Why Were They In The Maze In The First Place (And Other Unanswered Questions)?
The Death Cure Ending Left Plenty Of Maze Runner Mysteries
There are a number of unanswered questions left after Maze Runner: The Death Cure. It’s still unclear what happened to the rest of the world after Thomas and the Right Arm founded their safe haven, and how the island is safe from the Flare. The movies also didn’t reveal how the cure was harvested from an Immune and why the Maze was so integral to developing it. The Maze Runner 3 ending explained much, but also ultimately left audiences with only vague clues for some of its biggest mysteries.
It’s reasonable that the rest of the world eventually died out, consumed by the Flare virus and the violence it inspires. It’s also likely the island was scouted by the Right Arm (or, based on the books, its location was given to the Right Arm by WCKD). However, since it’s unclear how the Flare virus transfers between humans — direct contact can result in infection, but it’s also stated in the movie that the virus is airborne — and whether animals can transfer the virus, it’s impossible to know whether the island is truly safe.
The science of Maze Runner: The Death Cure is one aspect that the ending explained too little about. The best explanation that’s given for how the cure is harvested from an Immune is when Minho is being terrorized with hallucinations of the Maze and Grievers and his blood is taken and turned into a light blue liquid. Further, one of the WCKD scientists states that the best samples for a viable cure were taken from those Immunes who experienced the Maze trials. Its a tease of the type of questions Maze Runner 4 could answer.
The Maze somehow creates a reaction within the body of an Immune that has the highest chance of producing a viable cure — but why exactly the Maze, and nothing else, can cause this reaction within the body is never explained. It can perhaps be presumed that the Maze was designed based on WCKD’s previous research for a cure, but that’s not directly stated within the films. How the Maze was built is the premise for the prequel novel, The Fever Code.
Essentially, Thomas and his friends were in the Maze under the guise of WCKD searching for a cure, but all along Paige had abandoned the hope of a cure and was working on sending all the Immunes to a safe haven where they could rebuild society away from the Flare and the Cranks. Although the Maze Runner: The Death Cure ending leaves much to be inferred by the viewer, it does offer at least an optimistic — if fatalistic — conclusion to The Maze Runner trilogy.
The Real Meaning Of The Death Cure Ending
The Death Cure Favors Self-Sacrifice And Hope
It can be inferred that the real meaning behind the ending of The Death Cure is that there’s always hope even in the most bleak of situations. After all, there is a long time in which the audience believes that all hope rests in finding a cure, only to see every person who knows how to harvest and synthesize a cure die on screen.
That would seemingly indicate that the world has no hope. Instead, it’s made clear repeatedly that a number of the population is immune to the virus. Those who are immune can survive, no matter how harsh the conditions might get. While in the case of the movie, that hopeful ending seems to be a matter of convenience rather than perseverance, just what those people who are immune go through in order to begin rebuilding society cannot be discounted. They let nothing and no one stop them from finding a way to live their lives.
The Death Cure’s ending, however, also has that heavy theme of self-sacrifice. Just as Thomas is willing to place himself on the chopping block, so to speak, to find a cure for the rest of humanity, Teresa is also willing to sacrifice her own life for his. She repeatedly knowingly puts herself in harm’s way, and ultimately, dies, in order to keep Thomas alive. The willingness to sacrifice themselves for the greater good is at the heart of the ending, despite the group of Immunes isolating themselves from the rest of humanity in The Death Cure.
How The Death Cure’s Ending Sets Up The Maze Runner Franchise’s Future
Maze Runner 4 Doesn’t Look Likely
Despite being the conclusion of an entire trilogy narrative, Maze Runner: The Death Cure‘s ending still leaves room for the franchise to grow. Newt’s letter to Thomas briefly speaks about the promise of the future. With the Gladers and other Immunes now living in solidarity, the setup is in place for an adaptation of The Maze Cutter – James Dashner’s sequel/spinoff novel that takes place over 70 years after the conclusion of The Death Cure. That moment alone provides potential hope for the Maze Runner franchise to continue if Disney wants it to.
It currently doesn’t seem as though Maze Runner: The Death Cure will be getting a sequel, as development on new films in the franchise has been quiet. Disney confirmed plans to make Maze Runner 4 in 2019, but no additional news has come since then, even though the entire Maze Runner series can be viewed on Disney+. With Maze Runner: The Death Cure‘s ending explaining the core mysteries already, whether audience clamor and rumors regarding the possibility of Maze Runner 4 will actually bear fruit remains to be seen.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
Mazerunner: The Death Cure is the final film in the popular series based on James Dashner’s young-adult novels. In the sequel, Thomas must save his friends by breaking into Last City, which is a labyrinth controlled by WCKD. The Death Cure features the Gladers’ most dangerous mission yet, but those that escape will finally get answers to the maze.
- Release Date
- January 26, 2018
- Director
- Wes Ball
- Writers
- T.S. Nowlin
- Cast
- Kaya Scodelario , Rosa Salazar , Walton Goggins , Dexter Darden , Dylan O’Brien , Ki Hong Lee , Barry Pepper , Thomas Brodie-Sangster , Nathalie Emmanuel , Giancarlo Esposito
- Runtime
- 142 Minutes
