Shailene Woodley The Divergent Series: Allegiant

Cast: Naomi Watts, Jeff Daniels, Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller
Director: Robert Schwentke
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure
Running Time: 120 minutes

Synopsis: With Chicago on the verge of an all-out civil war, Tris (Shailene Woodley) leads Four (Theo James), Christina (Zoë Kravitz), Peter (Miles Teller), Tori (Maggie Q) and Caleb (Ansel Elgort) on a harrowing escape from the walled city, chased by armed guards loyal to selfappointed leader Evelyn (Naomi Watts). Outside Chicago for the first time in their lives, the five find themselves being pursued by Edgar (Jonny Weston) through a toxic wasteland known as the Fringe before being rescued and escorted to the ultra-high-tech compound of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare.

Once there, Bureau mastermind David (Jeff Daniels) singles out Tris for being genetically 'pure" and enlists her to champion his mysterious cause. While Tris receives special treatment, including access to 'memory tabs" that enable her to relive her own family history, Four joins Bureau soldiers on a supposedly humanitarian mission to remove children from a ragtag Fringe encampment.

Discovering that David plans to use the Bureau's astonishing technologies for inhumane ends, Tris hijacks his private aircraft and returns with her team to Chicago. Faced with a shocking betrayal, they must try to stop Evelyn before she unleashes a memory-erasing gas on the city's entire population, including the Allegiant rebel force led by Johanna (Octavia Spencer).

The Divergent Series: Allegiant
Release Date: April 14th, 2016

About The Production

Crackling with epic action scenes, spectacular vistas and unexpected twists, The Divergent Series: Allegiant follows Tris, Four and their comrades as they escape the walled city of Chicago and embark on their most astonishing adventure yet.

'After two hit movies, we've seen a lot of Chicago and spent time with all the different factions, so we believed the filmmakers, the audience and the actors were all ready to go to a different world," says producer Douglas Wick. 'Cinematically and story-wise, it feels great to go over the wall for some answers: What's outside the city? Why do the factions exist? Who's behind it all? What does being Divergent truly mean?"

Woodley, too, relished the challenge of pushing her character toward new horizons. 'When we first met Tris in Divergent, she empowered herself," says the actress. 'In Insurgent, she's guilt-ridden and winds up being betrayed by her brother Caleb. In Allegiant, Tris goes outside of Chicago because she feels like it's part of her destiny."

Theo James, whose portrayal of Four in the first two films has made him a worldwide heartthrob, enjoyed seeing his and Shailene Woodley's characters tested in a challenging new environment. 'Tris and Four have gone through so much together, fighting and losing people they care about," says Theo James. 'They feel like there must be something better out there, and they're both keen to discover something new. Also, they want answers to the riddle that's at the heart of the book series and the movies: What happened to the planet and why?" The man who evidently knows the answers to those questions is David, the visionary leader of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, played by Golden Globe nominated actor Jeff Daniels.

'This genetics experiment that is Chicago has had some disastrous consequences," Jeff Daniels explains. 'But this is David's life's work. Nothing and no one will get in the way of that."

The addition of an actor of Jeff Daniels' calibre turned out to be a career high point for Woodley. 'It was great to act with Jeff Daniels," she says. 'Besides being incredibly professional, Jeff put a lot of his soul and spirit into this character. Also, it was nice to have a male antagonist. In the past, we only had female antagonists. Playing David, Jeff Daniels brings a different kind of dynamic to the story. You don't quite know what his agenda is or what fuels him. At the end of this film, David leaves you wondering what he's going to do in the next one."

The DNA of virtually everyone on the planet has been modified by generations of gene editing for the purpose of producing babies with predetermined traits. David's plan is to 'rescue" the genetically damaged children from the toxic environment of the Fringe and put them in a safe environment in Chicago so that maybe, over time, man's genetic material will heal itself.

'That means altering a lot of people, whether they want to be altered or not," says Jeff Daniels. 'Under the faction system in Chicago, if they make people too brave, that leads to them being cruel; too peaceful, they become passive; too smart, they lose compassion. Tris is the one and only example of someone who actually evolved to the point of being genetically pure, so David wants her at his side."

Tris is initially wowed by David's knowledge of her and what seem to be pure motives. 'Initially you think David is a humanitarian who helps save kids," says executive producer Barry Waldman. 'As you peel back the layers, you start to realise he has his own agenda." Back in Chicago, tensions grow as Evelyn (two-time Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts) institutes a bloody reign of terror by executing followers of her slain enemy Jeanine (Kate Winslet). 'Naomi Watts is physically petite but has a commanding presence and gives Evelyn this inner strength," says producer Douglas Wick. 'But what's really interesting is you're not sure if she's a good guy or a bad guy at any given moment."

Watts relished the chance to revisit her character, who experiences her first taste of totalitarian power in the new film. 'Evelyn is so interesting to play because she's a survivor above all else, and now in Allegiant, she's torn between conflicting emotions," says the actress. 'On the one hand, she sincerely wants to bring about peace and unity to Chicago and she believes that can only be achieved by ruling with an iron fist. On the other hand, she loves her son Four, who wants nothing to do with her strong-arm tactics. Getting the chance to embody all those different layers of the character made it exciting to show up on set every day and help bring Allegiant to life."

Johanna, formerly leader of the peace-loving Amity faction and now head of a resistance movement known as Allegiant, distrusts Evelyn's ability to rule Chicago compassionately. 'In the beginning, Johanna wants to show solidarity," says actress Octavia Spencer. 'But Evelyn exhibits the same dictator mentality that her predecessor Jeanine possessed. Johanna's hoping for the best, but she's preparing for the worst."

'The Allegiant believe that peace can be achieved if they go back to the faction system," Spencer continues. 'Fear of the unknown is causing them to want to go back to the old way of life, even if it was flawed. But they want to reinstate the factions as they were meant to be, not in the way Jeanine has corrupted them."

As tensions grow between Evelyn's and Johanna's followers, Tris assembles a formidable crew for her journey. Zoë Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort and Maggie Q reprise their roles as Christina, Peter, Caleb and Tori. 'The state of Chicago is even worse than before and Christina is just trying to survive," explains Zoe Kravitz. 'It's sad and scary that the world she knows is changing but Christina knows she has friends who will rise to the occasion."

Wise-cracking wild card Peter Hayes is again portrayed by Miles Teller. 'Peter is untrustworthy as ever and up to his old tricks," says Teller, who starred in the Oscar nominated Whiplash. 'Peter's always looking out for Peter. In Insurgent, he aligned himself with Kate Winslet's Jeanine. Once he found out he was just a pawn in the Erudite system, he betrayed them and helped out Four and Tris. They lead a pretty resourceful unit, so now, Peter's going with them."

Ansel Elgort (The Fault in Our Stars) returns as Tris' brother Caleb. 'In the previous film, Caleb betrayed Tris so he's in a really tough place," Ansel Elgort says. 'At the start of this movie, he's a prisoner awaiting trial and living in this total state of regret. When Caleb realises there's another world beyond the wall, he's relieved to get a new start for himself."

The World of the Divergent Series

The Divergent Series: Allegiant builds on the dystopian mythology introduced by Veronica Roth in her spectacularly popular first novel Divergent. For 200 years, citizens living inside the walled city of Chicago have been divided into five factions: the selfless Abnegation, the brave Dauntless, the intellectual Erudite, the truthful Candor and the peaceful Amity, while the unaffiliated Factionless live outside the system. Tris Prior, raised Abnegation, switches allegiance to the Dauntless before learning she's a Divergent, possessing abilities of multiple factions. She meets and falls in love with another secret Divergent, Tobias 'Four" Eaton, and together they uncover an Erudite plot to take over the city.

The second film, Insurgent, follows Erudite tyrant Jeanine (Kate Winslet) as she hunts down rebel Divergents and subjects them to a series of harrowing tests. Only Tris passes, meaning she is able to open a secret box containing an ancient message from the city's founders. Meanwhile, Four's power-hungry mother Evelyn, leader of the Factionless, kills Jeanine, plunging the city into turmoil.

The Divergent Series: Allegiant begins amid the city's ruins as Evelyn caters to a bloodthirsty mob by sanctioning the execution of Jeanine-loyalist Max. Repelled by his mother's iron-fisted rule, Four agrees to join Tris on their first foray outside the confines of Chicago.
As the final instalment of the Divergent book series, Allegiant set a HarperCollins pre-order sales records record prior to its publication in 2013 and sold 455,000 copies on its first day. Collectively, the trilogy has sold more than 37 million copies and spent months atop the New York Times, Apple's iBooks and Amazon best-seller lists.

Devoted Divergent readers also turned out en masse for Summit Entertainment's first two film adaptations, helping fuel worldwide ticket sales of $586 million. To satisfy expectations for the trilogy's fan base, filmmakers decided to divide the 544-page third and final instalment of the trilogy into two separate films, with the climactic Ascendant set for release in 2017.

'The sheer expansiveness of the storytelling in Veronica's book lends itself to being broken into two different movies," says screenwriter Collage. 'When she wrote 'Allegiant," Veronica Roth had her brain in high gear."

'Veronica Roth packs so much plot and so many characters into each of her books we've always felt like we never got to service them all," says producer Lucy Fisher. 'We've apologised to the actors that their characters can't get to do everything they do in the books, because we couldn't make a five-hour movie. By ending the series with two movies, we now have the time to give a satisfying resolution to all the characters everyone loves."

Tris and Four: Post-Apocalyptic Power Couple

While pulse-pounding action, spectacular visuals and thoughtful themes are all key to the Divergent Series experience, it's the evolving romance between Tris and Four that provides the films' heart and soul. From the beginning, fans have been captivated by the bond between the independent-minded Tris and her charismatic companion. 'Tris and Four share a relationship grounded in the actuality of genuine respect and acknowledgement for one another's process," says Shailene Woodley. 'Unlike many YA films, their partnership isn't built on the singular foundation of physical attraction. It's a very real union that can at times be messy and vulnerable, and at other times be strong and powerful. They never lack passion. I feel like Allegiant does a great job of illustrating their ups and downs."

As Allegiant begins with the couple gazing together at the ruins of Chicago, Tris and Four agree to leave everything they know behind and venture out beyond the wall. But while they set out together, their adventure takes them down separate paths. Once they get to the Bureau of Genetic Welfare, Four finds himself cut off from Tris, who begins spending most of her time with David. 'Tris and Four are divided at the Bureau because her DNA is -pure' and Four's is -damaged,'" Shailene Woodley notes. 'They witness different sides of the Bureau's regime so when Four tells Tris he doesn't think she should trust David, she decides to go with David anyway because she wants to follow through on her own plan."

Actor Theo James sees the couple's discord as an authentic reflection of each character's hard-won individuality. 'In the first two movies, you follow the story through Tris," he says. 'Here, you also see certain events from Four's point of view. The two of them butt heads because they see the world of the Bureau very differently." But as Allegiant surges towards a final showdown in Chicago, Tris and Four are once again reunited.

'When they come back together, Tris and Four have a greater sense of respect for one another," says Shailene Woodley. 'That's when you get to see them collaborating and coming up with a new solution."

Reteaming for their third film together, Shailene Woodley and Theo James had no problem generating plenty of on-screen sparks. 'When you know the person you're doing scenes with, it helps the chemistry," says Theo James. 'You have a shorthand and you instinctually know how they're going to interpret the scene. Because these characters are supposed to know each other well, actually knowing Shailene Woodley in real life makes it that much easier."

Going Over the Wall

Principal photography for The Divergent Series: Allegiant started in the Atlanta, Georgia, area on May 20, 2015, with an ambitious agenda. Director Robert Schwentke wanted to immerse audiences in the world beyond Chicago by filling the screen with bigger visual effects, more monumental vistas and more exciting action sequences than anything featured in the previous films.

The action kicks into overdrive a few minutes into the movie when Tris and her crew use high-tech grappling hooks to scale the wall encircling Chicago. 'Going over the wall is one of our showcase set pieces," says executive producer Todd Lieberman. 'Robert and his team put together a wildly impressive escape with lots of action and emotion that involved pulleys and cables and cranes and bombs and guns and trucks."

In the Bellwood Quarry near Atlanta, filmmakers built a massive 80-foot wall topped with an electrified metal fence. Augmented by visual effects, the wall appears 200 feet high on screen.

For the actors, scaling the wall tested both strength and endurance. 'They put you in a harness attached to little studs and make sure that you're all locked up," Shailene Woodley recalls. 'Then they pull you up and you just have to trust in the wire that's holding you up. We'd walk right up the wall and hang there until we heard -Action!' and then each take or setup captured a different particular sequence. We'd already looked at pre-vis to see the scene digitally and then we'd have to match it physically."
Between set-ups, cast members were literally left hanging. 'You'd just be there for hours," Shailene Woodley laughs. 'It's not very comfortable."

Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Zoe Kravitz, Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort and Q spent three days at the quarry, plus five more days shooting on a smaller, less steeply angled wall built to make it easier for the actors to say their lines while climbing. Ansel Elgort, an experienced rock climber in real life, had to forget everything he knew to portray his character properly. 'Running up a real wall vertically was pretty sick," he recalls. 'My challenge was making it look like I didn't know what I was doing because Caleb can't run and climb. I had to slam my body against the wall. I wore all these pads so it didn't cut me up, but those scenes completely chewed up my costume."

The Fringe and Beyond

Tris and company make it over the wall only to find themselves lost in a post-apocalyptic desert known as The Fringe.

'We started with the word -toxic' and built from there," says producer Barry Waldman. Under the direction of production designer Alec Hammond, crews sprayed about 80,000 gallons of environmentally friendly hydra seed and red dye to cover 15 acres of terrain in four Atlantaarea locations. 'We've seen enough concrete ruins and rubble in the last two films, so with the Fringe, we had the opportunity to go outside the city's wall and establish an entirely new landscape for our characters to move though," says Alec Hammond. 'For inspiration in creating this broken, colourful, diseased environment, we looked at copper mine run-offs in Alberta and giant garbage heaps in China."

The devastated frontier comes as a crushing disappointment to Tris and her fellow adventurers, who had envisioned a more enticing spectacle outside the wall. 'Instead, there's this wasteland which suffered some kind of devastating warfare," says Theo James. 'They've suddenly gone down a rabbit hole that they can't return from."

As if the treacherous terrain weren't enough, Tris and company are still being chased by Evelyn's henchman Edgar (Jonny Weston). He hunts them down in a tank-like Specialised Reconnaissance Assault Transport or SRAT vehicle in a sequence filmed on 10 acres of harsh terrain at Stockbridge Quarry, outside Atlanta. Weston, an inveterate off-roader, did much of his own stunt-driving. 'I race through the Mojave Desert for fun," says the actor, 'getting the opportunity to drive the SRAT full speed with a machine gun cranking as hard as I can, jumping and riding dunes in the middle of Atlanta, was really fun. It was an insane action scene."

Just when things appear hopeless for Tris, an invisible portal opens up in the sky. Known as the Camo-Wall, the simulated holographic barrier separates the Bureau from the Fringe and Chicago. Next, Bureau soldiers encase Tris and her companions in egg-shaped flight modules called Plasma Globes.

'When shooting scenes that don't require the actor being in a flying harness (wide shots) suspended by cables, we use an apparatus called a "parallelogram" or teeter totter. The actor can lay in a "body pan" (made for that person) or sit on a seat, much more comfortable than a harness, the apparatus is counter weighted to that persons weight. We have been using this system for years, it is still used today e.g. Gravity, the Martian, Spider-Man, Apollo 13,"explains Frazier.

Welcome to the Bureau

Tris, Four, Christina, Caleb and Peter arrive at a breathtaking futuristic compound they soon learn is the headquarters of the Bureau of Genetic Welfare. Filmmakers designed the sterile, high-tech interiors of the Bureau to clearly differentiate it from the debris-filled Chicago ruins featured in the earlier films. To create the Bureau's six interiors, construction crews worked around the clock for 11 weeks. 'We had about 200 prop makers, painters, plasterers and carpenters building seven days a week for two and a half months straight," recalls construction coordinator Greg Callas.

The gleaming complex makes a big impression on Tris and her team, says Shailene Woodley. 'We all grew up in this decrepit city of Chicago, so the Bureau's incredibly different from anything we've ever seen. It's very clean, very sanitary, very well put together. When we get to the Bureau, we're a little hesitant but also very keen about having access to luxuries we didn't have in Chicago."

The visitors are subjected to a thorough cleansing to remove the toxins and radioactive material they accumulated in the Fringe before they can enter the Bureau's pristine environment. 'We go through decontamination by walking through a shower-like process,"

Shailene Woodley says. 'Each of us receives a new tattoo that signifies whether we're pure or damaged. It's like you're cleaning off the old in order to let in the new."

The Bureau is built on the site of Chicago's defunct and decomposing O'Hare Airport. 'We added a couple of new terminals, then we broke the whole thing down," Hammond says. 'When the purity wars happened, planes got left on the runways, equipment stuck at the gates. We have those elements visible inside the actual layout of O'Hare, which is now overgrown with weeds and trees. We designed the addition built when they first started the Divergent Chicago experiment, then projected that out for over a century of growth by the Bureau." The Bureau's landmark structure takes the form of a high-rise Spire. 'The whole exterior landscape of the Bureau was created in the computer," notes visual effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier. 'This film relied on visual effects to create a bigger environment than we'd seen in the previous two films because we needed to achieve things that couldn't be built for real."

The Spire was designed entirely as a 3-D computer-generated construct. 'It's interesting to see how all the different components fit together," says visual effects producer Erika A. McKee. 'You have everything from the old airport relics to the new technology like a hangar filled with hovering Bullfrogs, and then the Spire with its Bubbleship landing pad outside David's office."

Bureau sets were constructed at the Atlanta Media Campus, a production facility being developed on the site of the Optical Fiber Solutions (OFS) plant in Norcross, Georgia. 'The Bureau needed to be bigger and grander than the spaces in Insurgent, filled with more people to create a place that feels like it's humming with activity," says Alec Hammond. 'We took the bones of this former fibre optic manufacturing facility and designed within it."

Memory Tabs and Family Secrets

Identified as the sole 'pure" individual to emerge from the Bureau's ongoing genetic experiment in Chicago, Tris learns about her mother's personal history when David invites her to use a 'memory pad." 'It's a futuristic concept that allows you to relive the memory of somebody else by putting a small device on your temple," explains Stefen Fangmeier. 'Tris lives the memory of her mother as a young 9-year-old girl out in the Fringe settlement when she was captured by the Bureau soldiers. We created a fantastical transition from the reality of Tris physically being in David's office, to her being transported to this distant past location. Rather than doing a direct flashback, she observes the environment that assembles around her as the memories come to life."

The events she witnesses shed invaluable light on Tris' heritage. 'Being able to experience her own family history inspires Tris to save the people who live inside Divergent Chicago," says Hammond. 'She learns from the Memory Tab that that her mother actually volunteered to go back to Chicago to rescue the experiment many years ago. It takes Tris out of herself and reinforces the value of what she's trying to save."

The Bureau is Watching

The Bureau has been observing the subjects of its long-term experiment inside Chicago for over a century, using advanced surveillance technology. So when Tris and her companions arrive, they're greeted like rock stars by the Bureau staff, who have been following them since birth. Not surprisingly, the visitors react with suspicion to the fact that they have unknowingly been closely monitored for their entire lives.

'Tris feels violated," Shailene Woodley says. 'At the same time, she's intrigued as to why they were being watched. She wants to learn about the Bureau's true, underlying mission."

Everyone at the Bureau is given a job, and Caleb and Peter are sequestered in surveillance pods that enable them to observe every nuance of daily life back in Chicago as if they are actually there. 'They can sit in the surveillance chairs and look at everything that's happening in the full 3-D world of the experiment that is Chicago," Hammond explains. 'It's all being recorded because they have sensors everywhere so they have the ability to put themselves within that world even though no one else can see them. Peter and Caleb can almost live vicariously through what's happening in the city."

Learning to operate the Bureau's amazing technology, Caleb becomes enamoured with its eye-in-the-sky capabilities, but Peter sees the surveillance pod as nothing more than a stepping stone to a cushier assignment. 'When he gets to the Bureau, Peter's hoping he'll have a pretty sweet job, instead he gets stuck working next to Caleb in surveillance," says Teller. 'It's crazy that he's able to see what people back in Chicago who have no idea they're being watched are doing. Peter being Peter, he uses that to his personal advantage."

Send in the Drones

Another key piece of Bureau technology figures in the climactic battle against Evelyn and her army: personal drones. These small black flying discs help users track enemy combatants by acting as digital scouts and can also create a protective force field. 'The drone has the ability to go out in front or behind or around corners and see what threat is hiding," explains McKee. 'Soldiers control the drones with their finger movements using a special glove."

For James, mastering drone warfare, Allegiant-style, offered an exciting challenge. 'This new world gives you the ability to see things that you wouldn't be able to see otherwise," James says. 'They come off your back and basically give you complete aerial vision to watch the enemy. This gives Four a big upper hand when it comes to battle tactics."

Like the Fear Landscapes in Divergent and the simulation scenarios in Insurgent, drones define a signature technology advance in Allegiant. 'Robert designed these immersive sequences as those -aha moments' of visual excitement and fun," says Stefan Fangmeier. 'In our society, we are familiar with drones but not on such a personal level. In post, we added a heads-up display around the actors' face, so Theo has something like Google Glass as an overlay that allows him to see what the drones see."

Bullfrogs and Bubbleships

The Divergent Series: Allegiant features a host of vehicular co-stars, both airborne and earthbound, which contribute to some of the movie's most riveting sequences. Cinema Vehicles in Van Nuys, California, manufactured four SRAT vehicles by combining Chevy Suburban chassis with Ford front ends.

'We needed a tough, rugged vehicle for Edgar that moves faster than the MRAP from Insurgent," says Alec Hammond. 'The new SRAT has a hatch in the top so people can pop out and shoot."

All those spectacular stunts took their toll on the vehicles, according to transportation coordinator Denny Caira. 'We beefed up the suspension to handle the terrain in the quarries, but the SRATS got pretty beat up in the quarries so we had teams of mechanics on hand to keep them running."

Allegiant is the first film in the Divergent series to feature aircraft, observes visual effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier. 'More unique designs, and new to this film, were the flying aircraft: The bubble ship, the bullfrogs and bulldogs. These are all 'Bureau" aircraft and very futuristic in their design and function."

The Bureau's all-purpose transport aircrafts, dubbed 'Bullfrogs," were custom-built for the film and mounted on hydraulic gimbals to simulate flight. 'It's really a grunt ship that delivers troops to the Fringe and rescues people, but which also has defensive capabilities and seems indestructible," says Hammond. 'We built about 75 percent of the airship, so everything the actors touch, like the cockpit and the cargo hold, is real."

The aircraft also provides the setting for one of Four's toughest battles. 'There's a big sequence in the Bullfrog when Four realises he's about to be executed and he has to stop 10 guys who are trying to take him out," says James. 'That was fun to film because it's on a big gimbal and the Bullfrog moves around at the same time as I'm taking out bad guys. And then the Bullfrog crashes."

Bullfrogs are for the common folk. By contrast, the sleek, two-seat 'Bubbleship," in which mastermind David pilots Tris to the 'pure city" of Providence, is a top-of-the-line private ship. 'The Bubbleship is the Rolls Royce of Bureau craft," says Hammond. 'It's open, virtually made of glass, with a 270-degree view. The Bubbleship's like a luxury speedster compared to the Bullfrog's tank."

Tris later hijacks the Bubbleship for a rough ride with Christina and Caleb back to Chicago. 'The Bubbleship was cool," Woodley enthuses. 'It was actually very uncomfortable because the seats hunched forward, but it was fun because Zoë Kravitz, Ansel Elgort and I got to be on this gimbal that would go upside down and go all different directions. It was neat to see how that technology worked."

Part of the fun is the fact that although Tris has no idea how to fly the ship, she takes it off auto-pilot to avoid being taken back to the Bureau. 'As a matter of fact, no one from Chicago has operated any transport before, so for Tris to pilot the Bubbleship is in itself pretty wild," says executive producer Lieberman. 'We intentionally kept it as a two-person craft for the awkwardness and humour of putting three people in it for this chase."

On set, actors saw only a portion of the craft, since the rest of the exterior would be filled in post-production with computer graphics. 'The first day I saw the outside of the Bubbleship, I was confused and had no clue what this thing was going to look like because it was essentially just this giant blue box with glass," recalls Elgort. 'The effects people assured me it was going to look amazing on screen. That seems insane, that you can get into this blue box and later on they turn it into a futuristic spaceship with magic effects."

Fashion Forward

To outfit the denizens of The Divergent Series: Allegiant's brave new world, costume designer Marlene Stewart supervised 30 costumers in Los Angeles and another Atlanta-based shop staffed with seamstresses, cutters, fitters, agers and dyers. Over the course of six months they manufactured thousands of sleek Bureau uniforms and an assortment of deliberately raggedy Fringe creations.

'The Bureau people are basically scientists and quasi-military," says Marlene Stewart. 'They're efficient technicians, so we reflect that by making the Bureau uniforms streamlined with military detailing."

Outfits were custom-tailored to denote status, beginning with Bureau head David. 'All of Jeff Daniels' suits are made to order from beautiful, very dark, charcoal wool," says Stewart. 'The suits have a military cut featuring four pockets, so he looks like a civilian associated with the military."

As part of her initiation into Bureau culture, Tris is instructed to burn her old clothes. 'When Tris goes over the Wall and arrives at the Bureau, she enters a new phase of life for her character as seen both by the outside world and herself. Her costumes are symbolic of her new found identity and reflect a purity that is evident in her new role. The transitional institutional clothing she and the others are issued when they first get to the Bureau reflect their initiation into a new world of tech and experimentation. The costumes are made out of hi tech fabrics which are printed with 3D designs and are more futuristic than the costumes of the world they have left behind," Stewart says.

Unlike the 'damaged" genetic types at the Bureau who dress in blue, grey and black, Tris wears white. Marlene Stewart says, 'Robert wanted Tris' color palette to reflect her level of purity and so we went with whites and cool light grays all which give her a new look and make her stand out from the others, reflecting her role and adding another layer to her character's understanding of where she is in this new world."

Taking on a more tailored look proved to be a major shift for Shailene Woodley. 'It was bizarre to be walking around as Tris in a dress and heels," she admits. 'Juxtapose that with the Tris we've known for so long who wears military gear and wields a gun. As an actor it was fascinating to see how the clothes affected me and what I thought about Tris' character."

The Bureau soldiers' uniforms are wired with high-tech battle functionality. 'There are small computer chips embedded in the fabric of the soldiers' uniforms, sensors that read their surroundings and change the colour of the camouflage fabric according to the environment they're in," explains Marlene Stewart.

'A lot of research went into creating the design for the camouflage fabrics for the Bureau Military, explains Marlene Stewart. 'We created a unique camo print that would blend with the environment and it was printed in our specific colors or orange, rust, blacks and browns to match the background of the Fringe, which is the area that the soldiers must enter. The onscreen transition is helped by visual effects so that you see the change and this reflects the Smart Technology embedded within the uniforms, not only showing that the Bureau is a more tech savy environment but creating a dramatic visual as we enter into the Fringe zone."

Stewart and her team also custom-tailored outfits for about 200 members of a bedraggled Fringe settlement raided by Bureau forces midway through the film. 'The Fringe clothing reflects the storyline of the people who inhabit this forgotten area. The people survived from recycling and reusing discarded clothing from the Bureau. The costumes have a sild organic and homemade, pieced-together look. They also have found items that they use to protect themselves against the harsh toxic environment. The colors of the fabrics reflect this toxic wasteland where the rain is rust colored and filled with metals, giving the overall characters a lost and eerie visual quality when seen as a whole. All of these costumers were custom made."

New Horizons

The Divergent Series: Allegiant filmmakers set out to bring Veronica Roth's original vision to life once again even as they add fresh surprises to her dystopian saga. 'I think fans of the book will love the fact that this movie is similar to the book but also has a completely novel storyline in many ways," says Woodley. 'There are a lot of things in the film that Veronica Roth created, and then there are a lot of things created by the director and other people involved in the movie. I think this movie is even bigger and bolder than the first two simply because the characters encounter a world they've never experienced before, and that means the audience will also get to experience this world for the first time." Brimming with new characters, landscapes and mysteries, Allegiant extends a Divergent universe that has already captivated millions of moviegoers. 'One reason these stories resonate for young people particularly is that they wonder what their futures hold for them," James muses. 'Whether it's conscious or not, young people think about, -What kind of world will I live in?' I think that's why so many people gravitate toward the Divergent stories." Although Allegiant remains consistent to the core values of The Divergent Series, its heroes encounter new worlds and shocking revelations and the film raises the level of excitement to new heights. 'Allegiant gives you a scale and a scope that you don't get in previous films," says producer Lucy Fisher. 'There are so many things about this movie that excite us, including the action and the visuals. But my favourite part about this entire series is the characters and their relationship to each other. With Allegiant, I love that you're on the edge of your seat, because there's something going on every second."

The Divergent Series: Allegiant
Release Date: April 14th, 2016