100 Fun Facts About Maze Runner

Who wrote The Maze Runner novels?

James Dashner: he worked as an accountant until his books' success let him write full time.

In Maze Runner, what does the Gladers' slang word 'klunk' mean?

Poop: like 'shuck', it is one of the made-up words that let the Gladers swear without using real curse words.

In Maze Runner, who leads the Gladers when Thomas first arrives in the Glade?

Alby: when he later tries to tell Thomas what he remembered after being stung, he suddenly starts choking himself.

How often does the elevator box bring a new boy to the Glade?

Every month: supplies come up weekly, but the routine breaks when a girl arrives in the Box the day after Thomas.

Chuck's full name, revealed in The Fever Code, honours which famous Charles?

Charles Darwin: the Gladers are named after famous minds, just as Newt honours Isaac Newton and Thomas honours Thomas Edison.

What are the deadly part-metal, part-flesh creatures that roam the maze called?

Grievers: on his first night in the maze, Thomas survives with Minho by tricking some of them into charging over a cliff.

What do the Gladers call the painful ordeal that follows a sting and brings back scraps of lost memory?

The Changing: Thomas lets himself be stung on purpose, and the ordeal returns memories that show the way out of the maze.

Who is the first and only girl delivered to the Glade?

Teresa: she arrives in a coma, clutching a note saying she's the last one ever, and soon reaches Thomas telepathically.

What is the name of the disease that has devastated the world of The Maze Runner?

The Flare: The Death Cure's epilogue reveals it was created and released on purpose after the sun flares, to shrink the population.

In the second Maze Runner novel, what teleporting portal carries the Gladers towards the desert?

The Flat Trans: another of these portals later lets the immune survivors escape WICKED's headquarters at the end of The Death Cure.

In The Maze Runner novel, what code does the maze spell out?

FLOAT CATCH BLEED DEATH STIFF PUSH: Thomas finds it by tracing each day's maze maps onto wax paper and stacking them.

In The Maze Runner novel, how do the Gladers escape the maze?

They jump into a hidden hole: the creatures come out of it, yet it is also the maze's only way out.

In The Maze Runner novel, what are the mechanical spies that watch the Gladers called?

Beetle blades: WICKED uses them to observe the boys, because the maze is really the first phase of its experiment.

What is the second book of The Maze Runner trilogy called?

The Scorch Trials: the Scorch is a burnt desert, once the land around the equator, that the Gladers must cross to reach a safe haven.

In The Maze Runner novel, what is the Glade house where some of the boys sleep called?

The Homestead: once the maze doors stop closing at night, the Gladers shelter inside, but the creatures still break in.

In the second Maze Runner novel, Aris explains he was the only boy in which parallel maze experiment?

Group B: soon afterwards, a tattoo on Thomas's own neck says he is 'to be killed by Group B'.

In the books, what nickname do the Gladers give WICKED's scientist Janson because of his looks?

Rat Man: WICKED's assistant director keeps testing the Gladers, until Thomas finally kills him in The Death Cure.

In the second Maze Runner novel, who leads Brenda's group when the Gladers take shelter from a storm?

Jorge: after Minho attacks him, Thomas talks Jorge into helping the Gladers in exchange for a share of the cure.

In The Death Cure novel, the group travels to which real US city to have their control chips removed?

Denver: WICKED uses Thomas's chip to make him fight the operation, so his friends have to hold him down while Hans works.

Which rebel group fighting WICKED does Gally join in the third Maze Runner novel?

The Right Arm: its leader Vince has Thomas plant a device inside WICKED's headquarters so no one there can use weapons during the rebels' attack.

The Kill Order, the first prequel, follows which pair of teenagers in New York City?

Mark and Trina: they escape devastated New York and settle in a village in the Appalachian Mountains.

The Fever Code reveals that Thomas was originally called what before WICKED renamed him?

Stephen: as a small boy he was handed over to WICKED by his mother, who hoped it would keep him safe from the virus.

The Maze Cutter follows descendants of immune survivors who settled where?

An island: 73 years on, a boat brings dark news of the mainland and pulls their descendants back into the world.

Who directed all three Maze Runner films, making his feature debut with the first?

Wes Ball: his planned Mouse Guard film was later cancelled by Disney before filming began.

Which of his own animated shorts helped The Maze Runner film's director land the job?

Ruin: it became an internet sensation, and the studio bought the short itself before hiring him.

Who plays Thomas in the Maze Runner films?

Dylan O'Brien: he got his start writing, directing and starring in comedy shorts for his own YouTube channel.

Before The Maze Runner, the actor who plays Thomas was best known as Stiles Stilinski on which MTV series?

Teen Wolf: he was meant to audition for the werewolf Scott, but after reading the script he asked to go in for Stiles instead.

Which actor plays Newt in the Maze Runner film trilogy?

Thomas Brodie-Sangster: in the final film his Newt turns out not to be immune, unlike Thomas and Frypan.

Which cartoon character did the actor who plays Newt voice for four seasons?

He also played Jojen Reed in Game of Thrones and Sam in Love Actually.

Ki Hong Lee, who plays Minho, is also known for playing Dong Nguyen in which Netflix sitcom?

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: his Dong becomes Kimmy's boyfriend, until a green-card marriage to someone else gets in the way.

Kaya Scodelario, the trilogy's female lead, first found fame as Effy Stonem on which British series?

Skins: when the rest of the cast was replaced for the third series, Effy stayed on and became the new generation's lead.

Will Poulter, who plays Gally, went on to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as which character?

Adam Warlock: years earlier his Gally seemed to die in the first Maze Runner film, only to turn up alive in The Death Cure.

Who plays WCKD's Ava Paige in the films?

Patricia Clarkson: her Ava Paige is killed in the final film, though the chancellor of the books survives to the end.

The first Maze Runner film was shot in which US city?

Baton Rouge, Louisiana: years later, BTS nodded to the film's set pieces in their 2020 music video 'On'.

The first Maze Runner film grossed roughly how many times its $34 million budget?

About 10x: its two sequels each cost nearly twice as much, yet both earned less worldwide.

In the second Maze Runner film, Thomas and Brenda are separated from the group and Brenda is bitten by what?

A Crank: the bite infects her, yet Brenda is still alive and fighting alongside the group in the final film.

Which actor joined the second Maze Runner film as Janson, who runs the 'safe haven'?

Aidan Gillen: his Janson promises the Gladers a safe haven, but they discover he is secretly working for WCKD.

Why was Maze Runner: The Death Cure pushed back from February 2017 to January 2018?

Its star was badly injured on set: he admits nothing inside him wanted to go back, but he returned to finish the film.

In the third Maze Runner film, WCKD's heavily fortified base of operations is known as what?

The Last City: WCKD holds Minho captive inside, while the infected massing beyond its fortified wall want it destroyed.

In the Maze Runner books, what are WICKED's huge flying craft called?

Bergs: at the end of the second novel, one arrives to pick up Thomas and his group after they fight off WICKED's monsters.

Who plays Lawrence in Maze Runner: The Death Cure?

Walton Goggins: his Lawrence sacrifices himself to blast open the wall, letting his followers and the infected storm in.

In 2018 the Maze Runner author was dropped by his agent and publisher following what?

Sexual harassment accusations: the author said he was taking them very seriously and would seek counselling.

Which studio released the first Maze Runner film in September 2014?

20th Century Fox: the studio later delayed the trilogy's final film by nearly a year.

In the first Maze Runner film, how does Ava Paige's video message end?

She shoots herself: but the death is staged, since the next film reveals Paige is still alive.

In The Maze Runner novel, Gally is the Keeper of which group of Gladers?

The Builders: after storming out of the Gathering, Gally returns at the end and throws the knife that kills Chuck.

In The Maze Runner novel, what is Chuck's job in the Glade?

A Slopper: he had been the newest Glader until Thomas arrived, and he quickly becomes Thomas's first friend in the Glade.

Filming of Maze Runner: The Death Cure resumed in March 2017 in which city?

Cape Town: the move cost British Columbia, where filming had begun, the rest of the production.

Who composed the score for the first two Maze Runner films?

John Paesano: he began shaping the score with the director before a single frame of the film had been shot.

Which director was originally attached to The Maze Runner film when its rights were bought in 2011?

Catherine Hardwicke: the Twilight director was signed on first, but by 2012 the job had gone to a first-time feature director.

Which imprint published the original 2009 novel, with cover art by Philip Straub?

The book spent 148 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults award in 2011.

The director of The Maze Runner at first turned down the film's eventual star because of which feature?

His hair was all the director could see at first, until a photo of the actor with a shaved head, looking sweet and vulnerable, sent him back to the old audition tapes.

Blake Cooper won the part of Chuck in The Maze Runner after pestering the director on which platform?

Twitter was where the director shared news of the film, and Cooper kept asking there until he was told to send a tape to the casting director.

Which classic novel of castaways did the author of The Maze Runner name as an influence on the book?

Lord of the Flies was one influence on an idea that came to him in November 2005: teenagers living in an unsolvable maze as an experiment on their minds.

The actor who plays Newt in the Maze Runner films first reached cinemas as young Sam in which 2003 film?

Love Actually was his first major theatrical film, and he went on to play Jojen Reed in Game of Thrones shortly before joining the Gladers.

Which actor, famous as Breaking Bad's Gus Fring, joined the second Maze Runner film as a survivors' leader?

Giancarlo Esposito was back on familiar ground: the sequel was shot around Albuquerque, New Mexico, the state where his Breaking Bad drug ring was based.

Which animal's tail did the director of The Maze Runner ask to have added to the film's maze monsters?

A scorpion tail, in mechanical form, went onto a creature its designer had already based on spiders, coconut crabs, caterpillars and piranhas.

How did the Maze Runner films break with Twilight and The Hunger Games when adapting the final novel?

It stayed one film: the director had said that if he came back for The Death Cure, the last book would not be split in two as those rivals' finales were.

In The Maze Runner novel, which plant on the maze walls does Thomas use to hoist a wounded Glader to safety?

Ivy covers the maze's high concrete walls, and Thomas uses it to pull the injured boy up out of reach while Minho at first runs for his life.

In The Maze Runner, what nickname do the Gladers give Thomas and every other newcomer to the Glade?

Greenie is what young Chuck had been until Thomas came up in the lift and took the title from him.

In The Maze Runner novel, what is the one personal detail each boy still remembers on arriving in the Glade?

His first name is all that survives the memory wipe, and in the 2014 film even that comes back to Thomas only after a fight.

In The Maze Runner novel, what do the Gladers call the makeshift jail where Thomas is sent for a day?

The Slammer was Newt's compromise at the Gathering: one day locked up for Thomas, then training as a Runner.

In The Maze Runner novel, what feat makes Thomas and Minho unlike any Glader before them?

Surviving a night outside the Glade had never been done, and the pair went further, killing four of the creatures by luring them off a cliff.

In The Maze Runner novel, what happens to the maze every night after the doors to the Glade slide shut?

Its walls rearrange into a new configuration each night, which is why the Runners race through it by day to track the changes.

Chuck dies shielding Thomas from a gunshot in the 2014 film, but from what in The Maze Runner novel?

A thrown knife kills Chuck in the book when he dives in front of Thomas, seconds before a rescue team bursts in and guns down the watching scientists.

In The Maze Runner novel, what happens to the sky over the Glade once the Ending has been triggered?

It turns gray for good, the lift stops bringing supplies, and the doors stay open after dark, letting the creatures in.

In the Maze Runner novels, the 'Killzone' in WICKED's full name refers to which part of the body?

The brain is where the virus does its damage, hence the kill zone in World in Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department.

In the second Maze Runner novel, what role does the tattoo found on Newt's neck assign him?

The Glue suits the boy who holds the group together, and it is a kinder label than the one on Thomas, whose tattoo says he is to be killed.

In the Maze Runner novels, what title does Ava Paige hold as the highest-ranking official of WICKED?

Chancellor Paige outranks Assistant Director Janson, and The Fever Code shows her infecting an earlier holder of the title, Anderson, who wanted the experiments ended.

In The Death Cure novel's epilogue, why is the virus revealed to have been deliberately released?

Population control was the aim after the solar flares, but the plague spread beyond the power of the government or WICKED to rein it in.

In The Death Cure novel, which illicit drug do the infected take to slow the disease and dull the pain?

Bliss is rife in the decaying cities, as Gally explains when he resurfaces alive in the third book.

Which actress, later the star of Alita: Battle Angel, plays Brenda in the Maze Runner sequels?

Rosa Salazar had a dystopian 2015: besides joining the Gladers in the desert, she played Lynn in the Divergent sequel Insurgent that year.

Which Game of Thrones actress, the show's Missandei, plays Harriet in the second and third Maze Runner films?

Nathalie Emmanuel first played Harriet in 2015, the same year she joined another franchise as the hacker Ramsey in Furious 7.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure opens with Thomas freeing captive teenagers from what kind of vehicle?

A train carriage full of immune youngsters is the prize, but Minho turns out to be in a different carriage, bound for the enemy's stronghold.

In Maze Runner: The Death Cure, what does Newt hand Thomas that turns out to hold a farewell note?

A pendant passes to Thomas just before Newt collapses, and the note inside, found once the survivors are safe, thanks him for being a friend.

In Maze Runner: The Death Cure, what does a WCKD scientist discover can cure the virus outright?

Thomas's blood holds the cure, a discovery made from a sample drawn while tracking devices were being removed from the Gladers.

In the 2014 Maze Runner film, how does Thomas kill the first maze creature that chases him?

He crushes it between walls by luring it into a passageway as it closes, and a device pulled from the carcass later points the way out.

In the second Maze Runner film, where do the escaped Gladers shelter before a horde of the infected attacks?

A shopping mall, long abandoned, gives only brief refuge: Winston is scratched in the attack and his symptoms are worse by morning.

At the end of the 2014 Maze Runner film, Ava Paige says the survivors are entering which stage?

Phase Two is announced to a room of scientists the Gladers believed were dead, and it sets up the desert ordeal of the sequel.

Will Poulter, the Maze Runner films' Gally, played Eustace Scrubb in which fantasy film series?

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader came in 2010, and the comedy We're the Millers then won him the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2014.

Kaya Scodelario, the Maze Runner films' female lead, joined which blockbuster franchise for its 2017 film?

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales gave her a starring role in May 2017, between the second and third Maze Runner releases.

The director of all three Maze Runner films went on to helm which long-running franchise's 2024 film?

Planet of the Apes gained the fourth film of its reboot series, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, six years after he finished the maze trilogy.

The author of The Maze Runner holds a master's degree in which subject from Brigham Young University?

Accounting came first: his debut novel, A Door in the Woods, did not appear until 2003, six years before The Maze Runner.

In The Death Cure novel, what offer from WICKED do only Thomas, Minho and Newt turn down?

Memory restoration means surgery by people they do not trust, and Thomas has no wish to learn who he was when he helped to create the maze.

In The Maze Runner novel, onto what do the Gladers trace their maze maps so they can be layered?

Wax paper let them stack one day's maps of every section, rather than one section over many days, and that was the comparison that made the pattern appear.

In the Maze Runner novels, what is the procedure that erases each Glader's memory before the maze called?

The Swipe is used on Thomas too, even though he helped to build the maze: The Fever Code ends with him standing up in the lift, his past gone.

In the second Maze Runner novel, what gives Thomas an infection so bad that WICKED flies in to treat him?

A rusty bullet hits his shoulder during a rescue; once healed, he tells the others he was never meant to be shot, because he matters too much to WICKED's plans.

A supporting role in which 2013 comedy led the studio to suggest its eventual star for The Maze Runner?

The Internship had just been made by the same studio, whose executives told the director that the young man in it had something.

The first Maze Runner film was originally set to open on which holiday in 2014 before moving to September?

Valentine's Day 2014 was the plan until the film was pushed back in October 2013, and on its new date it topped the box office.

In Maze Runner: The Death Cure, how does the rebel leader Lawrence get his followers into WCKD's stronghold?

He blasts a hole in the wall at the cost of his own life, letting his allies and the infected crowds outside storm in.

In Maze Runner: The Death Cure, what hides the faces of the crew who seize Thomas outside WCKD's stronghold?

Gas masks conceal a face Thomas thought he would never see again: Gally, presumed dead since the end of the first film.

In the Maze Runner novels, which girl from the parallel all-girl maze turns out to be Newt's younger sister?

Sonya was born Elizabeth, and Newt calls her Lizzy; WICKED took both children after their parents were killed resisting its soldiers.

In The Fever Code, where is the WICKED complex in which the young Thomas is raised and trained?

Alaska hides the main complex in the middle of a forest, and the first prequel, The Kill Order, had already sent an immune child to a coalition base there.

In The Death Cure novel, which former WICKED researcher removes the mind-control chips from Thomas and Minho?

Hans needs three people to hold Thomas down, because WICKED uses the chip itself to make him resist the operation.

Which 2015 film had every IMAX screen booked, keeping the second Maze Runner film out of the format?

Everest held the world's IMAX screens until The Walk arrived, so the sequel went out in other premium formats and only Japan saw it in IMAX.

In the Maze Runner novels, what was the only girl sent to the Glade called before WICKED renamed her?

Deedee is the five-year-old immune girl whom the heroes of The Kill Order send to safety, and that prequel's epilogue reveals who she grows up to be.

Which fantasy series did the author of The Maze Runner begin in 2008 with The Journal of Curious Letters?

The 13th Reality opened with a Whitney Award winner, and its second volume came out in 2009, the same year as The Maze Runner.

In the Maze Runner prequel The Kill Order, what drives New York's survivors up into the Lincoln Building?

A tsunami follows the solar flares and arrives boiling hot, killing most New Yorkers, and the survivors camp in the tower for weeks until a yacht appears.

In The Fever Code, what does Ava Paige hand Thomas that turns out to be laced with anaesthetic?

A cup of tea puts him under before his past is erased, breaking their agreement that he would enter the maze knowing who he was.

Which Firefly actor, later the voice of K-2SO, plays the double-dealing Marcus in the second Maze Runner film?

Alan Tudyk is credited in the film as Blondie, playing a resistance man who is secretly working for WCKD.

In The Maze Runner novel, what do the Gladers call the part of the Glade where their fallen friends are buried?

The Deadheads is the small forest in the south-west corner of the Glade, and the graveyard lies among its trees.