The Scorch Trials
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50 free The Scorch Trials trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The Scorch Trials picks up hours after the escape from the Maze and takes everything safe away again. Thomas and the Gladers are told they carry a terrible disease, given two weeks to cross a hundred miles of sun-blasted wasteland, and left to work out who among them can still be trusted. It is the book where the Maze Runner series stops being a puzzle and becomes a chase. This quiz covers the novel from the first night in the dormitory to the epilogue: the tattoos, the tunnel, the ruined city, Jorge and Brenda, Group B, Teresa's part in WICKED's plan and the fight at the safe haven. A further set of questions looks at the 2015 film, which changes much of the plot, with its cast, its director, where it was shot and how it fared at the box office. A few questions cover the author as well. It suits readers who have just finished the book, classes and book clubs working through the series, and film fans who want to see how much of the story they remember. Every answer comes with a short explanation, and each question says whether it is about the novel or the film, so the two versions never get mixed up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In the novel The Scorch Trials, what are the Flare victims who besiege the Gladers' dormitory called?
Cranks
Cranks were ordinary citizens before the Flare took hold, and the Gladers later strike a bargain with a band of them inside a ruined city.
Q 02Which American author wrote The Scorch Trials as the second novel in his Maze Runner series?
James Dashner
James Dashner published it in October 2010, a year after The Maze Runner, and the film version reached cinemas in September 2015.
Q 03Which actor, first known as Stiles in Teen Wolf, plays Thomas in the film Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials?
Dylan O'Brien
Dylan O'Brien was seriously hurt in an accident on the set of the following sequel, which pushed that shoot back by about a year.
Q 04In the novel The Scorch Trials, how does a frightened Teresa wake Thomas shortly before the dormitory is attacked?
By telepathy
Teresa reaches Thomas by telepathy, an ability the pair turn out to share with Aris, the stranger found in her room soon afterwards.
Q 05Which novel follows The Scorch Trials and completes the original Maze Runner trilogy?
The Death Cure
The Death Cure reveals that most of the Gladers were immune to the Flare all along, and that no remedy for it exists.
Q 06In the novel The Scorch Trials, what kills several Gladers as they cross open desert toward a ruined city?
A lightning storm
A lightning storm catches the group on open ground, and the survivors take shelter in the building where they first meet Jorge.
Q 07In the novel The Scorch Trials, Aris says he escaped a second Maze whose other subjects were all what?
Teenage girls
Teenage girls made up Group B, a mirror image of the Gladers, who had been all boys until Teresa was sent up to join them.
Q 08Which actor, famous as Gus Fring in Breaking Bad, plays Jorge in the film Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials?
Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Esposito signed on in early October 2014, less than a month before the cameras started rolling.
Q 09In the novel The Scorch Trials, what nickname do the Gladers give the WICKED official who announces their next test?
Rat Man
Rat Man earns the name from his looks, and only the next book reveals him to be Assistant Director Janson.
Q 10In the novel The Scorch Trials, the Flare, the plague every Glader is told he carries, attacks which organ?
The brain
The brain is where the Flare does its damage, slowly stripping away a victim's reason until nothing recognisably human is left.
Q 11In the novel The Scorch Trials, which Glader attacks Jorge and is nearly executed before Thomas talks Jorge round?
Minho
Minho had insulted Jorge first and been kicked for it, and Thomas saves his friend's life by offering Jorge a deal.
Q 12In the novel The Scorch Trials, what portal, open for only five minutes, carries the Gladers into the Scorch?
A Flat Trans
A Flat Trans is so costly in the Maze Runner world that nobody later believes the Gladers' story of how they reached the desert.
Q 13In the novel The Scorch Trials, what kills two Gladers in the pitch-dark tunnel on the way into the desert?
Blobs of liquid metal
Q 21In the novel The Scorch Trials, what do strangers force on Thomas and Brenda at a party before both pass out?
A drugged drink
A drugged drink leaves both of them reeling, and Thomas's sharp rejection of Brenda while under its influence sours things between them.
Q 22In the novel The Scorch Trials, what does Thomas call the short, handsome stranger who shoots him with a rusty bullet?
Blondie
Blondie fires as the Gladers burst in to free their friends, and he takes a beating from one of them moments later.
Q 23In the novel The Scorch Trials, where on his body does a gunshot leave Thomas with a dangerous infection?
The shoulder
Blobs of liquid metal drop onto the boys' heads in the dark and close around them, and a third victim survives only because Thomas claws one off.
Q 14In the novel The Scorch Trials, the tattoo found on Newt's neck gives him which role within the group?
The Glue
The Glue is WICKED's label for Newt because he holds the others together, one of several tattoos that assign each subject a part to play.
Q 15In the novel The Scorch Trials, the sign outside Teresa's empty bedroom gives her which title?
The Betrayer
The Betrayer is the title WICKED hangs on Teresa, and after an alarm sounds the same sign changes to name Aris instead.
Q 16In the novel The Scorch Trials, what keeps the starving Gladers from reaching the WICKED official at a desk?
An invisible forcefield
An invisible forcefield surrounds the man while he calmly sits reading, so the boys can do nothing but wait for him to speak.
Q 17At the start of the novel The Scorch Trials, whose bodies do the Gladers find in the common area before they vanish?
Their rescuers
Their rescuers from the end of The Maze Runner lie dead, yet every body is gone without a trace when the boys look again.
Q 18In the novel The Scorch Trials, how do scraps of Thomas's life before the Maze start coming back to him?
From his dreams
Thomas pieces the past together from his dreams, reliving moments with Teresa such as the two of them eavesdropping on WICKED staff.
Q 19Which British actress, first known as Effy Stonem in Skins, plays Teresa in the film Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials?
Kaya Scodelario
Kaya Scodelario grew up in a Portuguese-speaking home in London, years before she joined the franchise as its female lead.
Q 20Which director, who made his feature debut with The Maze Runner, returned for the sequel The Scorch Trials?
Wes Ball
Wes Ball went on to direct the whole trilogy, having won the first job on the strength of an animated short called Ruin.
The shoulder wound turns so septic that WICKED flies in to operate, proof to the Gladers that Thomas matters to its plans.
Q 24In the novel The Scorch Trials, what name is given to the WICKED flying craft that lifts the wounded Thomas away?
A Berg
A Berg returns at the end of the book to pluck the survivors out of a battle with WICKED's monsters.
Q 25In the novel The Scorch Trials, messages written all over the ruined city tell Thomas that he is what?
The real leader
The real leader is what the signs call Thomas, even though WICKED's tattoos had handed that job to another Glader.
Q 26In the novel The Scorch Trials, Brenda guides Thomas through tunnels linking the city's buildings known as what?
The Underneath
The Underneath is crawling with the infected, and the pair have to fight off several of them before climbing back to street level.
Q 27In the novel The Scorch Trials, Brenda, the second-in-command of Jorge's group, comes from which country?
Canada
Canada is where Brenda grew up, a very long way north of the scorched city in which the Gladers find her alongside Jorge.
Q 28In the film Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, which resistance group in the mountains do the Gladers set out to find?
The Right Arm
The Right Arm is led in the film by Vince, who almost shoots Brenda on sight when he notices that she has been bitten.
Q 29Which Irish actor, Littlefinger in Game of Thrones, plays the WCKD official Janson in Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials?
Aidan Gillen
Aidan Gillen was the first new face announced for the sequel, cast in September 2014 as the man who runs the facility sheltering the Gladers.
Q 30Which US state hosted the shoot for the film Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials from October 2014?
New Mexico
New Mexico supplied the desert locations around Albuquerque, a switch from the first film, which had been shot in Louisiana.