All 3 Divergent Movies in Order

With the release of Hunger Games, the young adult fiction genre boomed in popularity. This was because of its intricate storytelling, rising-against-authority theme, and the fantastical setting that the movie uses to tell its story. This popularity boom caused similar series like Maze Runner to catch traction and gain a following.

One such series that capitalized really well on the boom in the popularity craze of The Hunger Games was the Divergent series. Based on the immensely popular Y/A fiction Trilogy book series, The Divergent movies are set in a post-war apocalyptic Chicago, which has been divided into five factions. Placed right in the center of this action is Beatrice, or Tris as she is commonly called in the movies, who fulfills the role of the core protagonist, “the chosen one” but this expectation is subverted through the clever uses of twists throughout the series.

In the following article, let’s talk about the release and the watch order of the series and a summary of the plot of all the movies. In the end, we will rank them according to their IMDb rating and box office collection.

All Divergent Movies By Their Release Year

1. Divergent

   Streaming On: HBO MAX, DIRECTV, Cinemax

   Director: Neil Burger

   Writer: Veronica Roth

   Stars: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Maggie Q, Kate Winslet

   Genres: Sci-fi, Dystopia, Action

   

   In a dystopian, war-trodden, Chicago, the population is divided into five factions based on different beliefs. When 16, every child is injected with a serum that helps determine their best-suited faction, but they can choose their own during the ceremony which they will have to stay loyal for the rest of their life.

   When injected with the serum, Beatrice Prior turns out to be Divergent, a person with equal affinity for many factions. Tori, Tris’s protector records her result to be in the administrative faction, and warns her never to disclose her test result. During the ceremony, Tris joins the Dauntless, a fearless faction producing soldiers. Struggling to pass the tests of the Faction, Tris receives personal training from, Four, a transfer instructor.

   Four helps Tris through the test and notices that she is divergent because of her special abilities. When injected with a serum from a different faction, for tracking purposes, the serum doesn’t work on Tris due to her divergence. Tris finds out the serum is for mind control, in search of help she finds Four who is also revealed to be divergent so they bout are tasked to stop this war between the two factions.

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   As the first movie in the series, Divergent does a really good job of grabbing the audience’s attention using its world and characters and keeping a slightly stressed undertone to keep the viewers engaged throughout the movie. The cast performs and portrays their characters perfectly, giving the story a feeling of realism, making the stakes feel high. The ending leaves the viewer satisfied but curious and wanting to binge the rest of the series.

2. The Divergent Series: Insurgent

   Streaming On: HBO MAX, DIRECTV, Cinemax

   Director: Robert Schwentke

   Writer: Veronica Roth

   Stars: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Octavia Spencer, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet

   Genres: Sci-fi, Dystopia, Action

   

   A box, with the symbols of all five factions, is discovered in the rubble left after the attack on the Abnegation faction, by the leaders of the Dauntless faction. When investigated further, it is found that the box can only be opened by a divergent, so the Erudite leader Jeanine declares all Divergents to be captured. As a team, Tris, her brother Caleb, her boyfriend Four, and a member of the Dauntless, Peter are all traveling to the factionless.

   There, Four reveals he is the son of Evelyn, the leader of the factionless, due to which they are provided with shelter and food. The next morning the team leaves for Candor, to meet up with the remaining Dauntless, as they reach, Four and Tris are captured by the Leader of Candor, Jack Kang who puts them on trial for treason.

   Four suggest the use of the Truth serum, and when questioned after the injection of the serum, Four and Tris reveal all the details and are absolved of their allegations. The Dauntless who sided with Jeanine, attack Candor with mind-control disks and when Tris doesn’t comply her friends are made to jump off a cliff.

   Out of sheer grief, Tris goes through the trails of the box and unlocks it. The box reveals that all the people in the walled city are a part of the experiment and the divergent’s are its ultimate goal. The video is streamed to the whole city and Four rescues Tris and they escape.

   Though a slight downgrade from the first movie, Insurgent does a good job of continuing Divergent’s story. The characters are still the strongest aspect of the movie and do the major job of maintaining the immersion and attention of the viewers. The movie was criticized for its unoriginal plot and similarities to other movie franchises like The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games. The stellar performance of Shailene Woodley as Tris was praised unanimously as the best part of the movie.

3. The Divergent Series: Allegiant

   Streaming On: HBO MAX, DIRECTV, Cinemax

   Director: Robert Schwentke

   Writer: Veronica Roth

   Stars: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Jeff Daniels, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Zoë Kravitz, Maggie Q, Ray Stevenson, Bill Skarsgård, Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts

   Genres: Sci-fi, Dystopia, Action

   

   After successfully escaping the experiment, Tris and the team are rescued by unknown soldiers with advanced technology. The group is taken to the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, a city with advanced technology which hides under a cloaking device. A voice explains to the group explained how society came to be as it was, when people started to manipulate their offspring’s genes, which led to the Purity wars that destroyed the planet.

   The “Pure” people formed the Bureau which started experiments in an attempt to create a pure genome. The leader of the bureau, David shows Tris how they helped her mother and, Tris decides to support Davind in continuing the experiment. During a rescue mission, Four realizes the bureau is kidnapping children and wiping their memory and warns Tris about it.

   When arguing against the council about the experiment, the council reveals that David has full control over the experiment and that he is going to reinforce the factions. Tris rushes back to Chigao with the team only to find the city under a complete siege and the group has to do its best to minimize the damage and unite against David’s authoritarian rule.

   Following the trend set by the previous movie, the movie is a downgrade from its predecessor. The cast does an amazing job of acting out their characters keeping the viewers entertained, and the action slowly ramps up to the ending keeping the viewers on the edge of their seats. What the movie lacks is originality and in trying to provide a better one, the movie’s plot becomes overcomplicated and too complex causing it to lose its immersion.

Conclusion

With the setting of a war-rotten dystopia, the Divergent series pulls you in with its strong characters and supremely interesting world-building. Throughout the movie, we see this group of distraught teenagers come to trust each other and form a formidable team. The consistent character writing keeps the audience interested in the series and the adrenaline-fueled action sequences keep the audience engaged and excited throughout the movie’s runtime.

Adapted from a trilogy of books of the same name, the movies as standalone turn out to be pretty good but compared to how the story is told in the books, the movies don’t do as good of a job as the novels themselves. The movies severely lack in the innovation department and can feel a bit slow and clunky when they are trying to relay plot-related information. So if you liked the movie, definitely give the novels a chance as those provided a much more pure and refined way of storytelling.

All Divergent Movies ranked According to IMDb Ratings

• Divergent – 6.6 with 470k Votes
• The Divergent Series: Insurgent – 6.2 with 245k Votes
• The Divergent Series: Allegiant – 5.7 with 127k Votes

All Divergent Movies ranked According to Box Office Collection

• Divergent – $150.9 Million 
• The Divergent Series: Insurgent – $130.2 Million
• The Divergent Series: Allegiant – $66.18 Million

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