The Hunger Games: The Hunger Games

Everyone in Panem watching The Games (Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii by Nam June Paik housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum)

Well here we are–it’s the end of a franchise an era. The last Hunger Games film, Mockingjay–Part 2 was released a few months ago, and we here at Sartle decided to celebrate by doing a 3-part retelling of the whole series. Fair warning, I am [mostly] sticking to the book version because I was an English major. So, without further ado:

The Hunger Games

The book opens and the stage is set: Katniss lives in a poor part of Panem (which used to be the good ol’ U.S. of A) called District 12. She and her bff (bff+? *wink*) Gale sneak out into the out-of-bounds woods to hunt and sell the meat on the black market. Blah blah blah you all know the backstory. Point is, it’s reaping day! So EVERYONE has to look really nice for this fun lil’ ceremony where some children get picked to fight to the death on nationally broadcasted/mandatorily viewed TV!

So Katniss has a pretty good chance of getting picked because she put her name into the fishbowl extra times in order to get extra food, but she wouldn’t let her little sister Prim do that. So, duh, Prim’s name is called and Katniss is like “F***! Sh**! G*d d*mnit!!!” and then out of sheer panic volunteers, and then after she volunteers she’s like “F***. Sh**. G*d d*mnit…” but is resigned to her fate because sisterly love.

Katniss volunteering to die (Sacrifice of Polyxena by Charles Le Brun housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Okay so Katniss and Peeta, the dude who threw K some burnt bread when she was first extra-poor after her dad died, are the tributes and they have to go to the Capitol where all the rich people live/are safe from ever being tributes. There’s tons of great food and crazy fashion. This place is off the hook, but it’s hard for the poorer tributes to get into it because, ya know, they’re probably gonna die.

What people in the Capitol look like (Misty and Jimmy Paulette in a Taxi by Nan Goldin housed in the Tate Modern)

Oh, I forgot to mention Effy and Haymitch. Effy is from the Capitol and is basically a chaperone for the tributes and Haymitch is the only winner District 12 has ever had and he has to prep K and P. Anyway, moving on.

Okay so they get makeovers (Katniss has the best stylist and his name is Cinna and he makes her The Girl On Fire) and do interviews with Stanley Tucci and whatever to get people to sponsor them in the games by sending them junk they need. Oh, and Peeta ~casually~ mentions in an interview that he’s hardcore crushing on Katniss and she’s like “ummm… ??”

Okay tada the Games start! Exciting. K got a good rating in training so she’s a threat to everyone else but she’s still pee-your-pants terrified.

The carnage of The Games (Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delecroix housed in the Louvre Museum)

So a whole bunch of junk happens and I really don’t want to go into it so pick up a book for once (or hop onto Wikipedia–much easier) but basically, Katniss is kicking ass and taking names, Peeta is messing with her love despite Ed Sheeran’s warning, and Katniss’s new buddy/ally/Prim stand-in Rue got killed.

Then a bunch more stuff happens, K and P find each other and Katniss pretends (or does she?!) to love him back to get free stuff and then they start kicking ass and taking names together because the game master was like “Twist!! There can be two winners if they’re from the same district.”

So obviously Katniss and Peeta are the last two standing and then there’s another announcement: “Double Twist!! I was kidding.” And at first Katniss is like “I’m gonna kill this boy before he can even touch me” but then Peeta is like “cool, yeah, go for it” and she feels guilty so she suggests they both commit suicide. But see, that would destroy the purpose of the Games (which is very explicit in the move: the Games create devastation but then leave the tiiiiniest sliver of hope so the districts don’t rebel). So, third announcement: “Okay jkjkjk!! The first twist was totally legit please stop.” And then K and P are winners and get airlifted out of there so they can go leave their horrible lives suffering from PTSD while still living under a horrible dictatorship.