Science fiction movies often drop the audience into an alien environment, and much of the genre’s draw is in this experience of figuring out the strange, new world. Sometimes, of course, it’s literally an alien environment, such as the cantina scene in Star Wars. But sometimes, the new world is a vision of our own future on Earth. Often, the central character of the story is also new to the environment, and we the audience learn alongside him or her. As Morpheus introduces Neo to the truth of the Matrix and the real world outside, he introduces us as well; as Sully explores Pandora for the first time, we do too.
The Maze Runner puts an interesting spin on this trope. The movie opens with a boy waking up in a freight elevator rising through a dark corridor and then arriving in the Glade, a rustic colony of boys and young men. He remembers no details of his life before the lift other than his name, Thomas. He soon realizes that all the residents of the Glade arrived in the same state. They all know nothing of their lives before, including why they’re in the Glade, but they know that someone has put them there. Every month, a new “greenie” arrives and goes through the same extreme culture shock.
The Glade is surrounded by four huge, stone walls. Each one has a door that is open all day, but they lead out into a giant maze. The doors close every night, and no one has ever spent a night in the maze and lived – they are stung by enormous robotic scorpions called Grievers. So, the boys have a conundrum. They sense that the maze must be their way out, though they’ve searched for years and never found an exit. In the meantime, they need to feed, shelter and govern themselves to survive.
This scenario makes for a fascinating update of Lord of the Flies. The boys have had to create their own society, learning how to exist peacefully in trying circumstances. They survive by sticking to their rules and their roles, as in other stories about children without adults.
The difference here, beyond the science fiction set-up, is the monthly introduction of new people. How do you sustain society in harsh conditions when you never know who will join you? The boys can’t just be complacent, but have to instruct new arrivals and find jobs for them. This community’s survival depends on its hospitality and inclusion. As a miniature of humanity, this makes it more compelling and true.
Like many of the biggest blockbusters of recent years, The Maze Runner is based on a popular YA novel. However, this film distinguishes itself in some important ways. While many recent science fiction and fantasy films bloat into behemoths, or stretch single books across multiple movies, The Maze Runner holds itself to a brisk, tight pace. And, while most of these films cast themselves with celebrities to draw an audience, The Maze Runner features unknown boys who give raw, real performances.
One more comparison, inevitable for some of us: the story of Thomas entering this doomed world and doing his best to save it is a subtle Christ allegory, for he is different from the other residents, and he comes with portents of irrevocable change. N.T. Wright, in Jesus and the Victory of God, makes the controversial argument that Christ didn’t always know his vocation as Messiah but had to piece it together from the evidence he saw in his life. Many say that Wright loses Christ’s deity at that point, but don’t we lose his humanity if we say he came to Earth with a fully-formed Trinitarian theology? Perhaps, like Thomas, he had his memory taken and had to figure out how to save the world. I won’t spoil the ending except to say that life does not go on as it always has in the Glade.
You might also find this review of The Maze Runner helpful:
;