1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN
Foundation in Natural Built Environment (FNBE) September 2015
TOPIC : COMPARE AND CONTRAST ESSAY
(ADVENTURE – DISASTER)
NAME : TEH WEI HONG
STUDENT ID : 0323743
WORD : 871 words
COURSE : ENGLISH II (ELG 30605)
LECTURER : MR GOPI
SUBMISSION DATE : 4TH DECEMBER 2015
2. COMPARE AND CONTRAST ESSAY
(COMPARISON ON ADVENTURE AND DISASTER MOVIES)
There are people who prefer action movies and there are some who loves dramatic
movies. What can conclude here is everyone has their own favourite movies, and
those movies are categorized by their genres. Genre plays important role in movies,
which will brief you about how the plot will looks like before you watched the movie.
For example, when you heard action or adventure movies, your mind will
automatically link to a fighting or bloody scene, and this show the function of genre.
Back to the point, I like adventurous film more than a slow paced drama, the most
interesting part which caught my eyes was the characters running around for surviving
in a specific situation. Into the Storm and The Maze Runner are both adventurous
movies and they are my favourite too, but Into the Storm is categorized more towards
a disaster film. Although they are two different movies, but they show their
similarities based on the storyline, main characters and ending.
First of all, the story line of movie “Into the Storm” is about a rash of tornadoes
striking Silverton, Oklahoma (IMDB,2015). The first scene in this movie is about four
teenagers met a tornado. One of them tried to film what they saw but all of them
killed by tornado. Hence, here comes a Titus Team, a group of adventure seekers and
they chase the storm, the team led by a man called Pete. After that, there is a
graduation ceremony of two teenagers, both of them are main characters. At that time,
a tornado hit the school and sucked some students. They tried to hide themselves for
surviving but there are more storms on the horizon and it became stronger and
stronger (IMDB,2015). In the other hand, The Maze Runner begins the scene by one of
the main character, which is Thomas, who sent by an organisation named
W.I.C.K.E.D to a giant labyrinth with a cage. The organisation will keep sending a
new guys into the glade every 30 days, and the first person who sent by them was
Alby, who lived inside for three years before Thomas came. Thomas was brainwashed
and he lost all his memories even his name, everyone experienced the same thing
when they first came to the labyrinth, but the memories will recover slowly day by
day. Everyday morning, the leader, Pete send two finest boy to find out a way through
the maze, unfortunately the gate closed at every night, and there is a creature called
“grievers” will kill the person who stuck in the maze. Thomas decided to discover the
maze by himself and he had killed a griever after that. This reaction make the
organisation feels mad. One night, the organisation sent plenty of grievers for revenge
and to test those kids, some of them scarified and the life in the glade becomes
tougher and tougher. By comparison of these two film, we can see clearly that both of
them begins with exiting scene, just like climax, then only start the introduction to
comfort the audiences. The storyline of both movies are actually talking about the
curiosity of a group of teenagers, when they faced something new, they tried to find
out more about it. Hence, the problem comes and they fixed it, in the end some of
them sacrificed.
In these two movies both of them have multiple main characters, which means they
do not focus just on one specific characters, for example movies like batman or
3. superman. In the movie “Into the Storm” it has exactly 5 main characters, which are
Alison Stone, Donnie, Daryl, Donk and Pete, while the main characters in the Maze
Runner are Minho, Teresa, Gally and Thomas. The only similarity of characteristics
shown in these characters is braveness. The purpose of having multiple main
characters is to let others know how important teamwork is, and they helped each
other to solve the problem faced in the movie.
Moreover, the ending of these two movies are probably the same, both of them end
with happy ending. Into the storm ending was about the most powerful tornado (a
giant EF5 'wedge tornado') hit them and sucked everything in its path (IMDB,2015).
Pete and his vehicle sacrificed from saving his team. After the tornado gone, the
researcher of the Titus Team, Allison called her daughter to assure she is fine and
Donnie and his family recorded a video of the reaction of the citizens and end with
turning off the camera (IMDB,2015). The Maze Runner actually ends with the group of
people who survived from the maze and they were rescued by a helicopter. Although
there are sacrifices, but the ending still a happy ending because there are survivals.
In conclusion, adventures movies have the common aspects which can terrified and
surprised the audience or make them feel nervous. Into the Storm and The Maze
Runner are different genre of movie, they not exactly the same, but they have the
similarities in their storyline, multiple main characters and the endings of the movie. I
really enjoy both movies as they have interesting climax and satisfying scene. By
comparing these two movies, it allows me to grow by delving deeper into the story of
each movie.
4. REFERENCE
Into The Storm. (2014, December 20). Retrieved December 4, 2015, from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2106361/synopsis?ref_=tt_stry_pl
The Maze Runner. (2014, November 14). Retrieved December 4, 2015, from
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790864/synopsis?ref_=ttpl_sa_2
