Dylan O'Brien Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Nathalie Emmanuel
Director: Wes Ball
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Rated: M
Running Time: 132 minutes

Synopsis: In Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, the next chapter of the epic Maze Runner saga, Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD's vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
Release Date: September 10th, 2015

About the Production

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials picks up where The Maze Runner left off, as the Gladers are unloaded from the chopper that flew them away from the maze. The helicopter's doors fly open and masked soldiers whisk them into an underground bunker. The bunker is run by the duplicitous Janson (Aidan Gillen), who supplies a feast and warm beds, while warning, 'The world out there's in a rather precarious situation. We're all hanging on by a very thin thread. The fact that you kids can survive that damned virus…"

Janson orders the Gladers to undergo exhaustive testing in the med-lab, and interrogates Thomas about his memories of WCKD, demanding to know whose side he's on. Thomas has his own questions, like why has Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) been separated from the other Gladers? The bunker's prevailing military presence offers no answers. However, the loner Aris (Jacob Lofland), who has arrived from another maze, seeks out Thomas and leads him to a restricted area where corpses are heaped on gurneys.

Thomas suspects the bunker is run by none other than WCKD, despite Janson's protestations to the contrary. Thomas must convince the Gladers they aren't safe here. Their loyalty to each other is all they can count on.

The Gladers mount a breakout, fighting against soldiers armed with electric projectile weaponry. Led by Thomas and Minho (Ki Hong Lee), they grab Teresa from a private surgery room and flee the bunker into a raging sandstorm.

They're now in the Scorch, a futuristic badlands burnt by solar flares. In this barren wasteland, the Gladers trudge toward the unknown. A guilt-ridden Thomas wonders if he should have led them out of the maze. They survived in the Glade but could die in this area of scorched Earth.

The group stumbles into a long-abandoned shopping mall coated with sand and debris, where they re-evaluate their options. Thomas and Aris divulge what they overheard in the bunker about rumors of a guerilla resistance group in the mountains called the Right Arm Camp.

Chaos erupts in the mall when they are suddenly attacked by the Cranks, dangerous and mutated creatures that are the living embodiment of the flare virus.

The Cranks chase the Gladers from the mall and back into the Scorch, where the Gladers suffer a fatal casualty of one of their own as a result of the horrific encounter.

The remaining Gladers trek onward, discovering the ruins of a destroyed city.

They seek shelter in a multi-story edifice of scaffolding that's inhabited by scavengers. Here in Jorge's Lair, hardscrabble squatters have established their own hierarchy, explains fiery resident Brenda (Rosa Salazar). Brenda introduces them to Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito), who presides over the pirate-like denizens from his penthouse, where he monitors radio transmissions he believes are emitting from the fabled Right Arm Camp.

WCKD attacks the compound, searching for the Gladers, who flee in the ensuing chaos, scattering into underground tunnels and the ravaged city.

The Gladers must determine if the Right Arm Camp mountain hideout an apocryphal illusion, or truly a safe haven for those immune to the Flare.

The Saga Continues

The Maze Runner was the first book in the best-selling post-apocalyptic YA book series by James Dashner. Published in 2009, it became a New York Times bestseller and captured the imaginations of readers around the world, who described it as a combination of Lord of the Flies, The Hunger Games, and the legendary television series Lost.

The second book, The Scorch Trials, was published in 2010, and a third tome, The Death Cure, was published in 2011.

The books' legions of fans embraced The Maze Runner, which grossed more than $340 million worldwide. Since it all began with James Dashner and his imaginative worlds and vivid, relatable characters, the filmmakers were eager to have the author involved in the development of the Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials screenplay. 'We talked a lot about changes that we feel are necessary to make that transition from book to movie," James Dashner recalls. 'Some things do have to change, but I have seen firsthand their tremendous effort to stay true to the characters, to the storyline, and to the spirit of the world. I couldn't be happier."

Specifically, according to James Dashner, 'We really want people to feel like they are getting enough answers in this film. These answers will lead into even more in the third film, which will be about resolution and revelation."

While The Maze Runner was about escape, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is about a journey. Explains director Wes Ball, who made his feature debut with The Maze Runner and returns for the next chapter: 'In this film, we learn there is a much bigger world waiting for Thomas and the Gladers, one that's been ravaged by the sun and a deadly virus. These young people have to find their place in this world and figure out how they can fix it. The Gladers are very valuable to several different groups, and they're torn between saving the world and their personal freedom."

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials answers many of the questions posed in the first film. The Gladers learn that most of the Earth has been destroyed, and that it was the ruthless scientific government entity known as World Catastrophe Killzone Department (WCKD) that sent the Gladers into the maze as a survival challenge.
They discover that some of them are immune to the fatal Flare disease that is ravaging the population. These Immunes hold biological enzymes within their bodies that may help others resist the Flare.

'The Maze Runner was about claustrophobia and we were always closed in and never saw a horizon. But in this new film we go out into the open world with a giant desert of sand dunes swallowing the whole world basically," says Wes Ball.

Producer Wyck Godfrey notes, 'This story begins to unravel the mystery of what has happened to the world and how it was ravaged. Our characters find some answers by embarking on a very dangerous journey.

'The central question of the second film is: maybe we never should have left? It's kind of thematically what you go through in adolescence," Wyck Godfrey continues. 'You spend your childhood wanting to get away from your house and out into the real world. Then as adults, we start to learn that things are not what we thought they were, they can be very difficult. When the outside world is revealed, it can be kind of imposing and dangerous, and that's what happens to the Gladers."

The Maze Runner co-screenwriter T.S. Nowlin says, 'Mystery was the engine that drove people through the first movie – who built this maze and why? The engine we created for the second movie was to make it more of a chase and a fugitive story."

Most of the cast from The Maze Runner was contacted to return for the new film, including Teen Wolf star Dylan O'Brien.

The actor notes: 'In the first film, Thomas transitions from being a boy to a man, and he becomes a leader. To the Gladers, he represents hope, and Thomas realizes it's up to him to get everyone out of the Glade. In this movie, he shoulders the responsibility for what's happened to his fellow Gladers. Thomas convinced them to go for it and escape from the maze. Now they enter this world that's not necessarily what they thought it would be. He promised his friends that leaving the maze was the right move – it was going to save them. So Thomas must carry that weight because he now realizes that they aren't safe. It might even be worse for them out there in the Scorch, and in the hands of WCKD, essentially. So it's now about him having to deal with that and staying strong."

The new film's haunting antagonists are the Cranks, dangerous and mutated creatures that are the living embodiment of the Flare virus. 'The Cranks aren't just monsters," says Wes Ball. 'These are beings that while being very frightening, also evoke some sympathy because they were once people who have had their lives ripped out from under them."

More formidable than even the monstrous Cranks are the forces running WCKD. 'WCKD is a metaphor for authority figures and authoritative governments that believe an individual isn't as important as the whole. I think that's something young people rebel against," says Wyck Godfrey. 'They want their own lives. They want to make their own choices."

On the other hand, he says, 'WCKD is not 100 percent evil. They are trying to find a cure to a disease that's wiping out humanity. But in doing so, they are wiping out the few people that can live with this disease and perhaps restart the Earth. So there's some moral ambiguity there."

For James Dashner, creating these characters and their worlds has been liberating: 'There are parts of our world that actually are dark and dystopic today. So this is a fun way to go through an adventure, to have some twists and turns in the action, and to also trigger some real moral questions about our world and the direction it's heading."

Who's Who In The Scorch

The cast members on their characters and what to expect from them:

Dylan O'Brien plays the resourceful leader Thomas: 'My favorite thing about Thomas is how courageous he is in this situation he's been put in. I love his heart. In this movie, he carries a lot of weight on his shoulders, because there's no way of knowing if this band of resistance fighters they've heard about is just a fantasy, and if it's something that's talked about to make people in the Scorch feel hopeful. What if it's just nonexistent? In which case, Thomas would be leading his friends into a very bad situation."

Ki Hong Lee portrays the protective Minho: 'Minho springs into action when he needs to. He's a very reserved guy who only speaks when he absolutely has to. Minho is the -muscle' of the group. He's the most physical and the strongest. His role now is to protect everybody and make sure there is always a way out, because the Gladers always seem to get stuck in bad situations."
Kaya Scodelario has the role of Teresa, the mysterious young woman who shares a past connection with Thomas: 'I was very excited to get into Teresa exploring her own mind and instincts. She may or may not agree with Thomas. I wanted Teresa to separate from the others and explore what she would be making of this world. Teresa is very singular and alone. She's physically there but her mind is elsewhere. Her thought process is very different from the others. She doesn't really have anyone to share that with. It's been lonelier as an actor, but I like to play with that. Life isn't rainbows and fairytales."

Thomas Brodie-Sangster portrays the perceptive Newt, who unites the Gladers: 'Newt is referred to as the glue and I think that's true. He keeps the group together and moving forward. He's not necessarily the best at leading; that's more Thomas's domain. But he's good at making sure that everyone is on the same page and feeling enthusiastic about where they're going and what they're doing."

Dexter Darden plays Frypan, the amiable cook: 'In the first movie, Frypan brought people together and kept them together. What brings people together more than food? In this movie, he continues to do that. Frypan still tries to keep the moments lighthearted because they are all facing way different challenges. They're not facing [the first film's monsters/antagonists] Grievers now; they're facing a world that we've never known and never experienced. Frypan tries to keep their spirits up, as Thomas keeps them moving."

Alexander Flores has the part of Winston: 'In the Glade Winston's job was as a butcher. Winston wasn't sure he could trust Thomas, but after being persuaded by Minho, he came to respect Thomas. Now the characters are trying to keep each other alive. Winston is fighting to protect himself and his friends, and to find out why WCKD put them in the maze and what makes the Gladers so important to WCKD."

Jacob Lofland plays the loner Aris, who joins the Gladers in the bunker: 'Aris helps the Gladers escape from WCKD, but at the same time he doesn't really know where to go. So it's a team effort between him and Thomas to try to get away from WCKD as fast as they can."

Rosa Salazar portrays Brenda, an insider at Jorge's Lair: 'I have this scene where Rosa basically tells Thomas, `It's my way or the highway,' and that's very Brenda. It's like, `I'm going to help you, but we're going to abide by my rules because I'm tougher than you, I'm faster than you, and I've been out here for a long time.' Her independence really jumps out at you. She's been cast out and on her own, and Jorge is her father figure but she's still really tough and independent and that can trouble her sometimes. She's not going to sit down and have coffee with you and talk about your feelings."

Giancarlo Esposito takes on the role of the commanding Jorge, who controls the scavengers in a lair he's named for himself: 'Jorge is a bit of a badass, but even more than that, he's a reader, he knows history, and he's decided to create a world for himself and the folks who follow him, without being part of WCKD. So Jorge creates a haven for himself by doing some things that could be looked at as reprehensible. He creates a place – a lair –where he can keep his people safe. When this band of Gladers finds him, he is faced with making a choice: Does he do what he would normally do, which would be to sell them? But he is interested in finding the Right Arm. So what I love is he's a combination of darkness and light. He's fighting his inner demons and making a decision to be part of the salvation of the world, as opposed to part of its destruction."

Patricia Clarkson plays the brainy, imperious Ava Paige, who's in charge at WCKD: 'Ava Paige is fearless. The closer she gets towards the cure, the more ruthless she becomes. She is a formidable woman and believes she is acting for the greater good. In Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, she is tested but she still triumphs. Her enduring strength continues…."

Aidan Gillen plays the conniving Janson: 'Janson works for WCKD, and his defining characteristic is his ambition. Janson initially positions himself as the Gladers' benefactor, but becomes someone they fear. He's driven, precise and has his eye on the future -- and, maybe, on Ava Paige's job."

Lili Taylor plays the compassionate doctor Mary, who left WCKD to join the Right Arm Camp: 'Mary thought she'd found a safe place but she should have known WCKD wouldn't allow anyone with her skills to get the better of them. But because she's on the right side of the fight, she's able to keep going and if need be make a sacrifice."

Barry Pepper portrays the stalwart Vince, who heads the Right Arm Camp: 'Vince is the leader of this resistance group in the hills, the Right Arm. They've fled the cities and collected gear along the way. They are a guerrilla rebel group that is gearing up in the mountains as a force against WCKD. And their objective is to collect as many of the survivors as they can, to be a strong force against the oppressive regime."

Nathalie Emmanuel plays the self-reliant Harriet, the leader of a group of young women who escaped Maze B to join the Right Arm Camp: 'Harriet is really tough and she is a warrior. She's survived a maze, just like Thomas and his gang did. She's not afraid of fighting for freedom. She and Sonya are pretty much two badass chicks who look after each other and they looked after Aris when he was in their maze."

Katherine McNamara is Sonya, who escaped Maze B with Harriet to find refuge in the Right Arm Camp: 'Sonya is this really rough-and-tumble kind of badass chick. She was the second in command of group B, which WCKD set up in a different maze. We made it out and ended up at the Right Arm. She and Harriet are best friends who communicate without even speaking. They carry rifles and she has a handgun and I have a gut knife and a hatchet strapped to my leg, so we're not to be messed with!"

About The Production

Prior to the start of production, and to prepare for its many rigors, key cast underwent boot camp training. They ran two to three miles daily in Albuquerque's mile-high altitude, and practiced stunts, like Dylan O'Brien's long slide through a closing door at the last minute and Ki Hong Lee's leap-into-midair-kick at the bunker. With the director's emphasis on naturalism, the cast took the stunts to heart.

The Maze Runner had filmed mostly at a single location, a heavily wooded glade near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but for Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, a string of diverse locales was required to bring to life the expansive settings and journey.

In central New Mexico, near Albuquerque, the production found locations to support the film's earth-toned, post-apocalyptic dystopian vision, including whirling desert sand dunes stretching under huge skies; parched earth; a dilapidated mall; hidden urban tunnels and storm drains; a derelict salvage yard; and a pristine mountain canyon that offered hope that nature might somehow endure.

The 58-day shoot found director Wes Ball once again merging his vision for imaginative visual set pieces with naturalistic performances.

Gone were the greens of the wooded Glade, replaced by earth tones of browns, blues, and reds. Explains Wes Ball: 'This movie has a lot of action and a new look at an epic story we began in the maze. It has a different palette, different colors and textures, and a totally different vibe."

Godfrey notes: 'Wes was a real find as a filmmaker. He placed his stamp as the new director to watch with The Maze Runner. We were thrilled he wanted continue the series. Wes is young, enthusiastic, extremely creative and visual, and enthusiastic in his communication of his vision. He does a lot of his own artwork, so he can pretty much come up with a big, giant painting and says, -That's basically what I'm looking for.' Then, we have to figure out how to actually make it happen."

While some genre films have embraced a sleek, stylized approach, Wyck Godfrey says that Ball's approach is 'real and grounded and naturalistic. There's not a kind of high-gloss finish to the Maze Runner movies. I think that's what our fans have responded to – that the films feel very textured and real."

James Dashner notes that, 'In the first movie, we saw the Glade, the maze, and a lot of cement, stone, and ivy. Now, we're going out into the world, where we'll experience all kinds of landscapes, ruins, storms and terrifying Cranks. Audiences are going to be at the edge of their seats, and at times they're going to be terrified. But most importantly, I think they're going to feel even closer to these characters."

Filming on Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials was sometimes almost, well, a trial, for the actors. Confides Dylan O'Brien, who worked through a sprained wrist, 'This movie has been as rigorous, if not more so, than the first one. I never thought that was possible. It's beyo

nd just the running. Now we're racing through sandstorms, trudging up dunes and battling Cranks." Ki Hong Lee, who suffered a minor fracture of his knee running up the sand dunes, confirms that, 'This movie is tougher than the first. We're running for the entire story – running away from Cranks, running away from WCKD, running up sand dunes. What's more, I have to be the fastest, the strongest, and the most badass of the team!"

The look of Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials evolved from Ball's collaboration with production designer Daniel T. Dorrance.

Out in the Scorch, says James Dorrance, 'Everything had to be in disrepair, burned out, and broken down. The design was all about faded glory and earth tones. Then, for the WCKD scenes, Wes wanted everything to be clean, futuristic, rigid and high-tech, with lots of hard lines and cyan blues.

'Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is not a world creation movie, but it is a world survival movie," James Dorrance continues. 'Everything on screen has familiar iconography but we're showing it all in complete disrepair. We're showing people surviving the Scorch in a completely catastrophic way."

The WCKD-run bunker is depicted from its exterior as an oil rig-like structure, with most of it situated below the desert. Inside the bunker are med-labs, bunkrooms, and interrogation rooms. Most of the interior scenes in the bunker were shot in an old computer chip plant, which offered a labyrinth of hallways and pipes. 'We painted it a military gray, and added foil to update the pipes," says James Dorrance. 'We also added ship-like sliding doors. The overall vibe for the bunker was to make it like an oil rig/aircraft carrier with the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped on a vessel."

The sand dune scenes were shot mostly west of Albuquerque at Pajarito Dunes. 'We cleaned the dunes of footprints and ATV tracks," James Dorrance explains. 'We used rakes and a sweeping technique, and we had a low-hovering helicopter as a giant fan to get this swirly effect of the sand dunes. We made it feel like the desert had covered the city and enveloped it with sand. In theory, the sand is 50 feet deep in some cases. We had a little piece of architecture poke out of it to help sell that idea."

For scenes set at an abandoned shopping mall, the company infiltrated the now shuttered Winrock Mall. Production knocked off ceiling tiles, blew out windows, and established a huge sand mound where the Gladers slid in from the sand dunes. Walls were aged with a paint process of numerous washes of black and burnt umber. Production tore into the drywall of the mall, and brought in safety glass with plastic filaments, creating façades of broken glass on the windows so they appeared to be broken but were not as dangerous as real broken windows.

The elaborate Jorge's Lair sequences were shot at the Railyard in downtown Albuquerque and on elaborate sets built at Albuquerque Studios. The Railyard set design included architectural elements for scavengers living closely on top of one another. 'We thought of it as a kind of Kowloon City – the stacked building structure in Hong Kong, where people had 40 square feet each to live within," says James Dorrance.

'The production created Jorge's penthouse on a soundstage, using barrel roofed, cylinder-type architecture duplicating the Railyard's I-beam 1940s factory look, along with recycled elements made of wood and plaster. 'We went to salvage and recycling yards and found metal pieces and junk furniture," recalls Dorrance. Set dressing was created from parachutes and other obscure materials. Jorge's penthouse was decked out with electronics and survival gear.

For scenes set beneath the Scorch, production convinced the University of New Mexico to allow entry into the dark, dank tunnels, storm drains, and diversion channels underneath UNM Hospital.

To establish the Crankland shantytown, production took over several blocks in downtown Albuquerque. 'Then we brought it all down to our level of disrepair," explains Dorrance. 'The sun has been so strong that the architecture has been affected, so plastics are melting. We looked for old, burnt vehicles. We created the shantytown with tarps, old billboard façades, cages from factories, scaffolding, tipped over dumpsters – anything people could find on the street and make a house out of."

For a rave party sequence, the locations department found a unique space in the Zachary Mansion in downtown Albuquerque, nicknamed 'The Castle" and owned by the late jewelry designer Gertrude Zachary. The mansion was wallpapered in a dark, mossy green, which was aged with staining and mildew. More than 200 chandeliers were hung in the distressed mansion, along with old art complementing the stained-glass windows. James Dorrance explains: 'We wanted to establish somewhere that used to be grand and wonderful, but now it's barely surviving with faded glory. We strung lights to make it festive. We added party furniture, hundreds of candles that had burned into a mound, and VHS tape pulled out of its carcasses and used as streamer tape as a decorative element."

The biggest challenge production faced was finding the location for the film's climax, set at the mountainous Right Arm Camp. Producer Joe Hartwick Jr. remarks, 'There are a lot of mountains in New Mexico, but there are not a lot of places in the mountains that are easily accessible for a film crew. We must have shown Wes twenty different locations before he finally signed off on one."

The Right Arm Camp scenes were shot on the remote Diamond Tail Ranch, situated down miles of rutted dirt roads. The camp was conceptualized as a breath of fresh air, surrounded by a glistening stream and mountains. 'It's the ultimate camping environment," says Dorrance. 'It's almost like a utopian city." Sets were built here with hemp erosion cloth, camo netting, camping tents, military tents, and four-wheel drive vehicles with tents rigged onto them, so those living there could pack out in a night and move on.

There are about 600 visual effects shots in the movie, with their most dramatic use occurring in the Scorch and with the Cranks.

During post-production, visual effects added images of a city overtaken by extreme dryness and glaring sunshine that had destroyed the city, now a burned-out husk of decay and desolation.

Internationally renowned effects house Weta Digital produced this digital magic from reference images. According to visual effects supervisor Richard Hollander: 'There was nothing decrepit enough for us to use in Albuquerque, so we went online and found quite a few references of buildings that were abandoned, that had caught fire, and bridges that had fallen apart.

There are three stages of the Flare disease that turns humans into Cranks. 'Stage 1" Cranks were created with prosthetic hair and makeup that enlarged veins, peeled skin, and darkened the area around eyes. For 'Stage 2" Cranks, these effects became more pronounced with severely blackened, puffed-out veins. In 'Stage 3," the deterioration was computer-generated, with intestinal vines sprouting outward from the Cranks' decaying bodies.

For the costumes, 'The idea was that in the Scorch, nobody is making clothes, so everybody is just recycling, reusing already manufactured garments. Everything has to be used, dirty, distressed," says costume designer Sanja Milković Hays.

The Gladers wear layered looks to accommodate the desert's rapidly shifting temperatures. Thomas wears a fairly simple jacket and pants. Minho's outfits were more military, especially his bomber jacket in the Right Arm Camp. Teresa wears a duster coat that was more feminine. Frypan often sports a vest, since he was a chef and might want to wear something more utilitarian. Newcomer Aris is frequently seen in a hoodie, looking lost.

The costumes for the Cranks were drastically ripped. 'The idea was that being a Crank is really uncomfortable, so they rip their clothes," points out Hays. Their costumes are meant to evoke evidence of homelessness and hopelessness."

The scavengers look like the pirates of this futuristic world. 'They go around and pick up the clothes they want to wear. We went with much warmer colors and a lot of browns, beiges, reds, and greens, and just overall much more fun outfits," Hays notes.

At the Right Arm Camp in the mountains, the costumes emphasized a warmer color palette with beiges and light browns. Leather and sheepskin jackets were used, along with wool scarves and hats. To make WCKD official Ava Paige, portrayed by Patricia Clarkson, look intimidating, she always wears white clothing made of luxurious fabrics, like cashmere. Hers were the only costumes that were not aged.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
Release Date: September 10th, 2015