What is a Celtic Maze?

What is the significance of the maze in Prisoners?

• Alright, two suspects say that the kidnapped girls are in a 'maze'. For a while, Detective Loki tries to decode what the 'maze' means from a diagram a suspect leaves him right before killing himself. Keller Dover also hears of it from the suspect he's torturing. Later, when little Joy Birch gets rescued, she tells him that he had been where they had been kept. He figures out which place she's talking about. But why does the 'maze' plot get abandoned then? Like, the girls are in a maze, right? What is the 'maze'? Just a locket around the neck of a man in an old picture? Why is the 'maze' so crucial? What did the diagram mean?

• Answer:

  I think the "...in the maze" was more metaphorical than literal. Or at maybe in a way it was associative. There was no actual physical maze, the Jones couple were the maze. OR it was the hole. Possibility 1: It's revealed that the maze was the same one worn around the neck by Holly Jones' husband. And they used to kidnap and kill children as a "war against god" and "to create demons" . Anthony Jones and Bob Taylor both refer to the maze. We also get to know that both were early victims of the couple. Due to their broken upbringing both of them are psychologically unstable ( Bob Taylor is obsessed with mazes ). They identified their abusers with maze pendant. So probably both of them were implying that the Jones couple were the maze. And the girls are with them ( or specifically Holly Jones) Possibility 2: Another possibility is that the the hole in which the girls were kept in, was the maze. Now this is a long shot but the most prominent maze drawn by Bob Taylor was circular like the pendant worn by Mr. Jones , but it was also the shape of the hole. Since it was deep, dark and inescapable it might also be a reference to the maze. (Unrelated to the answer, only read further if you want some to gain some trivia knowledge) There's some symbolism used in the movie. Some explained and unexplained ones are: Joy's mouse is initially shown to be white but after the girls disappear it's a black mouse. Possibly showing Keller's transformation. Keller Dover is a devoted Christian and the Jones want to create demons. It might symbolize a proxy war fought by Dover & Loki (representing God) against the Jones (representing the Devil). Detective Loki. A very peculiar name for a character who is morally good. (Unexplained) Loki's tattoos and the Masonic Ring he wears. Though Gyllenhaal says in an interview that Loki might have been a juvenile criminal. Also they are not random and do have some thematic references in the movie. Loki's blinking and twitching. It's very prominent but it's never explained. Maybe just characterization or Gyllenhaal's portrayal of a detective. The very last scene when Loki hears Dover's whistling. What he does after is left to the audiences interpretation..