| “ | Alright, listen up! I'm Eric. I'm one of your leaders. If you want to enter Dauntless, this is the way in. And if you don't have the guts to jump, then you don't belong in Dauntless. | „ |
| ~ Coulter's introduction to Dauntless newcomers. |
| “ | If you're really one of us, it won't matter to you that you might fail. You chose us, and we get to choose you. | „ |
| ~ Coulter to the initiates, his second line as a famous quote. |
| “ | I found a way to live with the blood on my hands. Can you? | „ |
| ~ Coulter's last words to Four before being executed by him. |
Eric Coulter is a major antagonist of the Divergent trilogy, serving as the secondary antagonist in the 2014 dystopian sci-fi action film Divergent and the 2015 sci-fi action sequel of the same genre Insurgent.
He is a ruthless and sadistic Erudite, and Jeanine Matthews's right-hand, who joined the Dauntless as one of the faction leaders. As damning and gruesome Matthews's orders are to him, he's satisfied with his psychopathic work against the Divergents and people around them, even in training the Dauntless warriors and brutalizing them to torment and trauma. He is the arch-nemesis of Tobias Eaton, also known as Four.
He was portrayed by Jai Courtney in the film adaptation.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
Pre-Divergent[]
- He conceded a fight with Four on the ring, which contradicts his hypocritical rule change that no one can concede, in order to brutalize his initiates more and propagandize the motto of never giving up.
Divergent[]
- He brutalizes his initiates before being discovered as twisted in the preparing climax:
- He volunteers anyone to jump into the net as a gate to enter the Dauntless faction. He was willing to test people's fears, right when they were welcomed into the faction. So far, no one ever volunteers until Tris decided to.
- When Christina conceded from fighting after being brutally injured, he throws her over the ledge and has her hanging on for her life. He then makes forces her to decide betwen holding on long enough to stay, give up and become factionless, or fall and die.
- While he does comfort her beforehand, it was out of pragmatism to set her up in the situation.
- He applies his new rules to substitute the old ones for his and Matthews' benefit. At a certain point in the film, he does not allow anyone to concede in a fight, as opposed to their old rules that Dauntless fighters are allowed to.
- He makes Al stand in front of the target (and be thrown knives by Four, simultaneously forced not to flinch) during a knife-throw training session, only because he was afraid to retrieve his knives while people are throwing them.
- Beforehand, he rebuked Al's throwing skills, stating "That was pathetic."
- Afterwards when Tris took Al's place and survives, he also rebuked her for speaking up.
- He utilized neuro-stim darts in Capture The Flag so that the initiates would assume to play a minigame similar to a battlefield scenario.
- All these reasons may have traumatized most, if not all the initiates who were trying to survive and become part of Dauntless.
- While he doesn't train initiates, he ordered one person to spectate the control room, the room where Four controls.
- He injected all his Dauntless initiates and faction members with the brain-washing Attack Serum (even stating to Tris, an unknown Divergent, as trackers collaborated with the Dauntless and Erudite faction), so they are to obey Matthew's orders to march, organize and execute the Abnegation faction. This reveals his true colors as someone who never appreciates or cares for his new subordinates.
- He murders a wandering Divergent just for being immune to the serum and for not partaking in the march against the Abnegation.
- He attempted to murder Four, assuming he is "brainwashed", until Tris incapacitates him by shooting him in the foot.
Insurgent[]
- He and Max searched for the multi-faction box abandoned in Abnegation, containing information on solving the Divergent problem, ordered by Matthews.
- He partook in the Candor Raid along with his brainwashed Dauntless soldiers to attack the headquarters and gas any villagers to have them controlled by a simulation.
- At the same time, he searched for any possible Divergents to abduct and hand over to Matthews to conduct simulations via the acquired box. One of those victims was an eleven-year old Divergent named Bobby.
- After gassing everyone into a sleep simulation, and capturing one Divergent of the group, he orders his soldiers to execute them all.
- Even after Peter blurted Tris and Four's location to aid him, he detained Peter anyway.
- He decided to shoot Bobby in the head, who was captured and taken to Matthews, only to discover his brain hadn't been fully developed. This was a crime in which the loyal Dauntless (specifically Tori Wu, Four, and Harrison as the newly-elected Dauntless leaders) used to incriminate and punish him.
- When Four attempted to scare him into exposing his motive on seeking Tris, he never complied with Four and led to his demise.
- In the books, he wanted Four to execute him via a gun shot to the head, just so that the former feels guilty. Either way, Four still shoots him in the head in both adaptations.
- In the movie, he participates in a raid on Candor to find a Divergent with a strong enough reading to open the box for Jeanine, during which he rounds up Divergents and shoots an older man for registering a very low reading and not being of any use to them, something that even Max is disgusted by due to that not being part of their orders. He then tries to similarly execute a young girl for the same reason and even mocks her when she starts to cry over not staying out of site until her mom came to get her by pretending to sympathize and telling her she should have listened to whoever told her to do that before Tris prevents him from carrying it out by attacking him.
Trivia[]
- He, along with Jeanine Matthews, are the only Divergent trilogy villains to be Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Eric Coulter on the Villains Wiki
- Eric Coulter on the Divergent Wiki
