Film / The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

"Tonight, turn your weapons to the Capitol! Turn your weapons to Snow!"

"What do all those deaths mean? They mean that our lives were never ours. There was no real life because we didn't have any choice. Our lives belong to Snow and our deaths do, too. But if you kill him, Katniss, if you end all of this, all those deaths — they mean something."

— Peeta Mellark

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 is the fourth installment and Grand Finale of the cinematic adaptation of The Hunger Games. It was directed by Francis Lawrence and adapts the second half of the third book, Mockingjay.

After the events of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark recover from their injuries while Panem is in disarray. Now a famous rebel figure, Katniss is sent to attack a Capitol stronghold in District 2 before deciding to kill President Snow and end the Capitol's corruption and decadence forever. This decision results in terrible consequences and the heroes must decide how to pick up the pieces in the aftermath.

The film was released in Berlin on November 4, 2015 and in the United States on November 20, 2015. This film is the final cinematic appearance of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died in February 2014.

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Tropes:

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Squad 451 eventually retreats into the underground roadways and then into the municipal water system. It's still fairly claustrophobic.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: After a long time fleeing through the giant death trap of the Capitol and suffering several losses, Cressida leads the squad to a friend's house. Their time in the basement covers a lot of ground, from mourning their losses to Katniss' guilt to the Love Triangle.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • Peeta healing from his brainwashing is almost natural in the film, while in the book it is a long, difficult process and requires medical treatment.
  • In the book, in order to go to the Capitol, Katniss has to participate in combat training before she is cleared to go. This section is omitted in the film. Instead, she just sneaks aboard a ship carrying supplies to the Capitol, after which District 13 plays along. Star Squad 451 is still the same though.
  • The section in the Capitol, from the moment Boggs steps on a mine is a bit compressed. Like the part where they enter a house and Katniss shoots a Capitol civilian, and another where the streets turn into a chasm are omitted.
  • After the climax, Katniss is supposed to be under treatment by a doctor. Moreover, she and Peeta were creating a book dedicated to all the victims of the war and previous games. This is not included in the film.
• Adaptation Expansion: Again with President Snow. In the extra scenes he has, it is shown he's becoming more sick. Also, it is implied he orders the attack of the mutts on Star Squad 451 when they are underground.
• Adapted Out: Delly Cartwright, a teenage girl from District 12. Her most significant part (first visit to Peeta after he attacked Katniss) is taken by Prim.
• Age Lift: Retroactively applied. In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, it is revealed that Tigris is actually President Snow's older cousin. In this film, however, she is played by Eugenie Bondurant, who is young enough to be Donald Sutherland (President Snow)'s daughter. This is justified because the book was released five years after the film, so the filmmakers had no foresight regarding this tidbit.
• Armor Is Useless: Squad 451's armor may as well be tissue paper.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Boggs is a badass who can handle himself.
• Babies Ever After:
  • Annie has a child with Finnick by the end of the film.
  • Katniss and Peeta also have two children by the end of the film.
• Bait-and-Switch: When President Coin announces in public that Katniss will assassinate Snow, it initially seems that she will follow through with the execution, only for her to point her bow up and kill Coin instead.
• Batman Gambit: The only reason that Haymitch and Katniss go along with Coin's proposition for the Capitol Games is so Katniss has an actual political justification to kill her during Snow's execution. Coin's death would be justified by the insidious plot she had planned.
• Bittersweet Ending: The good news is that Snow and Coin are killed; Paylor becomes Panem's president and turns it into a democracy; the Hunger Games are finally over; Peeta has finally regained his memories; and Katniss returns to District 12 along with Peeta and Haymitch. The bad news is that hundreds have perished during the rebellion with many more dying during the destruction of District 12; Finnick and Prim are killed (and Katniss is left mourning for Prim); and Gale and Katniss are estranged. It's summed up well in Katniss' last lines to her child:
  "Did you have a nightmare? I have nightmares, too. Someday I'll explain it to you. Why they came, why they won't ever go away. But I'll tell you how I survive it. I make a list in my head of all the good things I've seen someone do. Every little thing I can remember. It's like a game. I do it over and over. Gets a little tedious after all these years, but there are much worse games to play."
• Black Dude Dies First: Boggs is the first casualty of Katniss' party.
• Blind Shoulder Toss: In the beginning, Haymitch tells Katniss they prepared a speech for her, but she doesn't like it and refuses. Haymitch says he isn't really surprised, and just toss the speech tablet.
• Blood from the Mouth: Towards the end of the film, Snow coughs up blood due to his worsening health.
• Book Ends:
  • In a meta sense. The Hunger Games was the first film in the four-part series to have James Newton Howard as composer. Now the final one was composed by Howard as well.
  • The first three movies had Katniss in the forest outside District 12 early on. This movie ends with her there.
• Break the Haughty: As per the book, the Capitol citizens get more than enough share of misery throughout the film, thanks to the war waged against their hometown. Sure, they aren't evil as much as they are ignorant, but you can't help to take a hidden delight at seeing them having to experience in one go what the district citizens have experienced for the past 75+ years. Specifically, they're forced to beg for food for once, having to evade a war zone, and finally, watching their children being blown to bits by bombs.
• Call-Back: Finnick's death is eerily similar to Cato's. Up to and including Katniss performing a Mercy Kill.
• Composite Character: Prim is regarded as Peeta's "closest person" and thus is the one allowed entry to his room in hopes of curing his hijacking. The "closest person" in the book is Delly Cartwright, Peeta's best friend who doesn't appear in the film.
• Compressed Adaptation: While the first part featured a lot of padding, Part 2 has a lot of stuff trimmed. Katniss and Johanna training is the biggest omission, while Katniss's time back in District 12 before Peeta returns, at the end, gets heavily cut.
• Covers Always Lie: Katniss never donned the red Spy Catsuit she's been wearing in the posters and promotional materials.
• Crucified Hero Shot: Inverted, as it happened to a villain. President Coin's arms are positioned this way after giving a theatrical speech when Katniss shot her.

• Death Course: The outer ring of the Capitol is set up as one giant arena, as Snow wants to make a game of the rebellion in order to downplay their achievements.
• Death of a Child:
  • Dozens of capitol children are blown up onscreen. The ones that might have survived fall victim to the fire bombs.
  • Prim's death. She falls victim to the fire bombs and all Katniss can do is watch her die.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Haymitch, Effie, and Beetee have lesser roles here compared to Part 1. This is because that film mostly revolves around District 13 and the three characters almost never go outside of District 13 from the beginning to the end of this two-part flick.
    • Effie's only scene before the epilogue is a non-speaking cameo during the wedding scene.
    • Haymitch figures prominently early on, but disappears after Katniss goes to the Capitol. He has a significant part in the epilogue, however.
    • Beetee is the focus of the scene where Katniss overhears the twin bombing plan before she lands in District 2. He doesn't appear again until the voting scene, where he has a single line.
  • Johanna is actually an inversion if you consider the films only. Whereas Part 1 has her appear in a non-speaking cameo, here she talks in three scenes. During the Victors' Voting, she is the most vocal character after President Coin. If you go with the books, she plays this straight, since the part where she trains with Katniss is cut, leaving her little else to do.
  • Caesar Flickerman shows up in a single scene totaling about two and a half minutes, whereas in Part 1, he appears in three separate interview scenes.
• Die Laughing: President Snow laughs after Katniss fatally shoots President Coin. He's beaten to death by the district residents afterwards.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • The Leeg twins of Squad 451. In the book, Leeg 2 is the first of the group to die in a mislabeled pod trap, and Leeg 1 is later killed holding off reptilian muttations so the remaining members can escape. The film has Leeg 2 too injured by the pod that kills Boggs to move on, and Leeg 1 stays behind with her to hold off the Peacekeepers while the squad goes into hiding.
  • Messalla is originally killed by an energy beam that melts the flesh off his body. The film gives him a comparably less gruesome death by having the beam instantly disintegrate his body into debris.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Plutarch to President Coin. As it turns out, his only true loyalties are to democracy and to a degree, Katniss.
• Eagleland: The Rebellion's version of the Panem flag is a blend of American symbols and those of the European Union.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Boggs tells Katniss that she's done the earning part and he'll do what he can to ensure she survives. Effie also tells Katniss that she hopes she can find the "[true] life of a victor." After all that happens, Katniss and Peeta do get there.
• Easily Forgiven: After Katniss kills President Coin, Plutarch sends her a letter that among other things, advises her to wait until he could persuade the new President and the rest of Panem to forgive her. Sure enough, they do.
• Ends with a Smile: The movie ends with Katniss smiling as she holds her baby and looks out at Peeta playing with their other child.
• Even Evil Has Standards: President Snow admits at one point how, for all the things he does, he's not "wasteful." Unlike President Coin.
• Everybody Knew Already: Katniss admits that she was never under orders to kill Snow; Cressida points out that none of them had believed her, but chose to trust it was the right thing anyway.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: The Capitol is a minefield with deadly (and sadistic) traps every ten steps.
• Evil All Along: It turns out that Alma Coin intends to revive the Hunger Games with the children of the Capitol's leaders and is the one who caused the fire bombings in the first place.
• Exact Words: President Coin's speech after the rebels win the war at President Snow's execution ceremony obliges Katniss to fire her arrow to bring justice to Panem and end tyranny forever. Katniss does so...by executing Coin, who she correctly recognizes as a new dictator in the making who would do no good for Panem. Coin's speech never mentions Snow, poetically allowing it to serve as her talking Katniss into killing her unaware.
• False Flag Operation: A bomber painted to look like a Capitol ship drops aid canisters containing fire bombs. This makes it look like Snow bombed his own citizens just to slow down the rebels trying to overrun his mansion, causing his troops to turn on him and handing the rebels victory.
• Forced to Watch: The fire bombing kills Prim right in front of Katniss.
• From Bad to Worse: If Peeta strugging to regain his memories and Katniss losing most of Squad 451 to the Peacekeepers wasn't bad enough, Coin uses fire bombings to kill several children, including Prim, and seizes power from Snow so that she can become president. Not only that, but she plans to use the children of the Capitol's leaders as tributes for her symbolic Hunger Games.
• Full-Circle Revolution: It's quite obvious that this is what would have happened if Coin had taken over. It's her proposal to stage a "revenge Games" using the children of Capitol leaders that convinces Katniss she's just as bad as Snow and would have become a dictator in her own right, thus pushing Katniss to assassinate her.
• Get Out!:
  • Katniss says "goodbye" in an undeniably final way to Gale, after he admits he doesn't know if it was his bombs that killed Prim.
  • Also, she's not happy to see Buttercup at first upon arriving home in District 12.
    Katniss: Prim is gone! Prim is gone! She's dead! And she's not coming back! Get out! Get out!!
• Gory Discretion Shot: We don't see what the district residents do to Snow after Katniss is detained.
• Graceful Loser: Snow reveals to Katniss that he was already on the verge of surrendering before Coin dropped the bombs outside his mansion.
• Grand Finale: The film serves as the finale to the quadrilogy.
• Happily Ever After: The epilogue implies that not only does democracy come at last to Panem, but that District 12 is repopulated as a pastoral paradise.
• Heart in the Wrong Place: Katniss supposedly shoots President Coin directly in the heart, and yet when we see her the arrow is just under the left shoulder, level with the armpit, in a position where the left lung ought to be. Sure, she could have died from a punctured lung instead, if proper medical attention wasn't available (which would be rare, considering who she was), but certainly not from heart related wounds.
• Her Heart Will Go On: Finnick didn't live long enough to see his and Annie's child.
• Heroic BSoD: Katniss has a total breakdown when Prim dies.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Katniss loses it when Prim's cat returns to the house. She screams and cries that Prim isn't coming back as she throws things at the cat.
• Ironic Death: In the end, Coin, the head of a District that measures out every gram of supplies they have, dies because she is more wasteful with human lives than the head of the most affluent District, where it's culturally accepted to vomit up food so you can eat more.
• Ironic Echo: President Snow reminds Katniss about their "promise" not to lie to each other after Katniss claims not to believe him when he explains President Coin's actions, not only reinforcing that he is telling her the truth, but that she believes him despite her claim.
• Jump Scare: When Squad 451 is underground. They know they are being followed, but there's nothing in sight, even after checking multiple times. Then Jackson looks back one more time...
• Just Following Orders: President Coin played District 13 and the Rebellion at large like a fiddle. Something that Gale realized far too late.
• Light Is Not Good: Tellingly, President Coin's outfits grow ever lighter and less utilitarian even as she's revealed to be evil.
• Man Behind the Man: The epilogue reveals that this is what Plutarch becomes to the elected President, who'll do whatever it takes to make sure democracy sticks for good.
• Manipulative Bastard: President Coin, who ultimately conned District 13 and the others into putting herself in power. Even President Snow admits how well she pulled it off, though her "presidency" doesn't last too long.
• Mirroring Factions: The rebels and the Capitol during the siege of the city, specifically in the assault on Snow's mansion: the rebels hide among the refugees and, when they open fire, both sides don't even try and watch their fire, causing refugees to be cut down in droves. President Snow then only allows children past the cordon directly to his mansion, and it's clear he's planning on using them as human shields. Then the rebels bomb the kids by using a Capitol plane to drop fake aid packages. Coin's plan for a "Revenge Hunger Games" then shows that she's no different from Snow.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The wedding scene is mostly happy, but the music turns somber when Katniss gives Prim a parting hug before she leaves for the Capitol. This is the last time they see each other. The next time, it is in a war zone, it's unclear if Prim recognizes Katniss, and she is killed before she could get to her.
  • The invasion of the Capitol. It starts out hectic, only to go silent when a Capitol hovercraft flies through and drops packages attacked in balloons. Katniss even stops to ponder as the packages reach the children. BOOM.
• More Dakka: One of the traps in the Capitol is a pair of machine guns that fire about 500 rounds when they are triggered. Star Squad 451 is even slightly amused by this trap when it completely destroys a gate with only normal bullets.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Gale suffers this, upon realizing that he's one of those unwittingly involved in President Coin's bombing plan, which in turn killed Prim. And as far as Katniss is concerned, he's dead to her.
• Never Found the Body: In an indirect way. When Katniss is shot during the liberation of District 2, Snow knows she survived because the resistance doesn't immediately treat her like a martyr.
• Nothing Personal: Gale tells Katniss that he would have expected her of all people to know that what they're doing in the war against the Capitol isn't personal. She shoots back that she of all people knows that it's all personal.
• Not Me This Time: When Snow is confronted by Katniss about the bombing that killed Prim, he tells her that he wasn't responsible, citing the fact that he would not do something so petty unless it benefited him. It was actually Coin, as a gambit to destroy his support and end the war.
• Ominous Obsidian Ooze: One of the many traps deployed against the rebels in the Capitol is a wave of a black tar-like gunk that threatens to engulf anyone in its path.
• The Pardon: After Katniss kills President Coin, she's told to stay hidden until emotions die down a bit and the next President can officially pardon her.
• Playing Both Sides: As it turns out Plutarch Heavensbee has been playing Presidents Snow and Coin against each other, all in his efforts to bring real democracy to Panem. Katniss is his ace in the hole.
• President for Life: How Coin ultimately seeks to guarantee her power, making herself "interim" President, with a proper election being postponed indefinitely. When Katniss understands this, she makes sure it's a short term.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Plutarch's final message to Katniss is delivered via a letter, while he was supposed to talk to her personally. Unfortunately, Philip Seymour Hoffman died with one week of shooting left. They were at least able to provide the plausible explanation that someone as important as Plutarch couldn't risk people seeing him with President Coin's assassin.
• Red Shirt Army: Lieutenant Jackson and her unit practically have signs written on their foreheads that they will be killed off.
• Revenge by Proxy: President Coin wants to force Capitol kids into one final version of the Hunger Games. Johanna Mason adds that President Snow has a granddaughter.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Once the rebels take the fight to the Capitol, you can see their tactics become more brutal and morally ambiguous. For example, when President Snow offers to open his mansion as a refugee camp, the rebels disguise themselves as refugees to get close enough to open fire, completely disregarding the fact that actual refugees and civilians are in their line of fire. It also doesn't help that President Coin wanted to restart the Hunger Games using Capital children. Thankfully, Katniss and Plutarch manage to save the revolution from collapsing in on itself.
• Rousing Speech:
  • Katniss gives one towards the loyalists of District 2. She gets shot before she finishes it.
  • Commander Paylor gives an impressive one to the rebels about to invade the Capitol.
• Say My Name: The instant that Finnick is dragged back into the sewers by the mutts, spelling his certain death, Katniss screams his name twice. He screams her name back in turn, and Katniss performs a Mercy Kill on him shortly after, blowing him and the mutts devouring him up.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: The holo that reveals the location of the pods has a self-destruct code in case of capture. Katniss uses it to Mercy Kill Finnick when he's attacked by a dozen mutts.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Katniss disobeys orders and takes the film crew and Star Squad to assassinate Snow and end the war. She gets Jackson, Homes, Castor, Finnick, and Messalla killed and manages to arrive at the exact same time as the rebel army. To rub salt in the wound, she fails to reach the palace before Snow surrenders, rendering the entire mission pointless.
• Shout-Out: Katniss' hooded cape attire looks similar to the black Mia Dearden/Speedy II costume from the Green Arrow comics.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: In the final scene, Katniss confides to her baby — her second child — that her experiences have scarred her for life.
• Stock Footage: Philip Seymour Hoffman died with one week of shooting left. His character's presence was established in the ending scenes by use of footage from his films, digitally inserted.
• Storming the Castle: The film finally shows the raiding of the Capitol.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • When Katniss tries swaying the remaining pro-Capitol "loyalists" in District 2, one of them just fires a pistol point-blank at her chest. A good thing though that her outfit was designed to be bulletproof, even if it left her with some nasty bruises.
  • Katniss thinks she can hitchhike a ride to the Capitol and cross an area full of people without being noticed. She forgets that she's the most famous person in Panem...
  • Katniss, who has undergone military training for a few months at best, thinks that she can lead a squad to sneak through the Capitol and assassinate Snow. She gets nearly all of them killed and fails to kill Snow before the war is declared over. The only "achievement" she gets is watching Prim's death on front seats.
  • When Katniss and Gale try to sneak into Snow's manor by posing as refugees, they disguise themselves with hooded cloaks to make sure nobody sees their faces. Unfortunately, Peacekeepers are in the crowd, checking every refugee who passes through. Also, the rebels get the same idea as Katniss.
• Tragic Keepsake: It is heavily implied that Katniss takes Buttercup as her pet (despite them disliking each other) after Prim dies.
• Trailers Always Spoil: One trailer consists largely of an emotional montage of Katniss and Prim. It's not too hard to guess what that means, even if you haven't read the book.
• Trash the Set: The Capitol is utterly trashed by the rebellion.
• Urban Ruins: The Capitol is reduced to this by its second part, between the hundreds of traps the Gamemakers have placed all over the city and the bombings by the rebel insurgency.
• Uriah Gambit: Peeta is sent along with Katniss, supposedly for propaganda reasons. It's quickly realized that Coin is likely hoping Peeta will snap and kill her, since as a martyr Katniss doesn't pose a political threat.
• Villain Has a Point: Alma Coin declaring herself Interim President until the time is right for elections is presented as evidence of their villainous, power-hungry nature, but considering that Panem has just emerged from a bloody civil war with the Capitol and most of the districts in ruins, it would be perfectly reasonable to focus on political and economic reconstruction first rather than holding immediate elections, and that there would need to be leadership in place during this time to stop Panem from descending into chaos. That being said, her bringing up her plan to have a Hunger Games with Capitol children immediately afterward - and considering this more important than the issue of presidency - pretty much torpedoes any possibility that she took the position out of goodwill, and as Plutarch outlines in his letter, nearly everyone sees Paylor as a perfect fit for the position so leadership wasn't a huge concern.
• War Is Hell: The film doesn't shy away from the more brutal aspects of war.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: As in the book, we never find out the fate of Caesar Flickerman, who is last seen broadcasting Katniss' apparent death for the Capitol audiences, or Snow's personal assistant, Egeria, who gets dropped from the plot as soon as the rebels take hold of the Presidential Palace despite being possibly there the entire time.
• Wham Line: While some people might have doubts about Coin being evil, the moment she reveals that she intends to perform a Hunger Games with the Capitol children immediately clears any tone that the scene had in question and starts playing a bit of sinister music as Katniss and the others stew and vote right afterwards.
  Coin: In lieu of these barbaric executions, we hold a symbolic Hunger Games.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Peeta reads a letter from Annie stating that Gale is taking military training in District 2, while Katniss' mother is teaching new medics in the Capitol. Attached to the letter is a photo of Annie with her son. Later, Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch watch Paylor's inauguration as the new President of Panem on TV.
• Xenomorph Xerox: The mutts chasing Squad 451 in the sewer. They are gangly white humanoids with Eyeless Faces and wicked fangs who fearlessly attack by drove.
• You Have Failed Me:
  • After District 2 falls to the rebels, Snow poisons his defense minister at a state dinner.
  • It's strongly implied that Plutarch realized that President Coin wasn't who she purports to be, and arranged events to make it possible for Katniss to kill her.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
  • Boggs warns Katniss that Coin is taking this view, and that Katniss' greatest use would be as a martyr for the rebellion.
  • It's implied that Plutarch eventually came to see Coin as having outlived her usefulness. Thus setting events up for Katniss to assassinate her.

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♫ Here it's safe, here it's warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you... ♫

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