Newt in Maze Runner: Actor, Story Arc and Fate

Newt is one of the Gladers, the group of boys who live in the walled Glade at the start of the maze runner 2014, and he is played by Thomas Brodie-Sangster in all three films. The credits list him only as Newt, so the films give him no surname and no other real name.

The Glade is a grassy farm area ringed by huge stone walls, and its gates open by day into a giant maze and close at night. The boys have lived there for three years, with a team of runners mapping the maze every day in search of an exit. Thomas arrives in the lift with no memory except his first name, and Newt belongs to the community he joins, which is led in the first film by Alby.

Brodie-Sangster is billed third behind Dylan O'Brien and Kaya Scodelario in every film, and that billing never changes across the saga. Newt is the Glader whose arc runs from the first scenes in the Glade to the closing note of the third film. For the full cast listing, see the maze runner cast page, and for the other leads start with maze runner characters.

Newt's closest bond is with Thomas, and the third film shows it most clearly, because he goes into the Last City alongside Thomas and Frypan to get Minho back. The other ties in the trilogy are shaped by the Glade and by what WCKD does to the group.

Thomas. Thomas is the newcomer who arrives in the lift in the first film and becomes the person the survivors follow. Newt travels with him to the Last City, and at the end it is Thomas whom he begs to end his life. The films present this as loyalty and friendship, not romance. For Thomas's own profile, see thomas maze runner.

Minho. Minho is the runner who, in the first film, enters the maze with Thomas and later helps him kill and examine a Griever. When WCKD takes Minho and uses him in the Flare cure research, rescuing him becomes the reason for Newt's mission. See minho maze runner.

Alby and Gally. Alby leads the Gladers in the first film, which is the society Newt belongs to. Gally turns hostile, shoots Chuck and is killed by Minho, yet in the third film he is believed dead and instead helps the group get into the city. See gally maze runner.

Teresa. Teresa Agnes is the girl who arrives in the lift with a note, and by the third film she works with WCKD, which complicates the rescue. See teresa maze runner.

In my opinion, the best of Newt's moments are the ones in The Death Cure, because the trilogy spends two films building a group of friends and then asks what the group would give up for one of its own. It could be argued that the Last City mission is the clearest example, with Newt, Thomas and Frypan choosing to go into the most guarded place in the story simply to get Minho back, which shows what the Gladers value more clearly than any speech could.

The infection scenes are the second moment I would single out. Newt begging Thomas to end his life, Thomas refusing, and Newt acting on his own are painful to watch, and perhaps the most honest thing the saga does, because the Flare has been a distant threat in the first two films and here it reaches someone the audience knows. That being said, the scene works because of the casting: Thomas Brodie-Sangster has played Newt from the Glade onward, so the end is not a stranger's.

The last one is the pendant note on the island. It is small and quiet, and it follows the rooftop collapse and the Berg rescue, which is exactly why it lands. Compare it with Teresa's fall, which is loud and sudden; Newt's farewell is a piece of paper, and I think it is the better closing image of the two. For how the saga ranks overall, see maze runner movies ranked.