We Break Down the DIVERGENT Trailer Scene by Scene + Over 200 Screencaps & GIFs

The official DIVERGENT movie trailer is here!! It was an exciting day as we counted down to the live stream this morning, and we even trended worldwide on twitter. Neil Burger held a live chat immedietly after the trailer was unveiled, which you can re-watch HERE. In this post we break down the full trailer scene by scene, along with a ton of screencaps.

First off, if you haven't already, go watch the trailer HERE. At least a few dozen times.

BREAKING IT DOWN

1. Cue dramatic music. The trailer opens with an early morning landscape shot across a field. An amity field maybe? Either way, it's gorgeous, and warm toned, different to the usual dystopian feel. Fun fact: This scene was one of the last scenes shot during filming.

In the live stream fan chat that followed the trailer, director Neil Burger said that he wanted to keep away from excessive CGI while creating his post-apocalyptic Chicago, and instead shot his actors on the real city's streets. "The most important thing, I wanted it to look real."

2. This being one of the first scenes is fitting since it is also the first scene in the book. Beatrice Prior looks into a mirror as her mother Natalie Prior gives her a trim in their Abnegation home, something that happens on the second day of every third month. "You nervous?" Her mother asks. "Were you, for your test?" Tris asks back. "No. I was terrified." Sounds ominous!

3. A super cool shot of dystopian Chicago.

4. Enter Jeanine Matthews, who explains the values in this society. In the movie, Erudite leader Jeanine heads up the Choosing Ceremony in place of Abnegation leader Marcus Eaton (In the book, it is Abnegation's turn to host.) It probably works better to introduce Kate Winslet in this authoritative role so people are aware of her importance. Plus, we would all be too busy thinking about how we want to punch Marcus instead of paying attention.  

5. Shailene Woodley as Beatrice, watches wistfully as the Dauntless teens jump from the train and race into the school. While it's still hard to form a complete opinion, Shailene is pretty awesome in what we do see in this trailer.

"I do this every morning. At exactly 7.25, the Dauntless prove their bravery by jumping from a moving train."

"Young men and women in dark clothing hurl themselves from the moving cars, some dropping and rolling, others stumbling a few steps before regaining their balance. 


6. Beatrice looks out over the city of Chicago.

7. Jeanine Matthews informs us that it is indeed Choosing Ceremony day, and this is the reason everyone is gathered, including Tris and her family. You can identify all the factions here by their clothing colors. Grey, Abnegation. Yellow/Red, Amity. Blue, Erudite. Black/White, Candor. Black, Dauntless. Neil didn't want the costumes to feel like uniforms, so individual statement pieces were mixed in to break it up.

8. Beatrice and her brother Caleb line up along with other pupils for what we assume is the Aptitude Test. Inside, we meet Tori who hands Tris a serum before she is put under simulation.

9. Here's where things start to go wrong. Beatrice doesn't react to the test in the 'normal' way.
The scene below is from later on in the movie, during a fear landscape possibly.
However it's placed here to better explain how Divergent people cant be controlled under simulation.

10. Tori tells Beatrice her results were inconclusive, which means she is Divergent. If you've read the book, you'll know Divergent people show an aptitude for more than one way of thinking, don't fit into one faction, and can't be controlled with the simulation serum. Beatrice naturally freaks out. Tori also explains that being Divergent is dangerous. She clearly knows something Beatrice doesn't. Who is she in danger from?

11. Tori warns her she must keep being Divergent a secret, that people are always watching.
This is timed with a jump-ahead shot of Jeanine watching Tris as she passes her by in a hallway... Uh oh. We also get a glimpse of Max, the Dauntless leader, by her side.

12. Beatrice stands at the edge of Dauntless HQ, where initiates must prove their bravery by jumping without knowing where they will land. Tori is heard telling Tris she needs to hide where people wont look for her.  This warning is an addition to the movie, in the book Tori simply tells her she must not tell anyone. Perhaps this is to show just how serious being Divergent is.

So, why does Tris choose Dauntless? To hide? She never felt selfless enough to be a part of Abnegation so leaving may actually help conceal her Divergent-ness. Or does she say to hell with Tori's warning, and bravely joins the fearless faction because that is her true choice and where she wants to be, just like in the book. Maybe its a combination of both?

It would be difficult to show Beatrice's long internal debate when choosing between the factions, so for adaptation purposes we think this works well.

 

13. First jumper! We get an early look at how well Beatrice fits in with her new faction, as she bravely steps up as the first to take the jump.

14. FOUR!!!!!!! "WELCOME TO DAUNTLESS" the instructor says, and never has a simple greeting sounded so good. This is also the moment 'Beatrice' decides her name doesn't fit the new her, and becomes just 'Tris' instead.

15. BOOM. The intensity increases as Theo James/Four introduces us to the TWO STAGES of Dauntless training, and we get a look inside the Dauntless - The Pit.

16. "The first is physical. Push your bodies to the breaking point." Yes sir. Can we talk about how attractive and commanding Four's voice is? Neil Burger says the fight have a rawness to them that is very real. "They're brutal."

17. Tris is clearly not doing great, we see her go down during battles with the other initiates.
You can make out bad boy Peter (Miles Teller) below as her opponent. We all know he'll be enjoying this moment.

18. "You're never gonna win, not like that," Four says, criticizing Tris' moves. "Keep tension here," he advises her, placing a hand firmly on her stomach, and we kind of stop breathing.

19. "The second, is mental. Face your worst fears and conquer them." We hear this as he expertly flings knives at Tris. This scene looks EPIC, and will make people sit up and pay attention. Tris of course, took the place of Al, so he wouldn't have to face the knives. In the live chat, Neil quoted Four "As Four says, you're at you're bravest when you're being selfless."

Neil also spoke about Jai Courtney as Eric, about how even though Eric isn't covered in piercings like in the book, Jai is SO Eric, and that was the most important thing. He said that goes for the rest of the cast too, even though its a YA adaptation and the characters were young,  as a movie it can apply to all ages, and this made some of the actors being older not a big deal. The portrayal is the main aspect.

 

 

20. He gives her that LOOK. You know, the 'You're making me do this' look.

21. Even super awesome Dauntless instructors have bad days, ok.

22. Tattoo time! Pretty much a staple of every Dauntless member. And guess who the tattoo artist is? "You made a mistake choosing Dauntless," Tori says, "They'll find out about you."And it seems Tori is right, because next we then see Four telling her "I know what you are." (Twilight flashback, anyone?)

23. The audience is left hanging for a moment as to whether or not he will turn her in.. but we know better. And sure enough Four is one of the good guys and has secrets of his own. "It's been along time since I could trust anyone."

24. Four bares his soul AND his physique as he reveals he has ALL the faction symbols tattooed on his back. We are only human so of course we were totally thrilled at this part.
"I don't want to be just one thing. I want to be brave, and selfless, and intelligent, and honest, and kind," he confesses, showing there is more to this instructor than meets the eye. God, he's perfect.

25. "If you wanna survive, follow me." At this point we'd follow him anywhere. Neil says "One of the coolest things to do was the trains." He says its one of his favorite things in the movie, the way the Dauntless jump off while they're still moving. It also often took a lot of takes, because of how challenging it is.

26. Here come the badass Dauntless soldiers clearly dressed for battle. We all know what this scene means.. Storm's coming.

27. "Divergent's threaten the system. It wont be safe until they're removed." That's right, guys. Kate Winslet is actually evil. Did you see that coming?

28. Tris looks on helplessly as Four is dragged away! You can tell by the buildings that they are in the Abnegation part of the city, and if you know the story, you'll know why they're there. Remember back when Divergent was filming and we used to pour over the pictures from this set? It's so great to finally see it all in action.

29. THE CHASM! Ok so we cant see any water, but we do see the rocks. Flash back to earlier in the movie, as scary looking Eric, one of the Dauntless leaders, dangles initiate Christina over the Chasm. We can also make out Peter and Edward to the left.

30. "We have to fight back," Tris says, as she is indeed shown fighting. We pretty sure these scenes take place at Erudite HQ, judging by the interior. Neil Burger said "anybody that was going to be Dauntless went to boot camp and learned to be Dauntless. They worked with guns, they worked with knives, throwing knives, climbing all over stuff, fighting."

31. No matter what, it's clear Tris and Four are in this together.

32. As the trailer builds towards it's finish, we get flashes of some epic scenes, including:

• "Are you humun, Tris?" The ferris wheel scene, as part of the 'Capture the Flag' game the Dauntless play. "It's about 150 feet tall," Burger said, adding that Woodley and James were "up about 75 feet, from about 9 at night until 5 in the morning" in 35 degree weather.And they were having to be emotional! It was really cool, but really hard."

 

• Four's fear landscape: We see a belt.. *cries* (This landscape takes place inside an Abnegation building, particularly recognizable by the windows.)

 

33. LORD. This trailer is filled with action, but of course we want a bit of romance too. We're guessing this scene takes place after the tattoo reveal. It 's a pretty impressive view. The city, I mean. Just pointing it out because you probably didn't notice. It also looks like the background to the new Divergent Movie poster unveiled yesterday.

34. Oh god, not looking forward to this scene. Its either ____ or ______. One of those two.

 

35: And the big finale, the scene EVERYONE asks about. ZIP-LINING! It is in the MOVIE guys. You can rest assured.  Now looking at this scene, they seem to be wearing the same gear they wore for the 'Capture the Flag' scene. Is it possible that the zip-line scene has become a part of that? In the book, Tris hangs out with Uriah and friends when this happens. Since Uriah wont feature until the second movie, this makes sense.

That sums up our break down of the trailer. We were lucky enough to watch this a few days earlier, so we've had more time than most of you to gather our thoughts. We thought it was epic the first time, and we still think it's epic now. It genuinely blew us away, and is even BETTER than we had anticipated. It doesn't insult it's target audience by dumb-ing down, it's thrilling, and intense in all the right places. The reaction from our followers has been overwhelmingly positive. There are so many scenes that prove to us it has stayed true to the book, the spirit and the emotion of it- rather than an exact reenactment, since things will obviously be changed like all book adaptations are. We have faith this is going to be one great movie. We know there's lots more scenes you'd love to see, but we want some surprises when we go to see it in cinemas!

Did we miss anything? Have anything to add? What did you think of the music used? We thought it fit really well. Let us know in the comments.

GIFs

(Via MTV)



SCREENCAPS