Maze Runner & Rise Of Planet Apes

1. • Name : Seet Tiong Hong
• Student I.D. : 0320438
• Lecturer : Ms. Cassandra Wijesuria
• Title : Compare / Contrast Essay
• Word Count : 830 words
• Movie Selected : The Maze Runner & Rise of Planet Apes

2. Rise Of Planet Apes VS The Maze Runner
Science fiction or better known as “Sci-fi” movies have been in the film industry since 1920.
Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human
beings to changes in science and technology (Asimov, 1975). A science fiction story "is one that
presupposes a technology, or an effect of technology, or a disturbance in the natural order, such as
humanity, up to the time of writing, has not in actual fact experienced (Crispin, 1955). To sum
things up, science fiction is an imaginary science which has a tendency to be created by humans.
To be honest, science fiction movies have always been my sole motivator whenever I have ran
out of creativity and I will watch one to two sci-fi movies to get some ideas which I can’t get from
my dyed-in-the-wool-in-the-wool high school teachers. Few weeks ago, I have watched two
adventurous sci-fi movies which are “Rise of The Planet Apes” and “The Maze Runner”. I realised
that both of the movies have very different storylines , settings and endings.
The storyline of “Rise of The Planet Apes” is about how a chimpanzee changes oneself due to
external pressure. In this case, humans are being attacked by a group of intelligent monkeys lead
by a genius chimpanzee, Caesar. In the story, the monkeys’ sole purpose is to get out from the
human’s control as Caesar has realised that the humans have been mistreating an misunderstanding
them. For example, Caesar was sent to a primate shelter as a result of helping the confused Charles
getting rid of his neighbour. As a result, Caesar was treated cruelly by the chief guard and the other
chimps. On the other hand, the storyline of “The Maze Runner” is about human manipulations on
humans. The story begins with Thomas, who has forgotten everything, including his name, was
being sent to a big grassy area called the Glade that is surrounded with tall and enormous stone
walls. Everything started to make sense when their troop leader, Alby, explained to Thomas that all

3. of them have been trapped in the Glade and the only way to get out of it is through “The Maze” full
of the Grievers, relentless robotic creatures.
Both movies have different and opposite settings. The setting for the Rise Of Planet Apes are
mostly in the city and the setting got the Maze Runner covers mainly jungle. Most movie fanatics
would expect that the setting for the Rise Of The Planet Apes covers mainly jungle as monkeys and
jungle complements each other well same as the Maze Runner, the robotic creatures in the city.
There’s a battle scene at the Golden Gate Bridge where the ape army fight their way past the
security force to escape to the redwood forest introduced to Caesar by his owner, Will. However, a
touching scene has shown up as an alpha chimp, Buck, sacrifices himself just to save Caesar by
jumping into the helicopter and destroys it. In the Maze Runner, Thomas ran into the Maze as he
saw that Minho and injured Alby aren’t able to make it to the entrance in time, three of them were
trapped in the maze. Surprisingly, three of them are the first to ever survive a night in the maze and
kill a Griever.
Furthermore, both movies have different endings as well. The Rise of The Plane Apes has
rather a touching and good but cliffhanging ending. The touching scene is where Caesar hugged
Will and said “Caesar is home”. Will realised that it’s his genius chimpanzee last farewell, he
respected Caesar’s decision to return to the forest. However, Will’s pilot neighbour Hunsiker’s nose
begins to drip blood, which shows that the humanity-killing virus is spreading, leaving the viewer
full of question marks and motivated to know what happen next. On the contrary, the ending of the
Maze Runner is quite sad and bad. Thomas and his team unintentionally entered a laboratory and
watched a video explaining that the planet is unliveable and they were the only group who were
immune to the virus. Suddenly, Gally, the one who intended to sacrifice Thomas to the Grievers
suddenly appeared and is armed with a gun. Under the influence of the Griever sting, he aimed his

4. gun at Thomas but shot Chuck who protected Thomas with his body. Gally was killed by Minho
who threw spear at him but not before Chuck was shot. The movie ended with a female scientist
noting that Thomas and his team are entering the Phase Two.
In a nutshell, both movies have their own supporters and it is clear that I’m the fans of the Rise
Of The Planet Apes. The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it's as though you always
get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to
work it out all yourself from the clues (Pratchett, T. n.d.).
(830 words)

5. Reference
1) Kurt, Irving. 'Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)'. IMDb. N.p., 2015. Web. 4 Apr. 2015,
URL http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1318514/plotsummary
2) The Book Smugglers,. 'Book Review: The Maze Runner By James Dashner'. N.p., 2009. Web. 3
Apr. 2015, URL http://thebooksmugglers.com/2009/11/book-review-the-maze-runner-by-james-
dashner.html
3) Isaac Asimov. (2015). The biography.com website. N.p., 2015. Web. 4 Apr. 2015, from http://
www.biography.com/people/isaac-asimov-9190737
4) Crispin, A.C. 'A.C. Crispin'. Goodreads. N.p., 2015. Web. 2 Apr. 2015. URL http://
www.goodreads.com/author/show/61277.A_C_Crispin