The Box

The Box is featured in The Divergent Series: Insurgent as a form or collaboration of some of the stuff from the Insurgent novel written by Veronica Roth.

What It Looks Like

Information

The Box is a mysterious artifact that Andrew and Natalie Prior hid in their Abnegation home. It has the symbols of all five factions on each side of it and the content of the Box, as revealed in the film, is a message from Edith Prior (thus not mentioned in the film) explaining that the whole faction system is an experiment and that Divergents are the solution to the problems outside the fence.

Jeanine reveals that only a Divergent can unlock what's inside the box and she orders to capture Divergents across the city to find the one who can open it. To "open the box" the Divergent must pass a series of five simulations (one for each faction) that challenge the subject to prove their Divergency. This means that only a Divergent with potential for all five factions can open the box, not another with potential for only a few of the factions.

Jeanine tried to open the box with six subjects with small potential for the factions and all six subjects died in the simulations. When she learns of Tris' pure divergency she enlists Peter to find a way for Tris to turn herself in to the Erudite. After Tris accepts that Jeanine won't stop until she finds her, she turns herself in and Jeanine begins the experiments on her.

The Simulations of the Box

The Dauntless Sim

Tris enters a destroyed city landscape, where she has to save her mother, Natalie Prior, who is trapped inside a Abnegation house that catches on fire and begins to float high in the sky before eventually crashing into a building. Tris runs after the floating house through destroyed buildings, hanging from wires and avoiding giant windmills, ultimately saving her mother from falling to her death. Curiously, the simulation includes Ravens flying around the floating house. This could be a nexus to Tris' fear landscape on Divergent.

The Candor Sim

Right after saving her mother, Tris is transported to the inside of an Abnegation house where she opens up to her mother about the events that have transformed her since she learned of her Divergency. Tris admits that she only is pretending she is as fearless and brave as she should be, but on the inside she feels weak and sad. Finally, as soon as she admits that if she wasn't Divergent at all none of the events that destroyed her family would have happened, her mother smiles at her and the simulation ends.

The Erudite Sim

Tris opens her eyes in the Erudite lab, and sees that the Erudite are under attack by a Dauntless army. The door to the simulation room is blasted and Four emerges from the exit, disconnecting Tris from the simulation machine and hands her a gun. Tris and Four go through the Erudite building until they get to a bridge where Tris asks him how they passed through all security, to which Four answers something Uriah told Tris about how scary and intimidating Four is (something Four hasn't heard in reality). This prompts Tris to realize this has all been a simulation and approaches Four and tells him that she is sorry for leaving him. The simulated version of Four responds by telling Tris they aren't in a simulation, and Tris tells him she knows he's not in a sim because he is the sim. Once Tris says this, Four's body begins to disintegrate and the sim ends.

The Abnegation Sim

Tris spares the life of Peter when she escapes the Erudite lab in the Erudite simulation.

Tris manages to surpass four simulations on her first attempt, but given the high brain capacity needed to complete the simulations, she is put to rest after completing the Erudite Sim only to attempt the Amity Sim the following day.

The Amity Sim

First Attempt

Tris is back at the Erudite Sim Lab and Jeanine tells her that in order to pass the Amity Sim she needs to be calmed and peaceful. Jeanine taunts her about the irony of the situation (since Tris is filled with anger) and her mistakes, which makes Tris to release herself from the machine and smashes the glass of the simulation room to tackle Jeanine. Slowly as she approaches Jeanine, the room begins to collapse and Jeanine's body disintegrates leaving Tris floating in the collapsing room. Suddenly, the room explotes and Tris beings to fall into the city, which also beings to collapse as Tris falls to her sudden death.

Second Attempt

Tris is once again connected to the machine, and Jeanine tells her she's worst than her mother. Tris insists that she won't fight with her to which Jeanine answers that Tris has to fight herself. Across the room, another version of Tris emerges and imitates all of Tris' movements. This version of Tris tells her that she is herself, the thing she hates most and runs toward her. As Tris doppelganger begins to hit her, Tris insists that she won't hit her or attack her and the room collapses with every beat. Finally, Tris understands that she needs to find peace with herself to end the fight, to which the doppelganger only mocks of her but this ends the simulation, beacuse Tris has finally forgive herself of the events that have transformed her.

Trivia

• The box is replacing the hard drive that appears in Insurgent.