On Friday, Sept. 18, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, the long-awaited sequel to The Maze Runner, came out in theaters. It made $30.3 million opening weekend, just falling short of the $32.5 million Twentieth Century Fox hoped it would make. Overall, however, it was a great success.

As fans may recall, the previous movie ended with the Gladers being saved from W.C.K.D. (World Catastrophe Killzone Department) by a mysterious group. In the trailer, it shows Thomas (Dylan O’Brien, Teen Wolf) and his friends escaping this group and running into the Scorch, a desert ravaged by the Sun Flares and haunted by Cranks, people with the Flare, a deadly disease, who are past the Gone. The Gladers face even more challenges in the Scorch, with the deadly heat and W.C.K.D. hot on their trail. The entire movie is filled with edge-of-your-seat action and a few plot-twists you won’t see coming.

Unfortunately, for book fans, the movie doesn’t really stick to the plot. A few scenes from the book made it in, but other than that, it takes it’s own path. The Cranks are zombie-like and make strange werewolf noises, and the Flare is passed through bites instead of the air. Due to the very different ending, large portions of fans may leave the movie theater crying. However, it still is a great movie and one definitely worth giving it a chance.

Some new faces appear in the movie that might be familiar to many TV fans: Giancarlo Esposito (Jorge) from Once Upon a Time and Breaking Bad, Aidan Gillen (Janson) from Game of Thrones, and Alan Tudyk (Blondie) from Firefly. Other newcomers include Lili Taylor (Mary) from The Conjuring and Six Feet Under, Oscar-nominee Patricia Clarkson (Ava Paige) from Pieces of April, and Barry Pepper (Vince) from 61*.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is an action-packed film from beginning to end. It has an amazing cast, intense scenes, and a good plot-line. While it may not have stayed true to the book, it is still a movie worth seeing. So, take a friend and find out if you can handle the Scorch.