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“The greatest weapon against darkness is hope” – After escaping ‘The Maze”, Thomas, Newt and Minho are led to a supposedly ‘new life’, where they will be safe from WCKD, safe from harm, safe from danger. They learn of the uninhabitable outside condition – effects of ‘the Scorch’ – which has led to the complete desolation of cities, and abandonment of basic infrastructure. As the remaining Gladers make friends in this new facility, they find that their new asylum is not what it seems, and when the opportunity comes, they have to make the split-second decision: life in the ‘Scorch’ or life as a test subject?​

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‘Maze Runner – Scorch Trials’ is the sequel to ‘Maze Runner’, and second movie in the ‘Maze Runner’ Trilogy. Despite (or perhaps as a result of) following a very well-crafted film, Scorch Trials doesn’t quite match the excitement and engagement of the first ‘Maze Runner’ movie, and it feels as though it is merely a filler between the first and last movies. It doesn’t offer much thrill, and the main plot of this movie involves killing off side-characters (such as Winston) in order to emphasize and build up the movie and the importance of Thomas’s mission. To rephrase, ‘Scorch Trials’ merely creates context through death, so that the final movie, ‘Death Cure’, is more impactful and has a stronger basis/background. However, to be fair, the final movie does indeed evoke empathy, fear and understanding for the characters, so ‘Scorch Trials’ does play a part in the trilogy as a whole. ​

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In ‘Scorch Trials’, the death of ‘Winston’ a close friend from the ‘Maze’ adds to the impact of Chuck’s death on Thomas, making his motive to save the Gladers ever stronger, and perhaps slightly weighing on his guilty conscience. This death, however, solidified the group’s resolution, and tightened their friendships, which created and added to the sense of hurt and betrayal at Teresa’s actions. ​

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The themes and ideas that are questioned in ‘Scorch Trials’ take the meaning of betrayal one step further, with a thick layer of deceit, we question the authenticity of our own ‘perfect’ lives. When Thomas and Aris make their discovery, the shared reluctance of the group displays the natural animalistic and instinctive nature of wanting to stick to positive and inherently ‘good’ things (such as the ‘rehab facility’), even when they are told that it definitely has/will have a detrimental impact on their lives. Their doubt and questioning also shows how people naturally abandon things when their use is expired. (as the saying goes ‘the day a blind man sees, the first thing he throws away is the stick that has helped him all his life’). In this case, the group don’t trust Thomas’s word, even after he lead them all out of the maze, because they feel that Thomas has already played his part, and that the past is behind them. That is to say that the group members are so eagerly awaiting their new lives, that they have (nearly) forgotten the horrors and pain that they experienced in the maze. Thus ‘Scorch Trials’ brings such a human/animalistic habit to our attention, and shows the importance of remembering and incorporating the past into the future.​

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In conclusion, ‘Maze Runner – Scorch Trials’ has well-crafted and developed themes and ideas, but generally lacks in plot/thrill, and feels too much like a filler-movie between the first and last movies of the trilogy. It adds context and depth to ‘Death Cure’, and so works well in the trilogy as a whole, but as an individual movie it lacks content and plot.​

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