The first Maze Runner film came to theaters on Sept. 19, 2014. This mystery movie series is based off of the teenage dystopian novels written by James Dashner. The third and most recent film, The Maze Runner: The Death Cure, came out on Jan. 26 of this year.

At the start of the first movie, Thomas, a teen played by Dylan O’Brien, finds himself in the center of a giant labyrinth with no memory of how he got there or his previous life. The maze is filled with other teenagers, all of whom have had their memories wiped.  Collectively, this group of teenagers call themselves Gladers, and some of them, called runners, attempt to solve the labyrinth and escape the maze. Thomas, who becomes a runner, spends most of the movie trying to get out.

“In [The Maze Runner] there are many emotional deaths that made the movie very suspenseful,” said freshman Sari Hartstein.

The sequel to this movie is The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. In this film, Thomas and the Gladers plan to escape the maze to the desolate land outside of the labyrinth, called the Scorch. They fight many rival human groups as well as a team of zombie-like individuals. 

“Even if you’re not familiar with the Y.A. trilogy by James Dashner on which these films are based, anyone who saw the first film knows that no one in this expanding cinematic ‘Maze’ universe is to be trusted. The element of suspicion will serve you well in a sequel — gripping and well shot but overly busy and filled with betrayal — that soon has Thomas and company on the lam from their saviors and dodging an obstacle course that includes a sandstorm, zombie like creatures called cranks, lightning, distrustful rebels and a doped-up human trafficker (Alan Tudyk) who lures adolescent victims with a creepy rave,” wrote Michael O’Sullivan of the Washington Post.

The Maze Runner: The Death Cure is the third and most recently released movie to the series. The movie was so successful it grossed around 312.3 billion dollars. Still in theaters, this movie has been a smash success. Thomas and the rest of the escaped Gladers prepare for their most dangerous mission yet. In order to rescue the rest of their fellow Gladers they break into an enemy controlled labyrinth named, the Last City. This is the deadliest and most difficult maze they’ve encountered on their journey to escape so far. 

Similar to the previous films, zombies and futuristic creatures fill this dystopian world, making it difficult to escape. If the Gladers and Thomas manage to escape, questions will be answered that have been lingering throughout the whole saga. So far, critics have been giving mixed reviews to the finale of this much-loved series. 

“As its final edition, The Death Cure, rolls into theaters, it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer amount of content packed into The Maze Runner trilogy, if by nothing else,” wrote David Sims of The Atlantic.

Overall, as the trilogy of movies comes to a close, viewers enjoy the three great films produced from Dashner’s beloved dystopian novels.  Check out the film while it is still in theaters!