The Maze Runner (2014)

Release date: 2014-10-28
Country: USA|UK
Language: English
Director: Wes Ball
Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox, Gotham Group, Temple Hill Entertainment
Genre: Action, Mystery, Thriller, Science Fiction
Rating: 6.8/10
Length: 1h 53min

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.

Plot Keywords

teenage boy, maze, based on novel, dystopia, open ended, killing an animal, leader, friendship, self sacrifice, eaten alive, near death experience, flashback, teenager, based on young adult novel, violence, memory loss, nightmare, escape, community, elevator

Short Review

Trying desperately to focus on the themes of free will, responsibility and death (several major characters have a gruesome fate), all I could think about was cheap vodka.