What's Going On In The New 'Insurgent' Trailer?

On Thursday, much to the delight of just about everyone, the Super Bowl Insurgent trailer hit the Internet so that those of us who don't enjoy football or Katy Perry can watch it without watching the Super Bowl. It was a win/win. The trailer was exactly the kind of action packed craziness we've come to expect from our Divergent Saga trailers, but it was also, well, really bizarre. In it, Tris breaks her way through a glass to attack series villain Jeanine, before Jeanine and the room they're in shatter into numerous pieces and Tris falls. As she falls, all the buildings around her start shattering as well. The question that has to be on everyone's minds at this point is what is happening in the Insurgent trailer and how does it tie into the film?

Luckily, I've read the novel version of Insurgent and I can answer this question — or, at the very least, I can guess. You see, during Insurgent, Tris is in a really bad way. As a reminder of where we left our fair heroine, at the end of Divergent she was fleeing her faction, Abnegation, after Erudite leader Jeanine tried to mind control the non-Divergent Dauntless into murdering all of Abnegation as part of a coup. In the process of escaping, Tris was forced not only to shoot a friend but to also leave her mother to die so that Tris had time to get to safety. Like any normal person, she is reeling, dealing with her guilt, her grief, and her post-traumatic stress over these incidents. Spoilers ahead.

At a certain point in the novel, Tris surrenders herself over to Jeanine, who is looking for a Divergent guinea pig. During that time, she is forced to undergo an MRI and several simulations not unlike the ones she went under that revealed she was Divergent in the first place. Most likely, the trailer is a reference to one of those — especially since it features Tris breaking through glass to tackle a disappearing version of Jeanine. Whether this simulation is an exact recreation of a scene from the movie, or just one of those symbolic things that won't actually make the final cut, still remains to be seen, but if this is what Tris is being forced to go through at the hands of Jeanine then it is rough.

At the same time, Insurgent marks a turning point in Tris' grief where she goes from looking to put herself in harm's way to realizing doing so senselessly renders her mother's sacrifice meaningless. This clip from the trailer could be symbolic of that, of Tris breaking through the metaphorical glass cage of grief that has seemed to be between her and the world around her, symbolic of Tris deciding to fight. Either way, we can rest assured that the upcoming Divergent sequel looks beyond awesome and March 20, 2015 can't come too soon for my tastes.

Watch the trailer for what I'm sure is the thousandth time below.

Image: YouTube (2)