The books were a hit, leading to the popular 2014 flick Divergent, and this week’s sequel, The Divergent Series: Insurgent, which follows Tris and Four as they attempt to infiltrate the Erudite faction and determine why Erudite is trying to harm the other factions. The movie is already a huge hit, bringing in over $54 million at the box office during its first weekend. Now that many people have already seen the movie, I felt it was ample time to talk about the changes that were made by new director Robert Schwentke while bringing Insurgent to life on the big screen.
There are many spoilers in the Insurgent book to movie comparison. Do not go any further if you want the film to be a surprise.
Johanna’s role is minimized. 
The benevolent but shrewd Amity leader is played by Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, who appears in a small role in the film. We also do not get to see her have a secret meeting with Marcus that Tris sneakily listens in on. The scar on her face also isn’t as noticeable. Also seeing Tris on peace serum, was left out.
Marcus is barely in the movie. Like Johanna, Marcus shows up early in the movie, explaining to Tris that her mother was actually on another mission when she showed up to save her daughter. Then, he pretty much disappears from the plot, which means Tris has to come to conclusions about Erudite without the knowledge of the Abnegation leader to back her up.
Tris is still reeling from Will’s death, but she uses guns. In the books, Tris’ decision to pull the trigger on her friend haunts her and she has trouble using any weapon with bullets. In the movie, Will is still very much in her thoughts, but she has no trouble using guns, at all.
The factionless member who escorts Tris and Four to Evelyn is not Dauntless washout Edward. Edward is the kid who lost an eye in a fight with Peter in the first book—a fight that became a deleted scene in the first movie.It was plaguing me as to how they were going to explain Edward, simple, rewrite. This isn’t a huge shock, considering the changes made to the first film.
There’s a device that can tell Eric’s team what percent divergent individuals are. Jeanine is looking to find the Divergents, which is similar to her goals in the book. However, it’s not because she is trying to keep the secret Abnegation wanted to share close to her chest. Instead, she needs someone who is highly Divergent to open the box that contains information. Unsurprisingly, we learn Tris is 100% Divergent from the device.
In fact, the final ending sequence is different. Tris is already imprisoned in Erudite and attempting to open the box to figure out what is inside. In the books, she actually has to infiltrate Erudite, against the wishes of the Dauntless and the factionless who want to storm in and destroy everything. In addition, Marcus and the former Erudite member Cara don’t play a part in the ending. Still, we get to see a lot of the simulations that were vivid in the book, and more.
The factionless don’t steal all of the guns at the end. In the books, Tris is pretty skeptical of Four and Evelyn’s newfound relationship. This is proven to be a good gut feeling when Evelyn’s factionless betray the Dauntless at the end of Roth’s novel. In the movie, things end on a happier note—that is, until we see Evelyn meet up with Jeanine as everyone else is heading to the wall.
Jeanine is killed by Evelyn. This is a marked change from the books. Jeanine is imprisoned in a tower, where she is killed by Evelyn in cold blood in the movie. In the book, Jeanine is killed by Tory, who is seeking revenge for the death of her brother.
