The Hunger Games: The Story So Far

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! Today I’m going to be doing something a little bit different that may end up being the start of a new series on this website. The final installment of the ‘Hunger Games’ series, ‘Mockingjay Part 2’, will be out soon and because I have already done reviews for all three of the previous ‘Hunger Games’ films, obviously doing a retrospective post would be completely redundant. But I did want to do something as a way of commemorating the impending release of the new film so I decided to do a post that would do either one of two things for people; either refresh their memory of the previous films or, in the case of newcomers, get them ‘up-to-speed’ with everything that has happened so far. Because as we all know, franchises have become a huge thing nowadays and some can go on for a while, to the point where it could potentially get a bit confusing for those who are going into this films fresh. So consider this the first in a series of posts that I like to call ‘The Story So Far’. And today, I’ll be recapping what has so happened so far in the ‘Hunger Games’ franchise beginning with 2012’s titular first installment and concluding with the most recent release, 2014’s ‘Mockingjay Part I’. Whether you’re a die-hard fan of the series or someone who doesn’t know a single thing about it, this post will help you with pretty much everything you need to know in time for the finale to the saga of Katniss Everdeen, the ‘girl on fire’.

‘Hunger Games’, based off of the book series of the same name by author Suzanne Collins, takes place in the dystopian world of Panem, which is established as being located within the ruins of North America. Panem consists of the lavish and extravagant city/totalitarian government that is ‘the Capitol’ and the oppressed and much poorer 12 districts that surround it. The ‘Hunger Games’ that the series is named for is an annual event that the Capitol holds as a means of punishing the districts after a rebellion 74 years earlier had resulted in the Capitol defeating the rebellion and the 13^th District supposedly being destroyed. Every year, one young boy and girl from each District are selected as ‘Tributes’ to partake in a nationally televised duel to the death. As the first ‘Hunger Games’ begins, it is the year of the 74^th Hunger Games and in the poorest district of all, District 12, young Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) prepares for the annual Reaping ceremony along with her sister Prim (Willow Shields). Prim is scared to be chosen but Katniss assures her that it won’t happen because it’s her first time participating in the Reaping and unlike the older kids who have been in multiple Reapings, her name has only been entered in once. But as fate would have it, when the Reaping occurs, Capitol representative Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) ends up selecting Prim’s name.

Not wanting to lose her sister, Katniss boldly volunteers to take her place as the female representative of District 12. Along with male representative Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), the son of the local baker who had once helped Katniss years earlier by giving her bread when she was starving, Katniss is immediately whisked away to the Capitol. The two are placed under the mentorship of District 12’s only winner, the drunken Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), who’s key piece of advice for them is to attract sponsors who will help them during the games by sending them gifts while they’re in the arena. He also warns them about the ‘Career Tributes’ from Districts 1 and 2 who are much more prepared for the games than they are, having been trained for them from a young age, and are basically the fan favorites. When they arrive at the Capitol, Katniss and Peeta begin their training for the Games while also attempting to attract sponsors, as Haymitch suggested. Katniss quickly ends up becoming a crowd favorite, primarily due to both her bold sacrifice to save her sister as well as the reveal by Peeta that he is in love with her during the live interviews with TV host Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci).

When the 74^th Hunger Games begin, Katniss narrowly survives the bloodbath that occurs at the start as a result of most of the Tributes trying to grab supplies at the Cornucopia located at the center of the arena. Katniss manages to stay clear of the other Tributes for a while but ends up getting brought back into the action by Head Gamemaker Seneca Crane (Wes Bentley), who drives her back with a forest fire controlled by him and his fellow Gamemakers. She then escapes from the Career Tributes as well as, to her surprise, Peeta, who has apparently formed an alliance with them (though ultimately this was just him trying to ‘gain their trust’). With the help of District 11 tribute Rue, Katniss manages to kill District 1 Tribute Glimmer, steal her bow, which is the weapon that Katniss works with the best, and destroys the hoard of supplies that the Careers have been collecting. Sadly, Rue ends up getting killed by District 1 Tribute Marvel, who Katniss then kills in retaliation, and her emotional grieving causes a riot in District 11. In response to this, Haymitch suggests to Seneca a rule change that would allow two winners if both come from the same district. After this change is announced, Katniss finds Peeta and the two outlast all of the remaining tributes. But when Crane changes the rules back to there being only one winner, the two defy the Capitol by threatening to commit suicide via poisonous berries. Quickly named the co-winners of the 74^th Hunger Games, the two return home to District 12 though they are warned that their actions aren’t going over too well with Panem’s ruler, President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland).

The second film, ‘Catching Fire’, opens as Katniss and Peeta are preparing to go on a Victory Tour through the other districts. But before that happens, Katniss is visited by Snow at her home, who makes it clear that her rebellious actions have not only caused uprisings across Panem but have also put her and her loved ones in danger. This forces Katniss to have to convince Snow that her romance with Peeta in the arena was true and not just a means of defying the Capitol. But even after the Tour is done, which ultimately does nothing to stop the uprisings despite Katniss and Peeta’s best efforts, Snow and new Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) develop a new plan to both subdue the uprisings and get rid of Katniss via the 75^th Hunger Games AKA the third ‘Quarter Quell’, a special Hunger Games that occurs every 25 years where a special rule change is instituted. Snow announces that this year’s Quarter Quell will consist entirely of surviving victors and because Katniss is the only female victor from District 12, this of course means that she’s forced back into the arena once again. Katniss and Haymitch try to keep Peeta from having to compete again as well but during the Reaping, Peeta volunteers to take Haymitch’s place when the latter is initially chosen as the male tribute. The two return to the Capitol to once again prepare for the Games. This time around, Haymitch advises them to make alliances with some of the other Tributes, telling them that they’re all angry at the Capitol for making them compete in the Hunger Games a second time.    

Despite all of the attempts made by the Tributes to try and sway the citizens of the Capitol to protest the Games in the hopes of stopping them, the 75^th Hunger Games start without a hitch. Katniss and Peeta ally themselves with charming District 4 champion Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin), his elderly mentor Mags (Lynn Cohen), tech-savvy District 3 Champions Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) and Wiress (Amanda Plummer), and fiery District 7 champion Johanna Mason (Jena Malone) as they try to survive in this new arena that is divided into 12 sections like a clock where each section contains a different kind of hazard ranging from angry monkeys to a poisonous fog. Beetee comes up with an idea to defeat the remaining Tributes by using the electrified tree hazard to electrocute them. But when that plan fails, Katniss instead uses the lightning to destroy the arena’s force-field and as the arena crumbles around her, she is extracted by an airship commanded by members of the rebellion, including Haymitch and Plutarch. They tell her that they’re on the way to District 13 so that she can become the face of the rebellion; the ‘Mockingjay’, named after a mockingbird/jabberjay (blackbirds) hybrid species symbolized by a pin that Katniss wore during the Games. However Katniss is discouraged to learn that Peeta wasn’t rescued along with her and was captured by the Capitol along with Johanna. After being sedated after angrily attacking Haymitch for not protecting Peeta, Katniss is told by her best friend Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) that while her family is safe, District 12 has been destroyed.

As it turns out, District 13, the district that was apparently destroyed during the original rebellion against the Capitol, had survived by relocating to an underground facility. There, Katniss meets the leader of the district, President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) who, along with Plutarch, encourage her to become the ‘Mockingjay’ for the growing rebellion. Katniss is at first reluctant to do so given the fact that Peeta was abandoned in the arena but then changes her mind after seeing that Peeta is alive but is being manipulated into being a pawn for the Capitol in order to quell the rebellion. She agrees to be the face of the rebellion on the grounds that Peeta and the other captured tributes be rescued at the earliest opportunity. With the aid of Gale and her new film team, Katniss begins to inspire the citizens of Panem into fighting back against the Capitol by means of rousing video speeches and a song called ‘The Hanging Tree’ that Katniss learned from her father, who died in a mining accident prior to the events of the series, that becomes an anthem for the rebels. After a few attacks against the Capitol by the Rebels, including the sabotage of the Capitol’s power source (the dam in District 5), and an attack on District 13 by the Capitol that the district was warned of ahead of time by Peeta during a live Capitol broadcast, President Coin finally orders an extraction mission to rescue Peeta, Johanna, and Finnick’s love interest and fellow Hunger Games victor Annie Cresta (Stef Dawson).

While the Capitol is distracted by a propaganda video starring Finnick, a Special Forces team, Gale being one of them, head to the Capitol to break the Tributes out of the Tribute Center. Despite the Capitol’s power returning in the middle of the operation and President Snow, who Katniss communicates with at one point in the hopes of distracting him further, revealing that he knew about the rescue mission, the team somehow manages to return with all of the tributes. But when Katniss tries to see Peeta, he starts attacking her though is knocked out by Katniss’ bodyguard Boggs (Mahershala Ali) before he can kill her. When Katniss comes to after being knocked unconscious by Peeta, she is told that Peeta has been ‘hijacked’ by the Capitol; brainwashed to kill Katniss by altering his memories of her via the venom of genetically altered wasps, ‘Tracker Jackers’. As President Coin announces to the people of District 13 the successful rescue of the Tributes and the planned assault on the Capitol’s primary military facility in District 2, Katniss witnesses Peeta violently struggling about in solitary confinement as doctors try and find a way to reverse Peeta’s brainwashing.

And that’s the story of ‘The Hunger Games’ series… so far. For fans of the franchise, hopefully this will help refresh your memory as to what’s happened so far in these first three films. If you’re not familiar with the franchise, though that’s probably unlikely given how this franchise has become a global phenomenon a la ‘Harry Potter’, this post should help you familiarize yourself with the world and characters of this series just in time for the release of the final installment, ‘Mockingjay Part 2’, this weekend, in which Katniss Everdeen and the citizens of Panem begin their final stand against President Snow and the Capitol. As I stated in the intro to this post, I’m considering making this ‘Story so Far’ thing a recurring segment on Rhode Island Movie Corner so sound off in the comments section below to tell me if you liked this post and want to see more of them. Until then, as they say in the ‘Hunger Games’, ‘May the Odds be Ever in Your Favor’!