The final movie in the Maze Runner trilogy continues to follow Thomas (the likeable O’Brien) and his pals following their escape from the Glade, the maze they were placed in as part of an experiment to find a cure for a deadly virus. Now on the outside, Thomas and his team have to infiltrate organisation WCKD’s headquarters in the only remaining city to rescue their friends and find out answers from Ava Paige (Patricia Clarkson) and her henchman Janson (Gillen).
Picking up from where the second movie, Scorch Trials, left off – don’t expect any recaps of what happened in the previous movies, you won’t get any – this plunges us straight into the action with a Mad Max style chase as Thomas, Newt (Brodie-Sangster) and Jorge (Giancarlo Esposito) lead a raid on a train that is carrying teens to the city to be experimented on. While they rescue some, their friend from the Glade, Minho (Lee) isn’t there so it looks like they will have to go into the lion’s den to save him.
While at two hours and 20 minutes the movie is a little on the long side, there is lots of action, zombies, and the return of some familiar faces to enjoy. The slick, cold walled city looks impressive and there are lots of stylish touches in between well-paced battle and rescue sequences, such as a zombie-infested tunnel and a claustrophobic, scary scene as one of the teens is being tortured.
With the flabbier moments from the source novel discarded in favour of action, it’s a tautly plotted young adult dystopian adventure and a fitting end to the trilogy.
Is Maze Runner: The Death Cure suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
This is a 12A certificate in the UK, and is aimed at kids over the age of 12 and adults.
The movie is based on a book for Young Adults and features themes that are not suitable for younger kids (e.g. torture, deadly disease, zombies).
There are scenes featuring zombies, including one scene in a dark tunnel that sensitive viewers may find upsetting.
One scene features zombies ripping apart a human who is still alive.
The most upsetting scene, unsuitable for the under 12s, is when one of the main characters is tortured mentally, and he believes he is being chased by creatures. Even once you realise it is not really happening, it is still disturbing as he screams in pain due to the torture.
There are scenes in which characters are stabbed and blood is visible.
Characters are infected with the disease and you can see the infection on their skins (their veins are raised and dark blue) and they have skin deformities.
One popular character dies in an upsetting way that will upset sensitive viewers.
There is some swearing, battle scenes and violence throughout.
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