15 Questions We Had While Watching 'Insurgent'

The action-packed Insurgent introduces an array of important new characters, sets off a virtual fireworks display of computer-generated dystopian future imagery, and brings together some of the biggest young stars in Hollywood (including Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort, and Miles Teller). But the new installment in the Divergent movie series — in which Woodley plays the battle-weary Tris — can also inspire a lot of head-scratching. (Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

There are a lot of shaky logical leaps in the big-screen adaptation of Veronica Roth’s wildly popular novel, from Tris’s refusal to take down the villainous Jeanine (Kate Winslet) to her lack of remorse after violently attacking (and possibly killing) a Factionless girl.

Here are 15 questions Yahoo Movies staffers had as we watched Insurgent.

15. What’s the difference between Abnegation and Amity factions, exactly? (The citizens of both exude sickeningly nice characteristics.)

14. Why does Tris fly into a violent rage against the Factionless in an early train confrontation, only to later take measures to keep them safe?

13. Why, during that brawl — in which Tris thows a punker Factionless girl off a moving train to certain death — does the protagonist not later express remorse? This doesn’t jibe with what we know of Tris: Her heroic nature, her grief over the death of her parents and other innocents, and the fact that later in the film she’s willing to sacrifice her life to save other Dauntless and Factionless.

12. Did that Factionless girl actually die? Tris tosses her between two speeding trains. Who could survive that? We’re never shown her definitive fate.

11. Okay, so we’re still talking about that train fight. Why did Caleb (Ansel Elgort) at first defend himself on the train, but a moment later turn into a passive wimp and just watch as his sister is about to be murdered?

10. Again, was Caleb’s Factionless assailant killed or simply maimed? It’s never made clear.

9. Then later, when Caleb joins Team Winslet (aka Erudite), is this proof that he doesn’t care for his sister? (He watches passively as Jeanine keeps Tris hooked up to a “sim” apparatus while her vital signs fade.)

8. Did Peter (Teller) play the long game in helping Tris and Four (Theo James) by selling them out and switching sides, going to Erudite? Or is he just improvising to save his own skin? If the latter, why do they trust him? Four didn’t really justify his position in the final act when he said Peter now has to work with them.

7. Why does Tris stay in that bulletproof chamber at Erudite, shooting at Jeanine when she clearly could have escaped, stage right, and shot Jeanine for real? That’s how Peter got out in that same moment.

6. If it’s unsafe to live outside of the city’s walls, why is there a whole community set up (and seemingly doing just fine) outside of the city’s walls?

5. Janet McTeer, who plays a small but pivotal part at the end of the film, is credited as Edith Prior on IMDb and in the end credits. But why didn’t the filmmakers make her character’s identity clear during the movie? Only fans will pick up on the fact that she’s one of Tris’s direct ancestors — and not simply a mysterious leader from 200 years ago who appears in a holographic message.

4. If it’s broadcast onto the buildings inside the walled city, it must be true? Why does everyone literally drop what they’re doing to head beyond the wall after the digital image of a woman, who they don’t know from Adam, appears, and tells them it’s safe to go there? Earlier in the film, when a broadcast of Jeanine is projected through the city, they all take it at face value, too.

3. How much of the movie was made against a green screen? 95 percent? 700 percent?

2. Once you’ve started singing the word “Insurgent” to the chorus of Foreigner’s “Urgent,” can you ever stop?

1. Why is Tris still jumping off moving trains?! It’s unsafe!