Maze Runner Timeline: The Full Story in Order

The timeline opens inside the Glade, a walled clearing at the center of the maze, in The Maze Runner (2014), directed by Wes Ball. Thomas rides a lift up into it knowing only his first name, and finds boys under Alby's leadership who all share the same blank past. Stone walls ring the clearing, and the gates swing open at dawn and close at dusk. Only runners such as Minho go out to chart the corridors beyond.

Night is the danger. The corridors rearrange themselves while the gates are shut, and Grievers patrol them. Thomas befriends Chuck, butts heads with Gally, and ignores the runner-only rule to follow Alby and Minho outside, then guards the wounded Alby until morning.

Teresa Agnes comes up in the lift the following day, the first girl to make the trip, holding a note that calls her the last one. Thomas spots a pattern in the corridors and sketches a possible route. After a night run and a fight with Grievers, he and Minho kill one and study it, then find a door in the wall that leads to a lab strewn with dead scientists. A recording from WCKD says the boys were a test while a lethal disease spread through the world. Gally, now hostile to the group, shoots Chuck, and Minho kills Gally. Soldiers lift the survivors out by helicopter, an escape that raises more questions than it answers. For the cast and production of the film, see the Maze Runner 2014.

The second stage moves from the maze to a walled facility and then into a ruined desert, and it is covered by Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015), also directed by Wes Ball. The surviving Gladers are taken in by a man named Janson, who says his facility protects them from the Cranks, people ruined by a deadly infection. Thomas grows suspicious and learns that the place belongs to WCKD and that Ava Paige is still alive.

Thomas and his friends flee into the Scorch, a burned and ruined desert. During the crossing the group loses Winston to the infection. They meet two locals, Brenda and Jorge, and travel on with them toward the mountains, where they find the Right Arm, a resistance group.

This stage ends badly. Teresa secretly passes the camp's location to WCKD, and WCKD attacks the camp and captures several Immunes, including Minho, Aris and Sonya. Mary Cooper is killed in the raid, and Teresa's betrayal is exposed. Thomas vows to kill Paige and get the captured friends back, which gives the final film its goal. For the cast and the desert crossing in more detail, see Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials.

The last stage is a break-in at WCKD's stronghold, then a collapse and a fresh start, all in Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018), directed by Wes Ball. Thomas, Newt and Frypan head for the Last City because Minho is held there and tortured in WCKD's hunt for a Flare cure. Gally, whom they believed dead, gets them through the gates, and he and Thomas then use Teresa to reach the headquarters where the Immune children are kept.

Lawrence leads a rebel assault and gives his life to blast through the city wall. Inside, Newt is infected with the Flare and starts to lose control. Thomas discovers that his own blood can produce a cure. Newt pleads with Thomas to end his life, Thomas refuses, and Newt stabs himself. Janson kills Ava Paige, then dies at the hands of the Cranks that Thomas releases.

On the roof of the burning building, Teresa draws Thomas's blood so the cure can be made. A Berg comes for the group, but the structure falls apart and Teresa drops to her death. The survivors reach a safe island where they can rebuild, and Thomas finds a note inside Newt's pendant asking him to look after everyone. The full cast is listed under Maze Runner: The Death Cure.

The Maze Runner timeline is simple in order but layered in what it reveals, because the story runs in a straight line while the explanation of that line arrives late. The three films follow one continuous order, with chronological order matching release order, so there is no flashback structure or side story to place. If you are deciding where to begin, see the Maze Runner movies in order for the viewing sequence.

What changes is the reading of the opening. In The Maze Runner the Glade looks like the whole world, yet the recorded message from WCKD reframes it as a trial run while a disease spread. By The Scorch Trials the maze is only the first test, and Janson's facility is a second one dressed as shelter. In my opinion, that is the cleverest structural choice in the series, since each film recasts the rescue at the end of the previous one as part of the experiment.

A few common questions have clear answers. Thomas is not the only Immune: Minho, Aris and Sonya are captured as Immunes in The Scorch Trials, and the Immune children are held at WCKD headquarters in The Death Cure. What makes Thomas special is that his own blood can produce a cure. Newt is a different case. The Death Cure shows him infected with the Flare, losing control and asking Thomas to end his life. It could be argued that his request shows he understood what was coming, but the films do not mark the moment he first knew, so I will not state one.

The gap between The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure is the one place where a precise answer is not available. The Death Cure begins from the consequences of the Right Arm raid, with the rescue of Minho as its goal, but neither film states how much time has passed. A number there would be a guess, and a timeline should not guess.

So, is The Death Cure the last film? As a story, yes: it closes with Newt's note and sets up nothing further. As a franchise, a continuation is in development at 20th Century Studios. For the character side of these events, see Thomas, Newt, Minho and Teresa, and for how the films differ from the novels, see Maze Runner books vs movies.