DATE REVIEWED: 3/5/23
TITLE: The Hunger Games
BOX OFFICE RATED: PG-13 (This is not suitable for GOD’s children. It promotes violence in minors.)
PRODUCTION YEAR: 2012 Lionsgate/A Color Force/Gary Ross Film
RATING [1 LEAST FAVORITE TO 5 HIGHLY RECOMMENDED]: 1
REASON: This movie began with the words on the screen from the Treaty of the Treason: “In penance for their uprising, each district shall offer up a male and female between the ages of 12 and 18 at a public ‘Reaping.’ These tributes shall be delivered to the custody of The Capitol. And then transferred to a public arena where they will Fight to the Death, until a lone victor remains. Henceforth and forevermore this pageant shall be known as The Hunger Games.” The film took place in the nation of Panem, and centered on District 12 area. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen comforted her twelve year old younger sister, Primrose (Prim), after she had a nightmare about being chosen to participate in he deadly Hunger Games. Katniss assured Prim that it was her first year and she probably wouldn’t be picked. Katniss left the poverty-stricken coal-mining town where the residents of District 12 lived in the woods. Katniss crossed through a high voltage security fence to the other side. She found her bow and arrows that she hid in a tree to hunt. She cleverly used rocks in her bow against a tree trunk to scare a deer out of hiding into the open where she could down it with an arrow. However, Katniss’s male friend, Gale Hawthorne, then called out as Katniss was about to make the kill and his voice scared the deer off. Katniss admitted that she had planned to sell the deer to the Peacekeepers on Reaping Day.For play, Gale threw a rock, startled some birds out of the bushes, and Katniss downed one with an arrow, but they didn’t go get it and just laughed. Then a large flying object appeared overhead and they hid. Gale and Katniss later discussed that if everybody stopped watching The Games, then perhaps nobody would participate and people wouldn’t die as a result. Katniss replied that wasn’t ever going to happen. Gale wanted Katniss to leave that place with him, taking their families with them, but Katniss didn’t believe they would get far before the authorities caught them. Katniss said she was never having kids, but Gale said he might if he didn’t have to live there. They had a rare treat of a piece of bread and wished each other happy Hunger Games. Katniss asked Gale how many times his name had been in that day to compete in The Games, and he replied his name was in forty-two times, meaning the odds were not in his favor. Katniss went to the market, and an older woman gave her a Mockingjay (MJ bird) pin for free. Katniss had a mom, but bully Katniss decided herself to take over the role of the mom in taking care of Prim. Katniss took a bath and scrubbed the thick dirt off herself, and her mom had a dress laid out for her and helped her with her hair. Katniss gave Prim the Mockingjay pin to protect her so nothing bad happened to her. All the townspeople (majority white people in this District, with no other visible races, were being punished for treason) wore their best clothing and walked to a building. Katniss had to take Prim aside because she was upset and crying again right before they were about to sign in. Katniss reassured her younger sister, and then the authorities (soldiers dressed in white wearing motorcycle police helmets) pricked Prim’s finger for a blood sample and scanned it in along with all the other children (ages 12 to 18) to identify them at sign-in. Katniss then tried to locate Prim in the throng of hundreds people. Onstage, appeared District officials (dressed in nicer clothes than the townsfolk) and a eccentric female named Effie Trinket stepped up to the microphone. She wore a whitish-blonde wig with a hat and gaudy gown (both burgundy), a powdered face like the British, and heavy eye makeup and lipstick. She wished everybody a happy Hunger Games (with Capital Coal sponsor signs nearby) and hoped the odds were in their favor. A film all the way from The Capitolwas then featured on the big screen all. This explained that there had been a war. The thirteen districts rebelled against the country that fed them, loved them, and protected them. It was brother against brother until nothing remained, and then came peace when a people rose up from the ashes and a new era was born. However, freedom had a cost and the traitors were defeated. They swore as a nation they would never know that treason again, and it was decreed that each year the various districts of Panem would each offer up one young man and young woman to fight to the death in a pageant of honor, courage, and sacrifice. The victor, bathed in riches, would serve as a reminder of Panem’s generosity and forgiveness. That was how they remembered their past and safeguarded their future. The staged drama Effie then announced that they would be selecting the one female and one male for the honor of representing District 12 in the 74th Annual Hunger Games. Ladies were first, and so Effie went over to a fish bowl and withdrew a name on a piece of paper. Out came the name of Primrose Everdeen (Prim). Prim was horrified to say the least and didn’t want to come up on stage. Katniss didn’t want to see Prim go through all of that and probably die, so she volunteered as Tribute in Prim’s place. Katniss was brought up onstage as a volunteer, and she told Prim to go find their mom as the little girl screamed because she didn’t want her sister to die either. Everybody in the audience was silent, but they all held up three fingers like a Girl Scout salute to Katniss. The boy was then selected, and he was Peeta Mellark. Katniss and Peeta shook hands, and then Effie escorted them into the building with the doors closed behind them and the guards out front. Prim and her mom were given three minutes to see Katniss before she began The Games. Katniss told Prim not to take any extra food from the authorities because it wasn’t worth getting her name put in extra times for the next Hunger Games, and that Gale would bring her food. Prim gave Katniss encouragement to win because she knew her older sister could hunt. Prim then gave Katniss back the Mockingjay pin to protect her. Apparently, the mom had a hard time when the dad died, so Katniss decided to take control and spoke to her mom as if she herself was the mom and told her parent not to cry. Gale got his turn, and he and Katniss hugged it out. Gale told Katniss to get to a bow because that was her strength (and it was no different hunting people than it was animals), and to make a bow if she didn’t have one. Katniss told Gale that there were twenty-four minor children competing in The Games hunting other children, and only one of them came out alive. A black officer interrupted Katniss and Gale. She told Gale to make sure that he didn’t let the authorities starve the children and he needed to take care of them. Katniss and Peeta left for The Capitol with their chaperone Effie, who told them they were going to have great lodging. They were put on a train car with a first-class dining room filled with luxury food. Effie added that even though the kids were only there for a little while, they got to enjoy all of what they were being offered. She dismissed herself to find Haymitch Abernathy, who she thought was probably in the bar car. Peeta tried to talk to Katniss after Effie left and told her that Haymitch had won The Games once and was their mentor. However, Katniss wouldn’t speak to Peeta at first. Haymitch then made a drunk entrance and told them congratulations as he walked over to the alcohol to pour himself another drink. The advice that their supposed mentor gave the kids was to embrace the probability of their imminent deaths and to know that he could do nothing to save them. Haymitch wasn’t being a good mentor and Peeta wanted to have a sober talk with him, so Peeta tried to take his drink away but Haymitch pushed Peeta back into his chair using his dirty bare foot. Haymitch left the room and Peeta decided to go after him. Later, on TV in her room, Katniss watched a blue-haired newscaster, Caesar Flickerman, and his blonde-haired buddy, Claudius, discuss two sixteen-year-olds from a past Games. They broadcasted footage from it, which showed the black boy using a brick to kill an Asian boy and become the victor. Katniss left her room and saw Peeta talking intently to Haymitch, who was now eating breakfast with him and giving him valuable information to survive. Katniss wanted to know how to survive, but Haymitch decided to put alcohol in his coffee. She had no patience, so she took a knife and stabbed it into the wood near Haymitch’s hand. He told her the way to stay alive was to get people to like you, especially when you’re in the middle of “The Games,” and you’re starving or freezing, then some water, a knife, and matches could mean the difference between life and death. Those things only come from sponsors, and to get sponsors you have to make people like you. They caught sight of The Capitol city out the window and couldn’t believe how huge it was. Mobs of people at the Capitol (dressed in vibrant colors with multicolored ribbons adorning their hair) were gathered in the train station as they came to a stop. They acted as though Peeta and Katniss were celebrities, and Peeta liked the attention and waved back to them. Katniss just sat in her chair and didn’t want to participate. Haymitch gave her the knife because she would need it and told her that Peeta knew what he was doing. There were several transgender people dressed up on the streets outside The Capitol, and even dogs with their fur dyed pink. All the child contestants were put in hospital beds, where they were scrubbed, bathed, and groomed by questionable stylists.The male and female’s legs were waxed, and then Katniss was taken to a black man named Cinna, who told her that it was one of the bravest things he ever saw was to take her sister’s place in The Games. The adult male Cinna said he was going to take the young girl Katniss out and show her off to the world at the Tribute Parade later that night. He admitted that they usually dressed people in attire from their district, but since Katniss’s was the coalminer district, Cinna didn’t want to do that. He wanted to do something that was memorable, because it was all about trying to get sponsors and Katniss needed to stand out, which was why they took all that time to make her look pretty. Cinna looked intently into Katniss’s eyes and played with her hair, telling her that somebody as brave as her shouldn’t be dressed up in some stupid costume (Cinna’s goal was to gain Katniss’s trust, knowing in the long run he was just going to send her out anyway to get killed in a game for the entertainment of the community). Cinna reassured Katniss and Peeta that the suits they would wear during the parade would protect them from the fake fire. Caesar televised that 100,000 people were cramming to get a glimpse of the Tributes, and the cameras were focused on those people (and when I say people, that’s stretching it to the very limit because you can’t recognize a real person underneath all of that crazy makeup, screaming for attention clothes and ungodly fakeness). The Tributes paraded out before the crowd in horse-drawn chariots (such as in Roman times). The crowd went wild when Katniss and Peeta, holding hands, made their grand entrance with fire coming out of their chariot. The announcers ate it up, saying that two young people holding their hands up in the air to show how proud they were to be coming from District 12 was going to get people to pay attention to them. President Snow got up as the chariots lined up in the shape of a crown. He told the Tributes that they were welcomed, and he and the people saluted their courage and sacrifice to their country. The president wished them Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be in their favor. After the parade, there was a moment where Haymitch spotted a male contestant, Cato, staring at Katniss, so Haymitch brought everyone upstairs to their penthouse suite away from the competition. At the next day’s training, the black female instructor pointed out the obvious that in two weeks, twenty-three of the children would be dead and only one would be alive. The survivor would be the one who paid the best attention over the next four days to what the instructor were telling them. One of the rules was no fighting the other Tributes because they would have plenty of time for that in the Arena. The advice given was to not ignore the survival skills in their training. The trainer said that everybody wanted to grab a sword, but most of the Tributes would die from natural causes, 10% from infection and 20% from dehydration because exposure could kill as easily as a knife. A fight broke out among the Tributes, where a knife went missing and the Asian girl who had stolen it was hiding up in the rafters. The soldiers who ran into the room to break up the fight didn’t know she was there, but the Tributes did. As Haymitch and Effie talked over dinner to Katniss and Peeta, they discussed their competition. Haymitch said that arrogance could be a huge problem and looked at Katniss. He asked her how good she was with her bow and arrow, and then Peeta chimed in and told Haymitch that his dad bought squirrels from her and she was excellent because she killed them in the eye every time. Katniss tattled on Peeta that he was strong and could throw a 100-pound sack of flour right over his head. Peeta was mad and announced that he had no chance of winning, and even his mother said that District 12 might have its first winner, but it wouldn’t be him. Katniss kept having flashback memories of herself and Peeta at the bakery shop his parents owned. Peeta fed the hogs and sometimes threw Katniss bread so her family wouldn’t starve as she slept under a tree in the rain. Both Katniss and Peeta left to go to their rooms. In training, as the kids practiced violently chopping off body parts of mannequins for their upcoming Games, they paid attention to their competition to find each other’s weaknesses and became experts at knives and swords. While Peeta was tackling the obstacle course, he fell hard on the floor. Katniss came over to him and told him to throw the heavy metal piece of equipment to reveal he had strength. He didn’t want to, but Katniss replied that the opponents were looking at him like they were about to eat him, so he better do it. Later on, Katniss came across Peeta painting his arm to look like tree bark to blend in and camouflage during the Games. She wanted to know how to do that, and Peeta explained that he got the skill from decorating cakes at the bakery. There was a little girl named Rue who was discovered shadowing Katniss like a little sister would. The following day, Haymitch said they were going to bring in the sponsors, so that was the day Katniss and Peeta needed to show their skills (bow for Katniss and strength for Peeta) for when the Tributes would be evaluated one by one. Because they were both District 12, they would go last and District 1 would go first. Haymitch advised Katniss and Peeta to do something to make sure the sponsors remembered them, and he couldn’t emphasize that enough. The next day, the female computer robot voice called Katniss. Peeta told her to shoot straight. As she walked into the room in front of the sponsors, Katniss picked up the bow and called out her name and district to get their attention. She aimed the bow at the body outline targets in front of her and missed the target, so the sponsors laughed. Katniss got another arrow and hit her target in the center of the cross in the heart, but nobody was watching and didn’t see her bullseye or respond to it after they saw her miss one time. She went over and looked at the sponsors, who were all mingling and sharing food and drinks around the cooked pig on the table, wondering where it came from. Katniss took a third arrow and shot the apple out of the pig’s mouth. She thanked the sponsors for their consideration as they all turned around because the arrow was a bit too close to home. Effie told Katniss that her bad actions she exhibited in front of the sponsors reflected everyone in her District, not just herself. Cinna tried to say everything was fine and Haymitch came into the room with a thumbs’ up and told Katniss nice shooting, sweetheart, and wanted to know what happened when she shot the apple. They laughed about her response in thanking the sponsors, and Katniss was called a genius. Effie was worried that the Gamekeepers were going to take Katniss’s actions out on them, but Haymitch told her to loosen her corset and have a drink because the kids might die anyway. On the news, Caesar told everyone that the Tributes were rated on a scale on 1 to 12 after three days of careful evaluation. The newscaster went through the different districts and their scores. Peeta got a score of eight, and Katniss got a score of eleven. They all toasted to Katniss Everdeen, The Girl on Fire. Seneca (with a devil like beard) met with President Snow. The President revealed that he wasn’t in favor of giving Katniss such a high score because she could have shot anybody in the room with that arrow. He asked Seneca why they had a winner, because they could just round up twenty-four kids from the districts and execute them all at once, which would be a lot faster. Hope was the reason they did the Hunger Games, because hope was the only thing stronger than fear. A little hope was effective, and a lot of hope was dangerous. A spark was fine as long, as it was contained. As President Snow clipped a white rose, he instructed Seneca to contain the hope. At dinner, Haymitch informed Katniss that the following morning, he would work with Katniss since it was the last day of training when the mentors were allowed to work with the Tributes. Peeta was in his room and didn’t join them at the table. Haymitch said it was because Peeta didn’t want to participate and wanted to train on his own from then on. Katniss couldn’t understand that, and Haymitch replied because there was only one winner, meaning that would probably be Katniss, not Peeta. Caesar was the master of ceremonies, and like American Idol, the crowd went wild because they were excited to meet all the Tributes on stage (however, unlike American Idol, the contestants won’t end up dead…hopefully). In the waiting area, Katniss was sitting alone with Cinna in her tight gown concerned about how she was going to get people to like her. Cinna said that he liked Katniss, so that counted for something and he would be there with her the whole time. The crowd cheered for The Girl on fire as Katniss came out on stage and used humor to win the crowd over. Casear asked about the flames from the chariot during the parade, and she replied that she was wearing them on her dress now. She twirled for the crowd to see the lower portion of her gown enflamed with fire. Caesar then held Katniss’s hand and got very personal, asking about her sister and how she volunteered to take her place. The question was posed what did Katniss last say to Prim during their goodbye, and Katniss replied to the audience that she was going to try to win for her sister. Caesar kissed Katniss’s hand and told her try she would (seemed the winner was already decided upon before the deadly games started and the news people were in on it). Backstage, Effie and Haymitch complimented Katniss on her interview. They heard Peeta go out on stage. He decided to use humor too, and Peeta asked Caesar to smell him and see if he smelled like roses. He did because the showers were different there than the ones back home, and then Peeta smelled Caesar up close and told him that he smelled better than himself.Caesar asked about any special girls in Peeta’s life, and Peeta replied that he had a crush on one girl for a long time, but she hadn’t recognized him until the Reaping. Caesar gave Peeta advice that if he went out there and won The Games, when he returned home that girl would have to recognize him. Peeta said winning wasn’t going to help him because the girl was Katniss and came there with them, and one of them was going to die. As soon as Peeta got backstage, Katniss attacked him because she didn’t know anything about the relationship that he used to exploit them both in front of the thousands watching in the audience. Haymitch broke them apart and told Katniss that he could sell the star-crossed lovers from District 12 because it was a TV show, and that because everybody loved romance, being in love with that teen boy just might get teen Katniss sponsors, which could save her life. Katniss couldn’t sleep and got out of bed. She walked into the living room to find Peeta there staring outside the window because he couldn’t sleep either. Katniss apologized for her behavior earlier, and they sat together and listened to the loud crowd having a preparty celebration. Peeta said he just didn’t want the games to change him and make him somebody he wasn’t for their sicko child killing sport of entertainment. He admitted that he could kill people, but he didn’t want anybody to think he was doing that because they owned him, and if he was going to die he wanted to still be himself. Katniss replied that she couldn’t think like that because she had her sister to consider (meaning she would kill everyone). They went their own ways until tomorrow. The next morning, in the elevator, Haymitch told Katniss not to go for the items in the Cornucopia because it was a bloodbath and a trap, even though her weapon of choice (a bow) might be there. Haymitch said she had to go to high ground and find water because water was her new best friend, and not to step off her pedestal early or they would blow her up in the air. Haymitch told Katniss that he believed in her and she could win, and then Katniss walked to the waiting spaceship/plane. Onboard the aircraft, the child competitors were required to give the adult female their arms so she could inject a tracker device into them under the surface of their skin. There was a headquarters building where the officials (like NASA) watched the trackers that had been implanted inside the children. The soldiers escorted each of the Tributes to their own room. Cinna was waiting for Katniss in her room and embraced her affectionately prior to the competition. He helped her into her coat and zipped it up for her. He let her keep her Mockingjay pin attached to her shirt underneath her coat and told Katniss by putting a finger to his lips to be quiet so nobody took it away from her. Cinna told Katniss that if he could bet, he would bet on her, but since he couldn’t he gave her a kiss on the cheek and wished her luck. Katniss then stepped into a space tube, where she was lifted aboveground into a designated wooded area with the other Tributes standing on their pedestals around the Cornucopia that Haymitch warned her about. As everybody counted down to let The Games begin, the children all stood on their pedestals not moving, scared about having to compete in the life-and-death competition at such a young age for the entertainment of crazy adults and government. During the countdown, Peeta looked over at Katniss and shook his head no because she was staring at the bow. At zero, Peeta ran for the woods while the majority of the other Tributes went to get supplies from the Cornucopia. Katniss didn’t run for the woods but witnessed other children being butchered on the spot with gory blood scenes when they weren’t fast enough to reach weapons. She decided to grab a backpack and was almost hit with a hatchet by a boy, but a knife-throwing girl downed the boy and threw a knife at Katniss. She used her backpack to block it, and as she went into the woods she ran into a girl. Neither of them hurt each other and instead separated and ran off in different directions. Katniss dodged another competitor in the woods and ended up tumbling down a steep mountainside instead of going to higher ground like Haymitch told her to. She recovered quickly and kept running. Katniss heard another boom of the cannon, and Caesar told the audience that meant the end to another Tribute, which was the eighth. Right afterwards, the cannon sounded four more times, indicating that twelve total children were dead so far. In her backpack, Katniss had a rope, an empty canteen, matches, a slinky, and a raincoat. She saw a blue and black swallowtail butterfly on the ground and picked it up on her finger, which gave her comfort for a moment before it flew away. Katniss discovered water nearby and filled her canteen. She made herself a wooden spit for a fire to cook a squirrel so she could eat. She quickly stomped out the fire because it wasn’t a wise idea to attract her competitors to her location. She climbed a tree and used the rope to strap herself to the branch so she could rest and not fall. Katniss then heard an odd noise and saw that there was a camera hidden in a hole in the tree right near where she was sitting. The officials managing The Games then made it nighttime where the kids were. The government seal appeared as a hologram in the sky above Katniss, showing the photos and names of the fallen (dead) children for everybody to see. Katniss knew that Peeta was still alive, and she tried to sleep but she saw a big campfire in the distance made by a young girl. Four Tributes had banded together and were out scouting as a team, led by Cato. They all killed the girl at the campfire, and Caesar announced that was thirteen children dead in the first eight hours. Caesar spoke to Claudius and told him that he thought he saw an alliance forming. Katniss saw the party of four walking under her tree and laughing, calling the girl stupid for building a fire and joking about how she begged for her life before they killed her. Peeta was part of their group and joined them then, telling them which way Katniss went because he found her snare. The blonde girl and Cato stayed behind for a moment and discussed whether or not to kill Peeta now, but Cato said no because he wanted to find Katniss and Peeta was their best chance of doing that. The next day, at the Game headquarters, Katniss’s tracker informed Seneca that Katniss was two kilometers away from the nearest Tribute and was almost at the edge. The officials had the power to turn her around and make her go in the direction they wanted her to. Katniss slept in another tree, and when she woke up she saw a raging forest fire approaching fast. She untied herself from the tree to escape the fire (which was obviously created by headquarters to keep the Tributes together and the Game of hunting children moving along), and fireballs were actually tossed out of nowhere (by headquarters with Seneca calling the shots) at Katniss so she would run in a specific direction. They added a fallen and flaming tree to block her path and make her turn. Embers singed her leg open, and another fireball came right for her head as she tried to rest. She dodged out of the way and rolled down the embankment. She continued running and made it to the water, which was the location headquarters wanted her to be at initially. The group of Five Tributes came around the corner and spotted Katniss in the water. She climbed out the other side and they ran after her laughing. Katniss climbed a tree, and Cato tried to climb up after her with the other yelling at him to kill Katniss. He fell hard to the ground and a girl tried to shoot Katniss out of the tree with her bow and arrow. However, she missed, so Cato grabbed the bow and started shooting at Katniss, missing as well. Katniss teased them and said maybe they should throw the sword. Peeta told them to wait Katniss out because she had to come down sometime and they would kill her then.They made a fire, and everybody enthralled in watching the questionable “The Hunger Games” on TV saw Katniss’s open leg wound as she sat in the tree. Haymitch saw and couldn’t believe she was still alive. He wined and dined the sponsors to get Katniss help in the form of an airmail delivery in her tree. She climbed up to get it, and inside was a note from “H” (Haymitch) telling her to apply the ointment generously and stay alive. Katniss looked at her leg in the morning, and it seemed to be better with the ointment. While the others were still asleep down on the ground, Katniss heard somebody getting her attention. A few trees down, the little girl Rue pointed to a beehive above and wanted Katniss to cut it down on top of the five other Tributes. Caesar told the audience that the beehive was actually full of tracker jacker wasps (not bees) that were genetically engineered with venom that caused searing pain, powerful hallucinations, and in extreme cases, death. Katniss was successful in cutting down the branch but got stung herself in the process. It fell into the Tributes’ campsite below, and they all woke up screaming and running with thousands of deadly wasps swarming around them. Katniss quickly climbed down and fell part of the way to the ground. When she got up, the wasps were mostly gone, but she herself was hallucinating because of the stings the wasps inflicted on her before she was able to cut their hive down. She ran into the woods and saw the blonde girl lying dead on the ground from the wasps. Katniss took her bow and arrows, and then she heard Peeta yelling at her to run. Katniss hesitated and then tried to run, but she was so out of it from the drug effect of the wasps that she couldn’t think straight and stumbled into trees. She blacked out and had a memory from her dad, a coalminer, dying in a mine cave-in. She talked to her mom afterwards, but her mom was in shock from the death of her husband. Katniss woke up with her mind clear and found leaves covering her arms. She saw Rue (District 11) hiding behind a tree, and she assured the younger girl that she wouldn’t hurt her. They sat down together and ate an animal that Katniss had killed and cooked over a very small fire. Katniss asked how long she had been asleep, and Rue replied a couple of days and she had changed Katniss’s leaves two times. Rue informed Katniss that two people died from the wasps, and Peeta was down by the river. Rue wanted to know if Katniss and Peeta were together romantically as was televised. Katniss didn’t reply and asked where Cato and the others were. Rue told her and added that their supplies piled up in a pyramid shape. The girls slept the night together and woke up with a plan to make little fires so Katniss could destroy their supplies while the others were chasing her and Rue. They decided that the call of the Mockingjay bird would be their signal if either one of them were held up. They hugged it out and planned to meet back up for supper. Three of the four Tributes took off after the first fire, and the remaining boy stayed behind to guard the supplies. Newscasters Caesar and Claudius were wondering if Katniss was going to figure out that the others reburied their mines as booby traps that would explode if people came too close to their pyramid of supplies. Out of nowhere came a lone girl, who saw the coast was clear and ran to the site, jumping over the mounds of dirt. She was successful in taking something and running off into the woods. The boy on guard went after the girl, and Katniss shot an arrow at the bag of apples at the top of the pyramid. She missed and took aim again, standing out in the open this time. The arrow shot the bag open, and the apples tumbled out onto the ground and set the mines off. The pyramid exploded and knocked Katniss off her feet. She got up to witness Cato’s group arriving back. On the spot, Cato killed the boy who was supposed to be watching the supplies. Katniss ran back into the woods for cover without being seen and whistled the Mockingjay call. She heard the reply and followed it. It led to one of their fire spots that didn’t get set. She heard Rue shout for Katniss and started running. She found Rue trapped in a booby trap net and freed her. The girls hugged, but then someone came up behind Katniss. He threw a spear, and Katniss fired an arrow that hit the boy in the chest and killed him. However, Katniss then turned around to see to see that the boy’s spear had hit Rue in the chest. Katniss confirmed to young Rue that she destroyed the pyramid and other Tributes’ food and supplies. Rue told Katniss that she had to win, and Katniss sang a song at Rue’s request as Rue died in her arms. Katniss placed flowers around Rue’s body, and she knew the cameras were watching her so she kissed her fingers and held them up in the air as a Girl Scout promise. Those watching did the same. Rue’s dad went berserk in the audience and started attacking the police soldiers, and that created a riot with the townsfolk joining in. They damaged the facilities and burned them down, violently attacking the officials. The soldiers to control the situation poured water onto the attackers. Katniss broke down in tears then, while at headquarters Haymitch told Seneca not to kill Katniss because he would just create a martyr. Haymitch said that the way to get the mob people under control was to give them something to root for, such as young love, versus trying to scare them. As Seneca and President Snow talked again in the President’s rose garden, President Snow said he didn’t like underdogs, but Seneca did. President Snow called farmers and coalminers the underdogs, and if Seneca could see them he would not root for them either. He warned Seneca to be careful, because even though President Snow liked him, he didn’t like the way The Games were going. Over a loudspeaker out in the woods, the Tributes received an announcement stating that the regulations requiring a single victor had been suspended, and from that point on two victors may be crowned if both originated from the same District. That was the only announcement. Katniss packed up and tried to go find Peeta. She looked for him by the river where Rue last said he was. She found blood on the ground and tracked it to where Peeta was lying on the ground. Peeta had disguised himself by painting his face to look like a rock and covering his body with moss beside the riverbed. The only way Katniss knew he was there was because he grabbed her leg. Peeta had taken a sword to the leg, but was able to escape. Katniss looked at his wound and told him she wasn’t going to leave him. She helped him to a cave area, where she gave him a kiss and told him he would be safe there and they would figure something out (as Gale was watching the footage back home of the blooming for TV romance between children). Katniss went outside to find a parachute airmail delivery from a sponsor with a container of soup and a note from Haymitch asking her if she called that a kiss (as though everyone were interested in watching teens kiss on TV for ratings). Katniss fed Peeta his soup, and Katniss said that he fed her once (the bread in the street). Peeta admitted he watched Katniss every day because he liked her so much. Katniss put the soup down and laid with Peeta at his request. Another announcement stated that at sunrise, there would be a feast on the morrow at the Cornucopia. It would be no ordinary occasion because each of the Tributes needed something desperately, and they planned to be generous hosts. Katniss decided that she was going to go get medicine for Peeta, risking her life in the process. He asked her why she was doing that, and her response was to give him a better kiss on the lips for the staged drama. Back home, Gale still hoped Katniss was his love. Peeta convinced Katniss to stay, but once he fell asleep Katniss left because he was having complications from his wound and was feverish. The Districts left were 2, 5, 11, and 12, and upon arrival at the Cornucopia Katniss saw the numbers of their Districts written on their package. Katniss was about to go get her package, but she stopped when the District 5 girl quickly ran from behind, grabbed her package, and ran back to the woods. Katniss got her package, but as she went around the corner the girl from District 2 threw a knife at her and it grazed her forehead. Katniss wasn’t able to use her bow and arrow because they were too close, so she tackled Katniss to the ground. As the other girl took out a butcher knife and started stabbing at Katniss’s head, she was somehow able to avoid the deadly sharp blade. The psychotic female pinned Katniss to the ground and held a sharp blade to her throat. She started taunting Katniss, asking where lover boy was, and telling Katniss that since they killed little Rue, they were going to kill Katniss too. However, a black boy from District 11 then showed up to the killing party and grabbed the white girl off from white Katniss because he heard that she had killed Rue (the black girl). He slammed the girl’s head into the Cornucopia and killed her. He told Katniss “just this time,” and ran off without hurting her. Katniss, with her package, made it back to Peeta in the cave. She put the medicine on Peeta’s wound, and he told her to put some on her head wound too. She agreed, and he applied the medicine to her forehead. Everybody at headquarters was watching the moment because it looked like two teens falling in love on screen in the midst of the deadly game that killed children to punish the enslaved people. Katniss and Peeta slept the night in each other’s arms and woke up to discover that her head wound was almost completely gone and his leg wound miraculously healed to a small gash. She told him they could go home because they were the only team left, and he liked the sound of that. They went hunting for the remaining Tributes and food together. As Katniss was about to shoot a hawk in a tree for food with an arrow, another cannon went off. Katniss ran to find Peeta and was afraid he was dead. In the process, she screamed their whereabouts to the competitors. When she found him, she saw that he had collected poisonous Nightlock berries into a pile on his coat on the ground for them to eat. Peeta was still collecting more when Katniss told him that he would be dead in a minute if he ate those berries. They stumbled across Foxface, who had eaten some of Peeta’s berries and died. Katniss started collecting some of the berries and said that Cato maybe liked them too. Back at the government headquarters, the officials decided to change the lighting in the Tributes play area again and make it nighttime versus daytime. Katniss said it was because they were in a hurry to end The Games. Seneca decided to add a wild beast into the Game to go after the remaining Tributes. As Katniss and Peeta were walking in the dark, they heard a boy screaming and some kind of howling sound along with it as if he was being attacked. Katniss said that was the finale, and the sounds were followed by the boom of a cannon and they saw the black boy from District 11 declared dead on the hologram announcement. The vicious wild creature, growling like a lion, then jumped out of the bushes at Peeta and knocked him to the ground. Katniss shot the beast with an arrow, but that didn’t down it and they both ran with the creature chasing them. Government Headquarters added more of the same deadly animal into the Game to hunt the children. Katniss and Peeta just barely made it up on top of the Cornucopia out of reach of the creatures. Cato, with a bloody head, was waiting and attacked them. Peeta went down, and Cato held onto Katniss’s throat with her head dangling over the side of the Cornucopia where the beasts could almost bite her face off. She didn’t have the strength of a man to defend herself from Cato’s large size, but then Peeta came to her rescue and pulled Cato off of Katniss. Cato got ahold of Peeta and held him in front of himself as a target block with his arm around Peeta’s throat. Katniss notched an arrow, and Cato told her to go ahead because he was dead anyway and he just found that out now that the Gamekeepers made it that way. Cato was a madman and said he could kill one more time because that was the only thing he knew how to do to bring pride to his district. Katniss then shot Cato in the hand (the same spot Jesus bled from on the cross), and Cato released Peeta. Peeta pushed Cato off the edge, and the beasts started eating Cato alive. Katniss shot Cato dead with an arrow to put him out of his screaming misery. With him now dead, the pack of wild animals decided it was no longer fun, so they left the area. The last cannon went off, and Katniss and Peeta hugged it out. Headquarters turned the lights back on to daytime, and there was an announcement saying that there was a slight rule change, and the revision was now revoked. Only one victor would be crowned instead of two, and they wished the two Tributes luck and, again, may the odds ever be in their favor. Peeta told Katniss to go ahead and kill him because one of them needed to die. She said no and she pulled out the deadly berries. The audience, including Seneca and Gale, saw both the Tributes with the berries. Like a crazy plot from Romeo and Juliet wacko Shakespeare (teen love), Katniss and Peeta decided to “pretend” they would die together by eating the berries. They didn’t get a chance to eat the berries because the announcer told them to stop (as Katniss knew they would). They were both proclaimed the winners of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, and Katniss and Peeta hugged it out…again The spaceship returned to pick them up, and Haymitch later told Katniss, as they were all dressed to the nines, that the government was not happy with her showing them up, so she was in serious trouble. Two soldiers then escorted Seneca into a room. They locked the door behind them as they left, and Seneca walked over to the glass bowl on the pedestal in the middle of the room. It was filled with the same poisonous berries Katniss had, which were now for Seneca to eat. That was President Snow’s way of telling him that he was going to die by the berries because of his mess-up. As Katniss and Peeta were about to go on live with Caesar, Haymitch advised Katniss to tell the crowd that she would rather die than not be with Peeta. The two murderous celebrities put on their best act in front of the crowd, and Katniss, dressed in her princess gown, and made everyone believe her claim of love toward Peeta, even though inside she didn’t necessarily feel that way about him. Katniss and Peeta said they saved each other lives, and Caesar presented to the audience the star-crossed teen lovers from District 12, the victors of that year’s Hunger Games. President Snow gave Katniss a gold crown like a queen (but didn’t show Peeta getting a crown or any reward), and complimented her on her MockingJay pin. Katniss thanked him because it was from her District. On the train back home, Peeta asked Katniss what would happen when they got back home. She replied that they would try to forget. Upon arrival back in District 12, the welcoming townspeople were gathered around cheering for Katniss and Peeta with Gale holding Prim on his shoulders and Katniss’s mom with them smiling. Peeta grabbed Katniss’s hand and held it up like they did during the parade as President Snow watched in disgust from headquarters and walked away. Astonishingly, this movie about children hunting and killing other children had a budget of $78 million and grossed $694 million at the box office.