The film is the first installment in The Divergent Series and was produced by Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher, and Pouya Shahbazian, with a screenplay by Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor.

[4] It stars Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Ashley Judd, Jai Courtney, Ray Stevenson, Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Tony Goldwyn, Ansel Elgort, Maggie Q, and Kate Winslet.

The film received mixed reviews: although its action sequences and performances, notably Woodley's, were praised, critics deemed its execution and handling of its themes to be generic and unoriginal, and compared it unfavorably to other young adult fiction adaptations.

In a futuristic dystopian Chicago, society has been divided into five factions: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the kind), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent).

She warns her to conceal her true results; as Divergents can think independently and sense any serums injected into them, the government feels they threaten the existing social order.

Eric Coulter, a brutal Dauntless leader, reminds the initiates that anyone not meeting the faction's high expectations of commitment and fearlessness will become Factionless.

Unwilling to miss the most important test, Capture the Flag, she leaves the infirmary, joins the other initiates, secures her team's victory, and makes the final cut.

To prepare her for the final test, Four takes Tris into his own fear simulations, where she learns he is Tobias Eaton, and his father Marcus used to beat him as a child.

[13] Evan Daugherty, who co-wrote the screenplay with Vanessa Taylor, said, "I get hung up on the toughness of the movie but of equal importance is the love story between Tris and Four.

Analyst Ben Mogil said, "Divergent is more similar to Hunger Games in that the company owns the underlying economics (i.e. production) and the budget (at $80[million]) is more manageable.

[18] Lucas Till, Jack Reynor, Jeremy Irvine, Alex Pettyfer, Brenton Thwaites, Alexander Ludwig and Luke Bracey were all considered for the role of Tobias "Four" Eaton.

[39] Filming also took place at the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel; the entire area was treated with dirt and rust to appear more dystopian.

"[50] The score for Divergent was composed by Junkie XL and executive produced by his longtime mentor Hans Zimmer, featuring vocal contributions from Ellie Goulding on four of the tracks as "the inner voice of [...] Tris".

[29] On July 18, 2013, Summit held a sold-out San Diego Comic-Con panel in Hall H. Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Maggie Q, Zoe Kravitz, Ansel Elgort, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Amy Newbold, Miles Teller, Christian Madsen, director Neil Burger, and author Veronica Roth attended the panel and answered fan questions, along with the showing of exclusive film clips.

[69][70] On February 4, 2014, Shailene Woodley and Theo James released the final trailer for the film during their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

The site's critical consensus reads, "With an adherence to YA formula that undercuts its individualistic message, Divergent opens its planned trilogy in disappointingly predictable fashion.

[91][92] Bruce Diones of The New Yorker called it "barely diverting",[93] and Jordan Adler of We Got This Covered said it was a "plodding and generic dystopian drama".

[94] Several critics have compared the film unfavorably with other young adult fiction adaptations such as Harry Potter and, predominantly, The Hunger Games.

Andrew Barker of Variety said, "Unlike the Harry Potter series' tangible, fully dimensional Hogwarts or The Hunger Games' colorfully variegated districts, Divergent's vision of new Chicago doesn't have much to distinguish it from a standard-issue post-apocalyptic pic.

"[95] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that, "At least The Hunger Games spawned two terrific movies and a breakthrough star in Jennifer Lawrence.

"[96] Peter Debruge of Variety considered it a much better adaptation writing that, "[although] it shares a fair amount of DNA in common with The Hunger Games, it ranks as far superior".

[Woodley's] like a walking empathy battery, wide-open emotionally, easy to read and enormously appealing", also adding that James is "incredibly natural onscreen".

[101] Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com agreed with this sentiment, writing, "the performances—namely from stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James and Kate Winslet in a juicy supporting role—always make the movie watchable and often quite engaging".

[102] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post felt that the film surpassed its source material, feeling that "it's rare that a movie is as good as the book on which it's based.

"[103] Leigh Paatsch of the Herald Sun dubbed the film a "solid first-up effort for the Divergent franchise",[104] and Margaret Pomeranz of At the Movies gave praise to director Neil Burger, stating that he "handles the action with aplomb".

[105] The Playlist's Todd Gilchrist gave it a mixed review saying that it has "great ideas ... and some terrific character work, but it's given such uneven attention, alternately languished upon and glossed over".

[98] IGN's Matt Patches gave it 5.8 out of 10, citing its similarities to other young adult films and contrived Dauntless plot line.

He praised lead actors Theo James and Shailene Woodley's performances, judging that they "add personality and physicality to the limp script they're acting out".

[106] Scott Mendelson of Forbes magazine echoed these sentiments, arguing that despite Woodley's excellent performance, "the generic story reduced a large portion of the mythology to irrelevancy".

[126] Star Shailene Woodley refused to be part of this TV adaptation which violated her contract which specified that the project had to be a theatrical film release.