Monday, August 29, 2016

Maze Runner Book vs Movie - Comparison Essay

I've decided to share an essay I wrote earlier in the year for English. Here it is. :)


   The Maze runner was originally a book, written by James Dashner. A few years after publishing, it was turned into a film.
   Like many movies originated from books, there were quite a few differences between the two. The main ones were the differences between movie and book characters, the relationships of the characters and the Gladers' history.

   In the book the Gladers are a supportive little community of teenage boys. There is some competition, but it's kept to a minimum, as they all look out for each other, knowing it would be harder to survive the Maze if they didn't.
   In the movie the competitiveness is played up more that the supportiveness. This change was made to help the Gladers fit into the Hollywood 'teenage boy' stereotype. Because of the change in their behaviour and personality, they become a lot rougher and more bullyish.
   They change a lot of the characters to fit in with the story to get it to work for the stereotypical Hollywood movie. Teresa, for instance, becomes slightly more delicate and feminine in the movie. However, out of all the characters, they change Gally the most.
   In the Maze Runner book Gally is the meanest of the Gladers, and has a severe disliking for Thomas. He is completely convinced that Thomas has come to destroy their little community, after having seen Thomas in his memories during 'The Changing'.
'When his malicious stare fell back upon Thomas, he had one last thing to say. “Whatever you came here for – I swear on my life I'm gonna stop it. Kill you if I have to.”'
   Pretty much he's the Glade's version of a school bully.
   However that wasn't good enough for Hollywood, so they turned him into a 'good guy gone bad' character. He starts off as a much more supportive character. He still has some of the bully aspect to him, but he's much more respected and respectful. That starts to vanish after Thomas breaks the Glade's Number One rule by running into the Maze. Then his character follows along with the book version.

   The character's relationships are changed a fair bit through out the movie as well, to help the movie flow in a more “suspenseful” way.
   The relationship between Thomas and Teresa changes significantly between the book and the movie, meaning that some of the more interesting things between them are missed. In the book, Teresa recognizes Thomas immediately, and afterwards continues to behave as though she has known him her entire life. This is enhanced by a telepathy link they share, which seems to indicate that they did know each other previously.
'Tom, I don't know any of these people. Come and get me! -Teresa, The Maze Runner, book'
   Meanwhile, in the movie, Teresa plainly has no memory of Thomas, and vise versa. However if they had the telepathy link between them they may have figured out the connection sooner, but the telepathy link was removed from the storyline to save time, meaning that it wasn't until towards the end of the movie that they discover that they knew each other.
'“Who are you? They said I kept saying your name during my sleep.” - Teresa, The Maze Runner, Movie'
  The reason for the dramatic changes to the character's relationships with each other was to save time to use for developing the story plot and to keep the movie to a reasonable length. The saved time ended up being used by adding non-existent book scenes to the movie, such as the Gladers having a party to celebrate Thomas's arrival in the Glade.

   Another dramatic difference between the two is the history of the Gladers. In the book, when Thomas asks how long they'd been in the Maze for, he's told that the longest was two years.
'Alby continued. “Two years, I've been here. Ain't none been here longer.” - The Maze Runner'
   However when Thomas asks the same question in the movie, he's told that they've been stuck in the Maze for the past three years. The reason for the added year in the movie is to add yet another layer of suspension, and also one of hopelessness – because two years of being stuck inside a glade surrounded by bloodthirsty monsters clearly isn't chilling enough for Hollywood film critics.
   There was another big difference between how the first of the Gladers arrived as well. In the book, a group of between forty to fifty boys were placed in the Glade. They all had the equipment needed to begin their community.
In the movie, only one boy was placed in the Glade per month. In this case, the first ever Glader was Alby. The reason for this was to help define Alby's character, explain why he became the leader of the Gladers. In the book, the main reason he becomes the leader is because he has a natural leader-like personality.

   Quite a few things ended up changing in the movie, much of it so that it would fit with Hollywood standards. However, despite the changes made, the storyline of the movie managed to flow fairly consistently to that of the book.
While I do enjoy the movie, as it does give a different perspective, I personally prefer the book for it's greater depth into the story.

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