The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) | Transcript

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, a 2023 American dystopian action film, marks a return to the riveting world created by Suzanne Collins. Directed by Francis Lawrence, the film is penned by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt, adapting Collins’ 2020 novel, which serves as a prequel to the 2012 film The Hunger Games. This installment, the fifth in The Hunger Games series, stars Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, and Viola Davis. Set 64 years before the original film, it explores the formative years of the young Coriolanus Snow and his path to becoming the tyrannical ruler of Panem. The plot intertwines his life with that of Lucy Gray Baird, the District 12 tribute in the 10th Hunger Games, highlighting the events that shape his future leadership.

* * *

(EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE IN DISTANCE)

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)

(BOTH PANTING)

GIRL: There’s some food over here! Quick!

(BARKING, GROWLING)

(GASPING)

(SNARLING)

(GIRL GRUNTS)

(WHINES)

GIRL: Come on!

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

(CHOPPING)

(BOTH GASPING)

Why is he doing that?

He’s starving.

(DOOR CLOSES)

(INHALES DEEPLY)

Your father is dead, Coriolanus.

It was a rebel, they say.

A trap out in the forest in 12.

It’s up to us now to make him proud.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

(CLOCK TICKING)

(TAPPING)

Tigris?

(ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING ON TV)

GRANDMA’AM: (SINGING) ♪ Gem of Panem

♪ Mighty city

Tigris, where’s the shirt?

♪ Through the ages You shine anew

♪ We humbly kneel To your ideal

♪ And pledge Our love to you ♪

That’s beautiful, Grandma’am.

(CHUCKLES)

Perhaps a little sharp today.

Oh.

Have you seen Tigris with my father’s dress shirt?

No.

(DOOR CLOSES)

TIGRIS: Coryo?

Tigris?

TIGRIS: I’m sorry. I know I’m late.

But look, I did it.

Or, I did something.

I think it’s really gorgeous.

It’s beautiful.

(BOTH CHUCKLING)

Best cousin ever.

Tell me everything.

Where do I start? I told Fabricia at work that she needed to bleach her white curtains and I slipped the shirt in when I did it.

The tesserae buttons I made from…

From the bathroom tiles.

(LAUGHS)

Brilliant.

Oh. Did you find the potatoes? I boiled them for the starch and you should really eat something today.

Save them for Grandma’am.

You look so handsome.

Grandma’am! Come see!

Coriolanus Snow.

Future president of Panem.

We salute you.

Just a moment.

(CHUCKLES)

Wait, Grandma’am.

I can grow plenty more. After today.

Got the grades, never missed class.

Ten years.

Even Dean Highbottom can’t deny us this now.

Dean doesn’t hate you.

He hates everyone.

He despises me.

What’s the first thing you’ll spend the prize money on?

New dress?

(CHUCKLES)

Chocolate?

Chocolate!

(SNOW AND TIGRIS LAUGH)

It’s the Plinth Prize, Tigris.

We’ll be able to pay the rent.

Snow lands on top.

(ROUSING MUSIC PLAYING)

(LIVELY CHATTER)

GIRL: Why, Coriolanus Snow.

Clemmie.

Are you sweating?

It’s Reaping Day.

We gave driver the morning off.

Ugh! That ingrate should be begging to chauffeur you around today.

Just don’t forget. I was your class partner while you’re gloating over the Plinth Prize.

Prize? Please.

I just want to serve Panem.

Mmm.

Hungry?

Cook served steak for breakfast.

We had to throw half out.

Shame on you, Coryo.

Don’t you know that they’re starving in the districts?

(LIVELY CHATTER)

(SOFT PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)

Good luck.

Not that you’ll need it.

Hi.

Finally, the star pupil.

That’s a snazzy shirt.

What are those buttons, tesserae?

Huh.

That’s why they remind me of the maid’s bathroom.

Have you tried this lamb? It’s scandalous.

Ugh. Only the vulgar eat with their fingers, Felix.

What, Daddy not teach you table manners?

Maybe he would have if he wasn’t so busy running the country.

Hey, they called us here for the Plinth Prize, right?

Because I heard Dr. Gaul’s in the building.

“Plinth.”

I mean, look at his spawn.

Who would have thought that you could buy your way into the Capitol?

Well, you can’t buy class.

Did you see his mother’s outfit?

Sorry, his “Ma’s.”

FELIX: Oh. (CHUCKLES)

Dress a turnip in a ball gown, and it’ll still beg to be mashed.

(LAUGHTER)

Don’t do that. We all know that you like him.

I don’t like him, Arachne.

I tolerate him.

He’s district.

FESTUS: Tolerate him.

Just don’t encourage him.

Okay. Sure.

I hear one more time how immoral these Hunger Games are, I’ll put him in the arena mys…

Sejanus.

You made it to the Reaping for once.

And you made it to graduation, Festus.

We’re both shocked.

(SNOW CHUCKLES)

Spill it. Who won the prize?

SEJANUS: Oh, no, I’m not gonna ruin my father’s big day.

No one here actually likes him, but they do love his money.

You know what that’s like, don’t you, Arachne?

Funny.

(GRAND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING ON SPEAKERS)

Hey, listen.

Um, I know you have high hopes for this.

But there is no prize today.

Not anymore.

I’m so sorry.

What?

(DR. GAUL LAUGHING ON MIC)

How tantalizing to see all your shining young faces on this auspicious day.

I am Dr. Volumnia Gaul, your humble Head Gamemaker, in charge of the War Department and all its affiliated concerns.

I’ve broken free of my laboratory today, to examine you.

The leaders of the next generation.

I won’t be around forever, after all.

(LAUGHS) And now to that end, I am honored to introduce to you the creator of the Hunger Games themselves.

Dean Casca Highbottom.

Uh… (CLEARS THROAT)

Select students, faculty, and, of course, Dr. Gaul, I have summoned you all here today for the 10th annual Reaping Ceremony in which we choose two children from each district to throw into the Capitol Arena to fight to the death in the Hunger Games.

(WHISPERING) I can’t believe they still allow him to speak in public.

And here sit… our own 24 top prospects all waiting to hear the results of hard study in this prestigious institution.

Eager to learn who’s won that Plinth Prize, no doubt.

And a golden future.

However,

I am here to tell you that there has been a change this year.

One final assignment to prove your worth.

Because… the esteemed citizens of the Capitol have grown bored of the Games and simply aren’t watching anymore.

And if the Games are to continue at all, there must be an audience. (LAUGHS)

So, Head Gamemaker Dr. Gaul has stepped in to… incentivize patriotic values with her own unique flair, starting with you.

The Plinth Prize will no longer be determined by who has the best grades.

Excuse me?

But by who is the best mentor in the Hunger Games.

(STUDENTS EXCLAIMING)

This is a brand new role.

As the Reaping progresses live, I will allocate each district tribute a Capitol mentor behind the scenes, one who must just persuade them to perform for the cameras.

Obviously, the best mentor will be the one whose tribute wins the Games.

ARACHNE: What if I get a pathetic runt girl from one of the poor districts, like 8 or 12?

They’re just gonna die in two minutes like they did last year and the year before.

Your role is to turn these children into spectacles, Ms. Crane.

Not survivors.

Victory in the Games is only one of our considerations.

Your entire future rests on this last project.

Oh, and I must tell you that anyone caught cheating to give their tributes an unfair advantage…

(CHUCKLES) will just have no future at all.

(GRAND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING)

Oh! Here we go.

Let the Reaping ceremony begin.

District 1.

Boy goes to Livia Cardew.

(LIVIA GASPS, EXCLAIMING)

(APPLAUSE)

Girl goes to Palmyra Monty.

District 2 boy…

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE)

How apt.

Boy goes to Sejanus Plinth.

(APPLAUSE)

You got the pick of the litter.

You forget. I’m part of that litter.

CASCA: 4, boy,

Persephone Price.

(APPLAUSE)

Girl, Festus Creed.

(APPLAUSE)

7, boy, Vipsania Sickle.

(APPLAUSE)

Girl, Pup Harrington.

(LAUGHTER)

8, boy, Juno Phipps.

Girl, Hilarius Heavensbee.

10, boy, Domitia Whimsiwick.

Mmm. Girl, Arachne Crane.

11, boy, Clemensia Dovecote.

(APPLAUSE)

11, girl, Felix Ravinstill.

(LAUGHTER)

12, boy,

Lysistrata Vickers.

(APPLAUSE)

Oh. You’ll be happy about this, Ms. Crane.

The “runt girl”, from District 12, she belongs to Coriolanus Snow.

Lucy Gray Baird.

(CROWD MURMURING)

Sing your way out of this one, Lucy Gray.

(CAPTIVATING MUSIC PLAYING)

What is that dress?

Is she some sort of clown?

BOY: (SIGHING) Lucy Gray.

(STUTTERING) I didn’t know.

I didn’t know. I’m sorry.

(LAUGHING)

(GIRLS GASPING)

(SCREAMING)

(ALL EXCLAIMING)

My daughter! Help her!

Help her! Help her!

Get it off! Get it off!

(SCREAMING)

(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

(GROANS)

(CROWD EXCLAIMING)

PEACEKEEPER: That’s enough. Leave her be.

(LUCY GRUNTING)

(GRUNTS)

Just give me a minute, boys.

GIRL: (SINGING) ♪ You can’t take my past

♪ You can’t take my history

♪ You could take my pa

♪ But his name’s a mystery

(SINGING) ♪ Nothing you can take from me

♪ Was ever worth keepin’

♪ Nothing you can take

(STUDENTS CHATTERING)

♪ Was ever worth keepin’

ARACHNE: Singing?

Is she out of her mind?

♪ Can’t take my charm

♪ Can’t take my humor

♪ Can’t take my wealth

Capitol says keep rolling.

LUCY: ♪ ‘Cause it’s just a rumor

♪ Nothing you can take

♪ Was ever worth keepin’

(MIC THUDS)

♪ You can’t take my sass

♪ You can’t take my talkin’

(SHOUTING) ♪ You can kiss my ass! ♪

(STUDENTS LAUGHING)

(CHUCKLES)

(MIC THUDS)

Come on, boys.

(LIVELY CHATTER)

ARACHNE: Well, she’s mentally ill.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(CASCA CLEARS THROAT)

CASCA: Proud, I see.

Like your father.

Yes. He and I were best friends.

Once.

Enlighten me, Mr. Snow.

What are your plans after these Games?

I hope to go on to the University, sir.

Naturally.

And if you fail to win the Plinth Prize, what then?

We’d pay the tuition, of course.

Look at you.

Your makeshift shirt and your too tight shoes. Trying desperately to fit in when I know the Snows don’t have a pot to piss in.

Good luck with that poor little songbird.

SNOW: He’s sabotaging us.

That girl’s not gonna win these Games.

You saw her. She’s underfed, unstable.

The Dean said it’s not just about winning.

Everything is about winning.

If not the Games now, then the crowd.

Lucy Gray won’t survive a minute inside that arena.

So that means we have to make every second before then count.

I’ll get her to sing again.

I wouldn’t sing a note for you if I was her.

I wouldn’t do anything at all.

Unless I could trust you.

She’s district, Tigris.

She knows we hate her, and she wants us dead.

How am I supposed to get her to trust me?

Imagine it was your name that they pulled and you had been ripped from your home.

I’d just wanna know that somebody still cared about me out here.

Don’t discount her just because she’s district, Coryo.

You might have more in common with her than you think.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

(BRAKES HISSING)

(TRAIN CLATTERING)

PEACEKEEPER: Transfer team, up front!

PEACEKEEPER: Get off the train!

PEACEKEEPER 2: Move.

Let’s go.

(BATS SCREECHING)

PEACEKEEPER 3: Get out!

(DILL COUGHING)

PEACEKEEPER 4: Come on out!

I said let’s go!

(OBJECTS CLATTERING)

BRANDY: No! No!

I will not…

PEACEKEEPER 4: Go! Keep moving!

BRANDY: No!

PEACEKEEPER 4: Come on.

BRANDY: No!

PEACEKEEPER 4: I said let’s go!

BRANDY: I won’t go. I won’t. No.

PEACEKEEPER 4: Come on, get her outta there.

Welcome to the Capitol.

When I was little, my mama used to bathe me in buttermilk and rose petals.

Tastes like bedtime.

You look like you shouldn’t be here.

Well, I shouldn’t.

But I’m your mentor.

A rebel.

What does my mentor do besides bring me roses?

I do my best to take care of you.

BRANDY: No! (GROANS)

PEACEKEEPER: On your feet.

Good luck with that, gorgeous.

Come on, let’s go.

Move it.

Excuse me, can I…

Excuse me, I’d like to escort my tribute…

PEACEKEEPER: Fall in.

PEACEKEEPER 2: In the truck. Hurry up.

Hey!

You, come on!

Come on.

(PEACEKEEPERS GRUNTING)

Get in!

(DOORS SLAM)

(ENGINE REVVING)

Hi.

What’s the matter, pretty boy?

You in the wrong cage?

No.

This cage is delightful.

Get him, Reaper.

(GROANS)

I will kill you right now.

He’ll do it too.

Reaper killed a Peacekeeper back in 11.

REAPER: Quiet, Dill.

I say we all kill him.

I’m in.

BOBBIN: Nothing left to lose now.

LUCY: Y’all got family back home?

They’ll kill them if you hurt him.

Then you.

Besides, he’s my mentor.

I might need him.

How come you get a mender?

Mentor.

You each get one.

Oh, and we’ll just trust you on that? Right?

I’m just here to help you.

Why does rainbow girl here get special treatment, hmm?

Why aren’t our menders here?

Just not inspired, I guess.

(TRUCK BEEPING)

(CLATTERING)

(ALL YELPING)

SNOW: All right, hold on!

BOY: Get off me!

(BOTH SCREAMING)

(CROWD EXCLAIMING)

Oh! Ah!

Ouch. Well, we’ll give them a chance to stand up and catch their breath.

I’m jealous of that entrance.

I’m Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman, a man who needs no introduction.

You all know me as your favorite weatherman and amateur magician.

(COIN CLINKS)

But guess where I am today. Here’s a hint.

That’s right. The Capitol Zoo, where this year’s tributes will be held here on display behind these bars for your viewing pleasure.

That’s right.

(PANTING)

All 24 of them ’cause…

What in the gem of Panem?

You see, that’s the Academy rouge, no?

Excuse me. Hello, sir.

Yes, you. In the red.

Who are you and why are you in there with them?

We’re live.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(ECHOING) The Capitol is watching.

(STUTTERING)

Own it.

LUCKY: Are you all right?

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

Sir? Who are you?

Lucy Gray Baird,

may I introduce you to my neighbors?

LUCKY: A response would be greatly appreciated, but anything would be nice.

Hello?

Can they not hear me in there?

Well, that’s something you don’t see every day.

They’re holding hands.

Yes, yes, yes.

Who are you, sir? What are you doing in the cage here?

Hi. How do you do?

My name is Coriolanus Snow.

And this is my tribute.

Lucy Gray Baird from District 12.

Hi there.

What’s your name?

My name is Pontius.

It’s nice to meet you. Is this your sister?

That’s Venus. She’s only four.

Well, I think four is a very smart age to be.

Where’d you find that snake?

Well, he found me. Must have been a music lover.

My singing calmed him right down.

Can I touch your dress?

LUCY: Of course.

I like your dress too.

Oh. And who might you be?

You don’t know who I am?

(CAMERAMAN LAUGHS)

Don’t laugh.

Not everyone has televisions out in the districts.

I’m Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman.

But more enticingly, who are you, Lucy From District 12?

Oh. It’s Lucy Gray.

And I’m not actually from 12.

No, my people are Covey.

We’re like a family. We’re musicians by trade

and we travel from place to place as the fancy takes us.

At least we used to. Before the Peacekeepers rounded us up.

I see. But now you’re District 12.

If you say so.

Yes.

Your dress is far from gray and it seems to be a big hit with the children.

Oh, it is? Well, the Covey love color, me more so than most.

But this dress was my mama’s so it’s extra special to me.

Mmm-hmm. And she’s in District 12?

Well, only her bones, darling. Only her pearly white bones.

(SNORTS)

LUCY: Do you know my mentor?

Says his name is Coriolanus Snow and clearly, I got the cake with the cream ’cause nobody else has even bothered to show up.

The Gamemakers did tell you to jump in the cage with them?

They didn’t tell me not to.

They just said that it was a mentor’s job to introduce our tributes to the citizens of Panem.

And I thought, well, if Lucy Gray is brave enough to be here, then why shouldn’t I be, too?

LUCKY: Hmm.

For the record, I didn’t have a choice.

For the record, I think you’re about to be whisked away, young man.

Let’s go.

Oh. Hey…

Get us some food, please.

Jessup and I haven’t eaten since the Reaping.

LUCKY: The 10th annual Hunger Games are soon approaching.

So come down to the zoo, and see these tributes before it’s too late. And I mean, too late.

For Capitol News, I’m Lucretius…

(COIN CLINKS)

“Lucky” Flickerman.

(STUDENTS CHATTER)

Your little excursion was in violation of about five different Academy rules, Mr. Snow.

Chief amongst them, endangering a Capitol student.

What? Who?

You.

I’m moving for the Gamemakers to disqualify you as mentor immediately.

You said we had to get our tributes to perform, not that we had to stay away.

I’ll add insubordination as well.

Holding her hand, Coryo, introducing her to people, you make it look as if we’re one and the same as those animals.

Coriolanus didn’t show those people anything they didn’t already know.

I don’t need your help, Sejanus.

That the tributes are human beings.

Just like us.

That’s why nobody wants to watch the Games.

It’s because people know deep down that winning a war 10 years ago doesn’t justify starving people’s children, taking away their freedoms, their rights.

Snow fell down in the cage.

It fell down in the cage but it landed…

On stage.

You’re good at Games.

Maybe one day, you’ll be a Gamemaker like me.

If the Games continue at all.

DR. GAUL: Oh, they’ll continue.

With performances like young Mr. Snow’s in that zoo.

And I came here to ask your star mentor a question.

(STUDENTS WHISPERING)

What are the Hunger Games for?

They’re to punish the districts for their uprising, to commemorate the end of the war…

DR. GAUL: “Commemorate the…”

Dull, dull, dull.

Punishment can take myriad forms.

Why not drop bombs, cancel food shipments, stage executions?

Why Games?

Shouldn’t we be asking ourselves whether or not they’re right in the first place?

You have a problem with my Games?

Some of those kids were two years old when the war ended.

The oldest of them were only eight.

The Capitol is supposed to be everyone’s government now.

It is supposed to protect all of us.

I don’t see how making children fight each other to the death is protecting anyone.

That sort of sympathy might interfere with your mentoring assignment.

Perhaps the Capitol students are ill-suited to be mentoring tributes.

Perhaps the Game’s time has passed.

Dean Highbottom is wrong.

My classmates, too.

Maybe Sejanus is onto something here.

Maybe we should be viewing those tributes as human beings.

I mean, you saw those kids in the zoo, they just… they just wanted to get to know Lucy Gray.

If we need people to watch, we should be letting them get closer to the tributes before the Games.

To make the stakes personal.

Who will watch the Games if they care what happens to the tributes?

Everyone.

If they thought the tribute they cared about had a chance of winning.

People need someone to root for and someone to root against.

We need them to invest.

And if we bend a few Capitol laws, we could even have them place bets.

Look, I know Lucy Gray may not win in the arena but if you give her a chance, I would bet the Plinth Prize that she can win people’s attention.

I’d like you to write up a proposal of these thoughts tonight, Mr. Snow.

CLEMENSIA: Wait.

You mean you might actually use his ideas?

If it’ll help the ratings, why not.

Coriolanus and I are class partners, Dr. Gaul.

We do all of our assignments together.

(LAUGHING)

It’ll be an interesting test.

(LIVELY CHATTER)

SEJANUS: You trying to fatten that poor girl up so you can finally start taking bets?

You think they’ll give those kids a scrap if we don’t give them a reason to do it?

How do you think your tribute will have a chance if he can’t eat?

He was my classmate.

Back in 2.

It’s not your fault it’s him.

See, I know.

I’m so blameless, I’m choking on it.

My father bought him for me, you know, at the Reaping, just so he could show me that I could never go back to 2.

But being Capitol is gonna kill me.

So do something about it.

Quite the rebel.

Oh, yeah.

I’m bad news.

(LIVELY CHATTER)

Marcus. Hey.

It’s me.

Marcus, look.

Here, I got some food for you.

Here.

Come on.

Marcus.

Is that for us?

Jessup.

I’m not hungry.

You think I can’t hear your stomach growling, Jessup Diggs?

Come on.

What happened to his neck?

A bat bite.

The first night on the train, he didn’t sleep a wink the whole journey ’cause he was keeping the bats off me, so I would get some rest.

(ARACHNE TAUNTING)

(MOCKINGLY) Can you take it?

Come on, try harder than that.

One thing I learned in 12 is that hunger is a weapon.

Your friend over there sure knows it.

She is not my friend.

She is poison with perfect teeth.

Are you gonna share everything that I give you with Jessup?

Wh… Why?

You think I ought to build up my strength so I can strangle him in the arena?

Not exactly my forte.

I might have a chance to help you.

To make some suggestions to the Gamemakers.

I might even be able to get the audience to send you gifts in the arena.

Food and water to keep you going.

You just have to try singing again to win people over.

I don’t sing when I’m told.

I sing when I have something to say.

Besides, I’ve seen your arena. There’s nowhere to hide.

What’s the point?

The guards say you get money if you get more people to watch and you say you wanna help me. Which is it?

Both.

ARACHNE: One more time.

BRANDY: I’m not playing this game.

ARACHNE: Come on.

BRANDY: You shut up.

Uh… No, thank you.

I saw you staring.

Please.

ARACHNE: Give me something.

I’ve been sitting here for 15 minutes!

Always thought there was plenty of food in the Capitol.

(LAUGHS)

You know, one time, during the war, I ate a whole jar of paste just to stop the pain in my stomach.

And how was it?

Pasty.

(LUCY LAUGHS)

That little one.

She’s so sweet.

So young.

Something about her reminds me of my cousin Maude Ivory.

I can’t stand to think of them without me like this.

I’m sorry.

You seem like a good man, Coriolanus Snow.

Sure would’ve been nice to meet you under different circumstances.

One of your shows, maybe.

Yeah.

We could have had a drink.

A dance or two.

Like we had all the time in the world.

ARACHNE: Come on, just take it.

(BRANDY AND ARACHNE SCREAMING)

(BOTH GRUNTING)

(STABS)

ARACHNE: Help! (SCREAMS)

No, no, no!

(CROWD SCREAMING)

It’s okay. It’s okay. Hold on. Hold on.

(GASPING)

Hey, look at me.

Hey, hold on. It’s okay. I’ll get help.

Somebody help us, please!

(BRANDY GROANING)

Wha… (PANTING)

(GASPING)

(SNOW EXCLAIMS)

Let’s go.

Oh, no.

(SNOW PANTING)

(SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING)

GRANDMA’AM: It’s starting again.

This is how it begins.

The war.

SNOW: It was my fault.

I suggested we get closer to the tributes.

You’re just lucky that your songbird didn’t peck out your eyes too.

TIGRIS: She’s not a rebel, Grandma’am.

She’s just a girl. (GRANDMA’AM LAUGHING)

Trust me, that one hasn’t been a girl in a long time.

Outside this Capitol, they’re savages,one and all.

 However, they may smile, she will use you.

You must use her or you’ll end up dead in the trees like your father.

(SOLEMN MUSIC CONTINUES)

This is for Dr. Gaul, please.

In spite of yesterday’s tragic events, our president has decided that the Games must go on to show everyone the Capitol is unafraid of such acts of terror.

To which end, Dr. Gaul wishes you to preview the arena this afternoon with your tributes.

Later this evening, there will be a special televised presentation of each tribute to our audience to, you know, get to know them.

You will have an hour to discuss strategy.

(SIGHS)

You may begin.

Marcus, come on.

You and I aren’t gonna be friends, but I’m gonna win, and for that to happen, we need to make you more…

(SCOFFS)

…marketable.

I’m a really good climber.

I used to climb in my mama’s factory all the time.

(WHEEZES)

(COUGHING)

It’s getting infected.

I’m fine.

PUP: Look at me, Lamina.

I want you to win.

(WHIMPERING)

CLEMENSIA: It’s Reaper, right?

Um, let me read you what…

(CHAINS CLANKING)

LUCY: I’m so sorry about your classmate.

Thank you.

Are you okay?

Wearing my mama’s dress is the only thing keeping me together here.

It’s like she’s wrapping her arms around me.

My mother, she used to smell like roses.

She died in childbirth.

I was going to have a little sister.

Both your parents gone?

So, you’re an orphan.

Like me.

Look…

I need you to sing in these interviews later.

It’s the night before the Games and your last chance to win people over.

I can’t send you gifts in the arena without their money.

Maybe a guitar could persuade me. Maybe.

You really wanna take care of me in that arena, Coriolanus?

Start by thinking I can actually win.

CASCA: Snow. Dovecote.

CLEMENSIA: She can’t expect us to have written that proposal last night, can she?

I was crying for hours.

We did… write it.

I turned it in this morning.

All right, give me the bullet points.

DR. GAUL: Mr. Snow.

Ms. Dovecote.

Come and see my new babies.

(SINISTER MUSIC PLAYING)

CLEMENSIA: Is there a point to the color?

There’s a point to everything, Ms. Dovecote, or to nothing at all.

Which brings me neatly to your proposal.

Which one of you actually wrote it?

Well, there was…

I was inspired by Coriolanus yesterday, of course.

His little betting idea.

But the sponsorships and the gifts in the arena, those were all mine.

Clemmie?

So it’s your sweaty handwriting on that page.

Very impressive, Ms. Dovecote.

Unfortunately, my assistant mistook it for trash this morning and lined the shelf of this very terrarium with it.

So, please, Ms. Dovecote, retrieve it for us, won’t you?

So we might all consider your inspired ideas.

Don’t worry, my little predators are perfectly docile with those they can trust.

So if they’re used to your scent, if you’ve handled their food, for example, or if they’ve inhaled the sweat of your palm on a page, they’ll leave you alone.

A new scent, however…

(DR. GAUL SIGHS)

…you’d be on your own, little girl.

Retrieve it.

(CLEMENSIA SHUDDERING)

Clemmie.

(SCREAMING)

Clemmie, no! No!

(GASPING)

You asked about the colors, Ms. Dovecote?

I want my enemies to see a rainbow of destruction engulfing the world.

I’m not above using spectacle to create a little terror.

A strategy your classmate here articulated very well in his proposal.

They’re good, your suggestions.

I’m going to recommend my team implement as many as possible tomorrow.

What?

Will she die?

The pleasure in breaking ground in one’s research is one gets to find out.

You better keep Ms. Dovecote’s fate between us.

I don’t think her mother would be happy to learn how she caught this sudden… flu.

Now run along, you have an arena to promote and it’s time for my milk and crackers.

(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING)

PEACEKEEPER: All right, let’s go.

(DILL COUGHING)

(TURNSTILE CRANKING)

FEMALE ANNOUNCER: (ON SPEAKERS) Enjoy the show.

(TURNSTILE CRANKING)

Enjoy the show.

Enjoy the show.

Enjoy the show.

Enjoy the show.

Enjoy the show.

(DILL COUGHING)

FESTUS: Come with me. Hey, you.

Get that camera on her. Coral.

(DILL COUGHING)

(DOOR CREAKING)

(DOOR SLAMS)

(LIGHTS CLICKING)

(MACHINERY WHIRRING)

(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

MALE ANNOUNCER: (ON SPEAKERS) Welcome to the arena for the 10th annual Hunger Games.

Tributes, mentors, you have 15 minutes to survey the space and discuss strategy.

Dill, you stick by me, understand?

Hey, lumberjack.

TREECH: Lamina.

CORAL: No, no, just you.

Just you.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(CLICKING TONGUE)

Jessup?

Jessup.

Please.

Coriolanus, please don’t let me die in here tomorrow.

(EXPLOSIONS)

(ALL SCREAMING)

FESTUS: Oh, shit!

(DEBRIS FALLING)

(GROANS, SHOUTING)

(GASPING)

Help me!

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

PEACEKEEPER: The gate’s out!

The gate’s out.

The gate’s blown open.

(STIRRING MUSIC PLAYING)

Come on, the gate’s open.

(GRUNTING)

Come on. He wouldn’t save you.

PEACEKEEPER: We’ve got runners!

(GUNFIRE)

(GINEE AND SABYN GROAN)

(STIRRING MUSIC PLAYING)

(STRAINING)

(GROANING)

(LUCY GASPS)

(GROANS)

(SOFTLY) Coryo.

(GASPS)

Lucy Gray?

Is she…

TIGRIS: She’s alive.

What happened?

It was a rebel bombing.

They must have been planning it for months.

Four tributes were killed.

Everyone’s terrified, Coryo.

People are locking themselves inside their houses.

Felix Ravinstill’s on life support.

The rebels released a message.

They said they wanted to tear down the symbol of the Hunger Games on live TV.

LUCKY: (ON TV) …savagely and cowardly attacked us…

Marcus got out.

LUCKY: gravely injuring the president’s…

SEJANUS: He’s the only one.

Peacekeepers are hunting him in the streets but at least he has a better chance out there than he would tomorrow.

SNOW: Tomorrow?

They’re not still going ahead with the Games?

Oh, no, Lucy Gray.

Lucy Gray could’ve run.

LUCKY: The show will go on.

But she saved me.

LUCKY: And now our final tribute.

I first met this young lady in the zoo not too long ago.

From District 12…

Coryo.

Lucy Gray Baird.

Come out here with that guitar, you songbird.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING ON TV)

LUCY: Good evening, Capitol. Districts.

I wrote this song about a boy back in 12, and I hope he hears it.

(SINGING) ♪ When I was a babe I fell down in the holler

♪ When I was a girl I fell into your arms

♪ We fell on hard times and we lost our bright color

♪ You went to the dogs and I lived by my charms

♪ It’s sooner than later that I’m six feet under

♪ It’s sooner than later that you’ll be alone

♪ So who will you turn to

♪ Tomorrow, I wonder

♪ For when the bell rings Lover, you’re on your own

♪ I am the one who you let see you weeping

♪ I know the soul that you struggle to save

♪ Too bad I’m the bet that you lost in the Reaping

♪ Now what will you do

♪ When I go to my grave ♪

(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

LUCKY: Ding, ding, ding. Look at that.

Record high for the evening.

The Capitol is definitely watching.

People sending in donations. See what happens when you do stuff?

LUCY: Yeah.

Now, I don’t love your odds, but may they be in your favor.

Thank you for being here.

LUCKY: Ms. Lucy Gray, District 12.

Both of you.

SEJANUS: It’s what friends do.

LUCKY: How wonderful is this night that we all get to be here for someone’s final performance.

Ms. Lucy Gray, thank you.

Go home, go to bed, get a good night’s sleep.

You’ve got a big day tomorrow.

(GROANS)

(INHALES SHARPLY)

(METAL CREAKING)

(MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYING)

(LIGHT BUZZING)

(RAT SCREECHING)

(SCREECHING)

SNOW: (WHISPERING) Lucy Gray.

Lucy Gray.

Hey.

You’re alive.

Those bombs, they have changed everything.

They blew the walls out.

So that means you can escape up into the stands.

There’s a hole down in the floor.

Leads down to some tunnels. I’ve tried it and you can disappear down there.

So the moment you hear that bell ring, you ignore the weapons in the middle and you run as fast as you can for that hole.

And you find a place to hide down below. Alone.

Alone? No.

Yeah.

Jessup’s my friend.

No.

The moment that bell rings, you can’t trust anyone.

Not even Jessup.

Just lay low down there until it’s safe to come out.

Thank you for taking care of me.

I can’t let you die.

You saved me.

You saved me, Lucy Gray.

I’m sorry.

Hey.

I’m more hopeful during the daytime, but when it gets dark, I just…

It’s okay.

It’s okay.

I am gonna get you out of here.

I promise.

Back to the Covey, okay?

Is this real?

Just tell me.

If I’m gonna risk everything. That song…

That song was payback, that’s all.

My old boyfriend, Billy Taupe, he was cheating on me with the mayor’s daughter.

The girl from the Reaping.

Yeah, she got crazy jealous.

She had her pa read my name up on that stage and now everyone will know what they did to me.

Here.

You take this.

No, no, it’s too fine.

No, it is not a gift.

It’s a loan.

What’s in here, don’t touch it.

Don’t even breathe it in because small amounts can be deadly.

Look, I have seen what war does to people, okay?

I’ve seen it.

And there will come a time when you need this.

When you need to act.

We all do things we’re not proud of to survive.

Hey.

We are gonna win this, Lucy Gray.

We’re gonna win this together.

(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)

PEACEKEEPER: Wake up! On your feet!

Jessup.

(LIVELY CHATTER)

CASCA: That friend of yours. Plinth.

You might wanna find him a seat near the door.

SEJANUS: Coryo.

Hey.

How you doing? You all right?

Better.

MAN: Over here, please.

(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)

Better.

Tell me this will be over quickly.

(LUCY GRUNTS)

JESSUP: What is this? The mines?

I… I gotta get my tools. Pa said…

(DILL COUGHING)

LUCKY: Here we go. Here we go, everyone.

Come on. Come on, let’s go.

Sit down, Festus, come on.

Everyone, as you know, we’re about to go live.

Just because you’re not hosting, doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. Help me.

Don’t get lost behind your screens.

No yawning, no gum chewing.

Keep your chins down, heads up, shoulders back.

And smile.

It’s why we have teeth.

Okay. Ready? We’re gonna start, guys.

Five, four, three, two…

(DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING)

Good morning, I’m Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman.

A man who needs no introduction.

Weatherman, amateur magician, and today, I’m honored to say… first ever host of the Hunger Games.

(STUDENTS CHEERING, APPLAUSE)

In my hand, an envelope, sealed.

My prediction, the winner to be opened by me upon the big show’s end.

(DRUMS BANGING)

Well, well…

They’re here. We’re getting word…

All right, we’re about to start.

We’re starting, everyone, we’re starting.

Happy Hunger Games. Happy Hunger…

Remember, when your tribute dies, get out of here.

(TURNSTILE CRANKING)

FEMALE ANNOUNCER: (ON SPEAKERS) Enjoy the show.

(TURNSTILE CRANKING)

Enjoy the show.

Enjoy the show.

(HAUNTING MUSIC PLAYING)

MAN: (ON PA) Stand on your mark or you will be shot.

Move.

(TESLEE CRYING)

(TESLEE AND LAMINA SOBBING)

(TESLEE COUGHING)

(GASPING)

(TESLEE COUGHING)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

Ooh! Marcus.

(STUDENTS EXCLAIMING)

Guess we can all sleep better now knowing he’s off the streets.

You’re monsters!

All of you!

(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

Ten, nine…

(GASPING)

(ON PA)… eight, seven, six, five…

Jessup.

LUCKY: four, three…

Jessup.

LUCKY: two, one.

(ALARM BLARING)

(BELL RINGING)

(SOFTLY) Run.

(ALARM BLARING)

(ALL SHOUTING)

LUCY: Jessup!

Jessup!

(SOFTLY) What are you doing? Run.

(ALL GRUNTING)

(PANTING)

Jess…

(YELLING)

(BOTH GRUNTING)

Jessup!

(SHOUTING)

(SCREAMS)

(GROANING)

(LUCY GASPING)

(VOMITING)

(BUZZER BUZZES)

(STUDENTS CHEERING)

(SHRIEKS)

(BOTH GRUNTING)

(SCREAMS)

Jessup!

(FEMALE TRIBUTE GROANS)

(GASPS)

(GRUNTING)

(YELPS)

Jessup!

Jessup! Jessup, we gotta go, come on.

We should get out of here. We gotta go. We gotta go.

LUCKY: They’ve gone underground very quickly, but we’re prepared for this.

(SOFTLY) Go, go, go.

LUCKY: What you’re seeing now is a live feed of security cameras.

(JESSUP PANTING)

Come on!

Come on!

(GRUNTING)

(SOFTLY) Go, go, go.

(GRUNTING)

This way.

LUCKY: Hy and Sol from the other side, pincering in on Lucy Gray.

LUCY: Come on.

(GRUNTING)

(SOL AND JESSUP GRUNTING)

LUCY: No! Please, no!

No!

LUCKY: Here comes the Pack, surprising Hy and Sol.

(SOL SCREAMING)

(STABBING)

(SCREAMING) No!

Come on.

(BUZZER BUZZING)

(STUDENTS EXCLAIMING)

(STUDENTS CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

CORAL: Hey, lumberjack, get in there and get her out.

TREECH: I’m not sticking my head in there.

She could be waiting with a brick.

(SIGHS) I knew we should have recruited that Reaper kid.

(SOFTLY) Do you think they’re done?

Looks like it.

To the children watching, that was violent, horrific, and disgusting.

Ms. Phipps, please, if you’re going to vomit, do it off camera.

Thirteen tributes remain.

Reaper still looming large on top of the charts while Coral and her Pack try to make a play.

Six tributes gone in minutes.

If they keep it up at this pace, we’re gonna be outta here in no time.

Now, these record high temperatures aren’t doing that fire that continues to burn out here in District 9 any favors.

I’ll keep an eye on it.

In District 10, this warm front is gonna come down and collide here, squeezing out some drizzle.

And finally, in District 12, a…

(RUSTLING)

(FOOTSTEPS)

(SOFTLY) Lamina.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

Please.

Please.

(CRYING)

(CRYING)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(CHOPS)

(ALL EXCLAIMING)

(BUZZER BUZZES)

(GRUNTS) Yes!

(BODY THUDS)

(STUDENTS EXCLAIMING)

Cold pressure system’s gonna swoop on in, bringing cooler temperatures and some much needed relief to our coal miners out there, at least until early evening.

That’s the weather.

Was it mercy? Was it murder?

Either way, that’s what happens when you do stuff.

You get attention.

Citizens send you money.

Now, once they get your money, the mentor can choose to send in food or water using our newly developed drones from the war, reprogrammed with facial recognition.

This ensures that your package goes directly to your tribute.

Isn’t that right, Pup Harrington?

Yeah.

I’ve got a hunch Pup is gonna seize the opportunity.

(MONITOR CHIMES, BUZZES)

(DRONE BUZZING)

(STIRRING MUSIC PLAYING)

(STUDENTS CHATTERING)

What?

(LUCKY CLICKS TONGUE)

(VULTURES SCREECH)

(VULTURES SCREECH)

Uh, we have a reservation tonight. Flickerman.

Party of two and a high chair.

We will not be there, um, on time. I’m sorry.

I’m… I’m hosting the Hunger Games…

(BUZZER BUZZES)

10th annual, and it’s going a little bit longer than anticipated, so I’m curious to know

if you have anything later tonight.

You do. Great. I will be there.

Because this…

If not… If you don’t see me, I’m not there.

CASCA: You can’t save her by watching.

What do you want from that girl?

Nothing. I want her to live.

Mmm.

And the Plinth Prize would be a happy coincidence, I suppose.

I believe I’d be entitled to it.

Of course you do. Of course you do.

The prize, the girl.

Hmm, how convenient. You don’t have to choose between them.

Who do you think makes that final decision for the prize you so covet, Mr. Snow?

Wake up.

Even if Lucy Gray Baird somehow wins it all, I will do everything in my power to ensure that you don’t see a dime.

So, ask yourself, how much do you care if she lives now?

(JESSUP GROANING)

We gotta be quiet down here, Jessup.

I just wanna sleep.

You want some water?

(JESSUP GRUNTS)

What have you done to it?

I didn’t do anything, Jessup, I just…

Are you okay?

It’s okay.

(JESSUP GASPS)

Jessup, come on.

Let’s go back to sleep, okay?

I know, I know. It’s okay. It’s okay.

(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)

DR. GAUL: Mr. Snow.

What happened?

Is it Lucy Gray?

Unless you can put a leash on your deluded classmate, she might as well be dead as far as you’re concerned.

Sejanus?

Bread crumbs. I believe sustenance for a fallen comrade on his final journey.

A District 2 superstition.

I’ll work on finding the Peacekeeper he bribed to get him in, and cut out their tongue.

In the meantime, I need someone to get him out right now.

You should send Peacekeepers in.

Only to have him bolt and hide like a rabbit?

Felix Ravinstill is fighting for his life in the hospital, Mr. Snow.

I will not have these rebels make a further mockery of my Games.

Anyone sees us lose control of this arena, it might as well be sounding a horn to the districts to revolt.

You choose to be friends with this radical.

You want him to end the Games tonight?

It’ll look a lot worse if the tributes kill two of us.

So don’t let them.

Who knows? You get him out unscathed, I’ll whisper your name in his father’s ear.

You still want that Plinth Prize, don’t you?

I’ll freeze the feed for an hour.

I estimate that’s all we have until the people notice.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)

(GATE SLAMS)

(GATE LOCK CLICKS)

(TURNSTILE CRANKING) FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Enjoy the show.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(WHISPERING) I thought they’d send my ma.

Yeah, I wish they had.

You need to go, Coryo.

I’d like to. I really would.

But I promised I’d get you out.

Why?

Because you’re my friend.

I have to do this. I had to go where the cameras are.

You think anyone’s watching this?

Gaul cut the feed.

Tributes kill you in here, she’s just gonna say you died of the flu.

(DEBRIS CLATTERING)

(AX CLINKS)

You need to decide right now.

Do you wanna fight these tributes, or fight for them?

Because if you wanna make real change, you need to stay alive to do it.

How can I make any change from out there?

You’re rich.

Smart. You care.

You’re the only one who stood up to Gaul in that class, right?

(METALLIC CLANG ECHOES)

(SNOW GASPS)

(BLADE CLINKS)

We’re dead if we don’t leave right now.

(SEJANUS SIGHS)

Come with me.

Spend your father’s money, do some real good.

Or just be another dead body in Gaul’s war.

Please.

Trust me.

I…

(SHOUTING)

Go! Go!

(BOTH PANTING)

(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

Run!

(GROWLING)

(TURNSTILE CLANGS)

(SCREAMS)

Come on, get up! To the gate!

(BOBBIN SCREAMING, GRUNTING)

(METAL CLANGS)

I don’t wanna hurt you!

(GRUNTS)

(SNOW YELLS)

(SNOW GRUNTS LOUDLY)

FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Enjoy the show.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(GROWLING)

(FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

Come on, get up.

TREECH: Go!

CORAL: Move it!

SNOW: Open the gate! Open the gate!

(CORAL GRUNTING)

Watch those screens, gorgeous.

‘Cause I may have missed you tonight, but your songbird’s next on my list.

Let’s go.

(SIGHS)

(GROANS)

SEJANUS: I’m… I’m sorry.

Coryo, I’m so sorry.

I’m so sorry.

For all of it.

(CAR DOORS OPEN)

My father.

Let the buying begin.

(GROANING)

Ma!

I had to do something. (CRYING)

DR. GAUL: Snow stormed down, down on his head.

It stormed down on his head, and now the boy is… (CLICKS TONGUE)

(SIGHS)

(LAUGHING)

You’ve had enough of the Games tonight, I see.

Come, sit.

I’ll stitch you up.

Who could imagine Crassus Snow’s baby boy fighting for his life in the arena one day?

What happened in there, that’s humanity undressed.

(SIGHS)

Fueled with the terror of becoming prey, see how quickly we become predator.

See how quickly civilization disappears.

Those tributes don’t have a choice.

I was talking about you.

All your fine manners, education, background, stripped away in the blink of an eye, leaving a boy with a club who beats another boy to death to stay alive.

You wanna protect people, Mr. Snow?

To govern them like your father?

Then it’s essential you accept what human beings are and what it takes to control them.

(SCISSORS THUD)

(DOOR OPENS)

(DOOR CLOSES)

They sent me into the arena tonight, Tigris.

What?

To get Sejanus out.

What happened? Are you okay?

I killed one of the tributes.

A boy.

It must have been awful.

It was.

Then it felt… powerful.

Coryo.

I know you wanna be like your father but what I remember the most about him was that in his eyes, it was just hate.

You don’t have to pay the same price just to survive.

People can be good.

(SCOFFS)

You can be good. You are good.

Just believe in that.

LUCKY: (ON PA) Wakey wakey, my Capitol friends.

I’m Lucky Flickerman and welcome to day number two of the 10th annual Hunger Games.

Now, while most of you were getting your beauty sleep last night, something scintillating occurred.

Bobbin from District 8, slaughtered.

(BUZZER BUZZES)

(STUDENTS CHEERING)

Which of these beasts slayed Bobbin from District 8?

Either way, it doesn’t matter.

10 tributes remain.

Reaper still at the top of the boards.

They aren’t showing us what happened to that little boy.

He clearly was killed right there.

There’s cameras everywhere. It doesn’t make sense.

FESTUS: They said they were old cameras, Lyssie.

Probably just another one of Coral’s.

LUCKY: Festus, sit down.

Same seats.

(JESSUP GROANING)

(GROANING)

(JESSUP PANTING)

(BOTH GASPING)

(FROTHING)

(GASPING)

JESSUP: What’d you do to me?

LUCY: Nothing!

Lyssie, what is he doing?

Something’s wrong. He wouldn’t turn on her like this.

LUCKY: Jessup going after Lucy Gray.

Go to the stands, go to the stands.

(GASPING)

Stop running! What did you…

(JESSUP GROANING)

What did you do to me?

I didn’t do anything.

(BOTH GRUNTING)

LUCKY: Both tributes from District 12.

The same district folding in on itself.

Wait, look.

The foam.

LUCY: I didn’t do anything to you!

I think it’s rabies.

That bite. From that train.

Send him water.

Wait, what?

You remember the posters in the war?

Rabies. It makes you afraid of water. Send him a drone.

That’ll scare him.

Yes.

Away from her.

Jessup is done.

Lyssie, you’re the only one that can get it right to him.

LUCKY: Ms. Vickers going for her communipad early.

Thank you.

LUCKY: Sending a drone.

Nothing to be proud of.

(GRUNTING)

Please, please, please!

(DRONE BUZZING)

What’s wrong with me?

What did you do to me?

(LUCY YELPS)

(SHOUTING)

(SCREAMING)

LUCKY: Oh!

(STUDENTS CHEERING)

(GASPS)

Jessup?

(SHUDDERING)

I’m not going anywhere.

Okay?

You watched over me, now I’m watching over you.

(EXHALING)

Sleep now, Jessup, sleep.

(SIGHS)

(WHIMPERING)

Okay.

(BUZZER BUZZES)

(STONES CLATTERING)

(GASPING)

MIZZEN: Here we go.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)

Oh, no!

MIZZEN: (IN SING-SONG VOICE) Lucy Gray.

You stay right there.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

LUCKY: Oh, look at this.

The Pack doing what they do best. Packing it in.

Lucy Gray is swarmed, cornered.

Mizzen, propellering his net.

(CHIMING)

Mr. Snow going for his communipad.

(GRUNTS)

(LUCY GROANING)

(LUCY GRUNTS)

(LAUGHING)

Hey, Coral, do you mind if I take this one?

Not a chance.

(DRONES BUZZING)

(GRUNTS)

(ALL EXCLAIMING)

(GRUNTS)

(GROANING)

(GROANING)

(GROANING)

(STUDENTS JEERING)

These drones are not very good.

Hey! You can’t attack the tributes.

I’m just sending water.

(GRUNTING)

(TRIBUTES COUGHING, GROANING)

(PANTING)

CORAL: (GASPING) You idiots.

How did you possibly let her get away?

TREECH: I couldn’t see a thing.

(MIZZEN COUGHING)

Get this water into a pile, lumberjack.

And then when you’re done, you two can watch that beam while we get your little friend from back home up there at least.

Now.

(CAMERA WHIRRING)

(PANTING)

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC CONTINUES)

Do it now.

(CORAL GRUNTING)

(GRUNTING ECHOES)

(GASPING)

(MIZZEN SHRIEKING)

(GRUNTS)

(MIZZEN SHRIEKS)

(CORAL GRUNTS)

(GROANS)

(GRUNTING)

(GROANING)

(PANTING)

(CORAL GRUNTING)

(MIZZEN YELLING)

(BOTH GRUNTING)

(GRUNTING)

(GROANING)

(GASPS)

LUCKY: Again, a fall…

(BUZZER BUZZES)

…ending a tribute’s game.

(GRUNTS)

Wake up.

LUCKY: Lucy Gray on the move.

And so is Pup Harrington. Thank you, Pup.

(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

(ALL GRUNTING)

(SCREAMING)

(GROANING)

(SHOUTING)

(PANTING)

You’re useless.

(MIZZEN YELPS)

(SIGHING)

LUCKY: Now, I wish we had a camera inside of the duct, but we don’t.

But we will next year.

CORAL: Hey.

You really think you deserve that water now, Tanner?

(SCOFFING)

Look, you just said watch the beam.

(BOYS LAUGHING)

(CHUCKLES)

(GROANING)

(GASPS)

(DEBRIS CLATTERING)

MIZZEN: Coral.

It’s Wovey.

The little one from 8.

This should be easy.

(BUZZER BUZZES)

LUCKY: Seven tributes remain.

Merciless Mizzen, Cunning Coral, Treacherous Treech, Dill, Reaper, of course, and the lone wolves, little Wovey and Lucy Gray.

(PANTING)

(COUGH ECHOING)

(COUGHING)

LUCKY: And who do we have here?

Ah! It’s ill Dill.

Tuberculosis on legs.

(COUGHING)

REAPER: Dill?

Dill?

Dill, wake up.

Dill.

No.

What happened?

Dill?

Dill?

Hey.

Dill, hey, wake up.

Dill.

Dill!

(SHOUTING)

(WHISPERING) I’m so sorry.

(SHOUTING)

(SOBBING)

(BUZZER BUZZES)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)

(PANTING)

(STUDENTS CLAMORING)

He just tore down the flag.

Are you gonna punish me now? Are you going to punish me n…

(DRUM ECHOES)

Capitol citizens, I’m afraid I must interrupt our Games to announce a tragic loss, one that affects us all. Felix Ravinstill, son of our beloved president…

(STUDENTS GASPING)

Has, this morning, succumbed to his injuries sustained in the rebel bombing. Out there in the districts, they will be celebrating this young boy’s death as a triumph. I will not allow my Games to give our enemy such a victory. I swear to you, here and now, before the sun goes down tonight, a rainbow of destruction will engulf our arena. Even if it means there’s to be no victor in these Games.

(STUDENTS GROANING)

Get me a drink. Get me a drink right now.

(PANTING)

(GROANS)

(FLESH SQUELCHING)

I need to see Dr. Gaul immediately.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

Hey. Go get a spear. Go up there.

Push her back as much as possible. Trust me.

(HEAVY BREATHING)

DR. GAUL: Come to beg for her life?

SNOW: No.

No, my stitches, they broke loose.

I didn’t want the doctors asking questions.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

Come, sit.

Pull down your shirt.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)

CORAL: Shh. Quiet.

She’s up here somewhere.

(SNOW GROANS)

This might hurt.

(DISTANT CLATTERING)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

DR. GAUL: Jabberjays we call them.

We sent them out during the war to pick up rebel conversations, squawk it back to us word for word.

Watch.

(REMOTE CLICKS)

A failed experiment, but an instructive one.

I’m rounding them up district by district now to see what better purposes they might serve.

JABBERJAY: (CHIRPING) A failed experiment, but an instructive one.

(REMOTE CLICKS)

(DR. GAUL CHUCKLES)

MIZZEN: Here, birdy, birdy, birdy.

(BLADES CLATTERING)

(MIZZEN GRUNTS)

(GASPING)

MIZZEN: Don’t be scared.

Don’t run away.

(IN SING-SONG VOICE) Lucy.

I’ll see you in the auditorium for the finale, Mr. Snow.

You should be proud of yourself.

Your songbird, Lucy Gray, put on a wonderful show.

(BUZZING IN DISTANCE)

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

(DRONE WHOOSHING)

(WIND WHOOSHING)

(PANTING)

Shh. Quiet, quiet. Listen.

(SHUDDERING)

(SNIFFING)

(WHISPERING) Coral.

(DOOR SLAMS OPEN)

(PANTING)

SNOW: Lucy Gray, is she okay?

She won’t be for long.

I’ve got you now, songbird.

Wait.

What’s wrong with Treech?

(METAL CLANKS)

(GASPING)

(CROWD EXCLAIMING)

(COUGHING)

(METAL CLANKS)

Did Coral do something to Treech?

(GASPING)

(CORAL GRUNTING)

(GRUNTING)

(LUCY SHRIEKS)

Run. Run.

What did she do to him?

(BUZZER BUZZES)

LUCKY: Dissension in the ranks. Treech is down.

Good afternoon, Ms. Sickle.

(PANTING)

(STUDENTS EXCLAIMING)

(DRONE WHOOSHING)

(WIND WHOOSHING)

(WHIRRING)

(WIND WHOOSHING)

(THUD ECHOES)

(WIRE SNAPS)

(SPITS)

That is not gonna be good.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

Work, please.

Wouldn’t it be fun if it was candy?

Is it over? (SNIFFLES)

Can we go home now?

REAPER: Wovey.

Wovey.

WOVEY: (SOBBING) Please!

REAPER: Wovey.

Wovey.

(CRACKING)

(WOVEY SCREAMS)

Not candy! Down goes Wovey.

(BUZZER BUZZES)

(SNAKES HISSING)

(GROANS)

(GRUNTING)

(SCREAMING)

Help!

(BUZZER BUZZES)

Mizzen,

say goodbye!

Yes!

Lucy Gray, wait! (GROANING)

(CORAL SOBBING)

CORAL: (SOBBING) Lucy, I’m begging you!

(SOBBING)

It’s not fair.

It’s not.

I can’t have killed them all for nothing.

(GROANING, SOBBING)

(YELPS)

(BUZZER BUZZES)

And that is good-bye to Festus Creed.

Have a nice summer.

Now, all colors lead to Gray.

(CHUCKLES)

She’s… She’s won.

It’s over, she’s won.

She’s won, let her out.

Afraid that’s not your call to make, Mr. Snow.

(CLICKS TONGUE)

(STUDENTS MURMURING)

(SINGING) ♪ You’re headed for heaven

♪ The sweet old hereafter

♪ And I’ve got one foot in the door

♪ But before I can fly up

♪ I’ve loose ends to tie up

♪ Right here in the old therebefore

♪ I’ll be along…

Dr. Gaul, she won.

♪ When I’ve finished my song When I’ve shut down the band

It’s over, let her out.

♪ When I’ve played out my hand

Why aren’t they attacking her?

♪ When I’ve shut down the band

Must be the singing.

♪ I have no regrets…

♪ …right here

It’s calming them.

♪ In the old therebefore

She can’t sing forever.

♪ I’ll catch you up

♪ When I’ve emptied my cup

♪ When I’ve worn out my friends

♪ When I’ve burned out both ends

♪ When I’ve cried all my tears

♪ When I’ve conquered my fears

♪ Right here in the old therebefore

♪ When nothing is left anymore

♪ I’ll bring the news

♪ When I’ve danced off my shoes

♪ When my body’s closed down

(STUDENTS SNIFFLING)

♪ When my folks run aground

♪ When I’ve tallied the score

♪ And I’m flat on the floor

♪ Right here in the old therebefore

♪ When nothing is left anymore

(DRAMATIC MUSIC BUILDS)

♪ When I’m pure like a dove

♪ When I’ve learned how to love

♪ Right here in the old therebefore

♪ When nothing is left anymore ♪

SNOW: Dr. Gaul, please.

Get her out.

Get her out!

STUDENT 1: Get her out!

STUDENT 2: Get her out!

STUDENTS: Get her out!

(CHANTING) Get her out! Get her out!

Get her out! Get her out!

Get her out! Get her out! Get her out!

Who will watch the Games if there’s no victor?

Get her out! Get her out!

(CHANTING STOPS)

Get her out.

(LUCKY LAUGHING EXCITEDLY)

She’s won! Lucy Gray!

(STUDENTS CHEERING)

Coriolanus Snow is the winner of the 10th Annual Hunger Games.

(STUDENTS CHEERING)

LUCKY: Yes! Yes! Yes!

(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING)

Congrats!

Congrats!

Whoo!

(STUDENTS CHEERING)

The Games… that I had… predicted! Whoo!

STUDENT: Yeah! Give it up!

Tigris.

STUDENTS: (CHANTING) Snow! Snow! Snow!

Snow! Snow! Snow!

Snow! Snow! Snow!

(STUDENTS CHEERING, APPLAUDING)

(FIREWORKS EXPLODING)

SNOW: Lucy Gray?

Lucy Gray?

CASCA: I warned you, Mr. Snow.

Cheating will be punished.

More poetically than even I could have hoped.

Lucy Gray, where is she?

I would be more concerned with your own survival if I were you.

It’s fitting that both your parents could be here for your big moment.

That compact.

How many times did I see your mother use it, I wonder… to powder her beautiful face?

Come now, we both know that child from 11 didn’t die of disease.

Or that lumberjack from 7.

And that old handkerchief, we found it in the snake tank, appropriately… (CHUCKLES) condemning you with your father’s own initials.

Your family won’t ever see that prize money now of course.

President Ravinstill has left your form of punishment to me, and I’ve decided banishment to the districts where you’ll serve your Capitol in exile for the next 20 years as an anonymous, peacekeeping grunt.

(FIREWORKS EXPLODING IN DISTANCE)

Do you hear that, boy?

Finally.

The sound of snow falling.

(OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING)

WOMAN: 8.

Send me to 12.

Please.

SEJANUS: You know, I thought I might find you here sitting all by yourself.

Sejanus, what are you doing… What do you think?

After what I did in the arena, my father had to buy the Academy a brand-new gym just so I could get my diploma.

He begged me to stay.

But once I found out where they were sending you, (SIGHS) I couldn’t get out fast enough.

Barely made the train because of this stupid knee.

But it’s okay.

They gave me some morphling for the pain.

You volunteered for this?

I figure I get through basic and then maybe I become a medic.

Make a real difference out here.

Just like you said.

They never told us what you did.

I cheated.

To save Lucy Gray from the snakes.

Do you think they killed her?

Why would they risk it?

She was a big hit.

If there is a Games next year, (LAUGHS) they’re probably gonna invite her to sing at the opening ceremony.

You know, when you came in, I was weighing the merits of suicide.

When we’re about to be free?

When the girl you risked everything for might be waiting for you at the end of this track?

My friend, don’t give them the satisfaction.

Your life has just begun.

You’re gonna do great.

We’re both gonna do great.

Just be careful.

Okay?

It’s a different world out here.

(MACHINERY WHIRRING)

(TRAIN APPROACHING)

MAN: Move it out!

HOFF: Welcome to 12.

We’re proud to have every one of you serving your country out here.

For the next 20 years, brothers and sisters in your immediate squad will become your family.

You will train together, sleep together, eat together.

You will rise together and you will fall together.

You will be our eyes and ears out here on my base as well as off it.

And it will be your duty to report anything suspicious you see, because if you do not, you are as good as a rebel yourself.

Last month, a Peacekeeper and two mine bosses were shot dead in the pits.

We retrieved the murder weapon.

We swabbed it for DNA.

And the results proved beyond doubt that this man, Arlo Chance… is guilty.

So, watch, all of you.

This is what happens when you challenge the Capitol’s rule of law.

WOMAN: He’s innocent!

MAN: No, no, no!

(WOMAN SCREAMING)

MAN: No, no, no!

He’s innocent!

Lil, Lil, Lil!

No, Lil!

LIL: He’s innocent!

Run, Lil, run!

(CROWD EXCLAIMS)

JABBERJAYS: Run, Lil! Run, Lil!

No, no, no!

Arlo!

No! No!

No, no, no!

LIL: No! Arlo!

MAN: No, no, no!

JABBERJAY: Run, Lil! You’re murderers!

No! No!

JABBERJAYS: Run, Lil, run! You’re murderers!

Run, Lil, run!

Run, Lil, run!

LIL: He didn’t do it!

(DOOR BANGING)

You’re all murderers! Let me out!

Let me out! (SOBBING)

Let me out!

Arlo!

What were you thinking back there?

She didn’t do anything, Coryo. What is she guilty of?

Being directly associated with rebels.

What more do they need?

If she had gotten through the crowd…

LIL: He didn’t do it! I swear he didn’t do it!

I don’t think I would have been able to shoot her.

Would you?

LIL: He didn’t do anything!

You need to find a way to make peace with our life here now.

Or have your father buy you a discharge and do something else.

PEACEKEEPER: Hey.

Hoff’s given us all leave passes for the weekend.

Boost morale.

Boost morale.

LIL: (SOBBING) Please.

Please help.

(LIVELY CHATTER)

(UPBEAT COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYING)

Hey, uh, I’m gonna go get a drink.

(RHYTHMIC STOMPING)

(MUSIC ENDS)

(APPLAUSE)

MAUDE: Is it hot in here?

CROWD: Yeah!

‘Cause we’re plannin’ on heating it up a set more.

(CROWD CHEERING)

The one, the only, Lucy Gray Baird!

(CROWD CHEERING)

LUCY: Well, hey there, District 12, did you miss me?

CROWD: Yeah!

I bet you never expected to lay eyes on me again.

And, let me tell you, that goes both ways.

But I am back.

I sure am back!

(CROWD CHEERING)

Oh! Is that bottle there for me?

Oh, come on, y’all.

You know, I gave up drinking when I was 12.

(CROWD LAUGHING)

(CROWD CHEERING)

It’s to clear my pipes, y’all. To clear my pipes.

Now, how about a song, huh?

CROWD: Yeah!

(CROWD APPLAUDING, CHEERING)

(SINGING) ♪ Can’t take my past

♪ Can’t take my history

♪ You could take my pa

♪ But his name’s a mystery

MAN: Yeah!

♪ Nothing you could take from me

♪ Was ever worth keepin’

♪ Oh, nothing you can take

♪ Was ever worth keepin’

(BAND PLAYING COUNTRY MUSIC)

Come on!

♪ Can’t take my charm

♪ Can’t take my humor

♪ You could take my wealth

♪ ‘Cause it’s just a rumor

♪ Nothing you can take was ever worth keepin’

♪ Oh, nothing you can take was ever worth keepin’

♪ Thinkin’ you’re so fine

♪ Thinkin’ you’re in control

♪ Thinkin’ you’ll change me Maybe rearrange me

♪ Think again if that’s your goal

♪ Ooh ♪

BILLY: Lucy Gray!

Lucy Gray!

Billy Taupe!

BILLY: You’re sounding kind of thin, Lucy Gray.

Billy! Billy!

You’re all sounding thin without me. No?

Billy!

I’ve got it.

MAYFAIR: Billy!

(MUSIC DIES DOWN)

Billy!

You swore you wouldn’t play with them again, Billy Taupe.

(GASPS)

(CROWD EXCLAIMING)

Come on.

LUCY: Settle down, settle down.

(CROWD GRUNTING, SHOUTING)

(WOMEN SHRIEKING)

I know you miss me, Lucy Gray.

Get your hands off me right now.

Get your hands off me, Billy.

Get your hands off me, Billy Taupe.

After what you did to me, you get your hands off me right now.

Or I swear I will take a snake and I will…

Don’t touch her!

Coryo, stop!

Get off me, get off me!

What are you, crazy?

Come on. We gotta get out of here.

(SIREN WAILING)

(CROWD SHOUTING)

(GROANING)

(SPITS)

(GROANS)

Who’d have thought I’d have to save you?

(BOTH LAUGHING)

She’s here.

She’s alive.

(GUITAR PLAYING)

LUCY: (SINGING) ♪ Are you

♪ Are you

♪ Coming to the tree?

♪ Where they strung up a man

(PLAYING GUITAR)

♪ They say who murdered three

♪ Strange things did happen here

♪ No stranger would it be

♪ If we met up at midnight

♪ In the hanging tree ♪

(TWIG SNAPS)

(GASPS)

They said I might find you out here.

Sorry, I…

I still got one foot in the arena.

Your hair, that uniform… I thought you were dead.

Yeah, I thought I was too.

But your dean, Highbottom, he had them send me home.

Highbottom did?

Put me on a train himself, gave me some money.

He said they’d sent you to 8.

For breaking their rules.

Saving your life.

But I gave them my last cent so that I could come here to 12.

Because I had to try to find you.

Your dean, he… he told me the strangest thing. He…

He said he was glad that I survived you.

He told you what I did to that boy in the arena?

I didn’t have a choice.

That little girl, Dill…

I know.

I thought it’d be one of the others… maybe Coral…

Hey.

You are not a killer, Lucy Gray.

Yes, I am.

Both of us are now.

You’re safe.

(SOFT MUSIC PLAYING)

(MAUDE HOWLS)

(LUCY SIGHS)

LUCY: Your Peacekeeper friends.

I’ll handle this.

They’ll be here about the fight last night.

Hey, they can’t see us together.

There’s a lake out in the woods.

Nobody knows much of it except us Covey.

Meet me here tomorrow, we’ll go.

We can be free out there.

Maude Ivory, you got my guitar?

Yeah.

Thanks, honey.

SEJANUS: I can put something together.

BILLY: All right.

SEJANUS: Yeah.

Your boy is coming.

See you later.

Hey, you’re back.

How’s Lucy Gray?

Figured you’d be a while, so I decided to explore town.

Oh.

With Billy Taupe?

And who’s the other guy with him?

I remember that from the Academy.

Watching you watch everyone.

Carefully choosing when to weigh in.

Are you trying to help these people?

Don’t you think they need help?

They lost the war, Sejanus.

A war they started that made your family rich.

I am not about to throw away any chance I might have of getting home someday just because you feel a bit guilty.

You understand?

LUCY: (SINGING) ♪ Oft I’d heard

♪ Of Lucy Gray

♪ And when I cross the wild

♪ A chance to see at break of day

(BOTH LAUGHING)

♪ The solitary child

♪ And then an open field they crossed

♪ The marks were still the same

(SHRIEKS)

♪ They tracked them on

♪ Not ever lost

♪ And to the bridge they came

♪ They followed from the snowy bank

♪ Those footmarks one by one

(SNOW SHOUTING)

♪ Into the middle of the plank

♪ And further there were none

(BIRDS WHISTLING ALONG)

♪ Yet some maintain that to this day

♪ She is a living child

♪ That you may see sweet Lucy Gray

♪ Upon the lonesome wild ♪

(BIRDS WHISTLING ALONG)

SNOW: I’ve never seen those birds before.

Mockingjays, we call ’em.

Does she survive?

Lucy Gray, in the song? The footprints?

Maybe she flew away.

I’m sure she’s out there somewhere.

She’s a survivor.

But it’s a mystery, sweetheart.

Just like me. (BOTH LAUGHING)

I brought you something.

It was my mother’s.

I’d like for you to have it.

(INHALES) Mmm.

It still smells like roses.

Thank you.

I’ll take good care of it, I promise.

You must miss your family so much out here.

I do.

I worry about them all the time.

Would you really go back, though?

If you could?

To the Capitol?

I have to.

It’s where I belong.

But I hope you’ll come back with me.

Capitol’s not for me.

At least it’s civilized. Has order.

The Hunger Games are order?

No.

No, of course not.

What if this was our life, Coriolanus?

Out here.

Waking up whenever.

Catching our own food, living out by a lake.

I mean, would you still feel a need for the Capitol even then?

Uh…

Did you two just pick this?

Yep.

Thank you.

Well, it’s a little early yet, Maude Ivory.

MAUDE: No.

(LAUGHS) No.

Early for what?

To eat the roots.

Pretty little thing, but it’s determined.

Some people call it “swamp potato.”

But I think “katniss” has a much nicer ring, don’t you?

Hey, grab the rods, CC?

We could use some more fish at home.

(PENSIVE MUSIC PLAYING)

He misses Billy Taupe.

Do you?

Not since the Reaping, no.

I can’t trust him anymore.

Trust is everything.

It’s everything to me.

More important even than love.

Without trust, you might as well be dead to me.

You can trust me. I promise you that.

If you can trust anyone in this world, you can trust me.

You can trust me too.

Private Snow?

Come with us.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING)

Snow.

I received the results from your aptitude tests this morning.

Looked over your training records too.

Your performance is exemplary.

Well, half the other recruits can’t read, sir.

(CHUCKLES) You’re General Crassus Snow’s boy.

What did you do to end up here?

I made an enemy, sir.

In the Capitol.

I’ve made a career out of ruining my enemies’ plans.

I’m gonna reassign you to officer training in District 2.

You’ll earn a real wage.

Maybe even have another shot at the Capitol one day.

Train leaves in 10 days.

Keep a clean record, you’ll never see anyone from District 12 again.

Is there a problem?

This is an honor, Private. Not an option.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

(STATIC ON PHONE)

TIGRIS: Coryo?

Tigris?

Coryo!

(LAUGHS) Tigris.

Your curls!

Yeah, I know. (LAUGHS)

Where are you?

Coryo, we’re fine.

Tigris, where are you?

We had to move out.

We’re renting this place just for right now.

They evicted you?

Listen. I’m fine.

Grandma’am is fine.

I really don’t want you to worry, okay?

I think I found a way out of here.

I just have to make it through Officer Training in 2.

And then I can make my way back to the Capitol.

I will fix this.

Okay.

I’m gonna be home soon.

I promise.

(DISTORTED) Don’t make me hope.

(STATIC)

(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)

MAN: Secure! Good to go!

(JABBERJAYS CHIRPING)

Whatever it is you’re doing, you need to stop it.

What are you…

Don’t.

I saw you talking to that woman in the jail.

If I don’t report you now…

You don’t know anything to report.

They know we’re friends, Sejanus.

You’re gonna get us both killed.

You told me I could do something.

You told me I could make a difference.

There’s a group of locals that are getting out of District 12 for good.

Don’t. Stop talking.

I can’t hear this.

Listen to me.

They’re going up north to start a new life far away from Panem.

They need money for supplies.

They told me I could go if I got it for them.

You could come with us.

You’re giving money to the locals.

Are you out of your mind? They’re all rebels.

I can’t stay here. I won’t.

They’re not planning on doing anything dangerous, okay?

It’s all dangerous.

They’re just doing what anybody else would do, Coryo.

The leader, Spruce, he wants to get his sister, Lil, out of jail on base.

Hoff is going to execute her just because she knows the man that they killed.

It’s wrong.

I’m gonna help them get her out.

It’s treason, Sejanus.

Nobody’s gonna get hurt.

I’m just doing what you told me to do at the arena.

I was just trying to save you the first time you did something stupid enough to ruin my life.

What if they catch you bringing this woman off base?

It’s worth the risk to do the right thing.

For you.

Your father will just buy your way out of it like he always does, while I’ll be hung just for knowing you.

Please.

Don’t make me rescue you again.

I don’t need you to rescue me, Coryo.

JABBERJAY: They’re just doing what anybody else would do, Coryo.

The leader, Spruce, he wants to get his sister, Lil, out of jail…

(CLICKS)

(SLOW COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYING)

(SINGING) ♪ Everyone’s born as clean as a whistle

♪ As fresh as a daisy

♪ And not a bit crazy

♪ Staying that way’s a hard row for hoeing

♪ As rough as a briar

♪ Like walking through fire

♪ This world, it’s dark

♪ This world, it’s scary

♪ I’ve taken some hits

♪ So no wonder I’m wary

♪ It’s why I need you

♪ You’re as pure as the driven

♪ Snow

♪ Oh

♪ Oh

♪ Cold and clean

♪ Swirling over my skin

♪ You clothe me

♪ You soak right in

♪ This world, it’s cruel with troubles aplenty

♪ You asked me two reasons I got three and twenty

♪ For why I trust you

MAYFAIR: Billy, what the hell are you doing?

LUCY: ♪ You’re as pure as the driven

♪ Snow ♪

SEJANUS: You said that money was for supplies to get north.

BILLY: These are supplies.

What, did you think this was a game?

SEJANUS: You said that nobody was gonna get hurt.

That isn’t part of the deal.

SNOW: Hey.

(MEN CLAMORING)

SNOW: Hey, stop!

What are you doing? Guns, Sejanus?

I didn’t know there was gonna be weapons, Coryo. They lied to me.

You thought they’d be honest?

Are you crazy? There are Peacekeepers right out there.

There’s another one in here now, too.

Okay, wait.

And the mayor’s daughter?

Hey, it’s okay, Spruce. He’s with me.

I told him to come in here. He’s gonna help.

Hey, where’d…

Wait, wait, wait.

You invite the whole town, Plinth?

She’s okay, Spruce.

She’s joining us too. She’s with me.

She what?

Quiet down, Mayfair. I’ll explain later.

I think I’m done listening to your explanations.

She’s not going anywhere.

And neither are you.

My pa’s gonna string y’all up for this.

SNOW: Stop!

She’ll tell everyone, you idiot.

She’ll get us all hung.

He’s right.

No, she won’t, Spruce. She’s all talk, no action.

What do you think, Lucy Gray?

Am I all talk, no action?

Hey, how’d you enjoy the Capitol, by the way?

MAYFAIR: See y’all at the Hanging Tree.

No, no!

(BOTH GRUNTING)

BILLY: Wait.

(GROANING)

Mayfair!

MAUDE: (SINGING) ♪ Keep on the sunny side of life… ♪

(LUCY GASPING)

Coriolanus, what did you just do?

Well, you just shot the mayor’s daughter, son.

LUCY: What did you just do?

If you weren’t a rebel before, you are now.

You killed her.

Quiet, Billy Taupe.

You’re all right.

You and me, we’re gonna be all right.

No one is gonna think this was us.

You reckon you’re just gonna walk out of here free?

Dump this on me, maybe?

I said, pipe down.

You got a surprise coming, Capitol boy.

If I’m gonna swing for this, you swing with me.

(BILLY GROWLING)

(LUCY SHRIEKS)

Oh! (GASPING)

I didn’t trust him anyway.

Billy Taupe! (SOBS)

Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.

You’re gonna go back out on that stage and you’re gonna sing.

You’re gonna sing like nothing is wrong.

And I’m gonna find us a way out of this, okay?

Okay. Okay.

Okay? I swear. I swear.

Go. Go.

Get rid of these guns. Go.

Go, Spruce, go.

SEJANUS: (CRYING) It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

Nobody was supposed to get hurt.

For once, shut up.

It’s all my fault!

All of this is your fault.

It’s only gonna get worse if you don’t pull yourself together.

If you breathe a word now, both of us, we’re finished.

So we go back out there and we act like nothing is wrong.

(SOBBING) I don’t know…

Hey.

Hey, look at me.

You have to pull yourself together. You have to pull it together.

You came here for me, right?

We’re brothers?

Brothers.

So whatever you’ve done, I swear I will keep you safe.

Those guns were the only loose end besides the four of us.

So we’re gonna be okay.

Okay? Not a word.

Okay.

Okay?

(LAUGHING)

(LIVELY CHATTER)

MAN: Hey, Beanie.

BEANIE: Yeah?

MAN: Who’s that girl you were dancing with, man?

BEANIE: I think her name was Josie.

Come on, everybody, up! Everybody up!

Let’s go!

Smiley, what’s going on?

Hoff is losing his mind.

The mayor’s daughter got shot, and her boyfriend, too.

He’s sending out every grunt we’ve got, to find the guns that did it.

It is our duty to keep peace in this district.

So these murderers shall be brought to justice.

We shall find their murder weapons.

If the killers are still in Panem’s grasp, they will hang before the week is out.

PEACEKEEPER: Right there. Don’t move, all right?

PEACEKEEPER: Check the other one.

MAN: I didn’t do anything!

(DOOR SLAMS)

Go!

PEACEKEEPER: Backs to the wall!

MAN: These are children, please!

PEACEKEEPER: Clear!

Clear!

(WHISTLING IN DISTANCE)

Are you okay?

The mayor’s going to get me killed, Coriolanus.

He already thinks it was me.

Billy Taupe, Mayfair, both dead.

If they catch Spruce now, or Sejanus talks…

Sejanus won’t talk.

How do you know that?

They torture the people they catch for information here.

Even Peacekeepers.

I’m sorry.

I’m so sorry.

I should have dealt with those guns myself.

And Mayfair… I just wasn’t thinking straight.

I have to run. North.

Like Billy Taupe and the others talked about.

Away from the districts.

If I stay here now, I’m as good as dead, too.

What about the Covey?

They can look after each other.

I just wanted to say goodbye.

(GUNSHOTS)

(PEACEKEEPER WHOOPING)

(CHEERING IN DISTANCE)

I’ll come with you.

What about your family?

Look.

I just learned Hoff is sending me to 2 for Officer Training but none of that matters now.

You were gonna leave.

It’s all Panem.

As soon as they find that gun, they’ll hang me.

No matter which district I’m in.

When can you go?

Tomorrow.

Dawn.

Okay.

Okay.

Meet me at the Hanging Tree. First light.

(LIVELY CHATTER, LAUGHTER)

PEACEKEEPER: Whoo-hoo!

We got one. I think we got one.

(LAUGHS)

They say his name is Spruce.

(LAUGHTER)

(LIVELY CHATTER)

HOFF: Three years…

I fought for the Capitol during the war.

I’ve been angry.

But this is the first time I’ve felt ashamed.

Get the other one up here.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(CROWD CHATTERING)

SEJANUS: Coryo.

Coryo. Coryo.

HOFF: The Capitol has received word via jabberjay that these two men conspired to break into our base’s jail and flee north to release this terrorist from captivity.

I’d expect this of a rebel but not from one of our own.

This is treason, plain and simple.

Play the recording!

SEJANUS: (ON RECORDING) The leader, Spruce, he wants to get his sister, Lil, out of jail on base. Hoff is going to execute her…

No, Coryo. Coryo, help!

Just because she knows the man that they killed. It’s wrong.

No, no, no! Ma! Help! Ma!

(WAILING) Ma!

(HATCHES SLAM)

(CROWD GASPS)

(WINGS FLUTTERING)

JABBERJAYS: Help!

(JABBERJAYS SCREAMING)

Ma! Ma!

No, no!

Ma! Ma! Ma!

(JABBERJAYS SCREAMING)

Help! Ma! Help!

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(OBJECT RUSTLES)

(SOBBING)

No.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry.

(SOBBING)

LUCY: (SINGING) ♪ Are you

♪ Are you

♪ Coming to the tree

♪ Where they strung up a man

♪ They say who murdered three

♪ Strange things did happen here

♪ No stranger would it be

♪ If we met up at midnight

♪ In the Hanging Tree

♪ Are you

♪ Are you

♪ Coming to the tree

♪ Where the dead man called out

♪ For his love to flee?

♪ Strange things did happen here

♪ No stranger would it be

♪ If we met up at midnight

♪ In the Hanging Tree ♪

LUCY: Are you thinkin’ about Sejanus?

I just wish there was more I could’ve done.

I’m sorry you have to leave this place.

Yeah, I’ll miss the Covey.

Hope they’ll follow me someday, though.

You know what I won’t miss?

People.

People aren’t so bad.

Not really.

It’s what the world does to them.

Like all of us in the arena.

I think there’s a natural goodness born into us all.

(SCOFFS)

No, really.

You can either cross that line into evil… or not.

And it’s our life’s work

to stay on the right side of that line.

It’s not always that simple.

Mmm.

I know.

I’m a victor.

Sure will be nice not to have to kill anyone else up north, though, huh?

Three’s enough for me.

I’m gonna make a walking stick.

You want one? (GROANS)

You killed three?

Who’s the third?

What?

Person you killed, Coriolanus.

You said you killed three people.

I only know about two. Do not lie to me.

Can you help me get this out?

There was Bobbin in the arena

and Mayfair. And who’s the third?

My old self.

I killed him so I could come with you.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

Come on.

SNOW: Why don’t we stop here at the cabin?

Wait out the storm?

LUCY: We should really keep going.

SNOW: We’re gonna need food, Lucy Gray.

Let’s catch some fish while we’re here.

(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)

If you want to fish, there’s rods under the floorboards.

(SNOW SIGHING)

(SNIFFLES)

(FLOORBOARDS CREAK)

These ones?

LUCY: Uh-huh.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(SIGHING)

(CHUCKLES)

What is it?

(SNOW SIGHS)

(SIGHS)

It’s the gun.

(THUNDER BREAKING)

The one you fired at Mayfair.

Spruce must have known about this place. If we destroy that gun, you’re free.

You can go back home.

Will you?

(SIGHS)

No more loose ends.

Besides me.

Besides you?

You wouldn’t tell anyone.

‘Course not.

(THUNDER RUMBLING)

I’m just gonna go dig up some katniss.

There’s a good patch down by the lake.

I thought it was too early for that.

Well, the world changes awful fast.

Lucy Gray.

It’s still raining.

Well, I’m not made out of sugar.

(SIGHS)

Lucy Gray?

Lucy Gray?

Lucy Gray, where are you?

Hello?

Hey, did something happen?

Because if something’s happened, we can talk about it.

Are you hiding from me?

Lucy…

(SNAKE HISSES)

(SNOW SCREAMING)

(GROANING)

Ow!

(LAUGHING)

(TENSE MUSIC PLAYING)

Is that poisonous?

Are you trying to kill me?

Lucy Gray?

Lucy Gray!

I said, are you trying to kill me?

After everything I’ve done for you!

(SNIFFLING)

(SOBBING)

(INHALING)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(GUNSHOT)

(GROANS)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

LUCY: (SINGING) ♪ Are you

♪ Are you

♪ Coming to the tree

♪ Wear a necklace of rope

(BIRDS WHISTLING ALONG)

Lucy Gray?

♪ Side by side

-♪ With me -That’s enough.

♪ Strange things did happen here

Lucy Gray, I said…

(BIRDS WHISTLING ALONG)

♪ No stranger would it be

♪ If we met up at midnight

(GASPING)

Shut up!

♪ In the Hanging Tree

(SCREAMING)

(BIRDS CONTINUE WHISTLING)

(PANTING)

(SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Sir.

How’s the arm, Private?

The medic said you took quite a bite.

Nothing that I won’t have forgotten about by the time I reach 2, sir.

There’s been a change of plan, Private Snow.

DR. GAUL: Congratulations, Mr. Snow.

You’ve passed all my tests.

I’ve asked President Ravinstill to grant you a full pardon, effective immediately. I also told him that you are too promising to waste in the military.

So you’ll be studying under me now at the Capitol University.

I can’t afford University.

A certain Mr. Strabo Plinth has offered to pay for everything you need while you’re there.

All for being such a good friend to his Sejanus.

He doesn’t know quite how good a friend you were, of course.

I never mentioned your little recording.

Quite impressive, how you sent your only friend to the noose just to get my attention.

That’s not what I did.

Are you sure?

Because I think that won you the Plinth Prize, after all.

The President has agreed to another year of the Games.

People watched.

And I have you to thank for that.

But before I take you under my wing, after everything you’ve seen out there in the real world, let me ask you one final time.

What are the Hunger Games for?

I used to think that the Hunger Games were punishment for the districts.

Then I thought they served as a warning to us here in the Capitol about the threat the districts posed.

(SIGHS)

Now I know the whole world is an arena.

And we need the Hunger Games.

Every year.

To remind us all who we truly are.

And who are you, do you determine?

(CHUCKLES)

The victor.

Welcome home, Mr. Snow.

(GRANDMA’AM LAUGHING)

(EXCLAIMS) Oh!

You look so handsome.

What do you think?

I think you look just like your father, Coriolanus.

(SLAMS)

Sejanus Plinth’s personal effects from District 12.

I was going to return this to his parents tonight.

As a gift.

It would have been his 19th birthday.

But I think… they would prefer just this.

Best friends.

You grew a heart in the districts.

No, not in the districts.

In the Hunger Games.

I should be thanking you.

The credit for the Hunger Games goes to your father.

Half of it, at least.

I only dreamt them up as an assignment.

A joke.

I was drunk.

Devise a punishment for our enemies so extreme, they will never forget how badly they’ve wronged us.

When I sobered up, I wanted to destroy it.

But your father, my best friend, he’d stolen it from me.

Put both our names on it, taken it to Gaul to rise up himself.

I tried morphling… the night that first child fell.

I hoped the Games might die out.

I tried to stop them however I could.

But then you came along.

Now the blood of so many more generations will be on my hands.

Because you’ve shown us the price people are willing to pay for a good show.

Tell me… was she sad when you left 12?

Your little songbird?

I expect it made us both sad.

My contacts inform me that she’s disappeared.

That the mayor might have killed her out there.

But there’s no proof.

It’s a mystery. (CHUCKLES)

And mysteries have a way of driving people mad.

(CASCA CHUCKLES)

Look at you.

Heir to the Plinth fortune, nothing in your way.

Snow lands on top.

Yeah.

(SIGHS)

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

(SIGHS)

(GASPS)

(WHIMPERING)

(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)

(DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES)

PRESIDENT SNOW: It’s the things we love most that destroy us.

(DRAMATIC CHORAL MUSIC PLAYING)

(CAN’T CATCH ME NOW BY OLIVIA RODRIGO PLAYING)

(SINGING) ♪ There’s blood on the side of the mountain

♪ There’s writing all over the wall

♪ Shadows of us are still dancing

♪ In every room and every hall

♪ The snow falling over the city

♪ You thought that it would wash away

♪ The bitter taste of my fury

♪ And all of the messes you made

♪ Yeah, you think that you got away

♪ But I’m in the trees I’m in the breeze

♪ My footsteps on the ground

♪ You’ll see my face in every place

♪ But you can’t catch me now

♪ Grew waiting grass The months will pass

♪ You feel it all around

♪ I’m here, I’m there I’m everywhere

♪ But you can’t catch me now

♪ No, you can’t catch

♪ Me now

♪ Bet you thought I’d never do it

♪ Thought it’d go over my head

♪ I bet you figured I’d pass with the winter

♪ Be something easy to forget

♪ Oh, you think I’m gone ’cause I left

♪ But I’m in the trees I’m in the breeze

♪ My footsteps on the ground

♪ You see my face in every place

♪ But you can’t catch me now

♪ Grew waiting grass The months will pass

♪ You’ll feel it all around

♪ I’m here, I’m there I’m everywhere

♪ But you can’t catch me now

♪ No, you can’t catch

♪ Me now

♪ Ooh

♪ Ooh

♪ Ooh

♪ Ooh

♪ You can’t You can’t catch me now

♪ I’m coming like a storm into your town

♪ You can’t You can’t catch me now

♪ I’m higher than the hopes that you brought down

♪ You can’t You can’t catch me now

♪ I’m coming like a storm into your town

♪ You can’t You can’t catch me now

♪ I’m higher than the hopes that you brought down

♪ You can’t You can’t catch me now

♪ I’m coming like a storm into your town

♪ You can’t You can’t catch me now

♪ You can’t, you can’t You can’t

♪ There’s blood on the side of the mountain

♪ It’s turning a new shade of red

♪ Yeah, sometimes the fire you founded

♪ Don’t burn the way you’d expect

♪ Yeah, you thought that this was the end ♪

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)

(DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING)

(DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC FADES)