On March 20, 2015, The Divergent Series: Insurgent hit movie theaters across the United States. Tomorrow, on August 4, 2015, Divergent fans will finally be able to watch Insurgent over and over again as it releases on 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand. It is already available on Digital HD.
Based on Veronica Roth’s #1 New York Times best-selling novel Insurgent, The Divergent Series: Insurgent raises the stakes for Tris (Shailene Woodley) as she searches for answers and allies in this star-powered, action-packed second installment of the Divergent series. On the run and targeted by ruthless faction leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet), Tris fights to protect the people she loves, facing one impossible challenge after another as she and Four (Theo James) race to unlock the truth about the past—and ultimately the future—of their world.
DIGITAL HD/3-D BLU-RAY COMBO PACK/BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
- Audio Commentary with Producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher
- “Insurgent Unlocked: The Ultimate Behind-the-Scenes Access” Feature-Length Documentary
- “Diverging: Adapting Insurgent to the Screen” Featurette
- “From Divergent to Insurgent” Featurette
- “The Others: Cast and Characters” Featurette
- “The Train Fight Unlocked” Featurette
- “The Peter Hayes Story” Featurette
- Marketing Gallery
DVD Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher
- “From Divergent to Insurgent” Featurette
- Marketing Gallery
Other versions:
Walmart Double Feature (Blu-ray or DVD) – Includes a double feature of both The Divergent Series: Insurgent and the Divergent on Blu-ray or DVD plus Digital HD
Best Buy Blu-ray Steelbook – Includes The Divergent Series: Insurgent on Blu-ray with specialty Steelbook packaging
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Target 3-Disc Set – Includes The Divergent Series: Insurgent on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD with third disc of bonus features exclusive to Target
Our Review of the Special Features
(DIGITAL HD/3-D BLU-RAY COMBO PACK/BLU-RAY version)
The best thing about the special features is getting to hear from pretty much everyone involved in the movie. There are exclusive interviews with author Veronica Roth, producers Lucy Fisher, Dougl Wick, and Pouya Shahbazian, the videographers, stunt coordinators, set designers, the composer, and so many more. We hear from Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ansel Elgort, Miles Teller, Kate Winslet, Octavia Spencer, Naomi Watts, Keiynan Lonsdale, and many more of the actors and actresses. All of them give us little peeks into the process of making Insurgent into a real movie and what it was like on set. We get to hear firsthand from some of the actors about how they understand their characters and the mindset they are in. I think all fans will really enjoy seeing how some of their favorite actors relate to some of their favorite characters (this is especially prevalent in the “From Divergent to Insurgent” Featurette and “The Other Cast and Characters” Featurette).
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As I was watching the special features, one of the things that became obvious to me very quickly was that Lionsgate had been planning and working on the special features from the very beginning. They are very well thought out and organized and show all of the aspects of making the movie. It’s clear that it wasn’t just an afterthought, a moment of “Oh, the movie’s over. What footage can we use for special features?” These features are clearly meant to give fans of Divergent more access to the world they love.
The descriptions given by the coordinators and designers do a really great job of explaining some of the things that might not have made sense during the first time watching the film. Those little things that may have made you go, “Huh?” are explained by all of the people who were involved in putting the pieces of the puzzle together. One example of this for me was the simulation when Tris has to fight (or really, not fight) herself. The way each Tris was shown was meant to symbolize her: one as being the “light” Tris and the other as a “dark” Tris. Maybe that should have been obvious, but with all of the action going on in the fight simulation, I had missed making that connection.
The special features are worth watching in my opinion because so many of the small details become more meaningful with the explanations. It makes the movie and Tris’s story as a whole more impactful. There are over four hours of special features; it’s a lot to watch (so maybe not for one sitting) but worth the time. Those are four hours of extra footage and explanations that make an already developed world even richer.
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I definitely recommend watching the movie with the producer’s commentary at some point. Again, the commentary gives us more insight into the making of the movie and the actors, little behind-the-scenes tidbits, some explanations, and more. However, I’d recommend watching the movie without the commentary first because otherwise you miss a lot of what is happening in Insurgent; the commentary happens over a lot of the dialogue. I personally needed the refresher before I could watch the version with the commentary. For fans upset with why Insurgent was different from the Veronica Roth’s book in some ways, producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher explain many of the changes made from the book and why they were necessary. They tell stories and describe what the actors are like as people. For example, when Kate Winslet had a bigger trailer than everyone else, she asked them to take it away and give her one that was the same size as everyone else’s. These stories add another dimension to both the story and the actors as people.
Making a movie is HARD. The main actors typically get most of the credit (which they deserve!), but one of the things that hit me the most from watching the special features was just how many people are involved in making a movie. So many of these people don’t get thanks or kudos or congratulations because they aren’t the face of the franchise. But the people who do the screenwriting and the stunt coordinating and the set design and so many other of the things we don’t even think about deserve thanks too. The world that Veronica Roth created is incredibly complex. There are so many moving parts and layers, and the ability to make it come to life on screen so well and believably is something that is so easy for fans to take for granted. The term “movie magic” is often used to describe special effects, but in a way, making a movie in itself is magic. As fans of the Divergent series, we’re lucky to have such a great team working on these movies. So thank you, to everyone who has played a role in helping take this from an idea in Veronica Roth’s head to a movie on the big screen.
Since The Divergent Series: Insurgent isn’t out on DVD yet, I don’t want to give too much away. However, here are just a few of the interesting facts I learned from the special features to get you started:
- One of the first things the director did was map out Chicago with a goal of being able to connect the dots and understand how the characters would get from place to place.
- Insurgent set staff built the Amity dome; the dome was 43 feet tall and the giant tree inside (the symbol of Amity) was fake.
- The set designers were incredibly detailed. They even planned how Amity would be growing and cross-pollinating seeds and plants to feed their city. Each cube in the Factionless compound was different as if someone unique was living there. Producer Pouya Shahbazian said that whenever he showed people around set, they’d always point out which cube they would want to live in.
- When Eric, Max, and the Dauntless crash into Amity looking for Divergents, that was an extremely high-pressure shoot. Those trucks weighed 55,000 pounds each and the take could only be done once since once you drove over the field, it couldn’t be undone. It was muddy and slippery and the first truck skidded as it came around the corner. Luckily, the drivers and actors were experienced and nailed it on take one.
- In the simulated suicides scene, Suki Waterhouse did the fall herself each take, 8-10 times total. All of the actors did the climbing (Shailene, Maggie Q) and the falling (Zoe Kravitz, Emjay Anthony).
- The simulations that are done on Tris in Erudite by Jeanine took a lot of planning. The production team decided Tris couldn’t be strapped down, like she is in the book, because of how active she is being in the sims. The problem then became how to make the wires look realistic. The solution was attaching the wires with magnets under Shailene’s costume to suspend her in the air, with some movie magic removing extra supports after filming.
- The train fight scene is incredibly complicated, but it is very exciting to see how it came to be. The train cars were really old trailers made into a train. The designers wanted the train to almost be like a playground with all of the nooks and crannies. I thought the most interesting thing was that the producers decided that Caleb’s moment when he kills a man should be the climax of the fight, because it is something so completely out of character for him and something he wants no part in ever again.
- The mysterious message box was created to have a physical goal that needed to be worked towards throughout the movie.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent releases on 3D Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand on August 4th! For more information, you can visit http://www.owninsurgent.com/
And guess what? We have one more copy of Insurgent to give away! Visit us on Twitter at @TYFOfficial to learn how to enter.
Thank you to Lionsgate for the advanced review copy and giveaway copies of Insurgent.
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