Ball's direction, the performances and the film's tone. Critics considered it to be better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations. The film was first at the box office in its opening weekend, grossing $32.5million, making it the seventh-highest-grossing debut in September. The film earned $348million worldwide at the box office, against its budget of $34million. Two sequels, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Maze Runner: The Death Cure, were released in 2015 and 2018.

Plot

A teenage boy awakens in an underground elevator without memory of his identity. A large group of male youths greets him in a large grassy area, called the "Glade", enclosed by massive stone walls. The "Gladers" have formed a rudimentary society, each taking on specialized roles. The boy learns that a vast maze encircles the Glade and is their only means of escape. During the day, designated "Runners" search the maze for an exit and return before its gate closes at sunset. After a fight with Gally, the boy remembers his name is Thomas.

Thomas is attacked by Ben, a Runner who was stung and left delirious by a Griever, one of the biomechanical, spider-like creatures that roam the maze at night. The Gladers force Ben into the maze, as there is no cure for his condition, and leave him to die.

The next morning, Alby, the Glade's leader, and Minho, the lead Runner, retrace Ben's steps inside the maze. However, as the sun sets, Minho reappears near the gate, dragging a badly injured Alby who has been stung. Unable to reach the Glade in time, Thomas runs into the maze to help, leaving all three trapped. Thomas is chased by a Griever but manages to lure it into a closing passageway, crushing it. The three survive the night and return the next morning.

A girl arrives in the elevator with two syringes of Griever anti-venom and a note saying she is the last to enter the Glade. She recognizes Thomas, but he does not remember her. Gally accuses Thomas of disrupting the peace between the Gladers and the Grievers and insists he be punished. However, Newt, Alby's second-in-command, designates Thomas as a Runner instead. Thomas, Minho, Frypan, Winston and Zart enter the maze to locate the Griever's corpse and retrieve a mechanical device inside of it. Minho later shows Thomas a maze model based on previous explorations and explains that numbered sections open and close in a fixed sequence. Thomas realizes that the device corresponds to a specific section of the maze. One of the anti-venom syringes is used on Alby, who recovers quickly. Minho and Thomas venture back into the maze with the device and discover a potential exit but are forced to retreat after a series of traps suddenly activate.

Later that night, the maze entrance remains open, and additional gates open up, allowing Grievers to invade the Glade. Alby, Zart and many other Gladers are killed, leading Gally to blame Thomas for the chaos. Thomas, who has been experiencing fragmented memory flashes since his arrival, stabs himself with a severed Griever's stinger to recover his memories before receiving the last dose of the anti-venom. While unconscious, Thomas remembers that he and Teresa once worked for the World Catastrophe Killzone Department (WCKD), the organization behind the maze, and that all the Gladers are being used as test subjects for an experiment. He awakens and reveals his past.

Having taken command overnight, Gally plans to use Thomas and Teresa as bait for the Grievers, believing it will restore peace. However, several Gladers free them and enter the maze together, while Gally and a few Gladers stay behind. Jeff and several other Gladers are killed by Grievers as the rest escape through the maze exit.

The Gladers eventually reach a laboratory strewn with corpses. In a video recording, a WCKD scientist and director, Ava Paige, explains that massive solar flares followed by a pandemic caused by the Flare virus has devastated the planet, and the Gladers were part of an experiment to find a cure for the virus. The recording ends with Paige shooting herself as armed personnel storm the lab and kill everyone. Gally, having been stung by a Griever while following the group, declares that they will never be free and attempts to fire a gun at Thomas. Minho spears Gally, but not before Gally fatally shoots Chuck. As Thomas mourns Chuck's death, masked soldiers arrive and escort them to a helicopter, which flies over a vast desert wasteland toward a ruined city.

Later, the supposedly dead scientists gather in a room with Paige, who remarks that the experiment was a success and that the survivors are now entering Phase Two.

Cast

Dylan O'Brien as Thomas, the last male to enter the Glade Kaya Scodelario as Teresa, the only female to ever enter the Glade, as well as the last Glader Aml Ameen as Alby, the first to enter the Glade and the leader of the Gladers Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt, second-in-command of the Gladers Ki Hong Lee as Minho, the keeper of the runners Will Poulter as Gally, the keeper of the builders Patricia Clarkson as Ava Paige, the head of WCKD Blake Cooper as Chuck, a very young Glader Dexter Darden as Frypan, the cook Jacob Latimore as Jeff Chris Sheffield as Ben, a runner Joe Adler as Zart Randall D. Cunningham as Clint Alexander Flores as Winston Don McManus as Masked Man, an armed soldier who rescues the Gladers

Production Development On January 4, 2011, it was announced that 20th Century Fox had obtained the rights to a film adaptation of The Maze Runner by James Dashner, with Catherine Hardwicke attached to direct. On August 23, 2012 Wes Ball was confirmed to direct the film, with Gotham Group as producers. Ball produced an animated science fiction post-apocalyptic short film, titled Ruin, and presented the short in 3D to 20th Century Fox. The studio initially considered a film adaptation of the short film, as it had the same tone of The Maze Runner novel they already planned to bring to the screen. Ball was then offered the chance to direct the novel adaptation.

Griever design In late 2012, director Wes Ball hired creature designer Ken Barthelmey to design the Grievers. Impressed by Barthelmey's test design, Ball asked him to add a mechanical scorpion tail. Barthelmey's inspirations for the Grievers included spiders, coconut crabs, caterpillars and piranhas. Barthelmey also worked on several Maze, Beetle Blade (cut from the film) and Crank designs.

Casting For the role of Teresa, Kaya Scodelario was Ball's first choice as she was "fantastic" and because he loved her in the TV show Skins. Dylan O'Brien, the lead role, was initially rejected by Ball. Ball recounts, "Dylan was actually... I saw him early on, very early on and I overlooked him. It was a big learning experience there because I overlooked him because of his hair. He had Teen Wolf hair and I couldn't see past that and so we were looking for our Thomas and it's a tough role to make because he comes in as a boy and he leaves as a man, so it can't be like this badass action star that comes into this movie. It's about vulnerability upfront and then he comes out of it and comes into his own and then the next movies are about the leader that emerges from the group. So finally Fox says 'We just did this movie, The Internship. There's this kid that's in this thing. He's like 20 years old. We think he's kind of got something.' So I watched his tape and was like 'Wait a minute, I've seen this kid before.' I looked him up online and there was one picture of him with a totally shaved head and it's this sweet vulnerable-looking kid and I was like 'Whoa, interesting.' I said, 'Wait a minute, he's just so familiar and I looked back at my old audition tapes, which we had thousands of, and there's Dylan. That guy I said 'No, definitely not him.' So we brought him back in and we started to talk with him and I'm like 'he's the coolest dude ever.'" Blake Cooper entered the film via Twitter. Ball revealed a lot on Twitter, and many kids wanted to be Chuck. Cooper constantly bugged Ball, until Ball told him to give his tape to his casting director, and Ball was impressed by Cooper's tape and cast him.

Filming Principal photography started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on May 13, 2013, and officially ended on July 12, 2013. Post-production on the film was completed in June 2014.

Soundtrack

Composed by John Paesano, the soundtrack consists of 21 tracks and was released on September 16, 2014.

Release The film was originally set to be released on February 14, 2014. On October 5, 2013, the film was pushed back. IMAX theaters released the film on September 19, 2014.

Marketing

Eleven character cards for the film were released in July 2013. Starting in January 2014, director Wes Ball released one image from the film once a week, leading up to the film's first trailer released on March 17, 2014. A viral marketing campaign launched by 20th Century Fox began on April 16, 2014. The campaign is a website featuring the main characters while focusing on WCKD, an organization in Dashner's novel series of the same name. The website has the domain wckdisgood.com.

On June 26, 2014, O'Brien tweeted that the original The Maze Runner book would be re-released with a new book cover based on the film's poster. On July 29, 2014, the second trailer for the film was released exclusively on Yahoo! Movies.

Reception

Box office The film grossed $102million in North America and more than $246million in other territories for a worldwide total of $348million.