The Death Cure by James Dashner has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine. It is the third book in the “The Maze Runner” series.
The Death Cure by James Dashner has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine. It is the third book in the “The Maze Runner” series.
Instead of being given the cure for the deadly Flare disease as he’d been promised after surviving the Scorch, Thomas is separated from his friends and kept in isolation for three weeks. Alone with his thoughts and his anger, Thomas is surprised that only the fact that WICKED (World in Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department) won’t let him bathe is what’s driving him crazy.
Finally, “Rat Man” enters the cell and explains everything to him. Rat Man, so nicknamed by Thomas because of his rodent-like features, had been the man to inform Thomas and the other Gladers about the Scorch. Now, he hopes to convince Thomas to continue to work with WICKED to find a cure for the Flare. The disease eats away the minds of the afflicted until they turn into Cranks, zombie-like creatures that roam cities killing people until they’re killed themselves.
Fortunately for Thomas, he and most of his friends are Munies — immune to the Flare. That’s why they’ve been put through the Maze and the Scorch trials. The disease works by eating away areas of the brain. It’s hoped that by monitoring the Munies in various stress and decision-making scenarios, scientists can map out a blueprint of their minds and figure out a way to cure those infected.
Thomas is released from isolation and reunited with his friends — Minho, Newt, Frypan and others from the Maze and the Scorch. When he meets up with Teresa again, he can’t help the feelings of distrust that creep into his mind. His closest friend had done nothing but hurt and betray him throughout the Scorch. Her constant assurance that she was only doing what the old Thomas would have wanted her to do, does nothing to help his emotions.
All of his memories had been wiped away before he entered the Maze, as they were for all the Gladers. The few memories that have managed to re-emerge do not support Teresa’s claims that WICKED is good. Rat Man interrupts their reunion to inform them that they will now be given all their memories back. Of course, the procedure requires them to allow WICKED to put a probe into their brains to remove the device.
Rat Man also tells them the names of those who aren’t immune from the Flare. Thomas is saddened to hear Newt’s name among those infected. Sometime later, Newt gives Thomas a note and tells him not to read it yet. He will know the right time.
Thomas, Minho and Newt refuse to undergo the operation, but Rat Man eventually tries to force them. Thomas is dragged into the operating room and sees Brenda, a girl he formed an attachment to in the Scorch. Brenda helps him and the others escape. They scour the WICKED compound for their friends, but Teresa and the others have escaped without them.
Thomas again feels the sting of betrayal. Brenda leads Thomas, Minho and Newt to Jorge — another friend from the Scorch. After a battle with armed guards, Jorge manages to fly them out of the area in a Berg, which is an airship. Brenda warns them that until they get the devices out of their brains, WICKED can still, if they get close enough, manipulate them. She tells them of a man named Hans who can remove the devices. The group decides to fly to Denver to find him. Denver is one of the few cities left that has not been overrun by the Flare. Uninfected people can still lead fairly normal lives, but everyone is monitored closely to keep an outbreak from occurring.
When they arrive, Newt insists on staying aboard the Berg while the others hunt for Hans. Thomas and Minho have never seen so many people in one area. A stranger approaches Thomas and his friends. He informs them that they are suspected of having escaped from WICKED and that they should follow his advice.
He gives Thomas a note. It’s an address and is signed by Gally. Gally and Thomas were enemies in the Maze, and it was Gally, who under the control of WICKED, killed Thomas’ best friend, Chuck. Thomas thought he had beaten Gally to death, but Brenda assures him he didn’t. She doesn’t believe the note could be from Gally, however, because the boy went crazy with guilt when he realized what WICKED had manipulated him to do.
Gally’s note says that he’s now a member of the Right Arm. Brenda and Jorge explain it’s a renegade group intent on bringing down WICKED. Against everyone else’s advice, Thomas insists they find Gally before finding Hans.
Gally tells them that people from the Right Arm contacted him while he was recovering from the Maze. They said he could get out of the WICKED compound if he pretended to be crazy, so he did. The Right Arm then took him into protective custody.
Gally informs Thomas’ group that Denver is rife with infected people, but they are government officials and can mask the effects with an expensive drug called Bliss. Also, Munies are disappearing. The Right Arm suspects they are being kidnapped by WICKED so they can start a whole new set of trials to try to find the cure. The Right Arm wants Thomas and his friends to help them fight WICKED. They agree, but it will have to wait until they find Hans.
The following day they meet with Hans, but when the old man prepares to take the device out of Thomas’ brain, WICKED takes control, throwing Thomas’ body into convulsions. Thomas is forced to pick up a knife and threaten his friends. After an intense fight, the others are able to sedate him, and the implant is removed. Later, as Thomas and his friends get something to eat in a coffee shop, an infected man is arrested. Brenda and the others manage to escape before the authorities arrive, but Thomas is caught. When it’s discovered he’s a Munie, they decide to sell him to the people collecting Munies.
Thomas is rescued when a motorized and armed cop vehicle opens fire on his captor. A voice from within the car tells him to get in. Thomas is shocked to see an image of Rat Man on a screen in the car. He informs Thomas that he [Thomas] is the last hope for humankind. WICKED desperately needs him to return to the main compound to finish creating the protocol that may cure the Flare. Rat Man also tells him that Newt is succumbing to the disease at an alarming rate and will be insane very soon. Rat Man lets Thomas go, hoping he’ll return to WICKED on his own accord.
When Thomas and the others return to the Berg, they discover that Newt is missing. A note informs them that he’s been taken to live with the other Cranks in the city. Minho insists they have to rescue their friend before they join the Right Arm. Brenda explains that Newt has probably been taken to the Crank Palace. It’s an isolated town where the newly infected are sent to live while they are still rational.
Thomas and his friends find the Crank Palace and bribe the guards to take them to Newt. They find their friend living in a dilapidated bowling alley. Newt refuses to leave with them, eventually pulling a weapon on them and threatening to use it if they don’t leave. He knows he’s a lost cause. The Flare is ravaging his brain, and he has little control over his actions.
As they solemnly make their way back to the Berg without him, guards run up behind them and warn them to flee. The Cranks have gone insane and are launching a revolt. Thomas and his friends reach the Berg and return to Denver. Thomas remembers the sealed letter Newt had given him back at WICKED. He reads it. The note begs Thomas to kill him when he knows the Flare has consumed his mind. Thomas regrets that he failed his friend’s last request.
When they arrive back in the city, armed guards greet them. Thomas and his companions are taken to a holding area where they meet up with many of their old friends, including Teresa. She tries to convince Thomas that she and the other group from WICKED were told that he’d escaped with Minho and Newt. She’d tried to find him but couldn’t.
Teresa tells Thomas that WICKED has been rounding up all the Munies they can find to start another series of trials. Thomas still doesn’t trust her, but they agree to work together to escape. They overpower guards sent to bring them food.
One guard explains that they’re not working for WICKED but for the Right Arm. Thomas and Brenda force him to take them to the resistance headquarters. They have to fight through an army of Cranks to get there, but they finally meet with Vince, the leader. He explains that he wants the Munies to help them break into and take down WICKED. Thomas and Brenda agree to help. Thomas will be dropped off first and will place a device that can disable WICKED’s weapons.
On his way to the Berg that will take him to WICKED, Thomas’ van again runs into Cranks. Thomas recognizes Newt. He insists on talking to his friend. Newt isn’t happy to see Thomas. He begs Thomas to kill him. Finally, out of horror and pity, Thomas shoots him. He refuses to tell any of his friends about the incident.
Thomas is dropped off in a forest just outside of WICKED headquarters. Rat Man welcomes him back. Thomas pretends to have to use the restroom so he can plant the weapon-disabling device. He is then introduced to a surgeon and a psychiatrist.
WICKED feels the only way to get the last information they need to create a cure is to dissect Thomas’ brain while he’s still alive. The procedure, of course, will kill him, but his sacrifice will save the human race. His agreement is no longer an option. They will do the operation whether he wants it or not.
They give him a few minutes alone to write notes to be delivered to his friends. Thomas hopes the Right Arm will arrive in time, but they don’t. He is forced into an operating room as the first wave of the resistance force arrives. He is drugged and passes out.
When Thomas wakes, he finds he’s alone. A letter from Chancellor Paige, the leader of WICKED, explains that she feels Thomas and the other Munies have suffered enough and have done all they can. She says that she saved him from surgery because WICKED has enough patterns and can figure out a cure from them. She leaves him a map that shows the location of other captive Munies and a secret exit. The exit is a Flat Trans, which will transport them to safety.
Thomas learns that the Right Arm plans to blow up the WICKED building without getting the captive Munies out. He finds his friends, and Gally joins them. They head back into the Maze, where the Munies are being kept.
Thomas is shocked to find that the Munies vary in age from children to adults. Thomas organizes them, but the Right Arm begins to detonate their explosives. The building begins to disintegrate around them. WICKED sends Grievers — half-machine, half-animal creatures — to stop them, but Thomas and Teresa destroy them. About 200 Munies survive and make it to the Flat Trans, but they’re still not safe. As many leave through the Flat Trans, Rat Man and several WICKED soldiers arrive to stop them. Thomas and his friends fight them as other Munies continue to transport to safety.
In a rage, Thomas beats Rat Man to the ground and strangles him. His friends kill the guards as well. As they run toward the Flat Trans, more explosions rock the building. A piece of the ceiling plummets toward Thomas, but Teresa pushes him out of the way. The rubble crushes her, and she dies. Minho and Brenda drag Thomas through the Flat Trans toward safety. Then Brenda destroys the Flat Trans so no one can follow them. Thomas marvels at the natural beauty of their new home. He and Brenda contemplate their new life as the sun sets.
In a memorandum to her associates, Chancellor Paige explains how WICKED always acted for good, but she realized that their plans had not always been the best. She explains that though WICKED’s initial plan to find a cure has failed, they still succeeded in saving humankind by sending the immune to a place of safety where they can live while the rest of humankind destroys itself.
None
None of the characters practice a religion, but a few of their exclamations, such as, “Thank God above,” suggest they might have a belief in a higher power.
Although Jorge is the oldest of Thomas’ friends and is described as being a man, he in no way acts as an authority figure, allowing Thomas and Brenda to make most of the decisions. He is protective of Brenda. Rat Man, as the spokesman for WICKED, is manipulative and self-serving. Later, it is revealed that he has the Flare. Thomas and the other teenagers are basically in control of their own destiny, and the fate of the world seems to be in their relatively young hands.
God’s name is used in vain with swear to, forsaken and name. H— is used. Thomas and his friends have developed their own form of swear words and regularly use them. They include: shuck, shucking, shucked, shuck-face, shank and klunk. Objectionable words used are butt, bloody, buggin, suck, sucker, wuss and dookie.
As the battle to survive both the Cranks and WICKED winds to a close, the violence in the book increases. Some of the violence is remembered from the Maze and the Scorch. Minho reminds Thomas that Teresa hit him in the face with a spear. Thomas recalls the bus that ran over a Flare-infected woman as it rescued them. Newt remembers the hanging, bloated bodies of the guards before they were sent to the Scorch. Thomas remembers how Gally killed their friend Chuck. Thomas held the boy while he bled to death.
Minho and the others think about punching Rat Man in the nose. The guards at WICKED use Launchers to maintain control. They use the Launchers to shoot grenades of energy at people, electrocuting them for a short time. Newt punches Minho in the face. Minho tackles him in return. In trying to break up the fight, Thomas gets an elbow to his chin.
Thomas and his friends come across guards that have been bound and gagged. They leave them behind to find Jorge and a Berg. They find the pilot holding his head and groaning, obviously injured. WICKED guards with Launchers and guns attack them. Thomas and the others fight back and incapacitate many of the guards with Launchers of their own. Thomas can feel the bullets whizzing just past his head.
Brenda and Thomas both get hit with Launchers. The effect is described as being hit by 1,000 bolts of lightning. The victims’ bodies convulse wildly as the electricity courses through them. Thomas feels as if his skin is melting off his body and is wracked with pain. Thomas’ body is manipulated by WICKED as he tries to get the implant removed from his brain. His muscles have spasms. He threatens his friends with a knife. They tackle him, but he escapes and manages to slash Hans with the knife. His friends stop him again and manage to drug him to sleep.
A guard tackles a Flare-infected man. The guard threatens to shoot Thomas if he tries to escape. A cop-machine guns down the guard. His death is described in detail with spraying bullets and body twitches. Newt threatens to shoot his friends with a Launcher. They fight with several Cranks until Newt electrocutes one of the infected.
Newt’s letter to Thomas asks that his friend kill him before the Flare destroys his brain. Minho shoots a captured guard’s foot, taking off his pinky toe. He threatens to kill the others if they don’t start explaining why the Munies have been kidnapped. A guard says the Cranks are trying to eat people.
Cranks attack the van Thomas and Brenda ride in. They punch through windows, trying to grab them. One Crank tries to come through the windshield. The driver slams on the brakes, throwing her from the van and causing her to crash to the ground. Thomas fights off Cranks by hitting them with a snow pick. He then shoots several with a gun. Their blood covers the windows and holes in the van. Another Crank tries to stab them.
Thomas shoots Newt in the face in order to save his friend from madness. Rat Face and the other doctors inform Thomas that the last piece of the puzzle they need to cure the Flare is found in Thomas’ brain. They need to cut it out of his head while he’s still alive so they can analyze his brain tissue to see how it withstands the Flare.
He will be alive, but sedated, while they do this, and the procedure will eventually kill him. When Thomas refuses, they drug him and force him on the operating table. When Thomas escapes, Rat Man threatens him with a knife while a guard holds him down. Thomas kicks Rat Man in the face, knocking him to the ground. He kicks the hand holding the knife. They continue to fight hand to hand until Thomas gets hold of the knife. He throws it at the guard, stabbing the man in the neck.
There are several more attacks between the soldiers of WICKED and Thomas and his friends. People are punched in the face and stomach, kicked in the head and kicked on other body parts. The Right Arm places explosives around WICKED headquarters and sets them off, even though they know innocent people are inside.
Pieces of the building fall, crushing and killing several people. This is described in detail. Grievers are sent to try and stop the Munies from escaping. These man-made creatures have blade arms that scissor and slice people. Their bodies are gelatinous and can absorb people, suffocating them.
Another man is stabbed through the chest by a rod that shot out of a Griever. Several Munies are killed before Thomas can stop them all. Thomas strangles Rat Man to death, continuing to squeeze the man’s throat long after he is dead. Teresa is killed by a piece of concrete after she pushes Thomas out of the way.
Brenda kisses Thomas several times on the cheek. At the end of the novel, he kisses her cheek and then her lips.
Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books.
Lying: Rat Man admits the officials of WICKED have often lied to Thomas in order to manipulate him.
Narcotics: Wealthy infected people can buy a drug called Bliss that masks the effect of the disease for a limited time.
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