The Maze

14-year-old Rick Walker stands before Judge Samuel L. Bendix in a Nevada courtroom, charged with throwing rocks at a stop sign in violation of his probation. His social worker, Janice Baker, describes Rick's background: He has never known either parent, was raised by his grandmother who died when he was 10, and has since cycled through five foster homes and a group home across California and Nevada. When the judge asks, "Who is Rick Walker?" Rick answers that he is "just somebody trying to get by." The judge sentences Rick to six months at Blue Canyon Youth Detention Center near Las Vegas.

Four and a half months in, Rick survives Blue Canyon by going it alone. The librarian, Mr. Bramwell, known to the kids as Mr. B., is his only ally. Weeks earlier, Rick reported corruption he witnessed, specifically guards accepting bribes from maintenance staff, but the social worker he told was fired, leaving Rick exposed. In the library, Rick reads a retelling of the myth of Icarus, who flew out of a labyrinth on wax wings only to soar too close to the sun and fall into the sea. Rick sees his own life as a maze of dead ends. When a fellow inmate named Killian warns that a guard is paying older inmates to beat Rick in retaliation for his report, Rick escapes that night: He bends utensils into climbing hooks, scales the 16-foot perimeter fence, snags his cheekbone on barbed wire, and runs.

Hitchhiking north into Utah, Rick's second driver hears a radio report of his escape and drops him off. Desperate, Rick hides in the camper shell of a pickup at a gas station in the tiny town of Hanksville. The truck drives for hours into remote terrain, arriving at an encampment of canvas wall tents. Rick slips away into the rocks.

At dawn Rick takes the remaining truck and drives east, but the road dead-ends at a thousand-foot cliff above the Colorado River. He turns back to find the bearded man from camp blocking the road. The man introduces himself as Lon Peregrino, a bird biologist working in the Maze district of Canyonlands National Park, a 30-square-mile labyrinth of sandstone canyons and one of the most remote areas in the contiguous United States. Lon is reintroducing six North American condors, the continent's largest and most endangered bird, to the wild. The fledglings were hatched in zoos and released just 10 days earlier. Lon tells Rick he chose not to report him, citing personal reasons tied to a man named Ernie who once helped him, and offers to let Rick stay.

While exploring camp, Rick finds a captive bald eagle named Sky, which lost most of her left wing to a gunshot, and a newspaper clipping revealing that Lon's real name is Kenny McDermott. When Nuke Carlile, the hostile gas station owner from Hanksville, arrives with his younger associate, a man named Gunderson, Rick hides and overhears them discussing the condors with contempt. Gunderson wants to kill the birds, but Carlile warns that harming an endangered species would attract federal law enforcement. They mention needing to remove "their stuff" because Lon's presence is too close to their operation. Rick tells Lon, who concludes they are pothunters, or looters of ancient Native American artifacts from public land. Lon radios the park for help, but the local sheriff, a friend of Carlile's, does nothing.

Over the following days, Lon and Rick bond over the condors. The most precocious fledgling, designated M4, makes a remarkable flight, and Rick nicknames him Maverick. Lon also flies a hang glider with Sky strapped to his back, giving the one-winged eagle the experience of soaring. When Maverick strays to the open flats, Lon captures the bird by hiding in a pit beneath a calf carcass and seizing the condor's legs from below. They return Maverick to the release pen.

During a thunderstorm, Lon and Rick share their parallel histories as foster children. Born Kenny McDermott in Atlanta, Lon was abandoned at birth and adopted by a couple whose marriage turned violent. After cycling through foster homes, he landed with Ernie Wilson, a veterinarian who rehabilitated raptors. Lon renamed himself after peregrine falcons because "peregrine" means "traveler." Rick reveals that his mother was 15 when he was born and never contacted him; his grandmother raised him on the California coast until she died. Lon advises Rick to release most of his anger, keeping only enough "for ballast," and to forgive those who wronged him.

When Maverick is rereleased, the condor soars thousands of feet. But a golden eagle forces Maverick to the ground, and Carlile stands by with his pit bull unleashed. Despite Lon's screams, the dog catches the condor and kills it. Lon gives Rick a feather from the bird's wing, whispering that Maverick flew "too close to the sun," echoing Icarus. Lon arranges for Josh, his supply driver, to relieve him so he can take Rick to Reno and advocate before the judge. He takes Rick on a tandem hang glider flight to 14,000 feet, then teaches Rick to fly solo. Rick progresses rapidly over several days.

Meanwhile, Carlile steals the camp's radios, severing all communication with the outside world. Rick scouts from a high vantage point and discovers the truth: In an inaccessible cave in Jasper Canyon, a closed area near Carlile's camp, Gunderson is loading what appear to be pipe bombs alongside assault rifles and a rocket launcher. On the way back, the pit bull chases Rick into a dead-end canyon. Carlile and Gunderson find him and walk away, leaving him to rising floodwaters. Rick builds a rock platform and escapes.

When condor M1 strays toward Carlile's camp and a rifle shot rings out, Lon sets off on foot with a net, his daypack containing a portable radio and red rain suit, and a knife, ordering Rick to stay at camp. Rick discovers Carlile has drained their fuel, stranding them completely. After hearing more gunshots, Rick sneaks to Carlile's camp and overhears that Lon is alive but trapped in a side canyon, where Gunderson expects approaching hurricane remnants to kill him with floodwaters.

At dawn, Rick assembles the solo hang glider on the clifftop. As he launches, Carlile's pit bull leaps and clamps onto his harness but loses its grip and falls. Rick catches a thermal, spirals to 16,000 feet, and spots a patch of red deep in Jasper Canyon. He lands on a slickrock terrace, breaking his left arm. One-armed, Rick descends into the flooding canyon with a climbing rope and finds Lon on a rock ledge beside a waterfall. Rick anchors the rope so Lon can climb out. Together they fight upstream through rising water and scramble onto the rim. They shelter in a cave as the storm unleashes its full force, then struggle back to camp. Near midnight, Josh arrives. Lon introduces Rick: "His name's Rick Walker, and he can fly like a bird."

Back in Judge Bendix's courtroom, Rick sits between Lon, now clean-shaven, and Janice Baker, with Mr. B. behind them. When the judge again asks, "Who is Rick Walker?" Rick stands and answers that since his grandmother died he has been like a rat in a maze, but he is out now and free to make something of himself. When the judge asks whether returning to detention would put him back in the maze, Rick replies, "Not in my mind." The judge acknowledges Rick's role in exposing the weapons cache in Canyonlands and notes that Mr. Bramwell has resigned from Blue Canyon to testify against five employees charged with corruption. Rick is transferred to a judge in Page, Arizona, where he will live in a group home, attend high school, and complete his remaining sentence plus six weeks of community service with Lon's condor reintroduction project. As they drive toward Arizona, Rick reflects that he has forgiven his parents. Lon describes Page, perched above the Colorado River near the Vermilion Cliffs, and promises to introduce Rick to nine new condors arriving in December.