The Maze Runner (2014)

Thomas is deposited in a community of boys after his memory is erased, soon learning they're all trapped in a maze that will require him to join forces with fellow "runners" for a shot at escape.

Director:

Wes Ball

Writers:

Noah Oppenheim (screenplay by), Grant Pierce Myers (screenplay by)

Stars:

Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Will Poulter

4 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dylan O'Brien	...	Thomas
Aml Ameen	...	Alby
Ki Hong Lee	...	Minho
Blake Cooper	...	Chuck
Thomas Brodie-Sangster	...	Newt
Will Poulter	...	Gally
Dexter Darden	...	Frypan
Kaya Scodelario	...	Teresa
Chris Sheffield	...	Ben
Joe Adler	...	Zart
Alexander Flores	...	Winston
Jacob Latimore	...	Jeff
Randall D. Cunningham	...	Clint
Patricia Clarkson	...	Ava Paige
Don McManus	...	Masked Man

Storyline

Awakening in an elevator, remembering nothing of his past, Thomas emerges into a world of about thirty teenage boys, all without past memories, who have learned to survive under their own set of rules in a completely enclosed environment, subsisting on their own agriculture and supplies. With a new boy arriving every thirty days, the group has been in "The Glade" for three years, trying to find a way to escape through the Maze that surrounds their living space (patrolled by cyborg monsters named 'Grievers'). They have begun to give up hope when a comatose girl arrives with a strange note, and their world begins to change with the boys dividing into two factions: those willing to risk their lives to escape and those wanting to hang onto what they've got and survive.

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Plot Keywords:

teenage boy | based on novel | maze | open ended | concrete wall | 

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Taglines:

Get ready to run.

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Genres:

Action | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, including some disturbing images

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Instagram

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 September 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Maze Runner

Filming Locations:

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$34,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$32,512,804, 21 September 2014

Gross USA:

$102,427,862

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$348,319,861

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, Gotham Group, Temple Hill Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

113 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat Dolby Atmos SDDS Auro 11.1 Dolby Surround 7.1

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Many of the characters' names are taken from historical figures and most are from inventors, mathematicians, philosophers, or scientists to illustrate their intelligence (which was a major plot element in the novel): Thomas (Thomas Edison), Alby (Albert Einstein), Newt (Isaac Newton), Chuck (Charles Darwin), Gally (Galileo), Teresa (Mother Teresa), Winston (Winston Churchill), Ben (Benjamin Franklin) and Frypan, in the novel also called Siggy (Sigmund Freud). Author James Dashner has said that Minho is not named after anyone famous but his niece's Korean husband. The novel also featured other characters such as Aris (Aristotle) and Harriet (Harriet Tubman).

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Goofs

In the Glade, there's lush subtropical vegetation, dark clouds now and then pass over and showers fall. However, the whole area is an open-air theatre situated in a bone dry desert area.

In the book, the Maze and Glade are in a large dome structure, underground, the weather, and lighting are all artificial.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Thomas: Hey! Hey! Help me!

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Alternate Versions

After initially receiving a '15' rating, Fox cut 43 seconds of violence, threat and injury detail from the UK version to earn a less restrictive '12A' rating for the cinema release. This same cut version was later released on DVD and Blu-ray with a '12' rating, although an uncut Steelbook Blu-ray was given a limited release with a '15' rating.

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Connections

Followed by Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)

User Reviews

Is It Greeny on the Other Side

For a film that is budgeted at merely 34 million dollars, this film visually looks really good. For comparison, Fantastic Four had a budget of 120 million and the effects and so called 'set pieces' were awful. This is one of the biggest problems with Hollywood, but that's a discussion for another day. The Maze Runner is actually a surprisingly entertaining movie. For an age in which the medium is flooded with young adult novels and movies, the film feels fresh and isn't overwhelmed by clichés like so many others are.

It's led by a relatively unknown cast. Dylan O'Brien, from Teen Wolf fame, is thrown into a maze structure along with a few dozen other young men who soon find there is more to the maze than they were led to believe. Let me be the first to say I think O'Brien has some chops and definitely has a future in this business. The role doesn't require a ton of range, but I think he proved he can lead a huge action film, and not many actors can say that. The writing itself I thought could have been a little smarter and more mature. Will Poulter, who played a much different character in We're The Millers, was solid in the role that was given to him. But the writing had him doing some really stupid things and was full of forced dialogue I felt.

With that being said, the mythology behind the story is pretty interesting. And they made the film into a more traditional monster film than I'm sure the book originally called for, but it really works. The horror element to the film was by far the most intriguing, and had the biggest payoff. The 'Greavers' also proved to be pretty terrifying, something I didn't think I would say about a film with a bunch of teenagers. So I really only watched this because I'm probably going to see the sequel this weekend, and i ended up enjoying the movie. Plus, having Littlefinger as the next villain gets me pretty excited.

+Monster flick

+Surprisingly well acted

+Suspensful

-Some stupid dialogue

7.2/10