Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (stylized onscreen simply as The Scorch Trials) is a 2015 American dystopian science fiction film based on James Dashner's 2010 novel The Scorch Trials, the second novel in The Maze Runner book series. The film is a direct sequel to the 2014 film The Maze Runner and the second installment in The Maze Runner film series. It was directed by Wes Ball, with a screenplay by T. S. Nowlin. Adding to the original film's cast of Dylan O'Brien, Ki Hong Lee, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Patricia Clarkson, Kaya Scodelario, Dexter Darden and Alexander Flores, the new supporting cast includes Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, Barry Pepper and Lili Taylor.

The plot of The Scorch Trials takes place immediately following the previous installment, as Thomas (O'Brien) and his fellow Gladers have just escaped from the facilities of the powerful World Catastrophe Killzone Department (WCKD), which had imprisoned them. On the run in the desert and ruined cities, they must escape WCKD soldiers and face the perils of the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with dangerous obstacles. Filming began in Albuquerque, New Mexico on October 27, 2014, and officially concluded on January 27, 2015.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was released in select international territories starting September 9, 2015, in 2D, 3D, 4DX and Barco Escape, and was released on September 18, 2015, in the United States in 2D and premium large-format theaters by 20th Century Fox. It was originally set to be released in IMAX, but this was canceled, except Japan (converted to 3D), as Everest had all worldwide IMAX screens booked until the release of the film The Walk. The Scorch Trials received mixed reviews: some commended its action sequences and performances; others criticized the film for its lack of plot and character advancement. Like its predecessor, the film was a commercial success grossing $30.3 million on its opening weekend, making it the ninth-highest grossing debut in September. The film went to the number one spot at the box office during its opening weekend, and grossed $312 million worldwide.

The concluding entry, titled Maze Runner: The Death Cure, was released on January 26, 2018.

Plot
In a flashback, a mother leaves her son, Thomas, with the scientist Ava Paige and troops of the organization WCKD. Thomas and other children are placed in a moving maze in a place known as the Glade as part of the scientific testing.

Years later, shortly after being rescued from the Maze, Thomas and the remaining Gladers are taken to a facility run by Mr. Janson. He says that the facility is a haven protecting them from the "Cranks", infected humans that were zombified by the Flare virus. Under Janson's care, they discover that they were not the only people in the experiment and that many more Mazes were constructed aside from their own.

Thomas becomes suspicious of Janson and investigates the facility. With help from Aris, the first Maze survivor to arrive in the facility from another Maze, Thomas discovers that WCKD's leader, Ava Paige, is still alive. Also, Janson works for WCKD and discusses experiments on the Immunes, mentioning they are still seeking the Right Arm resistance group in the mountains. The Gladers, including Aris, rescue Teresa and escape the facility to the desolate outside world; the Scorch. Janson send troops to track them down.

The group arrives at an abandoned shopping mall and encounters hordes of Cranks. They escape, but Winston gets infected by one of them. By morning, his infection becomes worse, which forces the others to let him kill himself to prevent his transformation.

While crossing the desert, the group takes shelter in an abandoned facility from a deadly lightning storm. Inside, they meet Brenda and Jorge, who leads a dangerous band of survivors. They agree to take them to the Right Arm, abandoning the other survivors.

WCKD locates the facility, and Thomas and Brenda are left behind, as the rest escape with Jorge. As the pair escape the Cranks, Brenda is infected. Thomas experiences a flashback of him and Teresa working for WCKD in which he tries to warn her of WCKD's plans, only for both to be apprehended by the soldiers. As Thomas and Brenda reunite with the rest of the group, Jorge interrogates Marcus, a survivor who secretly works for WCKD, into revealing the location of the Right Arm.

The group eventually arrives at a roadblock, where several people ambush them. However, two young women, Harriet and Sonya, recognize Aris and stands down. They take the Gladers, Brenda, Jorge, and Aris to the Right Arm's outpost camp, where other immune survivors are present.

Vince, leader of the Right Arm, greets them. As Brenda's infection gets worse, he threatens to shoot her, only to be stopped by Mary Cooper, a former WCKD scientist. She reveals that Thomas was their informant, as he'd become disillusioned with WCKD, so has helped the Right Arm take down WCKD's major operations ever since.

As Mary halts Brenda's infection by using an enzyme cure, she explains that the enzyme must be harvested from an Immune's body, not manufactured. Arguments over the methods of manufacturing the cure with Paige led to Mary's departure from WCKD. Teresa calls WCKD to their location since she still believes their motivations are good, which leads to them being attacked.

WCKD soldiers quickly overwhelm the rebels and line up the survivors in front of Paige and Janson, who arrive in a Berg (a very large WCKD aerial transportation vehicle). Teresa explains to Thomas that she got her memories back from WCKD whilst with Janson. Mary is shot and killed by Janson, and WCKD troops take the immune survivors, including Minho, Aris, and Sonya. With only a fraction of the survivors left at the site, Thomas plans to kill Paige and save everyone from WCKD.

Cast

 * Dylan O'Brien as Thomas
 * Kaya Scodelario as Teresa
 * Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt
 * Dexter Darden as Frypan
 * Nathalie Emmanuel as Harriet
 * Giancarlo Esposito as Jorge
 * Alexander Flores as Winston
 * Aidan Gillen as Janson
 * Ki Hong Lee as Minho
 * Jacob Lofland as Aris
 * Katherine McNamara as Sonya
 * Barry Pepper as Vince
 * Rosa Salazar as Brenda
 * Lili Taylor as Mary Cooper
 * Alan Tudyk as Marcus (credited as "Blondie")
 * Patricia Clarkson as Ava Paige

Pre-production
On October 13, 2013, almost a year before The Maze Runner's release, it was reported that Fox had started work on The Scorch Trials. It was revealed that T. S. Nowlin – who had recently worked on the  Fantastic Four reboot – would adapt Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, taking over from Noah Oppenheim, with returning director Wes Ball supervising Nowlin's script.

The early development of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials suggested to many that Fox was confident in the potential success of The Maze Runner. On November 19, 2014, John Paesano was confirmed to return to score the film. Creature designer Ken Barthelmey returned to design the "Cranks" for the film.

Casting
On September 26, 2014, Aidan Gillen was cast as Janson, also known as Rat-Man. On September 30, 2014, Rosa Salazar signed on to the cast as Brenda. Within the next few days, Mud star Jacob Lofland and Giancarlo Esposito joined the cast, playing Aris Jones and Jorge, respectively. Nathalie Emmanuel was cast as Harriet, co-leader of Group B, on October 22, 2014, and Katherine McNamara as the other co-leader on December 22. On November 3, 2014, there were two additions to the cast, with Lili Taylor as Mary Cooper, a "doctor who helps Thomas and the Gladers", and Barry Pepper as Vince, "a survivalist who is one of the last remaining soldiers of a legendary unit called the Right Arm".

Filming
On July 25, 2014, Ball announced at San Diego Comic-Con that the studio wanted to start shooting in fall 2014, should its predecessor become a success when it hit theaters.

On August 31, 2014, Ball announced they were "about nine weeks out from shooting". He also revealed "we are in New Mexico right now. We've got a crew and stages. We are rapidly approaching our shoot time. The sets are being built. A lot of the same crew is coming back. Most of the cast is coming back, except for the ones who were killed [in the first film]. The script is coming along". A week later, Ball told BuzzFeed that "we've got stages, we've got crews coming in, Dylan [O'Brien] will be back in a few weeks, we're building sets, and the script is being written. It's a bit of a race this time because we're cautiously optimistic, but we're feeling excited we're about to do something that's way more sophisticated, way more grown-up, and set up a saga here."

Principal photography commenced on October 27, 2014, in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico. Filming finished on January 27, 2015, lasting 94 days.

Soundtrack
Composed by John Paesano, the soundtrack was released on September 11, 2015.

Release
On August 31, 2014, Ball revealed he is hoping "the movie will be out in about a year". On September 21, 2014, it was announced the film would be released on September 18, 2015, in the United States. The film was released in Barco's multi-screen immersive movie format Barco Escape in across 25 countries with approximately 20 minutes of the film converted into the format. It was also released in the Dolby Vision format in Dolby Cinema in North America.

Marketing
At San Diego Comic-Con International 2014, Ball released the first piece of concept art for the film. Six stills were released on March 11, 2015.

The first official trailer was released on April 23, 2015, at 20th Century Fox's CinemaCon. It was not released online at the same time, but the 1 minute and 44-second teaser trailer premiered before Pitch Perfect 2 in May 2015. The trailer was released publicly on May 19, 2015. On July 10, 2015, a 30-minute sneak peek was screened at San Diego Comic Con International, with Ball, Dashner, and O'Brien also at the screening.

Home media
The Scorch Trials was released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 15, 2015.

Box office
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials grossed $81.7million in North America and $230.6million in other territories for a worldwide total of $312.3million, against a budget of $61million.

North America
In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Black Mass and Captive, and was projected to gross $34–36 million in its opening weekend. It made $1.7 million from its late night screenings—55% ahead of the first film's $1.1 million—from 2,900 theaters and an estimated $11 million on its opening day, which is lower than its predecessor's opening day. It finished off the weekend with $30.3 million from 3,796 theaters, which is lower than its predecessor's $32.5 million (−7%) opening in 2014. Nevertheless, the film opened at No. 1 at the box office ahead of its competitor Black Mass. Premium large formats comprised $2.75 million (9%) of the opening gross from 270 PLF screens, while Cinemark XD contributed $825,000 of that figure in 87 screens. The film relied on younger audiences, with 65 percent of the audience under the age of 25 and women making up 53 percent of ticket buyers. Also noteworthy was that Fox did not release the film in IMAX format as it had with the first installment, as all IMAX screens at the time were devoted to Everest, which was receiving a week-long "sneak preview" release in IMAX and large-format screens. But Fox did release the film on 270 PLF screens, which made up 9% of its overall gross. Deadline Hollywood reported that Fox was nevertheless happy with the result. The franchise followed a similar box-office trajectory as The Divergent Series, which dipped slightly from its first installment ($54.6 million) to second ($52.2 million). Still, both the movies proved "the consistency of the young-adult audience," said Paul Dergarabedian, Rentrak's senior analyst. "They're not growing at a huge rate, but we're also not seeing a massive drop-off." In its second weekend, the film's box office revenues fell by 53% to $14 million, slipping to third place behind Hotel Transylvania 2 ($47.5 million) and The Intern ($18.2 million). In comparison, The Maze Runner dropped 46% in its second weekend. The Scorch Trials's 10-day gross stood at $51.69 million in relation to its predecessor's $57.9 million 10-day gross.

Outside North America
Internationally, The Scorch Trials was released in a total of 76 countries. It was released overseas a week before it opened in the U.S., and earned $26.7 million in its opening weekend from 21 markets in 5,586 screens and in all markets, outperforming its predecessor. It debuted at second place at the international box office, behind Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. In its second weekend, it expanded to 41 additional markets and earned a total of $43.2 million from 12,699 screens in 66 markets, opening at No. 1 in 34 of the 41 markets as well as topping the international box office charts. In South Korea, it had the biggest opening for Fox of 2015 with $7.2 million from 804 screens. That's 41% higher than its predecessor's opening. France posted the highest opening for the film with $8.5 million followed by South Korea ($7.2 million) Russia and the CIS ($5.2 million), the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($4.9 million), and Mexico ($4.4 million). In terms of total earning, its largest market outside of the U.S. are France ($25 million), South Korea ($19 million) and the United Kingdom ($13.2 million). It opened in China—its last market—on November 4 and grossed an estimated $19.77 million on 4,945 screens in its five opening weekend ($14.6 million over three days) which is 60% above its predecessor's opening. It has grossed a total of $29.5 million in China making it the biggest market for the film, followed by France ($25.3 million) and South Korea ($19 million).

Critical response
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials received mixed reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 48%, based on 155 reviews, with an average rating of 5.41/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is an action-packed sequel at the cost of story, urgency, and mystery that the original offered." Metacritic gives the film a score of 43 out of 100, based on 29 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

The main criticisms of the film were its narrative, particularly its changes from the source material, and lack of character development. Forbes said the film suffered from "middle movie syndrome", claiming that it did not offer an introduction nor a finale. The Wrap stated that, "it doesn't offer much plot or character development". Stephen Kelly of Total Film said, "Scorch Trials ambitiously opens up its world with mixed results: gripping action, so-so script." Walter Addiego of the San Francisco Chronicle said, "there's lots of eye candy, and the pace is fast, but somehow the movie falls short."

Some critics considered it to be an improvement over its predecessor, highlighting its action sequences and performances. John Williams of The New York Times wrote, "the many chases and ludicrous narrow escapes offer respectable doses of adrenaline", and Brian Truitt of USA Today said, "Maze Runner's action, suspense and twists give movie fans of all ages a chance to embrace their inner on-the-run teenager." Rafer Guzman of Newsday said, "the teen dystopian franchise continues to play rough, and now even rougher, with satisfying results." Bilge Ebiri of Vulture said "essentially, The Scorch Trials makes up for the humdrum Apocalypse of its first half by going a little bonkers in its second."

Sequel
In March 2015, it was confirmed that Nowlin, who co-wrote the first and wrote the second film, has been set to adapt the third book, The Death Cure. Ball confirmed that, if he returned to direct, the film would not be split into two films. On July 9, 2015, it was revealed that filming is set to begin in February 2016. On September 16, 2015, it was confirmed that Ball would return to direct the third film.

Filming was scheduled to start in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on March 14, 2016. Following lead Dylan O'Brien's severe accident on set, it was later rescheduled to film between March and June 2017 in South Africa for a January 26, 2018 release.