Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials Runs Through A Different Maze By Art Byrd Last year, when I saw Maze Runner in the theater. I really liked the movie and saw the set up for the sequel. In this sequel, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, a destroyed city is sort of the new maze with a lot of running by the characters through it. The cast is back with Dylan O'Brien as Thomas, the leader of the group and the rest of the Gladers as they were known in the first movie such Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario, Dexter Darden and Alexander Flores. The Gladers are rescued from the maze. They are taken to a facility run by Mr. Janson played by Aidan Gillen. He tells the Gladers that the facility is a safe place protecting them from WCKD, the evil government agency, a virus and the zombielike Cranks. The Gladers are given food, clothes and shelter along with other survivors from other mazes. Thomas doesn't have a really good feeling about Jensen or the facility. With the help of Aris played by Jacob Lofland, the first maze survivor, Thomas finds out that the survivors are being used as an experiment of WCKD. Thomas and Aris listen in on a conversation with Mr. Jansen and Ava Paige played by Patricia Clarkson who died in the first movie, but she is alive. They hear about the plan to keep experimenting with the survivors to get a cure for the virus at any cost. Thomas and Aris gather the others including Teresa and escape the facility with Mr. Jansen in pursuit. The group get to the outside world- the Scorch, a deserted wasteland with destroyed city buildings. The group finds an abandoned building for shelter. They discover a power source which brings out the Cranks and the group is on the run again. The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is true to the title. For most of the movie, the characters are running through something and from something. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is a good action movie with some good plot points. There is a scene where Thomas is forced to drink something by some dude I wasn’t sure who he was. Then, he went into a strip club like place and hallucinates and is found by the group. The scene was useless and I didn't get it.
O'Brien as Thomas provides a great performance as he gives the group hope in finding another group called The Right Arm which is supposed provide freedom for them. There was a betrayal among the group, I didn't see coming. This sets up the third Maze Runner movie slated to come in 2017. As The Hunger Games and the Divergent series have the overthrow the big bad government agency plot-lines, it will be interesting to see if Maze Runner will be the same, similar or different from the other two’s unknown outcomes. Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is not a must go see movie, it is a go if you want to go movie.