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Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials
Movie

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

2015 • Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Woke Score
4
out of 10

Plot

The second chapter of the epic "Maze Runner" saga. Thomas (Dylan O'Brien) and his fellow Gladers face their greatest challenge yet: searching for clues about the mysterious and powerful organization known as WCKD. Their journey takes them to the Scorch, a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles. Teaming up with resistance fighters, the Gladers take on WCKD's vastly superior forces and uncover its shocking plans for them all.

Overall Series Review

The film continues the narrative of Thomas and the Gladers fighting against the organization WCKD in a post-apocalyptic world. The central conflict revolves around the moral ambiguity of scientific experiments on immune children to find a cure for a global plague, presenting a secular debate over whether the ends justify the means. The hero narrative centers on a young man who displays natural leadership, courage, and protective masculinity. While the ensemble cast contains racial diversity, the story structure focuses on the white male protagonist as the essential savior. Female characters are portrayed as capable fighters and leaders but are primarily defined by their romantic entanglement with the male lead, avoiding the 'Mary Sue' or 'Girl Boss' tropes. The core plot is a traditional youth-led rebellion against a corrupt institutional power, taking place in a world where former civilization has failed. The story is a high-octane action thriller that is devoid of overt social or political lecturing on characteristics like race, sexual identity, or religion.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics3/10

The narrative focuses heavily on a white male protagonist, Thomas, who becomes the essential leader and 'savior' for the group. The ensemble cast includes non-white characters, such as Minho and Frypan, and a woman of color, Brenda, but their importance often appears secondary to Thomas's development and heroism. Characters are primarily valued for their immunity to the Flare virus, which is a form of biological meritocracy, not race or gender.

Oikophobia6/10

The central antagonist, WCKD (World in Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department), is a powerful, established, Western-styled scientific institution. The film frames this institution, a remnant of a former global order, as fundamentally corrupt and evil for its willingness to torture children to 'save the world.' The heroes' goal is to escape and overthrow this corrupt societal structure, positioning the old world's institutions as the enemy of humanity's future.

Feminism3/10

Female characters like Teresa and the new addition, Brenda, are shown to be intelligent and competent in combat and survival. However, the plot heavily features a romantic triangle, placing the women in a dynamic where they are largely defined by their emotional and romantic connection to the male protagonist, Thomas. The narrative does not elevate the female leads to 'perfect' status nor does it depict the male characters as bumbling or universally toxic.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative adheres strictly to normative structure, with all central romantic and emotional pairings presented as traditional male-female relationships. The trials themselves separated the immune teenagers into Group A (mostly male) and Group B (mostly female), which reinforces a strict gender binary. The movie contains no themes or discussions centering on alternative sexualities, deconstructing the nuclear family, or gender ideology.

Anti-Theism5/10

The core moral conflict is a purely secular one, debating the utilitarian question of whether sacrificing a few children is justified to find a cure and save the human race. The film does not feature or critique any traditional religion, specifically Christianity. The debate is grounded in a humanistic, amoral-vs-moral framework with no acknowledgment of a higher moral law or faith as a source of strength.