The Divergent Set Almost Ran Red With the Blood of Children
Is the third Divergent movie actually a child snuff film? No, but not, apparently, for lack of trying.
According to Deadline, prop masters on the film’s Atlanta set opted to use a selection of real “axes, machetes, scythes, maces, steel pipes, hammers, heavy farm tools and pieces of steel rebar,” in a recent battle scene featuring more than 130 extras, prompting a horrified witness to call in a local union.
Shocked by what he was seeing, the witness spoke discreetly with several members of the crew. “Everyone seemed to know it was wrong, but no one was willing to speak up,” he told Deadline. “To me, it seems that saving money – the expense of rubber props – took priority over safety. This particularly upset me because small children were involved. I personally saw four people trip and fall just because of the footing on the set, and several people were given medical care for heat exhaustion, which can cause fainting – and falling on these weapons is just as dangerous as swinging them into someone else during the chaotic scene.”
According to Deadline, the production responded within 10 minutes of the witness’s phone call to the IATSE Local 479, who reportedly “blew up when they heard what was going on.”
The prop masters, who one suspects hoped to see a dead or mangled child before the days’ end, were forced to switch out the weapons for rubber versions—which they apparently had on hand but chose not to use initially. And sadly for them, the children lived to see another day.
Until the fourth film at least.
