The Maze Runner: what age is it for?
Official US rating: PG-13. In France, zinema would say 11.
Alone, or with you
The official US rating is PG-13, and we never go below it. Alone from 13, and not before, even with an adult.
What it's about
A teenager with no memory of his past finds himself among a group of boys living in a walled enclosure surrounded by a massive, ever-changing maze. As he struggles to adapt to their rules and society, he begins to uncover clues that may lead to escape and the truth behind their confinement.
Why 13
- The official rating, firstRated PG-13 in the US (parents strongly cautioned, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13). zinema never goes below the country's rating: it explains it.rule
- Death is everywhere, spoken and seenBoys trapped in a walled clearing lose friends along the way. Bodies are shown, deaths are talked about again and again, and the whole premise is run or die. It lands hard for a child who is still learning that stories can take characters away for good.shown
- Chases in the dark, with sudden joltsA big part of the film happens in near darkness, with long stretches of quiet broken by loud shocks, screaming, growls in the maze walls and glimpses of the creature that hunts them. Expect a few genuine jumps and a keyed up child at bedtime.shown
- Fights, blades and woundsThe group turns on itself as often as it fights what is outside: shoving matches, knives, spears, gunfire heard, and injured, bleeding kids treated in a makeshift hut. It is not gory, but the injuries are visible and the panic is real.shown
- Rough language among the boysThe dialogue is coarse in the way teenage boys under pressure are coarse. In the dubbed version the swearing is more frequent and more crude than in the original, with a handful of insults thrown between characters.shown
- Being locked in, with no memoryThe deepest unease here is not the monster, it is not knowing who you are, being dropped among strangers and finding every exit closed. Younger viewers often read that as being abandoned, and it stays with them longer than the action does.shown
What the movie brings
- A strong story about cooperation: the boys survive by assigning roles, sharing what little they know and trusting the ones who run into the unknown.
- It rewards curiosity and questioning the rules, and shows that the bravest choice is often the one nobody has tried yet.
- Good ground for talking about leadership, fear, and what loyalty costs.
Watching it together
Before you start, say that nobody in this story knows where they are or why, and that the not knowing is meant to feel uncomfortable for a while.
at 13 and up
In the clearing, some want to keep the rules and some want to break them. Which side would you have been on, and why?
See the facts
A zinema reading from September 7, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made