THE HUNGER GAMES: Mockingjay Pt.1
NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy
Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is huddled in a corner muttering about what The Capitol has done following her actions during the Quarter Quell. She is brought back to her room, as she now resides in a facility in District 13. Katniss walks out of her room and hears someone sobbing. It's Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin). He knows that The Capitol has taken Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), Johanna Mason (Jena Malone), and his love Annie Cresta (Stef Dawson) hostage. Finnick wishes that everybody were dead.
Katniss's sister Prim (Willow Shields) is brushing Katniss's hair when Colonel Boggs (Mahershala Ali) enters and asks Katniss to follow him. He escorts her to a room where she finds Beetee (Jeffrey Wright), along with Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and District 13 President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore). Coin tells Katniss that there have been riots in every district after she destroyed the dome in the Quarter Quell, and The Capitol is taking extreme measures to stop this. Plutarch says the plan is to get Katniss to assume her role as the Mockingjay to create propaganda videos against The Capitol. Katniss refuses, thinking it was Peeta that should have been saved instead of her. She leaves, and Plutarch tells Coin that they should let Katniss see what happened to District 12.
Katniss reunites with Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) on a trip to their former home. District 12 is mostly ruins and rubble. Katniss walks among the area she once knew. She feels something crack beneath her foot - a human skull. Then she sees dozens of bones and decaying corpses. She goes to her house in the Victors Village. Katniss grabs a picture of her father, and then finds Prim's cat Buttercup and puts him in her bag. On her desk is a vase with wilted white roses, except for one that's still blooming. She knows this was put there by The Capitol.
President Snow (Donald Sutherland) is getting ready to deliver a speech to the districts. He addresses the actions seen in the games, stating that any action against The Capitol will be punished, and any association with the Mockingjay is forbidden. All around the districts, the Peacekeepers bring forward a number of rebels and execute them before everybody else.
Katniss returns to the facility to find Prim and their mother (Paula Malcomson). The members of District 13 are having a meal when a video from Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) starts to play. With him is Peeta. Katniss's jaw drops when she sees him. Peeta tells everyone that is watching to lay down their weapons, because there is no need for a civil war. Everybody begins to clamor and call Peeta a traitor. Katniss then decides to go to Plutarch and Coin to agree to be the Mockingjay on the conditions that they rescue Peeta, Johanna, and Annie. Coin firmly states no, but Katniss gives her that option or she walks. Plutarch likes the attitude and agrees. Katniss also requests that Prim gets to keep her cat.
Plutarch goes to Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), who is hiding in District 13 as a political refugee. She refuses to leave her room dressed the way she is (i.e., not glamorous). Plutarch says they can easily find another escort for Katniss.
Coin gives a speech to the members of District 13 about Katniss's conditions. Katniss tells Finnick that she made sure to mention Annie. The members are none too happy when the demand is made to pardon Peeta for his involvement with The Capitol.
Effie joins Katniss and Gale for a meal. She gives Katniss a folder with the final designs of their fallen friend Cinna. It's an outfit made for when Katniss decided on her own to become the Mockingjay. In it is a note that says "I'm still betting on you!"
Katniss has the outfit made as she gets ready to make the propaganda video. Plutarch directs her as she stands on a platform with her bow and arrows, along with a staff against a backdrop. However, the video comes off unnatural and awkward. In enters Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson), who offers his suggestions to the conversation. After the group watches the video, Haymitch asks everybody if Katniss has ever personally moved them. Effie mentions when Katniss took Prim's place as Tribute in The Reaping, and when she sang her song to Rue during Katniss's first time in the Games. Haymitch concludes that because this was non-scripted, it made Katniss look sympathetic. So the new plan is to let Katniss do the video her own way without a script.
Before heading out to District 8, Beetee gives Katniss a set of arrows that are color-coded to for explosions, incendiary, or regular action. Katniss and Gale join a new crew led by Cressida (Natalie Dormer), along with her assistant Messalla (Evan Ross), director Castor (Wes Chatham), and cameraman Pollux (Elden Henson), who is an Avox and therefore cannot speak since The Capitol had his tongue cut out. The team goes into District 8 to a hospital overseen by Commander Paylor (Patina Miller). The place has a room with rotting corpses before the room with all the weak and sickly. Katniss enters the room and everyone is silent. A young boy asks Katniss if she is there to fight with them. She says yes, and they give her the three-finger salute.
Snow sees footage of Katniss and the crew in District 8. He sends firebombers down there to attack. They bomb the hospital with people still inside. Katniss and Gale retaliate by firing their explosive arrows to take the firebombers down. Cressida gets the crew ready as Katniss is in the heat of the moment.
She addresses Panem and Snow, showing what The Capitol has done to innocent people, encouraging the citizens to fight back. She tells Snow that if they burn, he will burn with them.
Pretty soon, a group of citizens are walking through the woods with the Peacekeepers nearby. One man goes the three-note whistle, alerting the Peacekeepers. They fire upon everybody while several people climb up the trees. A few mines go off, killing the Peacekeepers.
Katniss and the crew go to a riverbank. Pollux points out an actual Mockingjay bird flying by. He gestures to Katniss to do the whistle. She does, and the Mockingjay mimics the sound. Pollux then gestures for Katniss to sing. She sings a tune called "The Hanging Tree". Beetee has this recorded and sent through the other districts. Pretty soon, many people are singing "The Hanging Tree".
A group of members in District 5 approach a dam while singing "The Hanging Tree". A few people are carrying crates. They charge toward the Peacekeepers, who open fire on them. The ones that make it through attack the Peacekeepers and put the crates in the dam. They set them off, which obliterates the dam and cuts off power to The Capitol.
District 13 sees another video from Peeta. Katniss is horrified to see him looking gaunt and sunken-eyed. Beetee interrupts his video with Katniss's propaganda video. Peeta is able to see the video himself and is shocked to know that Katniss is alive. He starts to warn her and everyone else about an attack before the Peacekeepers pull him out. Sure enough, an air raid is detected, and the members are evacuated to a lower level. Katniss joins everyone only to find that Prim is not with their mother. Katniss figures she went back for Buttercup, and she runs back upstairs. Prim is running down with her cat and Gale behind her. They all make it back before the doors close, just as the place starts getting bombed.
The next morning, Katniss and the crew walk outside to see the damage. The place is covered in hundreds of white roses. Katniss realizes this is Snow's work, and that if she makes another video, he may very well kill Peeta.
Boggs leads Gale and two others to The Capitol in an air raid as Finnick makes a video to the districts. Beetee uses this video in his system to take down The Capitol's defense system. The team makes it in safely and undetected. As Finnick continues the video, the team makes it into The Capitol's main building where the hostages are being held. Their signal is suddenly cut off. Katniss tries to address Snow in the hopes to negotiate with him. The villain responds to Katniss. He says they are past negotiating and taunts Katniss by saying "It's the things we love most that destroy us." The signals cut out again, and Katniss fears that she has lost both Peeta and Gale. She cries in Haymitch's arms.
Katniss later learns that the rescue mission was a success. She sees Johanna in bed, pulling the tubes off her. Finnick finds Annie and they embrace and kiss.
Katniss sees Gale, who tells her that Peeta is in the next room. She finds him looking even more gaunt with bruises and cuts on his face. Katniss approaches him, only for Peeta to suddenly grab Katniss by the neck and slam her against the wall and onto the floor. He nearly strangles her to death until Boggs knocks Peeta out.
Katniss wakes up with a neck brace. She learns that Peeta had been poisoned with tracker jacker venom by The Capitol, but they are working on reversing the process.
Coin comes before District 13 and announces that the hostages have been rescued. She stirs everyone with excitement by saying they will soon reclaim Panem's freedom and fight back against The Capitol. Everybody cheers. Meanwhile, Katniss leaves her room and watches in horror as Peeta is strapped to a bed, writhing and struggling in pain.
END OF PART ONE
"In Loving Memory of Philip Seymour Hoffman"
