The Divergent Series: Allegiant left plenty of questions unanswered based on its adaptation of the book. The third installment of Veronica Roth's novel series, Allegiant was intended to be split into two films for its adaptation, much like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. However, with the final film never coming to fruition, the Divergent series was left with lots of the story left untold, maybe even marking the death of the YA dystopian sci-fi genre.
Allegiant leaves off with Tris (Shailene Woodley) and her allies learning that the Bureau of Genetic Welfare and its leader, David, are working to reinstate the faction system in Chicago by wiping the memories of all its residents. Tris then returns to the city and manages to leverage Evelyn and Peter so that she can stop the release of the memory serum. In the film's final moments, Tris vows to defeat the Bureau and liberate Chicago, broadcasting a message for those outside the wall that says, "Chicago is not your experiment. It is our home. And it always will be." The final film in the Divergent franchise would have seen the citizens of Chicago going up against the full might of the Bureau to defend their city.
There are a variety of reasons why the final movie, The Divergent Series: Ascendant got canceled. Mainly, it had to do with the subpar box office performance of the previous films and the cast's resistance to the studio's TV movie plan. It's hard to know what direction The Divergent Series: Ascendant would have gone with its adaptation, but here are all of Allegiant's big lingering questions as answered by the book.
What Is Tris's Plan To Save Chicago, And Does It Succeed?
It's a bit hard to speculate what Tris and her allies would have done to save their city in Ascendant, since Allegiant didn't exactly cover one half of the book. The imminent release of the memory serum on Chicago that constitutes Allegiant's climax happens closer to the end of the book, meaning Ascendant would have had to invent some new content to fill a feature-length film. It would surely have been the movie most divergent from the book. In Roth's novel, the protagonists save Chicago in a two-pronged plan that entails Tobias returning to the city to convince the Factionless and the Allegiant to join forces, and Tris sneaking into the Bureau to release the memory serum on them rather than on Chicago. Miraculously, both of these parts work out in the novel, so it's safe to assume The Divergent Series: Ascendant would have seen Tris' side win in the end, even if the climactic events were to shift.
What Happens To the Bureau Of Genetic Welfare?
With Tris' memory serum plan working out, everyone in the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, which is responsible for creating and maintaining the Chicago experiment, gets their memories erased. This includes David, the Bureau's director and the mastermind behind memory-wiping Chicago. The novel Allegiant doesn't go into too much detail about what happens to the Bureau after this, meaning the Divergent TV movie probably wouldn't have either. However, it is clear that the Bureau doesn't have the same power over the city that it once did, or the ability to create new policies and experiments, given that everyone who used to enact them has been brainwashed.
Are There Other Remaining Civilizations Besides Chicago?
In the Allegiant film, David explains to Tris that the wasteland outside Chicago's walls extends over the whole world, and that the only place not in ruin is Providence, where the Council is based. However, the movie fails to address this any further, leading to a lingering question of whether there are other cities out there being run as experiments, or that are liberated and finding ways to survive. However, just as the protagonists of The Maze Runner learn in the ending of the first film, there are actually other experiments full of people who've been through the same thing. In the book, Tris and her allies tend to focus more on rebuilding Chicago than on reaching out to other cities, but the book does confirm that they are out there, meaning The Divergent Series: Ascendant may have been able to do something with that concept and put Tris in contact with residents of other Midwest cities like Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and St. Louis.
What Happens To Peter And Caleb?
Two of the biggest loose canons in the Divergent series are Erudites Peter and Caleb. The former is a defect to Dauntless who bullies Tris throughout her training and continuously betrays and reconciles with her in an effort to save his own skin. The latter is, of course, Tris's Abnegation-born brother who also switches between being an ally and an antagonist to Tris with surprising regularity. Interestingly, Shailene Woodley's movie credits feature Miles Teller (Peter) and Ansel Elgort (Caleb) elsewhere as well. She stars alongside them as love interests in The Spectacular Now and The Fault In Our Stars, respectively.
Allegiant's movie adaptation ends with Caleb moving towards reconciliation by helping Tris disable the memory serum. Peter, by contrast, is the one who helps David activate it in the first place. However, Allegiant leaves off with the fates of these two still uncertain, since they rarely stay on one side for long. In the book, Peter eventually grows so weary of being a terrible person that he opts to intentionally take memory serum and have a fresh start. Caleb, in a similar vein, seeks redemption by volunteering to undertake the suicide mission necessary to stop the memory serum. He winds up still stuck with his guilt, however, as Tris takes his place at the last second.
Do Tris and Four Get A Happy Ending?
All three Divergent movies share the common thread of Tris and Tobias's undying love for each other. Even though they hit a rocky patch in both the film and book forms of Allegiant, the pair remain infatuated with each other. Unlike in YA counterparts The Hunger Games and Twilight, Tris never has to choose between Tobias and another guy. However, the book does end with her choosing between a happy ending with Tobias and the fate of Chicago, with the latter coming out on top. Tris sacrifices herself to stop the memory serum's release on the city and direct it at the Bureau instead, getting fatally shot by David in the process. Because Tris dies in Allegiant's book, she and Tobias don't get the happy(ish) ending awarded to the likes of Katniss and Peeta or Bella and Edward. The film adaptation never got this far, but it's likely Tris's shocking fate from the books would have remained. That being said, given the significant changes made already to Roth's novel, The Divergent Series: Ascendant may have avoided this tragic ending, too.
What Happens To Evelyn And Marcus?
Tobias Eaton, known primarily in the Divergent film franchise by his Dauntless name Four, is the series' main protagonist besides Tris, as well as her love interest. He's a Dauntless through and through, but still grapples with fears and insecurities that stem from his tragic past with his abusive, manipulative parents, Evelyn and Marcus. Sanditon's Theo James plays Tobias's tough moments with his parents very well, but Allegiant doesn't finish off the Eatons' story.
The film version ends with Evelyn giving Marcus memory serum to erase their past, and repenting somewhat from her warmongering ways as she allows Tobias and Tris to stop the release of the serum onto the whole city. That's a pretty big cliffhanger on both counts. In the book, Marcus's memory isn't wiped, and he ends up siding with Johanna and the Allegiant to try to take Evelyn down. In the end, Evelyn is banished from the city for two years after the Bureau's defeat and Chicago's reunification, and Marcus is forced to promise that he will never assume a leadership position again even though he's allowed to stay. It's not exactly a smooth reconciliation for any of the Eatons, but it's more conclusive than what happens in the films.
Young adult movie adaptations can be enormous moneymakers, but they can also be a bit of a gamble. The Divergent franchise started out strong, and even Insurgent kept most readers-turned-viewers engaged, but unfortunately Allegiant never really got off the ground despite the franchise's incredible cast and popular source material. The series might revive in some form in the future once enough time has passed, but it will certainly look very different. For now, most of The Divergent Series: Allegiant's biggest questions will have to go unanswered aside from what the book is able to shed light on.