Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials doesn’t waste any time resuming the intense action at the end of it’s prequel, Maze Runner. After a helicopter escape from the Glade (the maze) and a clash with some mysterious zombie-type creatures called “cranks,” Thomas, his friends, and their liberators have made it to safety. For now. The second installment in the sci-fi series follows the group’s subsequent journey through the “Scorch,” a barren post-apocalyptic wasteland that has an abundance of dangerous surprises.
Scorch Trials is vastly different than it’s predecessor. The first volume, Maze Runner, was self-contained– the entire movie was trapped in the maze with its memory-wiped inhabitants. It worked marvelously. Character development, raw dialogue, and heart-pounding action scenes invoked an attractive mystery, one that invited the viewer to wonder with Thomas and his friends, “What’s outside the maze?” The excitement produced by that question was the best part of the first film. It rivaled similar, curiosity-stimulating moments in pop-culture history– like the discovery of the computer-controlled dreamland in The Matrix and the realization that the island is not quite an island in the TV series Lost.
While Maze Runner was relatively successful, Scorch Trials was director Wes Ball’s chance to help the series emerge from the shadow of today’s dystopian giant The Hunger Games. There are flashes of brilliance. Clever mise en scène, such as an obscure security camera, add to the confusion of who is out to help the Gladers and who is trying to harm them. The well-made desert backdrop of the Scorch immerses the viewer in the foreign world. Stellar supporting performances from Giancarlo Esposito and Aidan Gillen give the series new depth.
However, the young actors who thrived in the confines of a maze seem bewildered out in the Scorch. Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), the main character and the leader of the group, lacks charisma and is quite expressionless. The ragtag group of friends are convincing in their rather haunting primal fear of death– but deliver mediocre dialogue. Halfway through the film one of the friends exclaims, “I never thought I’d say it, but I miss the Glade.” I thought to myself, “So do I.” But as the plot unfolds, the movie improves. The story, despite feeling rushed, is Scorch Trials’ salvation. Dystopian narratives are like peeling an onion. Layer after layer is removed, revealing more secrets about how the dystopian world came to be and how it works. As the onion is peeled in Scorch Trials, the story grows increasingly compelling. An unexpected romantic flame, an unforeseen alliance, and a shocking plot-twist provide a superb finish.
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is a parable about survival. It follows a classic apocalyptic dilemma– does the end justify the means? Does the continued existence of the human race necessitate any cost– even the lives of children? The setting of the film, the “Scorch,” is a symbol that embodies this very question. Being a type of hell-on-earth, the deadly desert likely has a double meaning in it’s name. One is obvious – the land is literally being scorched by the sun due to some sort of atmospheric catastrophe. A second meaning is an insinuation to an old military tactic, the “scorched earth policy.” In that scheme, forces would destroy their own land, often setting it on fire, in order to deprive an invading enemy of resources. The troops would endure a misery of their own creation in hopes of starving their foe.
While the Scorch may or may not have been man made (we’ll find out in the third Maze Runner), the name is an allusive symbol to the self-inflicted hell we create when we violate the sanctity of our neighbor. In the name of security, we wage war. In the name of revenge, we execute. In the name of economic safety, we starve the less fortunate. In reality, we are creating a hell that shares an image with the Scorch. “We had the best intentions to… save the world,” a character says near the end. The movie proves the old adage from Saint Bernard of Clairvaux – “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Scorch Trials reminds us that the road to heaven, then, is paved not with good intentions, but with self-sacrificing love for the neighbor.