The Scorch

Last night, Mary and I finished watching the Maze Runner trilogy. She has watched it countless times, but it had been a while since I’d really consumed any films of this dystopian nature at all. Side note: I feel like my memory is shocking sometimes. I’ve read all five books, plus we even studied The Maze Runner as a Year 9 English novel. Yet, I almost couldn’t remember a single thing about how the story plays out. Anyway—it was essentially fresh viewing for me.

I think I want to get back into reading fiction. Specifically, I find that books of this dystopian ilk really scratch an itch for me. The story can be excellent, but the entire universe that works like this are set in poses the real intrigue. The thought and nuance that goes into forecasting what a future world might look like is remarkable.

Since revisiting The Maze Runner, I’ve been reminded of quite a few end-of-world themes that I can’t exactly say have been front of mind. Global pandemic is an appropriate one. Then there’s the whole scorched earth of it all. Both the very literal way in which the sun has decimated the planet of key resources in James Dashner’s depiction but, moreover, the way in which WCKD—as The Killing Order readers would later discover—responds to these stretched resources by attempting to tactically unleash a virus to cull the population. Of course, this same virus then escalates to wipe out essentially everyone… Thus, the scorched earth at play here fits both the military-esque sabotage definition, but also the very literal barren deserts and crumbling cities in which the movies are shot.

Then there are the human considerations. Timeless stories. Power, corruption, and greed. Co-operation. Hope versus nihilism. The age-old dilemma of sacrificing one to save many. Or, perhaps—sacrificing many to save one. Narratives and societal thought experiments that aren’t new, but feel important to recognise every once in a while.

Quite thought-provoking. Nostalgic coming-of-age story. Pretty strong movie adaptation. It isn’t an all-time movie trilogy by any stretch, but it was a fun and insightful first watch, even if I couldn’t remember anything from the novels. More movies to come, I think.