Differences Between The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 2 Movie and Book. 19 differences between Francis Lawrence‘s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015) and Suzanne Collins‘ third book in her trilogy have been noted. Some of the changes are minor while others are large.
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The 19 differences between The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015) movie and the book (spoilers):
- 1.) All the scenes of Katniss, Finnick, Johanna et al training in District 13 for their Capitol missions were omitted from the film. Book: Katniss reveals she wants to help fight in the war against President Snow and not just stand on the sidelines and starring in propaganda. In the book, Coin agrees to send Katniss into battle if she is declared fit for combat, and Katniss endures a punishing series of training sessions (alongside Johanna, who also wants to take down Snow). Training includes storming a replica Capitol block rigged with weapons and traps, and passing an interactive exam “designed to target every individual’s weakness.” Johanna fails the exam because she has flashbacks of being tortured at the Capitol, so Katniss heads to the front lines without her. (In the film, Johanna is still weak and addicted to painkillers, and doesn’t make an effort to join the fight.). After Katniss passes her final exam, she is assigned to fight alongside Gale and Boggs. Peeta begins training to become a solider, too, despite having his mind hijacked by the capitol and previously trying to kill Katniss. The District 13 leaders say it will be good for the rebels to see Peeta, who was only recently recovered, fighting for their cause. After one of the soldiers in Katniss’ group is injured, Coin sends in an unstable Peeta to join their team. Movie: Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) does not train to be a solider, but instead sneaks onto a supply plane and finds her way into the rebel’s camp. There, she is met by Gale (Liam Hemsworth). Her act of defiance upsets Coin (Julianne Moore), but she decides to go with and take credit for Katniss’ actions. Peeta shows up in the capitol to joins Boggs (Mahershala Ali), Katniss and Gale on their mission. Katniss is concerned by his surprise appearance and points an arrow at him upon his arrival. She eventually warms to the idea of him joining the fight despite his violent outbursts.
- 2.) No food rationing. The extreme discipline of District 13 is toned down in the movie, for example the extremely strict food rations that are calculated to be just enough for a person’s respective daily work schedule are omitted.
- 3.) No District 13 detention center. No prep team. Katniss’ chained-up-in-the-dungeon prep team is missing from the film completely, instead replaced by only Effie Trinket who is not a prisoner. In the book, Effie’s whereabouts are unknown until the very end, where she appears as part of the team that preps Katniss for what was supposed to be the public execution of President Snow.
- 4.) Enobaria’s Absence. Enobaria is not part of the Mockingjay deal Katniss makes with President Coin, not rescued from the Tribute Center, and not even mentioned in the movie at all. She is seen in Part 2 as part of the surviving victors whom Coin queries about making a special Hunger Games with Capitol children. In the book, Johanna threaten Enobaria at the victors’ meeting (even-though Enobaria was covered by a pardon that Katniss engineered with Coin earlier in the book).
- 5.) Peeta Talks to Prim instead Delly Cartwright. In the book after Peeta is knocked out, the doctors bring in Delly Cartwright, his childhood friend from District 12 to help him. Peeta calmly talks to Delly but eventually gets upset and calls Katniss a “mutt.” In the movie, Part 1 has Katniss watching as Peeta struggles to get out of his restraints. Part 2 has Prim talking with Peeta instead of Delly.
- 6.) The Deaths of the Leeg Sisters. In the book, Leeg 1 is killed by a lizard mutt and Leeg 2 is shot in the head by a metal dart. In the movie, 2 injures her leg, and stays behind in an abandoned building with 1 tending for her. The building is subsequently destroyed by Peacekeepers.
- 7.) Broadcasts and Death notifications. The movie has the Capitol frequently broadcasting reports on the ongoing battle caused by the rebel invasion. Once Snow does a speech dismissing the supposedly dead Katniss, the signal is hijacked by a transmission by Coin.
- 8.) Lizard mutts. Books: While traveling underground in the capitol Katniss hears her name being hissed. She tells her troop they must flee and they’re soon after attacked by a group of mutts described as being “a mix of human and lizard” and having “tight reptilian skin smeared with gore.” In one passage it states that Katniss watches as they “slither onto a ledge.” Movie: Katniss hears the mutts’ whispers, but their appearances are not exactly as they’re described in the books. The mutts in the film run on two legs, appear to have smooth skin and are more zombie-like than reptilian.
- 9.) Coin’s Death, attempted suicide, and incarceration. Book: Katniss finds out that Coin isn’t planning for the democratic Panem the rebels had in mind and instead of executing President Snow, shoots and kills Coin with an arrow instead. That is not the only reason she kills Coin. She realizes that Snow told her the truth in the rose garden. Coin had access to numerous hover craft and could have easily painted one to look like a Capital hover craft. Also, the bomb used was of Gale’s design. Snow didn’t have access to that design. Coin did. That bomb was designed in District 13. After killing Coin, Katniss tries to kill herself with a Nightshade pill but Peeta puts his hand in the way and Katniss can’t bite down on it. She asks him to let her go to which he replies he can’t. She is then taken away as she thrashes wildly against those that are holding her. In the book, Katniss describes waiting for “two days“ in solitude without eating or drinking and plotting her own death. Movie: Katniss is taken into custody but only waits a mere few hours before Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) tells her she is free to go home to District 12. Upon her release, Effie (Elizabeth Banks) is seen wearing the same clothes she wore while getting Katniss ready for President Snow’s (Donald Sutherland) execution. Haymitch says the new president will grant her a pardon down the line.
- 10.) In the aftermath of the District 2 ‘Nut’ mine-bombing scene, the film cut to the Capitol with President Snow hosting an extravagant dinner for personnel. He has one of his advisers, Antonius, killed. That was a movie-only scene. The dinner does not happen in the book.
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11.) The scene where Katniss kills an innocent Capitol citizen is omitted. The horrors of war can turn even good people into monsters, as the book vividly illustrates by having Katniss shoot a civilian in cold blood. After half her unit is killed by lizard mutts, the remaining soldiers seek shelter in a Capitol apartment, where an unsuspecting occupant is eating a sausage. Seeing the rebels, the woman opens her mouth to scream for help — and Katniss “without hesitation” shoots her through the heart. In the film, the apartments the rebels invade are unoccupied, sparing them the horrible choice.
- 12.) Lieutenant Paylor has a larger role in the film. Lieutenant (later President) Paylor’s role in the proceedings, popping up for motivational speech in the second act.
- 13.) No Plutarch meeting after Coin and Snow die. In the book, Katniss and Haymitch met with Plutarch for a post-morten debrief. This scene was cut because of Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s death. In movie, Katniss receives a letter from Plutarch that Haymitch reads.
- 14.) At the end of the film, numerous plot points were omitted. Katniss’ post-war life is given the short shrift. In the book, she’s forced to wait out her own trial, and then she heads back to District 12 a broken woman, until she and Peeta help each other heal. One beautiful detail from the novel — an illustrated book Katniss and Peeta make together to remember the dead — is omitted. And the coda, which introduces Katniss and Peeta’s two children, suggests that they started a family right away, whereas in the book, Katniss says she agonized about the decision for years. Katniss does not sing Rue’s Lullaby to her baby in the field as she does in the book. In the book, Peeta still suffers from the hijacking, years after the war ends.
- 15.) Haymitch kissing Effie. That does not happen in the book. Haymitch stays away from personal relationships as does Johanna because of Snow, the Games, and what happened when they left the arena.
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16.) Snow is increasing sick. More than the book, the film illustrates President Snow’s failing health; he is constantly coughing up blood, and at one point he collapses, causing his minister of affairs Egeria (Sarita Choudhury, whose character was created for the Mockingjay films) to ask if she should call a doctor.
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17.) Finnick’s wedding was altered. In the book, “I kill Snow” is one of Katniss’ conditions for agreeing to be the Mockingjay — but it wasn’t included in that negotiation scene in Mockingjay —Part 1. Katniss finally resolves to kill the President herself in Part 2 after seeing firsthand the condition that Peeta is in after his weeks of torture at the Capitol. She announces her plan to Johanna Mason (Jena Malone) at Finnick and Annie’s wedding. In the book, their wedding cake is an elaborate concoction decorated by baker and accomplished icing artist Peeta, which proves to Katniss that some of his old self still remains.
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18.) Peeta’s most disturbing memory was omitted from the film. Following his brain-hijacking at the Capitol, Peeta has difficulty remembering which of his memories are true and which were created by his torturers. In the book, he has a breakthrough moment when he shares a horrific memory of watching two Avoxes (citizens whose tongues the Capitol had cut out, rendering them mute – one of them Katniss had met in the first book when she still had the power of speech) being tortured to death in front of him. Peeta knows the memory is real because there’s “nothing shiny about it,” a clue that the effects of the Capitol’s brainwashing are starting to fade. In the film, Peeta mentions the shiny-memory difference, but it isn’t tied to such a traumatic and vivid event.
- 19.) Katniss’ blast burns were terrible and omitted from the film. In the book, large portions of Katniss’ body were burned (including her head) during the explosion that killed Prim. The burns required skin grafts. In the book, when Katniss was on fire, the writing reflected upon the fact that “the girl on fire” was actually on fire. The grafts took days. She walked around the President’s home, burns and all between operations. In the movie, none of that happened. A light burn is seen near Katniss’ neck after the blast, ointment is applied, and she is as good as new.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 stars Jennifer Lawrence, Jena Malone, Julianne Moore, Wes Chatham, Elden Henson, Stef Dawson, Robert Knepper, Eugenie Bondurant, Toby Jones, Meta Golding, Misty Ormiston, Kim Ormiston, Evan Ross, Sam Claflin, Mahershala Ali, Natalie Dormer, Michelle Forbes, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Willow Shields, and Stanley Tucci.
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