Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)
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- During the filming of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Dylan O'Brien improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- The original script for Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was written over a decade before production finally began in 2015.
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is a 2015 American dystopian science fiction film directed by Wes Ball, the sequel to The Maze Runner. Having escaped the Maze, Thomas and the surviving Gladers discover that the organization WCKD, which imprisoned them, is hunting them to harvest a cure for the Flare โ a devastating virus that has turned much of humanity into zombie-like Cranks. The group flees across the Scorch, a desolate, sun-scorched wasteland, seeking a resistance group called the Right Arm while being pursued by WCKD's forces and surviving encounters with Cranks in abandoned cities.
The Scorch Trials shifted the franchise from the contained mystery of the Maze to a more expansive post-apocalyptic road movie, trading the first film's claustrophobic tension for larger-scale action and world-building. The abandoned mall sequence, in which the group encounters Cranks in pitch darkness, delivered the franchise's most effective horror-tinged set piece. Dylan O'Brien continued to anchor the series with committed physical performances.
The film earned $312 million worldwide on a $61 million budget. Production of the third film was delayed by over a year after Dylan O'Brien suffered serious injuries during a stunt involving a moving vehicle, an accident that highlighted the genuine physical demands placed on young franchise leads.
