Entertainment

How Does 'Insurgent' End? It's Not Like The Book

by Alyse Whitney

Book to movie adaptations are a slippery slope, trying to please fans of the novel and open the doors to those who haven't read the original material. Sometimes the film is 100 percent true to the story, and other times, things get changed up for the sake of Hollywood. In the case of the Divergent sequel Insurgent' s adaptation, it's the latter, but that's not a bad thing. So how does Insurgent end, and how is it different from the book? Brace yourself, initiates, because the action in the factions is completely changed from Veronica Roth's book. Warning: spoilers ahead for both the novel and the film.

Just like with the first Divergent movie, Jeanine (Kate Winslet) has a bigger role than she did in the book in Insurgent. In the movie, she seizes a hidden box from Tris' parents home that has a secret message inside, but it can only be unlocked by a Divergent who can pass all five factions' simulations. She searches high and low — killing many people in the process — before discovering that Tris is 100 percent Divergent and is the only one who could possibly do this for her. After Tris manages to pass four out of five of the simulations, she "dies" and Jeanine thinks she has to find someone else to complete the task. Little does she know that Tris was actually just knocked out by a serum by Peter that made her appear dead, and Peter helps her and Four escape.

However, Tris can't make it that easy. She goes back for the box and decides she has to hook herself up to the machine and pass the Amity simulation so they can retrieve the message. She has to fight herself — or not fight herself like a true Amity would — in order to unlock it. A message then plays explaining that there is life outside the factions and they were waiting for enough Divergents to come around to make sure their experiment was successful. They get a go-ahead to go over the wall and see what the world is like now, but we don't get to see anyone actually escape yet, since that's saved for the two-part sequel. The final scene is Four's mother, Evelyn (Naomi Watts), after she takes Jeanine into custody. "It's been two hundred years, who knows what's out there," Jeanine says. "You won't get to find out," Evelyn replies and shoots her in the back of the head.

Compared to the books, almost everything is different about the ending of Insurgent. The novel has Four and Caleb find the video message, and Tori (Maggie Q) ends up stabbing Jeanine because her brother was killed because of the crazy leader. The video doesn't say that it was an experiment in the book — the woman (who is identified later as Edith Prior, a.k.a. a distant relative of Tris and Caleb's family) says that the world has become corrupt and Chicago was sealed away until more Divergents emerged. The same idea of the fence being opened for everyone to rejoin the population remains the same, but Evelyn announces that there will be a factionless government and society from then on. We'll have to see what turns Allegiant takes with this new version of the story, but if it's as action-packed as Insurgent was, it will be a very entertaining rendition.

Images: Andrew Cooper/Lionsgate