Entertainment

11 Plot Hints About 'Insurgent' From The Trailer

by Kadeen Griffiths

In case you haven't heard, and I have no idea how you haven't heard yet, on Thursday the Insurgent Super Bowl trailer made its debut on the Internet ahead of the actual Super Bowl. Which I am not complaining about, mind you, because it means we got to have a taste of what's new with Tris and the gang before it's even the weekend. Fortune favors the... lazy, I guess. Regardless, the trailer was incredibly good, incredibly action-packed, and incredibly full of Easter Eggs for people who have already read the book series. In fact, if you look closely, you can find up to 11 hints of what we can expect from the Insurgent film aside from just this amazing scene as a whole.

Of course, the references to the main plot are subtle in order to keep people guessing, but it's practically my job to overanalyze things on the Internet. From the trailer's haunting beginning to its explosive finish, I'd be a terrible fan if I didn't help my fellow fans, who maybe haven't read the books, get in on the inside joke. Although perhaps joke is the wrong word here, as Insurgent is almost close to tying for the darkest novel in the entire series. So how did the trailer reference the main plot? Let's count the ways...

1. This Is Tris' Face For Most Of The Movie

As I said, Insurgent is close to being the darkest book in the whole series. Tris has lost her home, lost her safety, lost her parents, and — spoiler alert — she's losing her brother, too, in a way. She also had to make her first kill, and that kill was one of her closest friends who was mind-controlled into trying to kill her at the time. About the only time Tris smiles in the entire movie is when she's drugged up. Long story.

2. Jeanine Is Still Our Main Villain

This much was obvious by the fact that she wasn't killed at the end of Divergent, but Jeanine still presents the biggest threat to Tris and her friends in Insurgent. The trailer hints at exactly the kind of threat that Jeanine presents, showing her examining Tris like a lab animal and making notes on a clipboard. At the end of the day, it is Jeanine's cold, analytic mind that makes her such a horrific villain — and her desire to understand divergence has even more horrific consequences.

3. Tris Is Going To Take Her Down

This much is also obvious just from the sheer fact of this being a story. The villains never win. The heroes always triumph, though at a steep loss. However, the real thing that the trailer is hinting at here is that it is Tris herself who has to choose to stand and fight before she actually has a chance against Jeanine. The events of Divergent utterly crushed Tris' spirit, and she's in a hopeless place. Once she finds her strength once more, she becomes a real threat.

4. There Are More Simulations

If you thought we'd seen the last of simulations after the Sorting Ceremony — I mean, uh, the Exam — and the Dauntless initiation, think again. Insurgent features numerous other simulations that Tris either volunteers for or gets trapped in. Spoiler alert, most of those simulations are administered by Jeanine herself when Tris surrenders to her in defiance of things like common sense. And Four.

5. Nobody Can Keep Tris In A Corner

Tris is beaten down in Insurgent. She's given up before the war has even really begun. At several points, she is called out for suicidal and death-seeking behavior by basically everyone who cares about her. And it's all too clear that Tris has stopped caring about herself or the life she feels unworthy of. However, when the chips are down and her back's to the wall, Tris finds her reason to go on with a strength and courage that we all should emulate. Just like she ripped off those wires and leaped through the glass in the trailer.

6. Tris Is In A Glass Case Of Emotion

Sure, this is a funny play on words, but it's also true. Throughout much of Insurgent, Tris is in her own world. She can't fire a gun because all she sees is the person that she killed. She can't fight because most of the time she takes unnecessary risks that blatantly put her in danger. Her idea of problem solving is to give up so no one gets hurt but her. Tris is locked inside her own grief and can no longer see the world around her — just like in the trailer.

7. Jeanine Always Has The Upper Hand

Jeanine might drop her clipboard in surprise when Tris tries to break through the glass in Insurgent, but, if you look at her face, she looks utterly calm. Maybe even pleased. Sure, that could be because she knows this is just a simulation — or it could be because she knows she has the upper hand. And, at least here, she does. Spoiler alert, Tris is not the one who kills Jeanine in the end. Not unless they change it for the film, at least.

8. Tris Is In This Alone

It's not really that Tris is in this alone, as the trailer might make it seem. It's more than Tris actively tries to be in this alone. Despite having Caleb, Four, and even Marcus and Christine technically on her side, Tris keeps trying to do everything alone out of a desire to avoid losing even more people. Is it the smartest plan? Well, no. But it's an understandable plan.

9. The Stakes Are Higher Than Ever Before

As shown in the trailer, it's not just Tris and her life that's at stake in Insurgent. It's the fate of the entire world in which she lives. Sure, Erudite and Jeanine's attempted coup put the stakes really high in the first place, but Tris makes discoveries in Insurgent that could threaten absolutely everything she knows to be true and change her world forever.

10. Her Entire World Is Falling Apart...

And it's not just metaphorical. In the Divergent Series, every single faction is visited, even if it's just for a small amount of time, and, to put it frankly, CHAOS ENSUES. That shot of Tris falling past disintegrating buildings is the best summary of the entire film that I could ever give you.

11. ...And That Damage Is Permanent

By the end of Allegiant, spoiler alert, the entire futuristic society in which Tris lives is completely decimated. In Insurgent, we get the building blocks of that damage, the bridge between our introduction to the factions in Divergent and the destruction of the faction system in Allegiant. Once Tris' story is told, her world will no longer exist. This shot was a poignant way for the trailer to reference that.

Watch the trailer again below.

Image: YouTube (12)