“If You Ain’t Scared, You Ain’t Human”: The Maze Runner Book Versus Movie

The Glade, is a grass covered area several football fields in length, surrounded by stone walls. In the centre is the box; once a month a teen comes up through the box, surrounded by resources. This is the world of The Maze Runner, a sci-fi dystopian thriller by James Dashner released in 2009, turned into a movie directed by Wes Ball in 2014.

In the centre of each wall is a door that opens every day, and closes every night. The only thing the Gladers are allowed to remember is their names. The Gladers are teens, the oldest being 17, and the youngest being 13. Their goal is to escape the maze they are trapped in.

The maze is located underground in the books, and above ground in the movies. So, in the books it never rains in the maze, in the movies it does. 

Runners go out into the maze beyond the walls every day to explore and map out the maze. Anyone unlucky enough to be left inside the maze after the doors close will be attacked by Grievers, bulbous creatures with metal legs and other appendages. Anyone stung by a Griever will go through the changing, a disease that makes them hallucinate and become very aggressive. If a stung Glader doesn’t get the cure, called the grief serum, in time, they will die.

The series follows Thomas, the newest Glader. The runners are led by Minho.  Thomas is a runner, whose job is to run out into the maze every day and map it out. Some of the other jobs are, the cooks, run by Frypan, and the builders, run by Gally. The leader of the Gladers, who is also the oldest, is Alby. His second in command is Newt, a former runner until he hurt his ankle attempting to commit suicide. Each Glader is named after a scientist, Thomas is named after Thomas Edison, Newt is named after Isaac Newton, and so on.

Before we continue this comparison, please be aware that from here on out there will be spoilers for The Maze Runner trilogy. I just have to say, I watched the movie trilogy first, loved it, and then read the book. I must say, I was surprised that the first book and the first movie were almost exactly the same, save for a few parts. The Maze Runner book series has won two awards, the ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults, and the Young Reader’s Choice Award.

In the books, Newt is killed by Thomas, because Newt was turning into a crank. In the movies, Newt stabs himself to save Thomas. A crank is a person who has caught the flare virus and are essentially cannibalistic zombies. The flare virus was released after the solar flares ended, which is the year 2136 in the movies, and 2017 in the books.

The company that created the maze is known as the World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department, also known as WICKED in the books and WCKD in the movies. The chancellor of WICKED is Ava Paige, who appears at the end of the first movie to tell the Gladers about the solar flares and the cranks. In the books, she appears in memos to the employees at WICKED, the memos are usually about the Gladers, but are sometimes about the Flare.

Teresa is the only female Glader in Group A, and dies at the end of the third instalment in the series. In the movies, she falls off the roof of a building, in the books, she is crushed by a falling piece of concrete. Group A is the group the movies and books follow, however in the books there is a group of girls, known as Group B. The girls escaped the maze three days earlier and lost less people.

Dylan O’Brien plays Thomas in the movie trilogy, and, in my opinion, does a fantastic job.

The movie has a 68% ratting from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. The film trilogy is rated PG-13 for violence, language, substance use, and some disturbing images.

James Dashner lives in the Rocky Mountains, and has written 22 books, such as The Infinity Ring, and 13th Reality. In The Maze Runner series, James Dashner has written 7 books, these are, The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure, The Kill Order, The Fever Code, The Crank Place, and The Maze Cutter. There are also three movies based on the first three books, The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, and The Death Cure, they are available to watch on Disney+, Apple Tv, and Amazon Prime Video.