**Warning!! Spoilers Below!!**

As the third and last installment of the Maze Runner trilogy, “Maze Runner: The Death Cure” certainly left many viewers on the edge of their seat hoping for more. The book series, which was first published in 2009, is a dystopian trilogy that brings readers into a post-apocalyptic world full of action and adventure. After being made into a movie in 2014, the Maze Runner series became even more popular. Due to an unfortunate set accident, involving Dylan O’Brien on May 8th of 2016 (I cried),  there was a three year hiatus between the second and third movies. The accident pushed production back a year, so Dylan could recover physically and mentally. However, the accident helped build hype for the movie, as did the long awaited screen version of page 250, the death of Newt. In January, the final movie of the series premiered. “Death Cure” was an action-packed, emotional rollercoaster for people who had read the books and had been waiting patiently for the third movie to come out. The fandom grew by the millions when the movie came out.

The movie picks up a few months after “The Scorch Trials” ends, launching straight into an action scene. Thomas and the crew are hijacking a train to try and save Minho, who was part of the original Glader crew in the first movie. Within the scene, Thomas and the group act as a fluid machine, having backup plans to their backup plans. The original plan goes smoothly and they succeed in stealing the container of immune children. When everyone starts to celebrate their victory, they realize that they did not get the correct container and that Minho was in the capital. Thomas takes off with Newt and Frypan to go save their friend. There starts the adventure.

Within this final movie, fans get answers to many questions the other movies did not answer. This movie is full of surprises, such as the reappearance of a thought-dead character, Gally, and a heart-wrenching revelation that Newt is not immune to the Flare, leading to his death at the very end. Being a lover of the series since I read the books in middle school, I enjoyed the way the movie wrapped up the entire series without leaving any questions unanswered. I, like many who read the book before watching the movie, was anxious to see how the producers brought the heart-wrenching death scene to life. The producers of the movie created a nice mix of pieces from the book and something entirely their own.

The main connection between the books and movies is a quote from Newt that was in the first book, but not in the first movie. Instead, they incorporated it into the third movie which helped create a feeling that everything was coming full circle.The main trio, Minho, Newt, and Thomas, stare out a window as they are about to jump from about six stories into a small water fissure, Thomas turns to the other two and asks them for a pep talk before they jump out of the window. Minho, being the sass king that he is, says “don’t die.” Then comes most of the fandoms’ favorite moment. Newt looks over at Minho and says, “Great! We’re all bloody inspired.” For those who knew that he was going to die, the death of Newt hits hard after this. Mostly due to the reference to the beginning of the series. I refuse to talk about the “Please Tommy, please” moment. I will cry. This is a promise.

While the “Maze Runner” trilogy has been completed for a while now, the number of fans still grows every week. The books and movies are becoming more and more popular as time goes on.While I have very strong feelings about the quality of books over movies, I believe that “Death Cure” did the book’s justice. It includes many important details that captured the intensity and overall mood of the books perfectly. I’m looking forward to see if they plan to make the prequel into a movie as well.

Stay Tuned, Runners!

Julia Bennett, Staff Writer

Junior Julia Bennett is a staff writer for the 2017-2018 Colonel. She is a coffee and Italian food addict and can be found swooning over all things Teen Wolf, even though British TV is clearly superior because “English accents are to die for!”