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'The Maze Runner' trailer shows the strange world of Jeff Dashner's books

The movie 'The Maze Runner' is based on the first book in a series that centers on Thomas, a boy who wakes up in a meadow, surrounded by a maze from which no one has ever escaped.

'The Maze Runner' is by James Dashner.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

A trailer for the film adaptation of James Dashner’s book “The Maze Runner,” the first in a young adult trilogy, has arrived. 

“Runner” centers on a boy named Thomas, who wakes up as he is being lifted on a metal platform up to a meadow, where he meets other boys who have been transported there. Thomas has no memory of how he ended up there and the other boys tell him that the meadow, known as the Glade, is surrounded by a large maze. Maze runners have tried to get through the area, but no one has ever returned. 

First-time director Wes Ball is at the helm and “Teen Wolf” actor Dylan O’Brien stars as Thomas, while fellow maze resident Newt will be portrayed by “Game of Thrones” actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster and “Skins” actress Kaya Scodelario is playing Teresa, a girl who arrives in the Glade and is the first female to do so.

The trailer shows Thomas being transported up to the Glade and the area above him on the platform opening up to reveal the other boys who live there.

“Day one, greenie,” one tells him. “Rise and shine.”

The boys overhear shrieks from outside the Glade and Newt explains the maze to Thomas.

“Every morning when those doors open, the runners look for a way out,” he says.

“What happens to them?” Thomas asks, and the trailer cuts to a boy appearing to be grabbed by some kind of monster.

When the platform arrives in the meadow again, a girl is on it, to the confusion of the meadow residents.

“Thomas?” she says to him, but Thomas looks as baffled as the rest of them as to who she is.

“Maze” arrives in theaters on Sept. 19. Check out the full trailer.

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