When we last met Thomas and his teenage companions from “The Maze Runner,” the amnesiac heroes of that dystopian thriller were being whisked away, by helicopter, from their mysterious confinement inside a deadly maze.

As its sequel “The Scorch Trials” begins, they are being held in another, seemingly impenetrable detention facility, under the supervision of a man (Aidan Gillen) who tells them that they’re on the way to a “sanctuary” where the folks who locked them up in the first movie will never be able to find them again. “How does that sound?’ he asks, with all the sincerity of a politician.

Sounds fishy to me.

Even if you’re not familiar with the Y.A. trilogy by James Dasher on which these films are based, anyone who saw the first film knows that no one in this expanding cinematic “Maze” universe is to be trusted. The element of suspicion will serve you well in a sequel – gripping and well shot but overly busy and filled with betrayal – that soon has Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) and company on the lam from their saviors and dodging an obstacle course that includes a sandstorm, zombielike creatures called cranks, lightning, distrustful rebels and a doped-up human trafficker (Alan Tudyk) who lures adolescent victims with a creepy rave.

The plot of the first film was elegant in its enigmatic simplicity: Escape from this prison/puzzle and discover who the wardens are. In “Scorch,” the bad guys at least have the decency to advertise. They’re a cabal known as the World in Catastrophe Killzone Department (pronounced “Wicked”), even if it’s not always obvious who they are.

As the protagonists flee from WCKD toward a group of freedom fighters known as the Right Arm, “The Scorch Trials” moves through so many colorful crises that it feels like a series of trailers for the next chapter of “The Hunger Games,” “Divergent,” “Night of the Living Dead” and “Mad Max.” It’s exhausting, yet emotionally unengaging.

Directed by Wes Ball with the same brio he brought to “The Maze Runner,” the film is not without its pleasures, which come from fine performances by O’Brien and a supporting cast that includes Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Patricia Clarkson, Giancarlo Esposito, Lili Taylor and Barry Pepper. It’s not a bad movie. It’s like several pretty good ones. Rated PG-13.