'Maze Runner: The Death Cure' Clips: Zombies, And Missiles, And Explosions, Oh My!

This YA dystopian movie has everything: zombies, explosions, deadly missiles, and Giancarlo Esposito in a fabulous coat. Aiden Gillen's also rocking a sweet turtleneck, but the fashion choices of the prestigious character actors is besides the point: the Maze Runner trilogy is officially reaching the end of the labyrinth.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure is closing out the YA dystopia series — admittedly, one of the better ones we've seen in the past decade — with a bombastic third and final act. That means the Gladers, led by Dylan O'Brien's Thomas, will be going back into the deadliest maze they've faced yet. Because as everyone knows, the only way to move forward is to go back.

It's been a long journey back to the big screen for Maze Runner, with a three-year gap taking place between the second installment, The Scorch Trials, and the upcoming The Death Cure because of injuries that star Dylan O'Brien sustained while filming. But it looks like it will be worth the wait for fans of James Dashner's sci-fi series.

The first featurette for The Death Cure traces the journey that Thomas and his fellow Gladers have taken since they first woke up, discombobulated and without memory in the titular maze. What began as a taut, tense thriller turned into an epic battle against the menacing corporation WCKD, who had risen to power in a desolate wasteland. Now, having escaped WCKD's grasp, the Gladers have no choice but to face the sinister Ava (Patricia Clarkson) and Janson (Aiden Gillen) head-on in The Death Cure.

As The Death Cure nears its release, we're starting to see the end in sight for the era of YA dystopian movies, which reached peak saturation in the past few years with The Hunger Games inspiring a slew of knock-offs. Unfortunately, Maze Runner got buried underneath those knock-offs. The first film was an tight, contained film with shades of the high-concept British psychological drama The Prisoner and a star-making turn from O'Brien. I was impressed by the first film, but never saw the second, which looked like it veered too strongly into generic YA territory.

But the the third film — which thankfully, eschewed that YA money-making scheme to split stories into two films — looks like a return to the tense thrills of the first film based on these clips, not the least because the young characters return to the maze. But this time, there are more zombies!

Here is the official synopsis for Maze Runner: The Death Cure:

Thomas leads some escaped Gladers on their final and most dangerous mission yet. To save their friends, they must break into the legendary Last City, a WCKD-controlled labyrinth that may turn out to be the deadliest maze of all. Anyone who makes it out alive will get answers to the questions that the Gladers have been asking since they arrived in the maze.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure is set to open in theaters on January 26, 2018.