The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, has been talked about a lot on this platform. That is undeniable, but there are several things that haven’t been covered. Those things will be covered in future articles such as this one, but, for now, let’s talk about the original hunger games books. There are three books outside of the prequels: Hunger Games, Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Mockingjay. The last book was split into multiple movies as it should’ve been.
The Hunger Games books and the Hunger Games movies are quite different. That is undeniable, that’s how movie adaptations work. If there is a movie adaptation of a book, it is bound to change things. However, the amount of things changed is insane, so, let’s talk about them, book by book.
The First Hunger Games
The first Hunger Games is probably the most similar when it comes to books versus movies. The results of everything are about the same, with a few changes. One of those changes in the hunger games movie being Peeta’s leg, in the book, he loses his leg by the end of it and gets a prosthetic replacement. In the movie, however, that doesn’t happen.
There are probably several reasons for that. One of which being that it was 2012. That sort of thing just wasn’t as normalized in movies. Another thing missing is why Peeta gets so sick. In the books, he gets blood poisoning, which is lethal without treatment. In the movie, it isn’t mentioned, and the severity of his injury is toned way down.
The reason for the severity being toned down is cause it was extremely gruesome. Which would’ve made it a mature movie, thus limiting the audience and by extension, the profits. A third and fourth difference happen earlier, when we meet Haymitch. The first of which is during the reaping ceremony.
In the book, Haymitch stumbles onto stage, loud, drunk and boisterous. He also gives Effie a hug and is the one to introduce her to the crowd during the ceremony. Meanwhile, he isn’t even there in the movie. We only meet him on the train.
The fourth and final difference that will be mentioned is during the train ride. In the book, Haymitch vomits all over himself and passes out, Peeta ends up having to clean him up as a result since Katniss wouldn’t even get near him in that state. Meanwhile, in the movies, he’s charming, funny, witty, still a drunkard, but less of a mess.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The second movie is the least accurate of the original trilogy. It misses so much stuff, it’s nuts. First, the wedding dress scene. That’s missing from the movie and it shouldn’t be. The movie should’ve had that to explain the wedding dress Katniss wears for the tribute interview.
The second thing that’s missing is the electric fence being reactivated, thus forcing Katniss to climb a maple tree and drop twenty feet. It’s important because it shows how different things truly are becoming after the head peacekeeper being swapped.
A third thing that should’ve been in the movie is the noose scene with Finnick. It doesn’t seem that important but it shows the flirtatiousness happening towards Katniss from the other tributes.
It also makes you ask ‘why does he know how to make such a good noose?’ Another thing is that it can make it make more sense that Katniss can make such a good noose. Since she mentioned that in the third book. It gives a reason that’s like, ‘oh, he taught her, that makes sense.’
The fourth thing that isn’t necessarily missing but that was changed is the reason why Gale was whipped. In the books, he’s punished for trying to sell a turkey to the new head peacekeeper. Obviously, he didn’t know there was a new head peacekeeper, but, it would’ve shown how the most infallible can fall just by a simple mistake.
Hunger Games: Mockingjay
The differences between this movie and its book counterpart aren’t as severe as they are in Catching Fire. The results are the same, but the movie does dampen some of Katniss’ depression and suicide ideation. Which, makes sense, there are regulations to follow and all that. However, it still feels a bit like a copout.
Some of the main differences come towards the end of the book. From the way Peeta and Katniss were burned by the explosion that killed Prim, to the way Katniss is imprisoned after killing President Coin. In the books, Katniss wants to die, she wants to kill herself, it is perfectly clear from how she narrates the way she wants to die.
More differences are towards the beginning and middle. Effie isn’t in the book until the end, around Katniss’ time to execute President Snow. In the movies, though, Effie is there towards the very middle.
Which makes sense, they didn’t want to touch on the torture she went through. Which also explains why Katniss’ prep team being tortured and imprisoned like animals was cut from the movie too. Although, they did keep a lot in. They kept Haymitchs’ “I’m with the Mockingjay.”
That was nice, they also kept the mutts that killed Finnick and were absolutely terrifying. The way he was killed in the books was way less detailed though, so, there’s something the movies did right that the books did wrong. Overall, there are definitely more differences that weren’t covered, but this article would be 1,000+ words if every single difference was listed.
