Ms.

Hamiltons 8th grade class

Period 3
Del Mar Middle School
105 Avenida Mira Flores
Tiburon, CA 94920
Tuesday, November 20, 2014
Wes Ball
20th Century Fox
10201 Pico Blvd
Century City, CA 90064
Dear Mr. Ball:
My name is Jake Nordstrom, and I am a student at Del Mar Middle School. For a project, we have to
write a letter about how a book made into a movie could have been better, so I chose you book. For
the record, The Maze Runner is my favorite book, and favorite movie. I thought that The Maze
Runner was a great book, but when you made it into a movie, there were some flaws in the book,
which I will be talking about today.
First off, the flaw that disappointed me the most was the fact that you didnt include the ability for
Thomas and Teresa to communicate in their heads (telepathy). This was very disappointing, as it
took an unexpected twist when I never heard that voice. I went to The Maze Runner on opening
night, and everyone loved it, but afterward all agreed that it would have been better if you included
the telepathy.
Secondly, even though it wasnt a big change, you changed how the runners get out of the maze. In
the book, after lining up all of the mazes patterns, it formed a letter in the middle. After an amount
of time, it went back to the same letters. In the movie, all newt had to do was remember what order
the mazes sections opened up, which took almost no effort. Also, there was no cliff to jump off of
into the griever hole, there was literally just a path leading to the way out, which seemed kind of
simple. It was ok, but I would have expected more with the technology we have today.
Lastly, the way chuck died was a little unrealistic. In the book, Gally throws a knife at Thomas
before they escape, but chuck jumps in front of him, saying that Wicked made him jump. In the
movie, Gally waits until they escape and somehow finds a gun to shoot him with. This time, Chuck
says to find his mom, but never says that Wicked made him jump. Even though the movie ended
with the same outcome, little details like that bugged my friends and I, and we all agreed that it
would have been better the original way, but thats just out opinion.
All in all, I thought that the movie was great, but these are some of the things I thought were in the
movie that made it fail. I think that taking away the telepathy was a huge mistake, but you did work
your way around it, which was fine. The runners getting out of the maze had the same outcome, but
it was very different and was hard to follow after reading the book when you were expecting much
different.
Sincerely,

Jake N.