Gally in The Maze Runner: Actor, Story Arc and Fate

Gally is the hostile Glader in The Maze Runner (2014), directed by Wes Ball, and he is played by Will Poulter. Poulter is billed fifth in the first film and eighth in Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018).

When Thomas wakes in the lift with only his first name, Gally is among the boys already living in the Glade, a farm clearing whose stone walls open onto the maze each morning and seal shut at dusk. Three years of that routine have made the community protective of its rules. Thomas is restless and keeps asking questions, and Gally becomes the one who pushes back hardest against him.

If you are new to the series, think of Gally as the person who supplies the first film's human conflict, a counterweight to the Grievers that hunt the maze. In my opinion, that makes him the most useful foil Thomas has in the trilogy, even though he is never its hero. His story reaches from the Glade to the Last City. For the wider ensemble, see our guide to the maze runner characters and the maze runner cast.

Gally's most important relationship is with Thomas, and it changes shape between the first film and the last. In The Maze Runner they are rivals inside the Glade. In The Death Cure Gally helps Thomas get into the Last City, and the two of them then work together to reach WCKD headquarters. As a result, the same two characters who open the series in conflict are on the same side by its end.

His link to Chuck is the darkest. Chuck is the young Glader who bonds with Thomas, and Gally shoots him as the first film closes.

Minho is the character who ends Gally's life in the first film. Minho is a runner, one of the boys who maps the maze, and he kills Gally after Gally shoots Chuck. In The Death Cure, Minho is a WCKD captive being used in the search for a cure, and Gally helps the group that sets out to rescue him. Gally and Teresa are connected through the plan to reach WCKD headquarters: Thomas and Gally use her to get there, and by then she works with WCKD. In the same film, Gally helps Newt and Frypan, who travel with Thomas, get inside the Last City. See thomas maze runner, minho maze runner, newt maze runner and teresa maze runner for their own pages.

In my opinion, Gally is best understood as an antagonist in The Maze Runner and a reluctant ally in The Death Cure, so the answer to whether he is good or bad depends on which film you are watching. The question is one people ask often, and it could be argued that the series wants it to stay open.

The first moment worth rewatching is his early friction with Thomas in the Glade. It sets up the whole film as a clash between a group that follows rules and a newcomer who breaks them, and Will Poulter plays the opposition without making Gally a cartoon. The second is the climax, when Gally turns on the survivors and shoots Chuck. It is the point where the film stops being a puzzle about the maze and becomes a story about what fear does to people, and it gives Minho's response real consequence.

The third is his reappearance in The Death Cure. Paradoxically, a character who was killed in the first film becomes useful because the finale is about rescue rather than escape. When he helps Thomas, Newt and Frypan reach the Last City, the film recasts him from a threat inside the Glade to a fighter on the same side. For a franchise ranking that weighs such returns, see maze runner movies ranked.