The Abnormal Potential of The Division Movie
At the time of writing, The Division video game franchise is gearing up for a major Hollywood adaptation, with a feature film in the works at Netflix. The script is being penned by Rafe Judkins, known for his work on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the upcoming Uncharted film, and Amazon’s The Wheel of Time series (the man really likes his adaptations).
Directing the project is David Leitch, whose action credentials speak for themselves: Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and co-directing the original John Wick (in other words, the man knows action).
Rounding out the project are powerhouse leads Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Chastain, ensuring that this adaptation has serious star power both in front of and behind the camera. All signs point to The Division being a high-octane, must-watch action thriller.
The Games-to-Film Curse
While the so-called “games-to-film curse” has started to ease in recent years — thanks to hits like Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog — it’s far from broken. For every success story, there are still countless adaptations that miss the mark entirely.
In researching why so many video game movies fail, I kept running into one particularly frustrating theory: that video game storylines are too simplistic for film. Honestly, that’s just insulting. Some of the most powerful, complex, and emotionally resonant storytelling in the past 20 years has come from games. I won’t even start on Metal Gear Solid, which arguably has one of the most intricate narratives ever written — in any medium.
A more reasonable, and far more common, theory is that video games are interactive, while films are not. And while that may cause fans to judge the movie harshly when comparing it to the source material, it’s not what makes a film objectively bad. Gameplay and story in video games are interconnected but still independent. You can have an amazing story with mediocre gameplay, or a wildly fun game with a weak plot. The two don’t always have to carry equal weight. When it comes to adapting a game into a film, gameplay is largely irrelevant. What matters are the core storytelling elements: writing, acting, direction, cinematography, music — you know, the things that actually make for a good movie.
When looking at games like The Last of Us, Uncharted, Mass Effect, and Metal Gear Solid, the story is the driving force. The gameplay enhances the experience, sure, but the cutscenes alone often rival — and sometimes surpass — Hollywood blockbusters in cinematic quality.
How many times have you seen a cutscene and thought, “This would make an incredible movie”? That’s the energy filmmakers should aim to capture. But too often, they get lost trying to replicate the gameplay experience instead of focusing on the cinematic experience. And that’s where many adaptations fall short — they forget that what makes a game fun isn’t necessarily what makes a film engaging. They’re different mediums, and they need to be treated as such.
To put it simply: when a video game movie is bad, it has nothing to do with the game — it’s just a bad movie.
So… where does The Division fit into all of this?
The problem with the game
Quite simply, The Division has horrible story telling. It’s not a bad story; it’s just badly told. Most of the narrative is delivered through ECHO recordings, phone messages, and radio chatter, often playing in the background while you are otherwise engaged and focused more on not dying. It’s a storytelling approach that feels more like a distraction than an immersive experience, it’s both nonintuitive and inconvenient.
The biggest issue is how fragmented and non-linear the story becomes. These audio logs and recordings can be collected in any order, at any time. You might find yourself following a subplot that you don’t understanding because its parts were told out of order, or without context. Even with context, it could take you literal days or weeks to find the next entry in the story. By the time you find the next piece — assuming you ever do — you’ve likely forgotten what came before. To make matters worse, you can accidentally trigger an entirely different storyline in the meantime, only adding to the confusion.
Traditional storytelling elements are also sparse. Cutscenes are minimal, meaningful NPC interaction is nearly nonexistent, and the protagonist is completely silent. That silence creates a noticeable disconnect between the player and the narrative. When the main character has no voice, no reactions, and no emotional stake in what’s happening, it sends an unspoken message: the story doesn’t really matter. And if the game doesn’t treat its story as important, it’s hard for the player to care either.
There are exceptions, of course — some silent protagonists have worked well. But in most of those cases, later games gave them a voice, and the storytelling improved dramatically as a result.
If you’re interested in understanding the narrative of The Division, I recommend the checking out the YouTube channel NGN. He has several videos explaining the story and lore of The Division.
How the film can benefit
It’s usually a mistake for a movie adaptation to retell the exact same story as the game it’s based on. More often than not, it’s better to explore a new narrative within the same universe — whether that’s a prequel, sequel, or side story running parallel to the events of the game.
But The Division presents a rare exception.
Because the games suffer from inconsistent and fragmented storytelling, a film adaptation actually has a chance to retell the core narrative — only this time in a clearer and more coherent way. It’s a unique opportunity to refine what was already there and finally present it with the structure and depth it deserves.
That said, the world of The Division is rich with untapped potential, and there’s no shortage of directions a film could take. There are several aspects of the world and story that the games themselves have yet to dive into.
What really happened to the first wave of agents?
What was the true extent and aftermath of the Dark Zone quarantines?
How did the leaders of the enemy factions rise to power?
What drove certain agents to go rogue?
How did the Black Tusk emerge — and who’s really behind them?
In short, The Division isn’t bound by the same limitations as other video game adaptations. Thanks to the strength of its lore and the weakness of its storytelling, the games have left plenty of space for a film to fill in the gaps. Few franchises hand Hollywood this much creative freedom, and even fewer offer such a strong foundation to build on.
