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[Thomas] Who put us here?

(dramatic music)

We don't know.

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[Thomas] What's out there?

The Maze.

I'm Mike Seymour from fxGuide.com for WIRED

looking at the complex creature work in Maze Runner.

In the new film, based on the book of the same name,

director Wes Ball worked with Method Studioses Vancouver

to create the maze that Thomas

and the other Glader's find themselves in,

along with the relentless Grievers that chase them.

The film was shot on locations,

and much of the exterior running action

was done with careful attention given

to make sure that the shadows

of where the giant maze would be

cast correctly over the actors.

On set there was actually only a tiny amount

of the real maze built,

given that the locations was very remote

and the team had to carry in most

of their extra gear by hand.

As complex as the moving parts of the maze were

for Method Studioses to realize,

the maze Grievers actually were

so complicated they required an entirely new

creature pipeline to be developed.

Highly detailed bone and mechanical limb logic had

to be developed for exactly how these creatures

might have evolved.

The structure detailed and worked out

to allow the weight distribution to move correctly

and the range of movement to be believable.

This allowed for simulations to be done

to work out physical weight distribution

and flesh sims.

Method's VFX Supervisor Sue Rowe recruited

James Jacob fresh from doing the Goblin King

in the original Hobbit film at (mumbles)

to Canada to make the Grievers look believable

and organic while still being half mechanical.

The Grievers can be a little hard

to study while they're attacking,

but thankfully Method Studioses produced for us

this exclusive video showing

how the creatures are internally formed.

James's big thing was he would build

the character and the skeleton to be correct.

It has to be ergonomically correct,

based in sort of natural physics,

so we built the skeleton, we built the muscles,

and that's how the character was gonna move.

Facing the Grievers in a shot required

not only tracking and contact lighting,

but also complex fire simulations

and detailed interaction with the actors.

The director is himself actually

a highly accomplished VFX artist in his own right,

having won the role of directing on this film

on the basis of the work he did

on his own short film Ruin.

Which he made by himself.

He came from the background where he would know

that his hand rotor something would be really tricky.

So he would always be aware of that kind of thing.

Sometimes I just laugh and go don't worry about

that over there there's a whole 3D city behind us

that's moving.

Not to spoil the film or anything

but this is only the first of four books in the series,

so hopefully we'll see beyond the maze.

For now don't forget to subscribe

for more behind the scenes action.

I'm Mike Seymour for WIRED.

(dramatic music) (walls grinding)

(walls slam shut)

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