Maze Runner: The Death Cure Information

Maze Runner: The Death Cure (also known simply as The Death Cure) is a 2018 American dystopian science fiction action film directed by Wes Ball and written by T.S. Nowlin, based on the novel The Death Cure written by James Dashner. It is the sequel to the 2015 film Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and the third and final installment in the Maze Runner film series. The film stars Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Dexter Darden, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen, Walton Goggins, Ki Hong Lee, Jacob Lofland, Katherine McNamara, Barry Pepper, Will Poulter, Rosa Salazar, and Patricia Clarkson.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure was originally set to be released on February 17, 2017, in the United States by 20th Century Fox, but the studio rescheduled the film for January 26, 2018 in theatres and IMAX, allowing time for Dylan O'Brien to recover from injuries he sustained during filming.

Plot

Thomas, Newt, and Frypan are the last of the "Gladers" immune to the Flare virus that infected the world's population. They invade a WKCD transport train in order to save fellow Glader Minho. However, they take the wrong cargo car, and Minho is transported to the "Last City", WKCD's base of operations. Against the orders of The Right Arm resistance led by the newly sworn Vince, the three leave their base camp to break inside the city. The group make their way through a tunnel, only to be attacked by Cranks, humans zombified by the Flare. However, they are saved by Jorge and Brenda, who secretly followed them to the Last City. In the WCKD headquarters, where the flare virus is starting to become airborne, the serum created from Minho's blood is tested on a Flare-infected girl, which seems to work at first, but ultimately fails, to the frustration of Teresa who is now working with WCKD to find a cure following her betrayal of Thomas and the others.

The group make it to the edge of the wall of the Last City, which surrounds and protects the city from Cranks. Outside the wall, the group walks among Flare-infected people who are rallying in protest to be let into the city. However, WCKD's troop patrol opens fire on the protesters, who retreat. In the commotion, Thomas, Newt, Frypan, Brenda and Jorge are captured by a group of masked men and taken to a hideout, where one of the masked men is revealed to be Gally, who survived the stab wound inflicted upon him by Minho. Gally reveals that after they left him to die, Lawrence, a rebellion leader for the infected, rescued him and nursed him back to health. Gally takes them to see Lawrence, who allows them to enter the Last City through a secret entrance. Gally leads Thomas and Newt through the tunnels and into the city and then uses a telescope to spy on the WCKD headquarters, spotting Teresa. After an angry Newt confronts Thomas about whether he still has feelings for Teresa, Newt reveals to Thomas that he is infected with the Flare virus, and hypothesises that he was never immune and was put into the maze to see how he would fare against immunes. Gally tells Thomas that Teresa can get them in, and Thomas gets her to follow him into an alley, where Gally captures her. The group takes her to an abandoned church where she agrees to help them, as they need to use her fingerprint to get inside WCKD. Teresa also removes the Gladers' trackers that WCKD put in them before they entered the Maze. While Teresa removes Thomas's tracker, she comments that Brenda should be long dead by now as serum from an immune could only delay the transformation into a crank by a few days to a few weeks, which Thomas doesn't believe, while Jorge returns to the camp on an errand.

Thomas, Newt, and Gally escort Teresa inside WCKD and toward the location of the Immunes. Gally looks after the Immune children and goes to find the serum stockpile for the rebellion, while Thomas, Newt, and Teresa search for Minho. They are discovered and chased by a vengeful Janson, who leads WCKD's troops, intent on killing Thomas. Teresa helps them escape to find Minho, before running off to do a blood test on Thomas' blood she got while removing his tracker. Gally gets the serum and takes the Immune children outside to a bus where Brenda is waiting. After Gally makes his way back into WCKD to find Thomas, Brenda is forced to leave with the Immune children in the bus as WCKD forces close in on them. Thomas and Newt make their way to where Minho is being kept in the medical wing, where they reunite. They are chased by Janson before jumping from a window into the water below to escape. Meanwhile, Teresa discovers Thomas' blood can cure the Flare permanently. She shares her discovery with WCKD's leader Ava Paige and both agree they must find Thomas. Brenda and the Immune children are cornered by WCKD authorities. However, Frypan saves them by using a crane to bring the bus outside the wall. Meanwhile, Lawrence rallies his rebels outside the city before blowing up the wall and killing himself in the process, allowing his rebel allies and the infected people to storm into the Last City and attack.

Outside the headquarters, Gally finds Thomas, Minho, and Newt. Thomas sends Minho and Gally ahead to bring back some of the serum they'd gotten from WCKD, which was with Brenda and the Immune children, for the rapidly sickening Newt. While waiting, Newt gives Thomas a necklace with a silver cylinder on the end, before passing out. Teresa transmits her voice over the city's emergency broadcast system, telling Thomas his blood can save Newt and all he needs to do is return to WCKD. However, Newt regains consciousness, almost completely a Crank, and attacks Thomas. While struggling, Newt comes to his senses for a moment and begs Thomas to kill him. With no other option, Thomas mercifully stabs and kills Newt.

Thomas makes his way to WCKD and confronts Ava, who confirms that his blood can cure The Flare, and stresses that WCKD's intentions are only for the good of the world. However, she is killed by Janson, who is infected by the Flare. Janson knocks out Thomas and drags him to a medical room where Teresa is ready to extract his blood. However, he reveals that he and WCKD are only truly interested in curing those whom they please, which results in Teresa turning on him and freeing Thomas. Janson chases Thomas and Teresa into a lab, shooting at them. Thomas is shot in the stomach, leaving Teresa to deal with Janson. Janson grabs Teresa and threatens to kill her, so Thomas frees two cranks captive in the lab which attack and kill Janson, allowing Thomas and Teresa to escape to the rooftop where they are trapped, surrounded by flames from explosions caused by Lawrence's army. Suddenly, a helicopter piloted by Brenda, Vince and Jorge arrives, and Thomas makes it aboard, but, to his horror, Teresa falls to her death as the WCKD building collapses from fire and more explosions

Thomas, Minho, Frypan, Gally, Brenda, Vince and Jorge reunite with Aris, Harriet, Sonya and the rest of the Immunes and The Right Arm, escaping via boat to a "safe haven" on an island. There, Thomas discovers the necklace Newt gave him had a note concealed in it from Newt to Thomas. Still traumatized by Newt and Teresa's deaths, he reads the note, in which Newt tells him he is not afraid to die, and to look after himself and everyone, before thanking Thomas for being his friend. Vince erects a stone for everyone to carve the names of loved ones, the rock is soon covered with names including Alby, Chuck and Newt, and Thomas carves Teresa's name onto the stone.

Cast

• Dylan O'Brien as Thomas
• Kaya Scodelario as Teresa
• Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Newt
• Dexter Darden as Frypan
• Nathalie Emmanuel as Harriet
• Giancarlo Esposito as Jorge
• Aidan Gillen as Janson
• Walton Goggins as Lawrence
• Ki Hong Lee as Minho
• Jacob Lofland as Aris
• Katherine McNamara as Sonya
• Barry Pepper as Vince
• Will Poulter as Gally
• Rosa Salazar as Brenda
• Patricia Clarkson as Ava Paige

Production

In March 2015, it was confirmed that T.S. Nowlin, who co-wrote the first and wrote the second film, would adapt Maze Runner: The Death Cure.

Wes Ball confirmed that, if he returns to direct, the film will not be split into two parts.

On September 16, 2015, it was confirmed that Ball would return to direct the final film.

Filming

Principal photography began on March 14, 2016, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Previously it was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con International that filming would begin in February 2016.

On March 18, 2016, it was reported that actor Dylan O'Brien was injured on set and was hospitalized. James Dashner announced via Twitter that the production was postponed after the accident. It was said that the producers were "looking to" resume filming around mid-May. According to the Directors Guild of Canada's production list, the film was scheduled to resume filming on May 9, and complete principal photography on July 26. However, on April 29, 2016, production was shut down indefinitely as O'Brien's injuries were more serious than previously thought.

Filming resumed on March 6, 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa. In May 2017, it was announced that Walton Goggins would play the part of Lawrence, described as "an unusual and dangerous character who is part-revolutionary, part-anarchist, and a voice for the voiceless people." Principal photography wrapped on June 3, 2017.

Release

It was originally scheduled to be released in the United States on February 17, 2017. However, due to Dylan O'Brien's injuries, the studio said that it was unlikely that this date was going to be met. On May 27, 2016, 20th Century Fox rescheduled the film for January 12, 2018, allowing time for Dylan O'Brien to fully recover.

On April 22, 2017, the studio delayed the release date once again, to February 9, 2018, in order to allow more time for post-production; months later, on August 25, the studio moved the release forward two weeks. The film premiered on January 26, 2018 in theatres and IMAX.

Reception

Box office

, Maze Runner: The Death Cure has grossed $23.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $82 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $105.5 million, against a production budget of $62 million.

In the United States and Canada, The Death Cure was released alongside the wide expansion of Hostiles, and was expected to gross around $20 million from 3,786 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $1.5 million from Thursday night previews, in between the $1.1 million made by the first film and $1.7 million by the second, and $8.4 million on its first day. It ended up opening to $23.5 million, down 22% from the previous film but still finishing atop the box office.

A week prior to its North American release, the film debuted in South Korea, Australia and Taiwan, grossing $15.1 million over its opening weekend.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 44% based on 114 reviews, and an average rating of 5.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Maze Runner: The Death Cure may offer closure to fans of the franchise, but for anyone who hasn't already been hooked, this bloated final installment is best left unseen." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.