You've seen the movies. You've probably read James Dashner's books. But if you’re still thinking of the cranks from Maze Runner as just another generic zombie trope, you’re missing the most disturbing part of the entire lore. They aren’t undead. They aren’t magical. They are just regular people whose brains are being eaten by a biological weapon while they're still conscious enough to realize they’re losing themselves.
That’s dark. Honestly, it's way darker than a standard "brain-munching" walker from The Walking Dead.
In the world of The Maze Runner, the Flare—or VC7414 if you want to get technical—is a man-made virus. It wasn't an accident. The Post-Flares Coalition literally released it to control the population after the sun flares scorched the earth. It targets the brain. Specifically, the "killzone." Once it settles in, it starts rotting the victim's sanity, turning them into what the survivors call "Cranks."
The Reality of the Flare and the Descent into Madness
It doesn't happen all at once. That's the cruel part. Most people think you get bit and—bam—you’re a monster. Not here. The transition into being one of the cranks from Maze Runner is a slow, agonizing slide down a biological slippery slope.
In the early stages, you might just be a bit irritable. Maybe a little forgetful. People call this being "Past the Gone" when it gets serious, but before that, you’re just a person with a death sentence. In The Scorch Trials, we see this played out through characters like Newt, and let’s be real, his descent is one of the most heartbreaking arcs in modern YA literature. He knows it’s coming. He feels his thoughts slipping.
The virus eats at the frontal lobe. It strips away empathy. It heightens aggression. Eventually, the person loses the ability to speak rationally, replaced by a repetitive, nonsensical babble or "the Crank bark." They become animalistic. They're still alive, though. Their hearts are beating. They feel pain. They feel hunger. But the "human" part of the software has been completely corrupted.
The Different Stages: Not All Cranks Are Created Equal
If you're looking at the movies versus the books, there’s a massive gap in how cranks from Maze Runner are portrayed. The films make them look like ultra-fast, vein-popping monsters—almost like the infected from 28 Days Later.
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But the books? They’re much weirder.
Early-stage Cranks often try to maintain a semblance of their old lives. You’ll find them in "Crankland" or the outskirts of cities like Denver, just... hanging out. They might try to talk to you. They might even try to be polite before they suddenly decide they want to tear your ear off. It’s that unpredictability that makes them so unsettling. You don’t know if the person you’re looking at is still "there" or if they’re about to snap.
- The Inflected: These are people who have the virus but aren't showing major symptoms yet. They're terrified. They're often hiding their rashes or their mood swings because, in this world, being sick means being exiled or worse.
- The Gone: This is the point of no return. Total madness. In the book The Death Cure, the description of the "Crank Palace" shows how society just tosses these people into a pit to rot. It’s basically a massive, open-air asylum where the inmates are literally eating each other.
- The Full-Blown Monsters: By this stage, the skin is peeling, the eyes are bloodshot or glazed, and the only drive is basic instinct.
Why the Science (Kinda) Makes Sense
Dashner didn't just go with "magic virus." He went with a neurological parasite. While The Maze Runner is sci-fi, the idea of a virus affecting behavior isn't actually that far-fetched. Look at Rabies. Look at Toxoplasma gondii.
The Flare works by attacking the brain's ability to regulate emotion. It’s essentially a hyper-accelerated form of dementia mixed with a massive dose of rabies-induced psychosis. WICKED (World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department) spent years trying to find "The Blueprint" for a cure by putting kids through "trials" to see how their brains resisted the Flare.
It was a desperate, unethical gamble. They wanted to see why "Munies" (Immortals) were unaffected. They were looking for a biological barrier that kept the virus from nesting in the killzone.
The Movie Version vs. The Book Version
Let's address the elephant in the room. The cranks from Maze Runner in the movies have those weird, vine-like growths coming out of them. That’s a purely cinematic choice. It looks great on screen—very "The Last of Us"—but it’s not really in the source material.
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In the books, the horror is much more psychological. It’s about the loss of identity.
In the film The Scorch Trials, the Cranks are basically jump-scare machines. They’re fast, they’re loud, and they’re everywhere. This works for an action movie, but it loses that eerie, "uncanny valley" feeling of the books where a Crank might sit down and try to have a conversation with you while holding a severed finger.
The book Cranks are also obsessed with "The Bliss." It’s a drug that slows down the virus. It doesn't cure it; it just numbs the brain so the person doesn't go crazy as fast. It’s a metaphor for addiction and the lengths people will go to to stay "themselves" for just one more day.
The Tragedy of Newt
You can't talk about Cranks without talking about Newt. His story is the definitive look at what the Flare does to a good person. Unlike Thomas or Minho, Newt wasn't immune.
His transition is slow. It’s marked by a limp that gets worse, a temper that gets shorter, and a growing sense of hopelessness. When he finally asks Thomas to "Please, Tommy, please," it’s not just because he’s in pain. It’s because he knows he’s about to become one of the cranks from Maze Runner—the very thing he spent his life fearing. He wanted to die while he was still Newt.
Where Did the Flare Actually Come From?
Most fans know it was a man-made virus, but the why is often glossed over. The world was overpopulated after the sun flares killed billions and destroyed the food supply. The remaining governments formed the Post-Flares Coalition and decided they needed to reduce the population.
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The Flare was supposed to be a "humane" way to kill people off quickly.
Clearly, that backfired. The virus mutated. It didn't just kill people; it turned them into Cranks. It stayed in the air. It stayed in the soil. It became a permanent part of the environment, ensuring that humanity would never truly recover. This turns the cranks from Maze Runner into a living monument to human arrogance. Every time a survivor sees a Crank, they’re seeing the literal result of the government’s attempt to "fix" the world.
How to Survive a Crank Encounter
If you ever found yourself in the Scorch, surviving the cranks from Maze Runner isn't as simple as just "aiming for the head."
- Avoid the "Gone": If you see a group of Cranks that seem to be talking or huddled together, stay away. They are often more dangerous than the mindless ones because they can plan and lure you in.
- The Killzone: While the virus is in the brain, physical trauma still works. They aren't zombies; they are sick humans. They bleed. They can be knocked out. They die from the same things you do.
- Noise is the Enemy: In the films especially, Cranks are highly sensitive to sound. Stealth is your best friend.
- Don't Get Scratched: While it's airborne in the books, the movie version implies a more direct transmission via bites or scratches. Even if you're immune, a bite can lead to a nasty staph infection or worse in a world without antibiotics.
The Cultural Impact of the Flare
Why do we care about these creatures a decade after the books came out?
It's because the Flare represents a very modern fear. It’s not about ghosts or vampires. It’s about the loss of the mind. In an era where we’re increasingly aware of neurological health and the fragility of our own identities, the idea of a virus that "eats" who you are is terrifying.
The cranks from Maze Runner are a cautionary tale about what happens when we stop seeing people as human and start seeing them as "problems" to be solved or "data points" for a cure. WICKED thought they were saving the world, but they were just torturing children while the rest of the world turned into a nightmare.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Writers
If you’re revisiting the series or writing your own dystopian fiction, keep these nuances in mind:
- Read the Prequels: If you want the full story on how the Flare started, read The Kill Order. It’s a brutal look at the immediate aftermath of the virus release.
- Focus on the "Before": The most effective horror in the Maze Runner universe isn't the monster; it’s the person becoming the monster.
- Differentiate the Media: Understand that the movie Cranks and book Cranks serve different purposes—one for visceral horror and one for psychological tragedy.
- Check out the New Books: James Dashner has continued the lore with The Maze Cutter, which takes place 73 years after The Death Cure. It explores how the virus has evolved and how society has adapted to a world where "Cranks" are just a fact of life.
The world of the Flare is bleak, but it’s the complexity of the cranks from Maze Runner that keeps us coming back. They aren't just villains. They're victims. And in the Scorch, the line between the two is paper-thin.