Writing from Neverland

[NB: Originally this was going to be posted months ago, but I’ve only just gotten the files restored to me from a sudden laptop crash, so I’m posting this now.  There’ll be three parts, each looking at a movie in the Maze Runner trilogy, based off the books by James Dashner. Also spoilers!!]

Everyone has things they do for the people they love. Between me and my best friend/roommate, this often translates to “you’re coming to this movie with me, I have already bought the tickets.” My best friend dragged me to see this movie when it hit theaters and she’d already made her way through the books. I’d decided not to read the books until after all the movies were out, because that way she gets to see my reactions to things as they come and without the foreknowledge of what happens in the books. It’s not something that happens often, I’m generally the one who’s read all the books beforehand.

So we go to see this movie (I’m on my fourth or fifth rewatch and we’re watching it and Scorch Trials before we see Death Cure opening day. She has the tickets and I’m nowhere near emotionally prepared for this, but hey, that’s why we carry tissues and sit in the back of the theater) and I was then and am now continually blown away by parts of this movie.

My first impression was that this was someone for whom Lord of the Flies made a deep impression on. And on the surface, there are a lot of similiarities between Golding’s book and this movie. Group of boys in a secluded place, no actual adults, having to figure out how to survive. The themes of nature vs nurture and order vs chaos are heavily seeded through both works and both of them deal with the concept of the loss of innocence and refuting the idea that ignorance is bliss.

That’s about where the similarities end, because Maze Runner goes places that Lord of the Flies doesn’t. Lord of the Flies gives us a very small isolated view of a single set of incidents with a single group. Maze Runner starts there and like an umbrella expanding outward when you release it, takes that single group and those single set of circumstances and unfurls them outward into a universe that gives us both context and depth for why this even came to be.

There’s a lot to unpack in the movie.

We’re introduced to the world through the eyes of Thomas, who we first meet in a box ratcheting up somewhere, with no way to know how he got in there, where it even was, or why. We get the partial answers to these questions slowly throughout the first ten-fifteen minutes of the movie. There’s a maze, it’s all boys, there are two rules for the society there (do your share and never hurt another Glader), etc. You get your name back after the first day or so. Oh yes, in case you forgot that you were in a science-fiction film, the memories of the kids in the Glade have been taken away. None of them remember life before the Box and the Glade. They are a blank slate, allowed only to keep one thing from their previous lives.

Their name.

Names are essential to personhood. They’re allowed to keep the one small cornerstone of themselves that keeps them viable subjects. Because no matter how much they look like people, the movie also slides in hints here and there that they aren’t. People have rights. Subjects in experiments only have what they are allowed to have. The Gladers are lab rats, subjects to be studied and poked and prodded however the experiment requires them to be.

Some of the clues about this being one giant science experiment are subtly placed, some very much aren’t. The Maze itself, for example is a huge glaring indicator-it looks exactly like the mazes used in science films and clips about all kinds of scientific testing, using rats as the subjects.

The Glade itself looks a little idyllic. They’ve made the most out of a strange and confusing situation. They’ve got crops and shelters and everybody does their share. They get supplies from the Box, but clearly the supplies are there to supplement what they’ve got going on now. Also, there’s no mention of seasons either, of actual weather. We know it rains on occasion but there’s not a single mention of winter or putting stores away for the cold weather. So there’s another hint about the overall setting of the movie – clearly something has happened to where the climate has changed so drastically that the normal weather patterns are a thing of the past.

We come back to shades of Lord of the Flies when Alby mentions that there were dark days in the beginning and they had to work hard to get where they are now. There’s the loss of innocence theme again, Alby was the first one there and then once more kids started coming up in the Box, things changed. Dynamics changed, had to be revisited and revised. We don’t know how these kids got there or why, though from the memory loss, we can speculate at this point that these kids weren’t consulted about their participation in this experiment at all.

Thomas, like the audience, isn’t satisfied with just Alby and Newt’s explanation, he’s curious and needs to know more. His continual drive to get the answers and know more and understand is the chief catalyst for literally everything to do with this franchise. So we hit one of the central themes of the movie, that knowledge/understanding isn’t free and there’s a cost to pay for it. You can’t go back to who you were before your eyes were opened to the knowledge and understanding you’ve acquired, even if you want to. Knowing things comes with benefits and consequences and sometimes those consequences don’t always hit you, sometimes they hit the people you love. Sometimes that means losing people you love, sometimes that means you lose the safety and security of the life you were beginning to have. So the question comes down to “is it worth it?” For Thomas, the answer is yes. For some of the other Gladers, the answer is no.

Going back to the idea that this is one huge science experiment: Thomas’ appearance in the Glade is the beginning of the end for the peaceful existence of the Glade. He’s a variable placed into the Glade to see what happens. His appearance is a sign that the experiment is wrapping up. The daytime appearances of the Grievers, Thomas’ rash decision to go after Alby and Minho, the killing of one of the Grievers and then the attacks on the Glade itself are all signs of the endgame here, none of which might have happened if Thomas hadn’t shown up. Another variable is in what Minho and Thomas learn from the Griever corpse – the opening of a doorway that will get them out if they don’t all die first.

Teresa’s appearance in the Glade, which gives us another divergence from Golding’s book. Lord of the Flies had no women or girls on the island. Here, we see an additional set of variables in Teresa’s arrival, she’s the last one coming up in the box. There will be no more supplies or additional Gladers after her. She  has two vials of the antidote to the Griever poison in her pocket. She also has Thomas’ name. So we know straight off the bat, that she’s different, there’s something else about her. The experiment is ratcheting up the number of things thrown at the Gladers. Clearly, the whole stay and wait it out in the Glade idea is no longer an acceptable course of action for the people behind the screens. One way or the other, things will change for the Gladers.

Thomas’ main antagonist in this movie is a fellow Glader, Gally, who while he is definitely an antagonist and you are supposed to dislike him on that front alone. I can’t. Gally, for all that he comes off as a jerk, is someone who actively cares for the Glade and his fellow Gladers. Almost as much as Newt and Alby care (and they are the Dad and Mom figures for the rest of the Gladers). Thomas is a threat to him and to the Glade and he reacts appropriately to that assumption. Gally’s criticisms of Thomas aren’t really off-base either, there is some merit to them, which is why I can’t hate him. He’s doing exactly what he feels he needs to, in order to protect what he sees as important.

So they have to fight to get out. And it’s in this fight that we really get a small glimpse at what’s behind the curtain, what on earth could have possibly led to these harsh conditions being necessary. Because as harsh as the Glade was, the outside world is worse by several orders of magnitude.

The performance put on by Ava Paige and WCKD (the World Catastrophe Killzone Department) is masterful. The idea that these kids who have just fought their way out of the maze, only to find that they were being surveilled and treated like rats in a maze are being told that it was all for a purpose. That this all happened for the greater good. We also find out a little more about the world outside of the Maze. She flat out acknowledges that they tampered with their memories here as she’s telling them about the sun scorching the world and then the Flare virus taking over. The Maze Trials were only the first step in trying to find out what makes the Immunes different from the regular uninfected humans (what’s left of them). She warns them against the potential enemies that WCKD has and reminds them that WCKD is “good.” A speech designed to inspire them with the idea that this was for a purpose, that they were trying to save the world and that they (the Gladers) are very important. It’s amazing use of propaganda.

Then right after that, we have the whole thing with Gally showing up, injured and out of his mind with the poison from the Grievers as a clear sign that there’s no going back to the Glade now. They can only go forward. The well has been poisoned, it’s time to move on.

Chuck dies and Gally is breathing his last when the “rescue” ‘copter shows up and the strange men with black gear and weapons come to shove all the remaining members of the group that came with Thomas out of the maze base and into the ‘copter.

“You’re all safe, kid. You’ll be alright now.” As the camera pans out and we see just how staggeringly large the maze is and then our first actual glance of the wreckage the world has become, your breath catches.   A cold sort of dread starts to seep in as we see Ava Paige, hale and hearty, at the board meeting, talking about Phase Two. That dread that steals in as you realize the movie is over, but the danger isn’t done yet for these kids. That this thing, this project, is so much bigger than you might have originally considered.

It’s the perfect tee up to the next installment, The Scorch Trials.   Stay tuned for that review post coming up soon.