The Maze Runner Summary: Plot and Key Facts
The Maze Runner begins with a boy named Thomas waking in a metal elevator with no memory except his name. It carries him to the Glade, a farm clearing where a group of boys live, surrounded by a huge, shifting maze full of deadly creatures.
Thomas and his friends work out that the maze is a test, and fight their way out.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | James Dashner |
| Published | 6 October 2009, Delacorte Press |
| Genre | Young adult, dystopian science fiction |
| Place in series | Book 1 (third in story order) |
| Film | 2014, directed by Wes Ball, with Dylan O'Brien as Thomas |
| Next book | The Scorch Trials (2010) |
Where does the story take place?
The Glade is a walled space with farmland, a few buildings and one way out: the doors of a massive Maze. The doors open each morning and close at night. The boys, called Gladers, have formed their own society with leaders called Keepers.
Outside, the world has been wrecked by disasters and a disease called the Flare. The Gladers do not know this at first.
↑ Back to the topWhat is the plot?
Thomas arrives and slowly settles in. He wants to become a Runner, one of the Gladers who explore and map the Maze each day to look for a way out. After he rescues two others from the Maze overnight, Minho, the head Runner, gives him his chance.
The day after Thomas arrives, a comatose girl called Teresa is delivered, the first and only girl. When she wakes she tells Thomas that the Maze is a code and that she has triggered what she calls the Ending. The sun goes grey, supplies stop arriving, and the Maze doors stay open at night so that the Grievers, the creatures that live there, can enter the Glade.
Thomas persuades the Keepers to follow his plan. A group fights through the Maze to a spot called the Griever Hole. Thomas, Teresa and Chuck enter the code into a terminal, which stops the Grievers and opens a way out. Several Gladers, including Alby, die in the battle, and Chuck dies saving Thomas.
↑ Back to the topHow does the book end?
The survivors escape and are told they have been rescued. An epilogue made up of an email from Ava Paige, Chancellor of the Maze Trials, reveals that the whole thing was a trial run by an organization called WICKED, that the so-called rescue was part of it, and that the next phase of the experiment will begin after they rest.
That sets up the sequel, The Scorch Trials.
↑ Back to the topMore about The Maze Runner
This guide covers James Dashner's books. The film series differs from the books in places.