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Divergent
The setting: Society is divided into five factions after Chicago has descended into a post-apocalyptic hellscape. These factions are: Abnegation (the selfless), Amity (the peaceful), Candor (the honest), Dauntless (the brave), and Erudite (the intelligent). Try to guess which one is evil.
The hero: Tris shows an aptitude for three factions, because she is (dun dun dun) divergent. Tris is one of few people in future Chicago to be intelligent, brave and selfless. She joins Dauntless, falls in love with her instructor and uses her divergent superpowers to defeat the power-hungry Erudites, who are smart but totally not brave or honest or selfless.
Domestic box office: $150.9 million.
How is this not The Hunger Games? Tris is fighting smart people, not rich people.
Dust Lands
The setting: There's a coliseum where people fight to the death. And there's a king who controls people through an addictive drug. Oh, and there are four horsemen who kidnap people.
The hero: Saba, whose twin brother is kidnapped by the four horsemen, is a good fighter who is willing to go a long way to protect her little sister. Saba eventually joins Jack and the Free Hawks, a revolutionary girl gang.
Domestic box office: $0 (Ridley Scott's U.K. studio owns the rights to adapt the first book in the series, Blood Red Road).
How is this not The Hunger Games? Battles to the death performed in front of a live studio audience.
The Maze Runner
The setting: There's this place called the Glade. Every day a new boy arrives in the Glade in a box. These boys—"Gladers," to use the world's parlance—all perform tasks assigned by various Keepers. The Glade itself is surrounded by a large maze filled with mechanical beetles with "WICKED" scrawled on them.
The hero: Thomas is a wicked good maze runner.
Box office: $102.4 million worldwide.
How is this not The Hunger Games? The protagonist has a penis.
The Hunger Games
The setting: North America is called Panem, which consists of a vibrant, vivacious Capitol and 12 districts in various states of poverty. Every year, the Capitol rounds up one girl and one boy, aged 12 to 18, from each district to compete in the brutal Hunger Games—televised lived for the amusement of the citizens in the Capitol. There can be only one winner.
The hero: Katniss is from District 12, the poorest district, which is near present-day Appalachia (dystopian "future" indeed). She is also a leading figure in the Second Rebellion against the Capitol.
Domestic box office: $1.17 billion.
How is this not The Hunger Games? In fact, it is.
Skynet
The setting: In the not-too-distant future, mankind designs a software program called the Global Digital Defense Network. This backfires spectacularly and culminates in robots trying to destroy humanity. There are also time-traveling robots programmed to kill a specific person. And another time-traveling robot trying to stop the other time-traveling robots.
The hero: Cyberdyne Systems Skynet is a self-aware computer that decided killing humans was the best way to preserve itself.
Total domestic box office gross to date: The Terminator franchise has raked in $844.5 million (adjusted for ticket-price inflation).
How is this not The Hunger Games? Robots!
SEE IT: Insurgent is rated PG-13. It opens Friday at most major Portland-area theaters.
WWeek 2015