# Maze Runner (film series)
[The Maze Runner](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-maze-runner) film series is a trilogy of young adult dystopian science fiction films, The Maze Runner (2014), [Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials](https://www.edgepedia.org/maze-runner-the-scorch-trials) (2015), and [Maze Runner: The Death Cure](https://www.edgepedia.org/maze-runner-the-death-cure) (2018), all directed by Wes Ball and adapted from James Dashner's YA novels.[1](https://www.tomsguide.com/news/7-best-movies-like-the-hunger-games-and-where-you-can-stream-them) • [2](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-maze-runner) The series follows Thomas (Dylan O'Brien), a teenager who awakens without memories in the Glade, an enclosed community at the center of a giant, ever-changing labyrinth, and gradually discovers that he and the other youths are subjects of an experiment run by a shadowy organization called WCKD.[1](https://www.tomsguide.com/news/7-best-movies-like-the-hunger-games-and-where-you-can-stream-them) • [3](https://time.com/5118025/maze-runner-the-death-cure-review/) It appeared at the peak of the young adult dystopian boom launched by The Hunger Games and outlived most of its contemporaries, concluding as a trilogy while rival franchises such as Divergent stalled before their final installment.[4](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/hunger-games-movies-ranked/) • [5](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maze-runner-the-death-cure-young-adult-trend-dylan-obrian-kaya-scodelario-thomas-brodie-sangster-a8179226.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Films | The Maze Runner (2014), Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015), Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)[1](https://www.tomsguide.com/news/7-best-movies-like-the-hunger-games-and-where-you-can-stream-them) |
| Source | James Dashner's young adult trilogy of novels[9](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-maze-runner) |
| Director | Wes Ball, a feature-film newcomer on the first installment[6](https://time.com/3394382/the-maze-runner-movie-review/) |
| Principal cast | Dylan O'Brien (Thomas), Kaya Scodelario (Teresa), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Newt), Will Poulter (Gally), Patricia Clarkson[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_maze_runner) |
| First film | Released September 19, 2014; PG-13; 1h 53min; distributor 20th Century Fox; gross in the USA $81.3 million[2](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-maze-runner) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_maze_runner) |
| Rotten Tomatoes scores | The Maze Runner 66% (173 reviews), The Scorch Trials 47%, The Death Cure 43% (171 reviews)[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_maze_runner) • [8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maze_runner_the_death_cure) |
## Premise and films
The first film opens with an elevator delivering Thomas to the Glade, an all-boy agrarian commune whose occupants, the Gladers, have built their own society while trying to map the surrounding Maze, home to deadly semi-mechanical creatures called Grievers. Thomas is promoted to Runner, the role of patrolling the shifting labyrinth for an escape route, and, together with Teresa ([Kaya Scodelario](https://www.edgepedia.org/kaya-scodelario)), the only female ever sent there, tries to convince the others he knows a way out.[2](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-maze-runner) • [9](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-maze-runner)
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015) and Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018) carry the surviving characters beyond the Glade. By the third film, the franchise had shifted its emphasis from suspense toward chase sequences, zombie-like threats, and the search for a cure for the Flare infection; TIME's review judged that the first film had been surprisingly effective because Ball built the story's mystery out of character development, while the third relied more on high-speed chases and generic scare moments.[3](https://time.com/5118025/maze-runner-the-death-cure-review/) [The Death Cure](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-death-cure)'s original release was delayed nearly a whole year because of injuries its star, [Dylan O'Brien](https://www.edgepedia.org/dylan-obrien), sustained on set.[5](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maze-runner-the-death-cure-young-adult-trend-dylan-obrian-kaya-scodelario-thomas-brodie-sangster-a8179226.html)
## Production
The Maze Runner came from feature-film novices: director [Wes Ball](https://www.edgepedia.org/wes-ball) and screenwriters Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin, working on a $34-million budget that TIME described as modest for a YA film with franchise ambitions.[6](https://time.com/3394382/the-maze-runner-movie-review/) Producers were Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, and Lee Stollman, and 20th Century Fox distributed.[2](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-maze-runner) Metacritic's critic survey noted that Ball made a solid feature debut with action sequences free of what the reviewer called video game envy.[10](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-maze-runner/critic-reviews/)
## Reception and comparison with the books
**Critical response declined across the trilogy.** The first film earned a 66% Tomatometer score from 173 reviews, with a critics consensus praising strong acting, a solid premise, and a refreshingly dark approach to its dystopian setting; commentators called it better than most YA novel adaptations.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_maze_runner) • [11](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/Critics-Consensus-The-Maze-Runner-Is-Better-Than-Average-YA-Fare/) [The Scorch Trials](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-scorch-trials) fell to 47%, and The Death Cure to 43% from 171 reviews, with a consensus describing that final installment as bloated for anyone not already invested in the series.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maze_runner_the_death_cure) Audiences were steadier: the first film's Popcornmeter stood at 68% from more than 50,000 ratings.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_maze_runner)
The films depart substantially from the books. Common Sense Media observed that, unlike Divergent and [The Hunger Games](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hunger-games), which explain their post-apocalyptic societies from the start, The Maze Runner works as a pin-hole mystery, revealing what is happening little by little, and that readers of the book may find the characters underdeveloped and the pacing compressed.[9](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-maze-runner) The first film was made on a modest budget and its ending functions largely as a teaser for a sequel.[6](https://time.com/3394382/the-maze-runner-movie-review/)
## Place in young adult dystopian cinema
The series arrived amid a wave of young adult novel adaptations that followed The Hunger Games, alongside Divergent and [The Giver](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-giver).[4](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/hunger-games-movies-ranked/) • [12](https://time.com/32022/divergent-dystopian-stories-shailene-woodley-interview/) It was unusual among these franchises in centering a male protagonist; Dashner himself acknowledged the anomaly, saying, "It's refreshing to have the main character be a male for once, seems like there's been a lot of female leads."[13](https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/9051/7/Donnelly2019PhD.pdf) Scholars have read the films in several registers: an analysis in the Journal of Borderlands Studies examines the Maze as a panoptic border mechanism, using visible and invisible boundaries enforced by surveillance; another study in Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies reads The Scorch Trials through metaphors of capital; and a 2015 article in Topos grouped The Maze Runner with The Giver and Divergent as dystopian narratives expressing anxiety about memory in the digital age.[14](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08865655.2026.2706505) • [15](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714413.2023.2187613) • [16](https://journals.ehu.lt/index.php/topos/article/view/313) Common Sense Media classifies the films' setting as biopunk-adjacent dystopia involving a pandemic, distinguishing it from the caste-divided societies of Divergent.[17](https://dspace.univ-tlemcen.dz/bitstreams/bb3a6101-dffb-485c-a9b7-a062a161c7de/download)
The trilogy's completion in 2018 was framed in commentary as a resilient conclusion to a genre many commentators had declared a hollow trend, sustained by a core audience built on Dashner's novels.[5](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maze-runner-the-death-cure-young-adult-trend-dylan-obrian-kaya-scodelario-thomas-brodie-sangster-a8179226.html) Ball subsequently directed [Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes](https://www.edgepedia.org/kingdom-of-the-planet-of-the-apes) for 20th Century Studios.[18](https://apnews.com/article/158cc6e353153720a53791d059b1e01f)
## References
1. [9 best movies like 'The Hunger Games', Tom's Guide](https://www.tomsguide.com/news/7-best-movies-like-the-hunger-games-and-where-you-can-stream-them)
2. [The Maze Runner, 20th Century Studios](https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/the-maze-runner)
3. [Maze Runner: The Death Cure Runs Out of Steam Quickly, TIME](https://time.com/5118025/maze-runner-the-death-cure-review/)
4. [The Hunger Games Movies Ranked by Tomatometer, Rotten Tomatoes](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/hunger-games-movies-ranked/)
5. [How Maze Runner outlived the YA trend, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maze-runner-the-death-cure-young-adult-trend-dylan-obrian-kaya-scodelario-thomas-brodie-sangster-a8179226.html)
6. [The Maze Runner movie review, RogerEbert.com / TIME review](https://time.com/3394382/the-maze-runner-movie-review/)
7. [The Maze Runner, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_maze_runner)
8. [Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maze_runner_the_death_cure)
9. [The Maze Runner Parents' Guide & Movie Review, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-maze-runner)
10. [The Maze Runner critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-maze-runner/critic-reviews/)
11. [Critics Consensus: The Maze Runner Is Better-Than-Average YA Fare, Rotten Tomatoes](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/Critics-Consensus-The-Maze-Runner-Is-Better-Than-Average-YA-Fare/)
12. [Why Do We Love Dystopian Stories So Much?, TIME](https://time.com/32022/divergent-dystopian-stories-shailene-woodley-interview/)
13. [The Order and the Other: Young Adult Dystopian Literature and Science Fiction, University of Birmingham PhD thesis](https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/9051/7/Donnelly2019PhD.pdf)
14. [Panoptic Boundaries: Borders as Mechanisms of Control in the Film The Maze Runner, Journal of Borderlands Studies](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08865655.2026.2706505)
15. [Prepped for harvest: Monstrous metaphors of capital in The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714413.2023.2187613)
16. [Dystopian Narratives in Contemporary Young Adult Cinema, Topos](https://journals.ehu.lt/index.php/topos/article/view/313)
17. [Biopunk and The Maze Runner, Université de Tlemcen dissertation](https://dspace.univ-tlemcen.dz/bitstreams/bb3a6101-dffb-485c-a9b7-a062a161c7de/download)
18. [Summer Movie Guide, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/158cc6e353153720a53791d059b1e01f)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Contemporary literary and YA film franchises*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license