The divergent movie is a three-series movie with the first installment released in 2014. The series features three movies to follow up with the story told in the first installment and ranked as one of the top sci-fi movies upon release even though one of the three movies didn’t meet up to expectations. The movie was distributed by Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate Films and was directed by Lucy Fisher, Pouya Shabazian, and Douglas Wick. It is an adaptation of a novel of the same name written by Veronica Roth. The book, itself, also comes in three parts and it is what was followed for the development of the movie.
The story is of a world where people are distributed into different factions based on their virtues. Where there are these different categories, there are those who are not a part of any and also those who are called Divergents. One of the movie’s characters Tris, played by Shailene Woodley is a part of this group of Divergents and she must unite with Four, played by Theo James, to try and uncover a plot to destroy all Divergents and also find out why being Divergents is considered dangerous.
Divergent Movies Order At A Glance
The divergent movies in the right order are;
- The Divergent
- The Divergent: Insurgent
- The Divergent: Allegiant
Divergent Movies In Order
If you’re looking to watch The Divergent series or you’re really into sci-fi movies, then you should consider starting from the first installment which holds the same name as the series and was released in 2014. The next that follows is Insurgent , which was released in 2015 and Allegiant completes the trilogy series with the release coming also a year later in 2016.
The movie was billed to have a part four which would be a completion to the third movie in the series. However, no further release came, and that left fans with just three movies and also a cliffhanger in the finale. In the next subheads, I’ll be taking you through the summary of the three movies from the series, starting with the series pilot, The Divergent (2004)
1. The Divergent (2004)
The first installment of the Divergent series was released in 2004 and it is set in the city of Chicago, where people are divided into different factions. The categories include Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intellectual).
After these five categories, some people are Factionless and they are people with no status in the society. Before being recognized as a member of a particular Faction, all individuals are to take a serum-induced psychological aptitude test to help them decide the Faction they are most suited to. They can then pick any one of their choices during a Choosing ceremony.
The story follows Beatrice Prior who is discovered to be divertent during her test by a supervisor, Tori Wu. Divergents are people from this world who have equal attributes of multiple factions. Asides from that they are also able to think independently. After the discovery, Tori helps Beatrice cover it up and records her results as Abnegation, the Faction where her father, Andrew, is serving in the ruling council, while also telling her to keep her identity as a divergent secret.
During the choosing ceremony, Beatrice picks Dauntless while her brother Caleb chooses Erudite. During her early days at Dauntless, she meets Christina, Al, and Will who are also from other factions but chose Dauntless. Beatrice struggled with the tasks set out in Dauntless and must improve or be thrown out by Eric Coulter, a leader in the Dauntless Faction. At one of the tasks, she meets Four, who is an instructor, and she introduces herself as Tris.
After her struggles, Tris goes on to help her team win the most important test, Capture the Flag, and then make the cut for the next round where they would be subjected to psychological simulations of their worst fears. She is able to overcome the test because of her diverting abilities and it prompts Four to tell her she has to hide her abilities. He feels her preparing for the last test using his fear simulation and Tris finds out Four is the son of Marcus Eaton, the leader of Abnegation, and his real name is Tobias Eaton.
She visits Caleb who then informs her of a plot by Erudite to overthrow Abnegation to become the ruling Faction. After Tris gets initiated into Dauntless, Erudite injects the people from the Dauntless Faction with serums meant for mind control. The plan is to use the Dauntless group to raid and overthrow Abnegation.
The serum works on everyone except Tris and Four, who has now revealed himself as a divergent too. They are both captured eventually but Tris can escape with the help of her mother, Natalie, who is killed during the escape. When Tris finds her dad, he is in hiding with Abnegation members and they all plan to invade the Erudite control center. In the process, Andrew is shot but Tris goes on and encounters Four, who is now under a mind control meant for Divergents.
She manages to get him to wake up from the mind control and together they find Jeanine, the Erudite leader orchestrating the plot. Tris uses a mind-control serum on her and gets her to cancel the operation after which she, Four, and the others all leave the compound.
2. The Divergent Series: Insurgent
The sequel to the first Divergent movie was released in 2015 and it is set five days after the events in the first installment of the movie. Jeanine declares the divergents as enemies and gets hold of a box recovered by Dauntless leaders Max and Eric who found it among the wreckage after the assault. The box had the symbols of all the factions and Jeanine presumes that it has the information about the city and also the divergents. She then discovers that only divergents can open the box and request that they are captured.
Tris, Four, Caleb, and Peter, who was one of the rivals of Tris during the Dauntless training, are still in hiding in the Amity compound but the first three head out to the Factionless where Four reveals his mother is Evelyn, the leader of the Factionless group. She asks them to team up but they do not agree. On their way back, Caleb leaves Tris and Four to continue their journey. They are both then captured by Jack Kang, a Candor Leader.
They then face trial using Candor’s truth serum. With that, the real events are revealed and they are released. Candor is then attacked by Dauntless, who seizes Tris. She is then saved by Four who kills Eric in the process. Meanwhile, Jeanine is advised by Peter to help her get Tris.
Tris eventually surrenders herself when she sees her friends’ lives are at risk and she agrees to go ahead with the simulation to help open the box after she sees her brother, Caleb who has now reunited with the Erudite group. Elsewhere, Four agrees with Evelyn to attack the Erudite group.
Tris completes four simulations and when she wants to rest, Peter helps her fake her death. He also tells Four about it and brings her body to him. After a while, Tris is able to open up the box and it displays information about how the city and the Faction system is an experiment and that the main goal of it was to get the Divergents with the world on the outside awaiting them.
The Factionless can get into attack when Jeanine instructs Four and Tris to be captured and executed. She is arrested and eventually killed by Evelyn in the cell while wondering what the outside world would look like.
3. The Divergent Series: Allegiant
The second sequel in the Divergent series was released in 2016 and it follows the story of the group as they flee from the city to learn new things about the experiment.
Evelyn announces that all Erudite members involved in the coup attempt would be made to face trial and executed if found guilty. Four and Tris help Caleb to escape, having been a part of the Erudite group. They head out towards a wall but in the process, one of their friends is killed. Upon going past the wall, Tris, Four, Caleb, Peter, and Christiana, a friend of Tris, are seized by soldiers from the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, who have been hiding behind a cloaking shield.
There they learn the reason for the experiment; to create a better society where they wouldn’t be people with damaged genes. There were consequences from this that resulted in the destruction of part of the planet and the experiments were only a way to reverse the mistake.
After the discovery of her complete divergence, the leader of the Bureau, David, manages to convince Tris to join and help to continue the experiment. Four, who still has some damaged genes despite his divergence, is sent to the military together with Christina while Peter and Caleb are sent to the surveillance team.
After a rescue mission, Four discovers that the Bureau’s intentions are not pure. He warns Tris and requests to go back to Chicago. On his flight, he is informed by Mathew, one of the Bureau’s officials, that the flight is a trap and he is to be killed. Four manages to beat his way through and survive. He gets a device that will help him pass through the cloaking shield from Mathew.
Tris also soon discovers the Bureau’s objectives and disagreements. With the help of Nita, another official, she can escape together with Caleb and Christina. Peter, on the other hand, strikes a deal with David for a promotion.
In Chicago, the Factionless capture Four and Peter offers Evelyn the amnesia gas to use against the attackers as instructed by David. He takes her to a hidden vault and soon they are joined by Four, Tris, and Christina who have fought their way through. Four convinces Evelyn not to use the gas and just as she agrees, Peter shoots her in the leg but soon the gas enters the vault and he escapes towards the cloaking shield to find David, who has betrayed him.
Caleb helps Tris to stop the gas and then broadcasts a message to the people saying they were actually in an experiment for genetic purity. In her message to the Bureau, she says Chicago is no longer an experiment. David’s shuttle which was already on autopilot and with explosives is detonated by Caleb and it leads to a massive explosion that has brought down a part of the cloak wall and can now show the Bureau.
Will there be more Divergent movies?
It looks like there won’t be any new Divergent movies, for now. There was a fourth movie in the works and a TV show, but, unfortunately, they were both canceled. We can never say in Hollywood there won’t be new movies or shows on this topic, but for now, nothing seems imminent.