Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

After escaping the deadly maze, Thomas and the remaining Gladers are not safe for long. They reemerge into a ruined world and set out to learn who is behind WCKD and why the trials were staged. As they cross the Scorch, a scorched and chaotic landscape full of gangs, scavengers, and a virulent threat, alliances shift and old loyalties are tested. The group links up with resistance fighters and faces overwhelming odds while trying to rescue captured friends and piece together WCKD's intentions, all while racing against time and a disease that changes people in brutal ways.

Directed by Wes Ball, this 2015 adaptation is based on James Dashner's novel of the same name, with a screenplay by T.S. Nowlin. The film keeps much of the book's framework while expanding set pieces and action for the screen.

The movie did well enough commercially to keep the franchise moving forward, paving the way for the next installment. Its box office performance confirmed there was audience appetite for another chapter in the series.

As part of the YA dystopian wave of the 2010s, the film helped cement the Maze Runner series as a mainstream franchise, and it raised Dylan O'Brien's profile as an action lead. Scenes set in the Scorch and the chaotic fight sequences with Crank-like enemies became a recognizable visual shorthand for harsher post-apocalyptic set pieces in similar films.

Critical response was mixed to positive, with many viewers praising the kinetic action and the film's bold, bleak worldbuilding while some critics faulted its pacing and plotting. Audiences responded more warmly, reflected in an average vote around 6.7 out of 10 from over 10,000 votes. The movie keeps recurring themes front and center, like trust versus control, the ethical cost of survival, and the question of who deserves to decide humanity's fate.