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The Maze Runner (film)

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Director
  
Wes Ball

Country
  
United States

7/10
IMDb

Duration
  

Language
  
English

The Maze Runner (film) movie poster
Release date
  
September 11, 2014 (2014-09-11) (Malaysia) September 19, 2014 (2014-09-19) (United States)

Based on
  
The Maze Runner  by James Dashner

Writer
  
Noah Oppenheim (screenplay), Grant Pierce Myers (screenplay), T.S. Nowlin (screenplay), James Dashner (novel)

Tagline
  
Run - Remember - Survive

The maze runner official trailer 1 2014 dylan o brien dystopian movie hd


The Maze Runner is a 2014 American science fiction dystopian action thriller film directed by Wes Ball, based on James Dashners 2009 novel of the same name. The film is the first installment in The Maze Runner film series and was produced by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, and Lee Stollman with a screenplay by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin. The film stars Dylan OBrien, Aml Ameen, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, and Ki Hong Lee. It is about a group of youths who awake to find that they have no memories and that they are trapped in a grassy glade surrounded by high walls and a massive maze.

Contents

Principal photography began in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on May 13, 2013 and officially concluded on July 12, 2013.

The Maze Runner (film) movie scenes

The Maze Runner was released on September 19, 2014 in the United States by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed to positive reviews, with praise aimed at the casts performances as well as the films intriguing premise and refreshingly dark tone, and even considered the film better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations, though the ending and the lack of plot clarity received some criticism. The film was also a commercial success, as it topped the box-office during its opening weekend with a $32.5 million debut, making it the seventh-highest grossing debut in September. Since its release, the film has grossed over $340 million worldwide against its budget of $34 million.

The Maze Runner (film) movie scenes

After the success of the film, a sequel, entitled Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, is set to be released on September 18, 2015 in the United States.

The Maze Runner (film) movie scenes

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, young 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.

The maze runner official trailer hd 20th century fox


Plot

The Maze Runner (film) movie scenes

The protagonist, Thomas, a 16-year-old boy, wakes up inside an underground service elevator with no memory of his identity. A group of male youths greet him in a large grassy area called the Glade that is enclosed by tall, stone walls. Every month, a new boy and supplies arrive in the elevator. The boys, called Gladers, have formed a rudimentary society with each assuming specialized tasks. Alby, their leader and the first to arrive in the Glade, says every boy eventually recalls his name, but none remember their past. The boy learns that a vast Maze surrounding the Glade may provide the only way out. During the day, designated Runners search the Maze for an escape route, returning before nightfall when the entrance closes. No one has ever survived a night inside the Maze.

The Maze Runner (film) movie scenes

While in a competition with Gally, the boy suddenly remembers his name is Thomas. Later, Thomas is attacked by Ben, a Runner delirious from being stung by a Griever – deadly techno-organic creatures that roam the Maze at night. Ben is forced into the Maze and left to die as there is no cure for what the Griever infected him with. Minho, the lead Runner, and Alby later retrace Bens steps inside the Maze. Minho reappears at dusk dragging Alby, who was stung, but they are unable to reach the closing entrance in time. Thomas spontaneously runs into the Maze to help but all three are trapped. During the night in the Maze, Thomas and Minho tie Alby up high on the Maze wall to hide him from the Grievers, but Minho abandons Thomas when a Griever emerges from the center of the Maze. Thomas slides under the Maze wall, managing to hide from a Griever. Later, Thomas finds Minho and his actions during the night keeps them alive, and he kills a Griever by tricking it into a narrow, closing passageway thus causing it to be crushed, making him the first to ever survive a night in the Maze and kill a Griever. To the other boys astonishment, they return the next morning.

The Maze Runner (film) movie scenes

The next morning, the first-ever girl arrives in the elevator. She apparently recognizes Thomas though he cannot remember her. A note says that "She is the last one EVER". Thomas, Minho, Winston, Zart and Frypan enter the Maze. They locate the Griever corpse and remove a beeping mechanical device from inside it. Gally claims Thomas has jeopardized the fragile peace between the Gladers and the Grievers and wants him punished, but Newt, the groups second-in-command, instead designates Thomas a Runner. Minho shows Thomas a scale model of the Maze he has built, based on his three years of exploration. The Mazes numbered sections open and close in a regular sequence that might be a code. The device is numbered to correspond to a certain section within the Maze. With the mechanical device, they may be able to find an escape route.

The Maze Runner (film) movie scenes

The girl, Teresa, has two syringes filled with an unknown substance. One is used on Alby, and he gradually recovers from the Griever sting and begins regaining his memories. Minho and Thomas venture back into the Maze and discover a possible exit but are nearly trapped, barely making it back to the Glade.

The Maze Runner (film) movie scenes

That night, the Maze entrance does not close while others open, letting Grievers pour in. A massacre ensues as the Gladers, practically defenseless against the Grievers, struggle to fight back or hide. Alby saves Chuck from a Griever, but is killed moments later, telling Thomas to "Get them out". Thomas is assaulted by Gally after the chaos, the latter blaming him for everything that was happening. Thomas, who has had disconnected memory flashes since arriving, stabs himself with a severed Griever stinger in an attempt to revive his memory. The others inject him with the last anti-venom. Unconscious, he recalls that he and Teresa worked for the organization that created the Maze, W.C.K.D.; the boys unknowingly have been test subjects for an experiment. Thomas awakens and shares this information with Newt, Minho, Chuck, and Teresa.

Meanwhile, Gally has taken command and intends to sacrifice Thomas and Teresa to the Grievers to restore the peace. Most of the Gladers are swayed to free Thomas and Theresa and attempt escaping the Maze, but Gally and a few others refuse to leave. Fighting Grievers as they go, the survivors escape the Maze (in the process Jeff dies trying to save Minho) and eventually enter a laboratory strewn with dead scientists and technicians. A woman named Ava Paige in a video recording explains that the planet has been devastated by a massive solar flare, followed by a pandemic of a deadly, incurable virus called the Flare that affects the brain of the afflicted. We learn that the Gladers appeared to be immune to the virus. The Gladers learn that they were part of an experiment studying the way their brains worked as a resistance to the virus. At the end, the woman in the video shoots herself as the lab is being attacked by men with military-style weapons but dressed more like mercenaries. Gally suddenly appears armed with a gun he found. Delirious from a Griever sting, he insists they must stay in the Maze, then aims at Thomas intending to kill him in revenge for the Glades destruction. Minho kills Gally with a spear, but not before Chuck is fatally shot protecting Thomas, who is devastated by his friends death. Masked armed men rush in and take the group to a helicopter. As they fly over the Maze, it is revealed to be placed in a vast desert wasteland. Eventually, the helicopter approaches a ruined city.

The scene ends with the supposedly-dead scientists meeting in a room. The leader, Paige, notes that the experiment has been a success; the survivors are now entering Phase Two.

Cast

  • Dylan OBrien as Thomas, the last male to enter the Glade
  • Kaya Scodelario as Teresa, the first and only female Glader
  • Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt, second in command of the Gladers.
  • Will Poulter as Gally, the Glades enforcer
  • Ki Hong Lee as Minho, the Keeper of the Runners
  • Aml Ameen as Alby, the leader of the Gladers
  • Blake Cooper as Chuck, a chubby friend of Thomas and also the youngest Glader
  • Dexter Darden as Frypan, the Keeper of the Cooks
  • Chris Sheffield as Ben, a runner
  • Jacob Latimore as Jeff, the main med-jack of the Gladers
  • Alexander Flores as Winston, the Keeper of the Slicers
  • Randall D. Cunningham as Clint
  • Joe Adler as Zart
  • Patricia Clarkson as Ava Paige, the enigmatic highest-ranking official of WICKED.
  • Development

    In an interview with Collider.com, director Wes Ball stated he had made a 3D computer-animated science fiction post-apocalyptic short film, titled Ruin, which he intended to use in order to gain access to Hollywood. He 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 director position for the latter.

    Pre-production

    Creature designer Ken Barthelmey designed the monsters called Grievers for the film.

    Casting

    For the role of Teresa, Kaya Scodelario was Balls first choice as she was "fantastic". Dylan OBrien, the lead role, was 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 couldnt see past that and so we were looking for our Thomas and its a tough role to make, because he comes in as a boy and he leaves as a man, so it cant be like this badass action star that comes into this movie. Its about vulnerability up front 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. Theres this kid thats in this thing. Hes like 20 years old. We think hes kind of got something. So I watched his tape and was like Wait a minute, Ive seen this kid before. I looked him up online and there was one picture of him with a totally shaved head and its this sweet vulnerable looking kid and I was like Whoa, interesting. I said, Wait a minute, hes just so familiar and I looked back at my old audition tapes, which we had thousands of, and theres Dylan. That guy I said No, definitely not him. So we brought him back in and we started to talk with him and Im like hes 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 Coopers 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

    The film was completed in June 2014.

    Soundtrack

    Composed by John Paesano, the soundtrack consists of 21 tracks and was released on September 1, 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.

    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 films first trailer release 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 W.C.K.D, an organisation in Dashners novel series of the same name. The website has the domain wckdisgood.com.

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

    The popularity of the film has resulted in many fan projects, the most prominent being Maze Runner Chat, a podcast featuring news discussions and occasional cast interviews. The podcast is produced by MazeRunnerFans.com, a popular fan website for the series. Nissan partnered with the film to promote it globally, including three Nissan models, such as Nissan GT-R, Juke Nismo RS and Infiniti Q50, and it has appeared in television commercial and web specials. Anna Roca, senior vice president of international promotions at 20th Century Fox, stated, "The most trilling stunts and help their support to all markets."

    Home media

    The Maze Runner was released on Region 1 DVD and Blu-ray combo pack December 16, 2014. The combo pack includes two hours of bonus features and extras as well as an exclusive comic book.

    Box office

    The film became a commercial success grossing $102,427,862 in North America and $238,322,778 in other territories for a worldwide total of $340,750,640.

    Prior to its release in the U.S. and Canada, box office analysts predicted the film would be a box office success, citing effective marketing, good word-of-mouth publicity and a solid release date. Preliminary reports predicted the film would open with takings of over $30 – $32 million in North America. According to movie ticket sale website Fandango, The Maze Runner was the biggest seller accounting for more than 50% of early tickets sales. The film was released on September 19, 2014 in the United States and Canada in 3,604 locations and over 350 IMAX theatres. It earned $1.1 million from Thursday night shows, and $11.25 million on its opening day. It topped the box office on its opening weekend with $32.5 million of which 9% of the gross came from IMAX theaters. Its opening weekend gross is the seventh-highest for a film released in September, and the 18th highest for a young-adult book adaptation. The film earned a total of $102,272,088 at the North American box office becoming the twenty sixth highest-grossing film of 2014 in the U.S. and Canada.

    Outside North America, the film debuted in five countries a week prior to its North American release and earned a total of $8.3 million. The film had a similar success overseas during its wide opening second weekend earning $38 million from 51 countries (topping the box office in 50 countries). It opened in South Korea with $5.5 million which is higher than the openings of The Hunger Games and Divergent, the UK, Ireland and Malta with $3.4 million behind Gone Girl, and China with $14.58 million behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Other high openings were witnessed in Russia and the CIS ($5.5 million), France ($5.2 million), Australia ($3.3 million), Mexico ($2.6 million), Taiwan ($2.2 million) and Brazil ($2 million).

    It became the third highest-grossing film of all time in Malaysia for Fox (behind Avatar and X-Men: Days of Future Past).

    Critical response

    The Wall Street Journal said critics considered the film better than most young adult book-to-film adaptations due to its "strong performances and a creepy, mysterious atmosphere". Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 63% "Fresh" rating based on reviews from 143 critics, with an average score of 6.1/10. The sites consensus states: "With strong acting, a solid premise, and a refreshingly dark approach to its dystopian setting, The Maze Runner stands out from the crowded field of YA sci-fi adventures". Metacritic gives the film a score of 56 out of 100 based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of A? on an A+ to F scale.

    Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film a three out of four and described it as "solid, well crafted and entertaining". Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com said she found the film intriguing, writing that "it tells us a story we think weve heard countless times before but with a refreshingly different tone and degree of detail". The Seattle Times???s Soren Anderson said the film was "vastly superior to the book that inspired it" and gave it a score of 3/4. Tony Hicks of the San Jose Mercury News was "hooked by the combination of fine acting, intriguing premise and riveting scenery". Matthew Toomey of ABC Radio Brisbane gave the film a grade of A?, giving praise to its intriguing premise saying that "it held [his] attention for its full two hour running time". Justin Lowe of the Hollywood Reporter said it was "consistently engaging", and Ella Taylor of Variety wrote "as world-creation YA pictures go, The Maze Runner feels refreshingly low-tech and properly story-driven".

    Michael OSullivan of the Washington Post said "The Maze Runner unravels a few mysteries, but it spins even more", giving it a 3/4. Stephen Whitty of the Newark Star-Ledger wrote "it does leave you wanting to see the next installment. And thats one special effect that very few YA movies ever pull off". Isaac Feldberg of We Got This Covered awarded the film 8/10 stars, calling it "dark, dangerous and uncommonly thrilling", while extolling it as "one of the most engaging YA adaptations to hit theaters in quite some time." Rick Bentley of the Fresno Bee praised Wes Balls direction, saying that he "created balance between a thin but solid script and first-rate action – and he doesnt waste a frame doing it". Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "a well-acted and intelligent thriller/futuristic sci-fi romp". Bilge Ebiri of New York magazine said he "was quite riveted". Michael Sragow of the Orange County Register gave it a grade of "B" and said, "Ball is deft, though, at evoking claustrophobia of every kind, whether in the open-air prison of the Glade or the actual tight spaces of the Maze. And he elicits a hair-trigger performance from OBrien".

    Claudia Puig of USA Today said "a sci-fi thriller set in a vaguely post-apocalyptic future must create a fully drawn universe to thoroughly captivate the viewer. But Maze Runner feels only partially formed", giving it a score of 2/4. Time magazines Richard Corliss said "like Jean-Paul Sartres No Exit-tentialism, but more crowded and with the musk of bottled-up testosterone". Wesley Morris of the website Grantland said "I think I have a touch of apocalepsy – excessive sleepiness caused by prolonged exposure to three and four-part series in which adolescents rebel against oppressive governments represented by esteemed actors". Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the film a 2.5 out of 4 rating and said "its bleak business, and as it hurries toward its explosive, expository conclusion, the film becomes nonsensical, too". Film critic Ethan Gilsdorf of The Boston Globe said "teens should eat up this fantasys scenery-chewing angst and doom, and the hopeful tale of survival and empowerment (to be continued in the inevitable sequel or sequels)".

    Sequel

    On October 11, 2013, it was reported that Twentieth Century Fox had acquired the rights to the second book, The Scorch Trials. A screenplay is to be written by T. S. Nowlin, with director Wes Ball supervising the scriptwriting. The sequel is scheduled to be released on September 18, 2015. On July 25, 2014, Ball announced at San Diego Comic-Con International that filming for the sequel would commence sometime between March and May 2015, should The Maze Runner become a success when it hits the theaters. However, two weeks prior to the films release 20th Century Fox decided to move ahead with the sequel and pre-production began in early September 2014 in New Mexico. Cast members Dylan OBrien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki-Hong Lee and Patricia Clarkson are set to reprise their role for the sequel, as is director Wes Ball. It has been announced that Aidan Gillen will be joining the film to play Janson ("Rat-Man"), as has Rosa Salazar who will portray Brenda, Jacob Lofland who will star as Aris Jones, and Giancarlo Esposito who will play Jorge Gallaraga.

    References

    The Maze Runner (film) Wikipedia
    The Maze Runner (film) IMDb The Maze Runner (film) themoviedb.org