In The Maze Runner Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) woke up as he was being delivered to the glade. He had no memory of who he was or why he’d become a member of a community of young people; among them Minho (Ki Hong Lee), lead maze runner; Newt (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), a good friend and advisor, Gally (Will Poulter), a leader and adversary and Teresa (Kaya Scodelario), the only female glader, with whom Thomas may have a potentially dark history. Together they are trapped, surrounded by 200 foot walls and an ever-changing maze. Bad turns to worse when the gladers finally escape the maze, only to discover they are in the middle of a desolate wasteland called The Scorch. In Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, Thomas and the surviving gladers meet new allies while discovering clues about a mysterious group behind all of their “tests” – an organisation known as WCKD.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure comes to home release on May 28
With Maze Runner: The Death Cure, the motives of WCKD become clearer: Dr. Ava Paige, WCKD’s executive director is close to what she believes is a cure for the disease known as The Flare, an infection that has decimated the world’s population. But the cure comes by sacrificing the few young people left in the world who are apparently immune. In order to free those who have been rounded up as test subjects, including his friend Minho, Thomas must now band together with fellow survivors, old and new, and take the battle to what may be the last remaining city and the final stronghold of WCKD. He must break into the super-secure WKCD headquarters and try to bring down the organization from the inside.
Action reaches new heights in this mission-oriented third and final segment of The Maze Runner series. The Wes Ball-directed adaptation of the bestselling YA series is a 20th Century Fox production. The screenplay was written by T.S. Nowlin. Producers are Ellen Goldsmith-Vein of The Gotham Group, Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen of Temple Hill Productions Joe Hartwick, Jr., Wes Ball, and Lee Stollman.
Here, Dylan O’Brien and Thomas Brodie-Sangster discuss their time filming the final Maze Runner instalment; read on to find out what they had to say…
There are so many fantastic action sequences in the film. Did you have a favourite to film?
O’Brien: The film has a lot of great action sequences. I think that the Wicked infiltration was pretty fun.
Brodie-Sangster: I’d say the opening as I thought that was great. It looks cool and it was fun being in the Kalahari Desert.
How difficult was that scene to shoot in that heat while carrying so much hardware?
O’Brien: The heat reminded me of Baton Rouge a little bit. It was intense. It was dry desert heat though.
Brodie-Sangster: I felt sorry for the Wicked soldiers because they had full masks and balaclavas on and were running up and down the train tracks with real, heavy guns.
O’Brien: They had to sprint down the train tracks from so far away.
Often with franchise films like this, you’d have a new director with each instalment. What was the benefit of having Wes Ball direct all of these films?
O’Brien: Having one director throughout, but also the fact that it was Wes, created the language for this entire thing. He created this very specific world that came entirely from his vision, but he also created an aesthetic that would change from film to film. It would look and feel like a different film that had its own flavour to it, but it still has the same Maze Runner element. It becomes rarer and rarer for that to happen and I think it just allows it to be one cohesive story overall, rather than breaking it up in any way, vision-wise.
Apart from the aesthetic, can you talk about any other points of different from the other films in the trilogy?
Brodie-Sangster: The film does have a different feel, a different vibe and a different pace from the last two. I think that all three are very separate-feeling movies to watch. They look different, the colours are different and they all have their unique colour palette which is cool. This is the first time we’re not running away from something or someone. We’re actually taking something head-on and running towards something and going on a mission that isn’t just aimed at survival. We’re on a rescue mission so there’s a different feel to it.
One of the themes of the film is about creating your own surrogate family unit. Do you guys feel like a family after working together over such a long period?
O’Brien: We definitely feel like a family. We feel incredibly close and it’s genuine. We have genuine friendships and a bond throughout the group and we have a genuine love for each other. It’s always helped our films I think. It’s one of those intangible things that you can’t control or predict. The chemistry just has to happen. It’s a special thing and when it does happen it really comes across on screen. For a film like this, it’s such a huge part of the spirit of the books and the story because of the love and togetherness of this group and the family aspect to it. So yes, that’s genuine off-camera and it goes such a long way.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure is available now digitally, and hits DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD on May 28.
Tagged in Thomas Brodie-Sangster Dylan O'Brien