The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Has An Important Message And A New Portrait
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If you saw The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, you already know that heroine Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is still alive and kicking in the supposedly destroyed District 13. However, if you’re a resident of the dystopian nation of Panem, where Suzanne Collins’ best-selling young adult trilogy, and the movie based on those books, is set, you might not be privy to this information. Lucky for those folks, this new viral video from the upcoming Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 is here to set the record straight.
If you’ve been following along with the action-packed saga, you know that Panem’s ruling despot, the tyrannical and terrifying President Snow (Donald Sutherland) has a lot to worry about. Ever since Katniss and her partner in crime Peeta Melark (Josh Hutcherson) both managed to survive the kids-killing-kids spectacle of the Hunger Games, unrest and dissent has been bubbling all across the land. She has become a symbol of the rebellion, and at the end of Catching Fire most of the citizens aren’t sure if she’s alive or dead.
For those of you not in the know, District 13 exists outside of the Capital control. Most people think it was destroyed in a previous uprising that is what led to the Hunger Games being established in the first place. But it wasn’t. In reality, it is a hotbed of rebellious activity, full of people actively plotting to overthrow Snow and his ilk, and who are not above exploiting a traumatized teenage girl to accomplish that goal. Step one, obviously involves letting everyone know that their symbol, popularly known as the Mockingjay, is still among the living, which Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) does by breaking into this broadcast.
Here’s the problem for Katniss: she may be free, relatively speaking, but Peeta, her pseudo-boyfriend—it’s complicated—is still in the clutches of the Capital, giving her an even more personal stake. As you can see, he’s standing next to Snow on the TV. Much of the action of Mockingjay revolves around her attempts to rescue him and not get killed in the process.
This is the second of these addresses that have been released. In the first video it is just Snow, with Peeta standing off to one side as the president delivers a calm, creepy, sinister monologue. You can’t even call his words a thinly veiled threat, because there’s not much of a veil. In this latest offering, however, Johanna Mason (Jena Malone), another former tribute and fellow incarcerated freedom fighter, has joined them. She doesn’t look particularly pleased to be there, though she does join them for an official portrait that you can see below.
Catching Fire director Francis Lawrence returned to take the helm for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1, which drops on November 21, as well as Mockingjay—Part 2, which hits next year, on November 20, 2015. The film also stars Sam Claflin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, and Julianne Moore.
