YMMV / The Maze Runner (2014)

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • If one looks at Alby before he's stung, he seems to be a similar Well-Intentioned Extremist to Gally. After all the rules are his idea — including banishing those who have been stung to the maze. Could Alby have gone off the deep end like Gally if the situation had been different?
  • It's also not hard to look at Gally's motivations as being mere jealousy — as Thomas seems to assume a de-facto leader role after Alby is stung. Gally's real dislike doesn't come into play until after the others are cheering him on for saving Alby. So it's possible Gally is just jealous of Thomas's desire to do something and the fact that he can motivate the others to follow him while Gally can't — and he just hides behind his "keeping everyone safe" reasoning.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Minho is one of the favorite characters of the film, due to his display of badassery at numerous points and being a non-stereotypical Asian character.
• Funny Moments: When Teresa wakes up, Thomas finds her at the top of a lookout tower — throwing anything she can find at the boys below to keep them away. It provides much needed comic relief in such a serious story.
  Chuck: Girls are awesome.
  • Chuck's little "Oh no" when he sees a Griever coming his way.
  • After finally getting out of the maze, how do the group find the exit? Seeing a room with an ordinary EXIT sign. The deadpan "Seriously?" is comically fitting.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The film topped the Korean Box Office when it opened there, and foreign films rarely do as well. It grossed the Korean equivalent of $5 billion there. This was largely in part due to Minho's actor Ki Hong Lee being born in South Korea.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Seeing Thomas duck and dive under so many Grievers is a little hard to watch with the knowledge that Dylan O'Brien was severely injured doing stunts on the third film — delaying its production for months.
• He Really Can Act:
  • For those who had only seen Dylan O'Brien on Teen Wolf, they were blown away with his performance here. Director Wes Ball was even reluctant to cast him because of his "MTV hair" but was quickly won over with an audition. He ended up named one of the breakout stars of 2014.
  • And those who only knew Will Poulter for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and We're the Millers, he turns in a layered performance that changes Gally from straight up antagonist to Anti-Villain. His death is very much Alas, Poor Villain.
• Heartwarming Moments: Here
• Jerkass Woobie: Gally in the film just wants to keep the peace and make sure everyone is safe. Although he's a dick and eventually crosses the Moral Event Horizon, everything he does is out of a desire to ensure everyone's safety. He's an antagonist but definitely an Anti-Villain.
• Moral Event Horizon: Gally wanting Thomas to answer for his actions? Acceptable. Gally wanting to feed him to the Grievers with no way to defend himself? Not so much.
• Narm Charm: "Wicked is good" is a rather on-the-nose set of villain Arc Words. But Patricia Clarkson makes it effectively creepy.
• One-Scene Wonder: Patricia Clarkson only appears in brief snippets of Thomas's memories until her little video at the end. But damn if she isn't memorably creepy.
• Tear Jerker: Here
• Too Cool to Live: Alby is the Team Dad and big brother figure of the Gladers. Of course he's going to get stung by a Griever early on, and even when he's cured he's of course got to go down in a Heroic Sacrifice.

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