Random Dark Scenes That Were Left Out Of Hunger Games Movies (15 items)

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  (#1) Katniss Murders A Stranger In The Capitol

  In one of the more random and harrowing acts of violence in the original version of Mockingjay, Katniss and her allies are hiding out in the Capitol when they come upon what appears to be an abandoned house. When a woman surprises them by calling for help, Katniss shoots her on instinct. 

  Although it's understandable why the filmmakers didn't want to include this moment for fear of what it would make the audience think about Katniss, it is a key moment in the novel. This scene shows just how much the uprising against the Capitol has changed Katniss, and how polarized the people on both sides have become. 
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  (#2) Peeta Kills Someone In The First Round Of The Games

  Peeta is portrayed as Katniss's less militant foil in the books and the films. This is why it is so significant in the first novel when he intentionally and knowingly murders someone.

  After the Cornucopia, Peeta teams up with the "career tributes." At one point, Peeta is sent back to finish off a girl whom Cato stabbed with a spear. Katniss watches him do it from a distance, and although he doesn't do it enthusiastically, he does do it.

  One could argue Peeta did this out of mercy, given the girl was already going to die, or as part of his long game to protect Katniss, whom he was trying to keep away from the other tributes. Both are probably a little but true, and eliminating this scene from the movie reduces both the sense of confusion Katniss initially feels about where Peeta's loyalties lie and the sense of guilt that would surely haunt the sensitive Peeta throughout the rest of the series. 
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  (#3) Katniss Almost Dies Of Dehydration

  In the first Hunger Games movie, Katniss pretty much kicks butt as soon as she steps into the arena. But in the book, she has a much harder time of it initially. She struggles to find water for almost two days, nearly dying in the process. In the movie, she finds water almost right away, getting off to a significantly easier start. 
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  (#4) Katniss Is Almost Burned To Death

  The final battle between the Capitol and District 13 is just as important to the movie version of Mockingjay - Part 2 as it is to its source material, and Katniss is an active participant in both. However, while Katniss is badly burned in the movie, her wounds aren't as severe and lasting as they are in the book. Collins describes her flesh as sensitive, permanently scarred, and often bleeding. 

  It's the trilogy's final, cruel irony, that in the end, the "Girl on Fire" becomes a burn victim. 
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  (#5) The Mutts Are Genetically Engineered Recreations Of The Fallen Tributes

  Just like in the book, Katniss and Peeta face giant gentically engineered wolf-dogs at the end of their first Hunger Games. What the movie doesn't include is that these mutts are given the same eyes as the Games' fallen tributes. One of the mutts kills Cato, and Katniss and Peeta are forced to take shelter in the Cornucopia as they listen to him being torn apart. 

  The dogs in the movies are still monstrous, but they're wiped of the genetic tinkering that gave them their human qualities in the book. While this may feel like a small detail, it does a lot to illustrate the utter disrespect and cruelty the Capitol shows to these children they've forced to kill each other for sport. 
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  (#6) People Who Try To Escape The Capitol Are Killed Or Turned Into A Tongueless Avox

  Early in the first book, Katniss and Gale watch helplessly as a young man and a red-headed girl get abducted by one of the Capitol's hovercrafts. The man is killed instantly, but not before he is impaled with a giant harpoon. More troubling is the fate of the girl who later shows up in the Capitol as an "Avox," a servant who has their tongue cut out as punishment for their crime.

  Although the Avoxes do make several tacit appearances in the films (and Katniss does make a reference to tongues being cut out at one point), we never fully understand the horror of this situation. The scene in the book makes the fate of the red-headed Avox personal, and it illustrates just how gruesome the Capitol's tactics are. 
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  (#7) The Soldiers Of District 13 Use Nightlock To Commit Suicide

  In the movie versions of The Hunger Games, "Nightlock" exists as the poisonous berries Katniss and Peeta use to threaten to kill themselves, forcing the Capitol to spare their lives. Nightlock is also heavily implied to be responsible for the death of Seneca Crane, most likely at the hands of President Snow, who's said to have a penchant for poison. 

  What the movies don't tell you about Nightlock is that the solders of District 13 also converted it into suicide pills so they could take their own lives if captured. We never actually see one of them do it, but it it definitely counts among the many details that makes Mockingjay, the book, so dark. 
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  (#8) Peeta Loses A Leg

  In the original Hunger Games movie, Peeta's leg is injured, but it's not completely amputated like it is in the book. Katniss, who helps make him a tourniquet in the games, doesn't even realize how badly Peeta is injured until they're being interviewed later by Caesar Flickerman. Peeta unveils the robotic leg the Capitol made for him in this interview, without which he surely wouldn't have been able to make it through the rest of the series. His robotic leg is mentioned often in Catching Fire, where it slows him down in a way that's completely omitted from the movies. 
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  (#9) People Are Starving To The Point Of Malnutrition

  Reaping fish soup, Mellark cookies, goat cheese bread from Prim, crescent bread from District 11, even Katniss's beloved lamb stew; The Hunger Games movie all but erases the book's focus on food, how rare it was to have it, and how joyful it was when you did. The film does include the flashback where Peeta throws some bread to Katniss while she's nearly passed out in the rain, but what the movie doesn't indicate is just how vital that gesture was.

  Katniss is on the verge of starving to death when Peeta saves her. When the two of them arrive in the Capitol, they partake in the food that is given to them, but they don't gorge themselves in the desperate way Collins describes. Remember, the Districts compete in these games so the champions can win an extra supply of food to bring home with them. 

  Catching Fire makes up for this a little bit by including the scene where Peeta express his disgust at the way the citizens of the Capitol make themselves throw up so they can eat more, all while people are starving to death back in District 12. Overall though, food is not the urgent, dire concern in the movies it is in the books. 
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  (#10) Peeta Is Beaten On Live TV

  Although Peeta does appear gaunt and broken during his latter interview in Mockingjay - Part 1, the movie is not as graphic in depicting his treatment. In both the novel and the film, Peeta breaks from his script during the interview to warn District 13 of an upcoming bomb attack. Where the book differs is that he is savagely beaten on camera in front of Katniss and all of Panem following this outburst. The movie implies he is about to be punished but stops short of showing it. 
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  (#11) Haymitch Is An Alcoholic Who Berates Katniss

  As portrayed by Woody Harrelson in the films, Haymitch is a bit of a drunk, but he isn't the full-blown alcoholic he is in the books. He's usually tipping a little something into his drink, but he isn't falling down in public, like he does at the Reaping Ceremony in the books, and he isn't constantly using his drunkenness as an excuse to be cruel to Katniss.

  Haymitch does sober up when it counts, but the venom he spits towards Katniss in the books - supposedly to get her ready for the arena - is far more severe than the gentle ribbings he throws her way in the movie. He also gets Katniss legitimately drunk in the book Catching Fire when she comes over to his house during a crisis.  
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  (#12) Messalla’s Death Is Much More Graphic

  In both the book and movie adaptation of Mockingjay, Messalla meets an untimely end. The movie makes his death a lot less gruesome than the books, though. In the film, he steps into a beam of light which shatters his body into pieces. The book takes this scene much further: the beam of light traps him as skin melts off his body, all while Katniss watches in horror. 
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  (#13) Katniss Becomes Deaf In One Ear

  In the movie, Katniss blows up the Career Tributes' supplies at the Cornucopia and then hears a momentary ringing in her ears. In the book, blood comes out of her ear, and she's left permanently deaf on her left side. After the games, the Capitol gives her a hearing aid, which she later uses against them. 
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  (#14) Katniss Attacks Peeta After Their First Interview

  This isn't a big one, but the book does have an edge here the movie is missing. When Peeta first talks about his "crush" on Katniss after their first interview together, the film simply shows her giving him a light push. The original Hunger Games book portrays Katniss's misunderstanding and frustration with Peeta's intentions as more extreme: she shoves him into an urn, and Peeta severely cuts his hand. 
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  (#15) The War Between District 13 And The Capitol Is Much Bloodier

  As both fans of the books and the movies know, the majority of Mockingjay revolves around District 13's struggle against the Capitol. Yet both of the movie adaptations of the novel are less bloody in their depiction of the conflict. Although Katniss is involved in the fighting during each film, she witnesses less atrocities. In the novel, the rebels bomb cities and cause avalanches, and Katniss watches. 

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