20 Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movies Like The Maze Runner You Need To See

Summary

• There are other sci-fi and fantasy movies like The Maze Runner with similar dystopian settings and themes of violence and teen protagonists.
• Some movies don’t fit neatly into young adult categories, like similar horror offerings, offering a diverse range of genres for Maze Runner fans.
• Movies like Labyrinth, Boy 7, and The Menu share elements of survival, complex plot reveals, and protagonists who think outside the box, making them similar to The Maze Runner.

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There are many great sci-fi and fantasy movies like The Maze Runner that share the hit YA adaptation’s dystopian setting, themes of violence, and plucky teen protagonists – or some combination of those. Adapted from James Dashner’s book series, The Maze Runner revolves around teenagers who are trapped in an intricate maze controlled by their malicious government. It was warmly received by critics, who deemed it to be superior to the majority of young-adult novel adaptations, and it became a hit with audiences, grossing $348 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), launching a franchise that continued for two more movies.

After watching The Maze Runner and its sequels, there are plenty of other similar sci-fi and fantasy stories for fans to enjoy. There are other movies about teenagers competing against each other in a dystopian future, like The Hunger Games, and about stranded schoolboys trying to establish a functioning society, like Lord of the Flies. From the teen-on-teen violence of Battle Royale to the inter-school competition of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, there is a lot to choose from. Some movies like The Maze Runner, however, don’t fall neatly into those young adult lines, creating a diverse group of movies for Maze Runner fans to try out.

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20 Labyrinth (1986)

Available to stream on Peacock

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If there are any movies like The Maze Runner that are going to be remembered, they’re going to be ones that involve a giant maze as part of their main storyline. That’s the case with Labyrinth. Starring Jennifer Connelly and David Bowie, the fantasy movie doesn’t seem like it would have much in common with the teen dystopia of The Maze Runner. It does, however, in that the survival of more than just the main character relies on the main character getting through the maze.

Thomas discovers that the maze is about more than just the boys escaping as the rest of the movies inspired by the YA series focus on just what happens outside of that maze and how many other mazes there are. Sarah isn’t out to save her own life in Labyrinth, but her little brother’s, and getting through the titular labyrinth isn’t her only problem.

19 Boy 7 (2015)

Currently unavailable to stream

Based on a novel by Mirjam Mous, this Dutch movie doesn’t have a lot in common with The Maze Runner in terms of story, but it does in terms of set-up. A young man wakes up on the subway with no memory of who he is and has to use the belongings in his backpack to help determine his identity and what happened to him. What he discovers is that he’s actually a rogue government agent.

This set-up is not unlike the boys waking up in the maze with no memory of their backgrounds, specifically Thomas, who isn’t like the rest of the boys solving his maze. Often, the boys who wake up in the maze don’t even know their own names. Thomas gets flashes of his past, and learns more about how different he is from the other boys with the introduction of another character instead of because of belongings that give him clues, but the idea is similar.

18 The Menu (2022)

Available to rent on digital platforms

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A horror comedy, The Menu and its gourmet meals and satire might not appear to have anything in common with The Maze Runner at first glance. It does, however, involve a protagonist who thinks outside the box and has to find a way to get themselves out of a secluded location where they are trapped. The Menu, of course, is more psychological and more bloody than The Maze Runner is in its first installment, and not for the latter’s younger audience members.

It slowly reveals plot points that alter the viewer’s perception of characters over the course of the story, just as the introduction of new faces in Maze Runner slowly peels back the layers of the story. The Menu is much more closer to a thriller despite its comedic elements as well, but it’s those moments in which the main characters gradually unearth new pieces of information where the audience can see the similarities.

17 Final Destination (2000)

Available to rent on digital platforms

The Maze Runner, surprisingly, has a lot of parallels with horror projects, which fans of the young adult dystopian subgenre might not have expected. Final Destination is another one, and it happens to be a movie that kicked off its own series of films, just like The Maze Runner. In Final Destination, a group of teenagers is able to cheat death when one of them has a vision of disaster, and they all get kicked off a plane.

They are systematically killed in the order they would have died on the plane as they try to find a way to survive. Their survival hinges on them figuring out death’s pattern and looking out for the signs. That’s not unlike the survival of those at the maze hinging on them being able to remember what they’ve learned in each maze run. Both movies feature multiple deaths as the patterns are learned as well.

16 Divergent (2014)

Available to stream on Netflix

Adapted from a different series of dystopian YA sci-fi novels —written by Veronica Roth — Divergent tells another story about a young protagonist’s struggle to fit in against the backdrop of futuristic bureaucracy. Divergent takes place in a world where people are divided into different factions based on human traits, and Shailene Woodley stars as Beatrice “Tris” Prior, who doesn’t fit the bill for any of them. Tris uncovers a dark conspiracy that will destroy their seemingly utopian society. Like The Maze Runner, Divergent explores how an overbearing government impacts young people.

Unlike The Maze Runner, however, Divergent didn’t remain successful as the movies released in theaters. The final chapter of the Divergent franchise never made it to theaters – or on to television as a proposed miniseries – leaving fans with a bit of an unsatisfactory ending if they choose to watch all of the available movies without reading the novels.

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15 Ready Player One (2018)

Available to stream on Fubo

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The Maze Runner and Ready Player One are both set in futuristic dystopias where it falls to teenagers to save the day. For many of the movies like The Maze Runner, that is going to be the common thread, but the two movies have very different set-ups for their dystopian societies. While The Maze Runner uses the obvious titular maze, Ready Player One uses virtual reality and video games. Ready Player One sees teenagers band together to fight those in charge using their video game avatars.

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Both movies take the idea of games that kids might enjoy and make them deadly, but necessary for survival. A sequel to the novel that inspired Ready Player One was published in 2020, and a movie has been in development ever since. It’s not clear if Ready Player Two will ever make it to the big screen, but as of 2024, Olivia Cooke is still contracted to appear in it.

14 Infinite (2021)

Available to rent on digital platforms

Like The Maze Runner, Infinite stars Dylan O’Brien as a protagonist contending with mind-bending sci-fi concepts. Dylan O’Brien has made his career successful by making sure to choose projects with vastly different characters and journeys to play, so it’s almost surprising that he would end up in a movie that shares so many similarities with The Maze Runner series.

Based on D. Eric Maikranz’s book The Reincarnationist Papers, Infinite tells the story of a man who comes to the realization that his hallucinations are actually visions of his past lives. O’Brien plays the 1985 version of Mark Wahlberg’s character Heinrich Treadway. Infinite shares The Maze Runner’s complex plotting, thrilling sci-fi action, and O’Brien’s undeniable star power — bolstered by the star power of Wahlberg in the role of the older Heinrich as well.

13 Escape Room (2019)

Available to stream on Hulu

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The Maze Runner is more teen adventure than horror, but Escape Room is still a good comparison – especially for the first of the Maze Runner movies. Escape Room involves several strangers having to solve an escape room puzzle, but some of the puzzles are lethal. The group getting to know one another while facing a life-or-death situation is very similar to the boys studying and running the maze while building a life together.

Escape Room also garnered a sequel which helps to flesh out the lore of the first movie, giving more information about the person actually designing the games. However, in a twist befitting of both The Maze Runner and Escape Room, there are two different versions of the sequel movie for fans to enjoy. Each version has slightly different plot points, changing how the movie’s story ultimately shakes out.

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12 The Belko Experiment (2016)

Available to stream on Tubi

A murderous escape room is exactly what The Maze Runner involves: the room just happens to be a large maze with monsters in it in which the characters are learning a way to save society instead of other humans whose nature is being studied. In The Belko Experiment, the monsters are very much human. An office building is locked down, and the workers are told that in order to survive, they must kill one another to escape.

Though The Belko Experiment pits the participants against one another, the challenge isn’t unlike The Maze Runner’s experiment, testing the intelligence and creative thinking of the teenage boys. Both movies also end with a surprising twist, setting up sequels. While The Maze Runner got those sequels, The Belko Experiment did not, leaving fans to wonder what could have happened next.

11 Ender’s Game (2013)

Available to stream on Netflix

Based on the novel of the same name by Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game takes place at a military academy in space. Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld star as a pair of cadets opposite Harrison Ford as their grumpy, abrasive commanding officer. There isn’t quite as much deception involved in training these kids to become warriors as there is in The Maze Runner – the government is pretty upfront with Ender and his classmates about preparing them to fend off alien invaders – but Ender’s Game has a similar tone, style, and plucky protagonist to The Maze Runner.

Just like The Maze Runner movies, the idea is that the older generation has made mistakes that have changed the world. The new generation is needed to save them. Without the new generation being put through the wringer to become brave and outside-of-the-box thinkers, they wouldn’t likely be in the position to save anyone.

10 Oblivion (2013)

Available to stream on AppleTV+

Much like The Maze Runner, Oblivion is a dystopian sci-fi movie about a protagonist who slowly realizes his reality is not what it seems. In this case, the protagonist isn’t a teenager, but the ideas are still similar. Whereas Thomas realizes he’s a test subject in a diabolical experiment in The Maze Runner, Tom Cruise’s Jack Harper realizes he’s one of many clones used in an alien invasion in Oblivion.

This is the movie that introduced Cruise to visionary Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski. The filmmaker brings his signature visual flair to this vision of a post-apocalyptic Earth, while Cruise anchors Oblivion with a typically committed performance. Fans who enjoy that the action is fused with an emotional thriller-like storyline for Maze Runner will find a similar trajectory to Oblivion’s story.

9 Death Bell (2008)

Currently unavailable to stream

This South Korean horror movie received mixed reviews upon release, but with solid acting and a unique premise, it makes for a fun watch. In the movie, a group of high-ranking students are supposed to be preparing for exams, but end up in the middle of a deadly challenge when one of their classmates is kidnapped and held hostage. To save their classmate, they have to work together to answer quiz questions at a very tight deadline.

The movie sees the classmates initially bucking the instructions before deciding to actually work together and try to save their own lives as they are picked off one by one. The questions, the deadline, and the students having to save their own lives are what make it a movie like The Maze Runner. Be warned though, Death Bell is much more violent and gory.

8 The Darkest Minds (2018)

Available to rent on Fubo

Much like The Maze Runner, The Darkest Minds centers on a group of teenage outcasts who band together to take on their oppressive enemies. Based on Alexandra Bracken’s novel of the same name, The Darkest Minds takes place in a world where superpowers have been outlawed and a team of superpowered kids goes on the run from a dark government agency. Amandla Stenberg leads the team with as much gusto and pathos as O’Brien does in The Maze Runner.

The Darkest Minds is actually the first story in a series of four novels and three novellas, but no other movies were made following its disappointing box office performance. The movie, unfortunately, premiered during a glut of YA adaptations being brought to the screen, and it didn’t stand out from the crowd. The movie’s ending sets up the next part of the storyline, so fans might not love that there isn’t more to watch.

7 After Earth (2013)

Available to stream on Max

Will Smith teamed up with his son Jaden for the post-apocalyptic thriller After Earth. Set in a future in which humanity has abandoned its homeworld following an environmental disaster, the Smiths play a father and son whose spaceship crash-lands on the ruins of Earth. After Earth has a similar feel to The Maze Runner, with danger lurking around every corner, and the Ursa alien creatures and bloodthirsty over-evolved animals that remain on After Earth’s post-apocalyptic Earth are similar to the Grievers that stalk the Gladers around the Maze.

The downside of the movie is that it doesn’t have the same ensemble feel that Maze Runner does. Though Thomas is clearly the main character of Maze Runner, the audience gets to know and understand the rest of the ensemble. That’s not the case here as father and son are the only people who really pop for the story.

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6 Cube (1997)

Available to stream on Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex, and Freevee

The Maze Runner has an open field where the boys live while they plan their times in the maze to give it a more open feel. Cube doesn’t have that, bringing in the claustrophobic feeling of being stuck in the maze full force. The movie sees a group of strangers trapped in a maze that’s made up of cubes that have traps laid out in them.

Having to traverse the maze, survive the traps, and not turn on one another proves difficult for The Cube characters similarly to The Maze Runner characters when more than one person is in the maze at a time. This movie is not for the Maze Runner fans who love the aspects of the movie that take place outside of the maze. There isn’t really the chance for building connection or character because the adrenaline of the maze, or in this case, the cube, is the big push for the story.

5 The Hunger Games (2012)

Available to stream on AMC+

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Adapted from Suzanne Collins’s acclaimed book series, The Hunger Games is another hit YA adaptation like The Maze Runner that’s set in a disturbing futuristic society where teens are forced to compete against each other by their oppressive overlords. Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen, who’s enlisted to take part in a ruthless televised fight to the death between teenage contestants from the 12 Districts of Panem. The Hunger Games was praised for its gritty action, its faithfulness to the source novel, Lawrence’s star-making performance, and the story’s thought-provoking themes exploring the spectacle of violence.

Like Maze Runner, The Hunger Games begins a successful YA franchise. With three sequels and a prequel (so far), there is so much more story for the fans to dive into. The lore is even richer than that of the Maze Runner franchise, so fans of the Maze Runner who find the wider implications of the story to be the more interesting part will enjoy this franchise.

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4 Snowpiercer (2013)

Available to stream on Fubo

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A train is a relatively straightforward object. It shouldn’t be hard to walk from one car to another and escape since there aren’t the twists and turns of a maze. The train in the dystopian Snowpiercer, however, is a little more complicated than that, as the poor (and seemingly expendable) of the human race are kept at the back of the train and the wealthy at the front.

When those at the back of the train seek a more equitable distribution of resources, they attempt to rebel, and that involves traveling through the different train cars to get to the front. That journey, as secrets about the dystopian life are revealed to those traveling the cars, is very similar to the gradual unpuzzling of the maze and the gradual reveals about Thomas’ life before the maze.

3 Lord Of The Flies (1963)

Available to stream on Max

A key subplot in The Maze Runner revolves around the boys’ attempts to establish a functioning society within the Glade. They set up their own rules to keep themselves on track and keep fights to a minimum, especially where exploring the maze is concerned. This part of the story is reminiscent of the seminal William Golding novel Lord of the Flies, in which a group of schoolboys is marooned on an island and struggle to maintain order as the majority of them descend into savagery.

Lord of the Flies has been adapted twice, but the more faithful and well-crafted version is Peter Brook’s 1963 movie. Brook’s minimalist direction and the film’s impeccable cast of child actors create a breathtaking sense of realism. This is often the movie that film critics will compare young adult stories of fallen society to.

2 Battle Royale (2000)

Available to stream on Kanopy, Tubi, and Roku

Based on the Koushun Takami novel of the same name, Battle Royale revolves around a group of junior high school students who are forced to fight to the death by their totalitarian government. Battle Royale is a much more brutal version of The Maze Runner’s tale of bloodthirsty youths. The movie is disturbingly violent without losing sight of its poignant themes and social commentary, exploring both the coldness of government bureaucracy and humanity’s capacity for bloodshed in desperate times.

Fans of both Maze Runner and Hunger Games will be interested in this movie because it has things in common with both movies. The dynamics of the students, from the cliques who try to keep order among themselves and then dissolve with mistrust, to the unfolding alliances and love stories, have a lot of parallels to the dynamics between the kids in Maze Runner and Hunger Games.

1 Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire (2005)

Available to stream on Max and Peacock

The fourth entry in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is the most similar to The Maze Runner. Harry is chosen as Hogwarts’s entrant in the Triwizard Tournament, a series of deadly challenges to determine the best wizard school. The final challenge, in which the contestants race to seize the Triwizard Cup, even takes place in a big, spooky maze.

Mike Newell, the director of Donnie Brasco and Four Weddings and a Funeral, ensured that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is just as focused on its characters and their relationships as it is on the fantasy spectacle. The maze here doesn’t contain monsters like that of the Maze Runner though, which makes it particularly interesting. The maze itself is monstrous and it forces the students within it to confront each other and themselves in a different way.

Source: https://dinhtienhoang.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment