Cornucopia bloodbath

The Cornucopia bloodbath is an event that has always occurred at the very beginning of every Hunger Games since they began, as most of the tributes compete for valuable weapons, food, water and packs full of other valuable supplies that could be useful during the games. These supplies are spread in and around the Cornucopia.

Tributes seem to always die at the bloodbath. The Gamemakers or the Capitol probably set up the Cornucopia for optimal entertainment value and quick deaths at the beginning of the game to keep audiences interested. In the end, the Cornucopia is often taken over by a group of tributes who fought in the bloodbath (usually this is the pack of Career Tributes).

Location
The Cornucopia is usually located in the center of the arena and is where the Career Tributes normally set up camp during the majority of the games, as many tributes would attempt to return to scavenge what is left of the supplies there. The area around the Cornucopia varies between games, such as being surrounded by forests like in the 74th Hunger Games or surrounded by seawater like in the 75th Hunger Games.

Items
The value of an item depends on how close it is to the cornucopia. Items scattered in the outskirts are usually less valuable. Items in the heart of the cornucopia are the most valuable, usually being weapons. Weapons varies usually on the type of arena. For example, tridents might only appear in water based arenas. Sometimes the Capitol limits the weapons to a specific type. In an unknown Hunger Games, it is known that the Capitol made spiked maces the only weapon available, mainly for entertainment.

Tactics
There are a variety of ways tributes will approach the bloodbath, but these strategies depend on how the Cornucopia has been positioned. Some tributes ignore the Cornucopia completely and try to put as much distance as they can between themselves and the tributes with weapons from the Cornucopia. This means they will get little or no supplies at all and will have to rely on the arena and their skills or perhaps a rich sponsor to give them some. In the 74th Hunger Games, Peeta Mellark avoided the Cornucopia at first under Haymitch's orders, but later joined the Career Tributes and had access to their supplies until he betrayed them. Other tributes, including Katniss Everdeen, grab what they can from the outskirts of the Cornucopia and flee before things get too dangerous. This means they still get supplies, but are not very valuable and have little or no weapons. Other tributes, mostly the Careers, dash for supplies as an opportunity to kill as many as possible while they are all together. This means they will get the most weapons and supplies, but they also run the highest risk of getting killed or badly injured. Some tributes are agile and can reach the inside of the cornucopia to swiftly gather supplies and leave or stay, like Thresh.

Deaths
While any number of tributes can die in the bloodbath, an average of about 8-12 tributes are killed. In the first Hunger Games, it is assumed none of tributes were killed in the bloodbath since the Games were an extremely new idea. That said, the most tributes known to die in the bloodbath was 18; which occurred during the 50th Hunger Games.

74th Hunger Games
In the novel and film, Katniss Everdeen is taken to a launch station, where her stylist, Cinna, is waiting. He puts on her arena jacket and gives her the Mockingjay pin for good luck. The timer gives them 60 seconds to say their goodbyes. After kissing her, Katniss walks inside the elevator tube, and it closes, beginning to lift her up into the arena. Cinna nods to her as she is ascended into the arena.

In the film, as she ascends, light blinds her view for a few moments. When she could finally see clearly, she looks toward the silver horn-shaped Cornucopia and its supplies. Before the 50 seconds prior to the game's commence counted down, she turns her head to see the other tributes besides her. At 10 seconds, she spots a bow and quiver of arrows, but is distracted by Peeta Mellark, her district partner, who notices her idea and gestures with his head a no, before facing the Cornucopia again. Loud horns signal the games.

75th Hunger Games
In the novel, Katniss describes the scene as quick and similar to the 74th Hunger Games. But when she walks into the tube and is elevated into the arena, peacekeepers come in and beat up Cinna. Katniss cries and screams, as he is dragged away unconscious, leaving a trail of blood.

In the film, the scene is similar, but when she is ascending, she crouches down to try and stop the elevator to save Cinna as he is dragged away, without leaving a blood trail. Once again light blinds her view, before she could see the Cornucopia, which is surrounded by seawater this time. The countdown begins at 10. Katniss looks to her sides to see career tributes beside her. She tries to find Peeta but presumes he was behind the cornucopia. Katniss shows a vengeful expression after seeing Cinna get killed and when the games begin with a gunshot, she determinedly dives into the water.

50th Hunger Games
In the 50th Hunger Games, 18 people were killed in the opening bloodbath, most of them likely by the Careers. However, the arena was so beautiful, the tributes were awed at first sight. Haymitch Abernathy, the victor from District 12, managed to get supplies before the bloodbath began, being the only one not stunned by the beauty of the arena.

74th Hunger Games
In the novel version of the 74th Hunger Games, eleven people were killed in the opening bloodbath. In the film version of the 74th Hunger Games, twelve people were killed instead as the District 4 tributes were not considered careers and the District 4 female was killed off.

In the novel, Katniss grapples with the District 9 male over an orange backpack, until the boy begins coughing blood in her face and finally falls onto the ground dead with a knife protruding out of his back. Katniss looks to see the District 2 female, Clove, with a knife in her hands, indicating she had done the deed. Clove throws a knife right toward Katniss's head, almost killing her. However, Katniss shields herself with her backpack, gaining herself a knife, before running off into the forests.



In the film, including the behind the scenes, Katniss and the other tributes are risen to their podiums. The timer counts down from 60. The tributes look around at the forest arena and take their positions. Most are aimed towards the Cornucopia, including Katniss, who is focused on a bow in the center of the Cornucopia, but Peeta distracts her by shaking his head. The playing of music signals that the Games have begun and the tributes run off their podiums, the District 10 male being the first one off. Peeta and Rue run straight towards the forest. Katniss circles the pedestals in an attempt to run towards Peeta, passing by Foxface who runs into the forest the other way, but he runs swiftly into the forest surrounding them, forcing her to stop and watch the bloodbath unfold. Thresh is the first one at the Cornucopia, with the District 4 male close behind. They both run to the back of the Cornucopia; Thresh gathers supplies and the District 4 male hides. Cato punches the District 6 male and then beats him up. The District 8 male attempts to punch Marvel but he blocks, trips, and slashes him with a knife. Marvel then gets on top of the District 8 male and stabs him multiple times. The District 6 male sees this and runs. The District 10 male grabs a yellow duffel bag and runs, but is cleaved by Cato. The District 3 male pushes the District 7 female and steals her throwing axe. The District 3 male gets into a fight with Marvel over the axe. When he refused to let go, Marvel smacks him with his backpack, winning the axe. The District 6 male and the District 10 male fight on the floor for a backpack. Marvel swings his axe at the District 10 male but he dodges, however when it comes back around it smacks the District 10 male in the face, knocking him to the ground. The District 3 male and the District 7 female fight for a spear. The District 3 female grabs a black backpack and runs, but the District 5 male grabs her and pulls her back into the bloodbath. The District 5 male trips and falls, allowing the District 3 female to escape. The District 6 female takes a sword and tries to attack the District 4 female with it, but she is brutally beaten and pushed to the ground, causing her to let go of her sword.

The District 4 female grabs a serrated sword and slashes the District 3 female's leg. Clove looks through a pack and finds throwing knifes and a vest. The District 6 female tries to steal the District 10 male's bag, but Glimmer comes from behind and pulls her hair, taking the bag with her. While still pulling the District 6 female's hair, Glimmer shoves her into a crate and then shoves her to the ground. Glimmer tries to steal the bag from her but the District 6 female wouldn't let go of i. Glimmer picks up a knife, stabs her to death, steals the bag, and runs off. The District 5 male grabs a sickle and, as the she gets up, slashes the District 3 female and steals her bag, leaving her to bleed to death. The District 7 female sees this and ducks behind a crate to avoid conflict. The District 4 female confronts Cato. She swings a sword at Cato but he ducks. Cato smacks the sword out of her hands and smacks her with a baton. He then throws her over a crate. The District 8 female slits the District 5 male's leg open, severely injuring him, and later runs to the forest. The District 7 male gets punched by the District 6 male. As Katniss watches the District 4 female grab a red backpack and run, she spots an orange backpack and runs to it, passing Glimmer stabbing the District 6 female to death as Marvel watches and the District 6 male looking through a backpack frantically.

The District 9 male (played by the District 7 male's actor) sees an orange backpack, grabs a two-holed axe, and runs towards it. Katniss grabs the backpack but trips. She turns around and sees the District 9 male about to slash her, but he falls to the ground dead. She sees Clove, who had thrown a knife into his back, who throws a knife toward her head, but she shields herself with her backpack and runs away. Glimmer grabs the District 6 female's yellow sleeping bag and runs straight into the District 10 male, who takes it and runs. He then pushes the District 7 male to the ground, with his sleeping bag in his left arm. The District 5 male smacks the District 7 female with his backpack. The District 7 male sees this and grabs a spear and pushes the District 5 male to the ground. Thresh runs out of the Cornucopia as Glimmer runs inside and the District 7 male is about to kill the District 5 male when Thresh runs in between. The District 5 male leaves his stuff, still holding onto his sword, and crawls away. The District 7 male tries to spear Thresh, but Thresh dodges, knocks the spear out of his hands, and pushes him with his curved sword and backpack, slashing his throat and ultimately killing him. The District 3 male and the District 7 female now fight over a black backpack, but the District 7 female managed to beat him and run off. Marvel grabs a yellow sleeping bag and jumps over a crate and Thresh escapes. The District 6 male chases the District 5 male to the back of the Cornucopia. The District 6 male strangles the District 5 male to a crate, but the District 5 male gets the upper hand and smacks the District 6 male into another crate. Glimmer comes into the Cornucopia and targets the District 5 male, but the District 10 male runs in and fights Glimmer, taking her yellow duffel bag. The District 6 male grabs a sword and pushes Glimmer to the ground, causing her to scream, gaining the attention of Cato. The District 5 male and District 10 male gang up on Cato, but Cato pushes the District 10 male to the ground. The District 5 male tries to escape into the forest, but he gets cleaved by Cato and falls to the ground in pain. The District 10 male runs away with the bag. Cato pushes the District 6 male away from Glimmer, who attempts to slash Cato, but Cato grabs his arm, trips him, and then stabs him in the gut. Cato then finished him with one last stab. Clove rams the District 7 female to ground. Marvel sees her on the ground and he kills her with a spear. Katniss crashes into Foxface and has a short run-by encounter with DIstrict 10 male. The District 4 male grabs a sword and attempts to escape, but when he turns around, Cato slashes his throat. Cato looks up and finds a sword and grabs it. Katniss, Peeta, Rue, Thresh, the District 10 male, the District 8 female, Foxface, the District 4 female, the District 3 male, Clove, Cato, Marvel and Glimmer all escape the bloodbath alive, but the District 4 female is later found and killed by Cato only 3 minutes after the bloodbath ended. Her screams are heard all over the forest and her cannon is the last to sound.



Photo Gallery (74th Hunger Games)
Notes: In the film, the order of clips were changed around therefore creating a different order from the original.



75th Hunger Games
In the 75th Hunger Games, eight people were killed in the opening bloodbath. Unlike the previous games, the only things held in the Cornucopia were weapons.

In the novel, Katniss swims quickly to the Cornucopia. She acquires a bow and arrow and readies it as she hears someone behind her. She sees Finnick Odair, who yells for her to duck and uses a trident to spear the District 5 male, who had approached Katniss from behind. He shows her a golden bracelet, giving to him by Haymitch, to symbolize their alliance. The two realize there are only weapons and no food or survival supplies. Career tributes arrive at the Cornucopia, but are driven off by them. Katniss shoots Gloss's calf when he attempts to dive into the water for safety but was too slow. She also attempts to shoot Enobaria, but she dives into the water faster. As Brutus approaches, she attempts to shoot him in the liver, but he used his tribute belt to stop it. After realizing Peeta is stuck on his podium and cannot swim, Katniss readies to go retreive him, but Finnick offers to. He swims and retrieves him, along with his district partner Mags. The four of them team up and collect supplies, but are forced to leave before the career tributes could come back. Also, it is mentioned by Johanna Mason that Beetee was stabbed in the Cornucopia before she went to retrieve him.

In the film, Katniss is coming up into the arena. She is distraught about what happened to Cinna. As she is in the arena, she takes a look around. She finds Cashmere and Brutus next to her; they appear to be looking around as well. Katniss turns frantically looking for Peeta, but he is nowhere to be seen; she then thinks that he is behind the Cornucopia. As Claudius announce the Games to begin, the countdown begins from 10. The cannon is heard and Katniss dives into the water and quickly arrives onto the narrow rocky wedge. However, she sees Brutus arriving right behind her and begins dashing toward the Cornucopia. Besides her on the rocky edge at her right, Gloss is running too. The two race each other to the cornucopia, but he trips, gaining her to an advantage. When she reaches the Cornucopia, she retrieves a bow and quiver of arrows; she turns and shoots Gloss in the calf, as he slowly falls into the water. She is then startled by a sound and readies her bow. It is revealed to be Finnick Odair, who quickly shows her his golden bracelet that symbolizes their alliance. Finnick then yells for her to duck before using a trident to spear the District 5 male, who had approached Katniss from behind wielding a spear. Katniss begins to drive the arriving Career tributes away. Finnick told Katniss that he will search for Peeta, and for her to hold the Careers off. Katniss then shoots an arrow at Enobaria, who dives in, before the arrow could find her. It sped past her head missing her by inches, Finnick tells Katniss, that Mags found Peeta. Finnick and Katniss run to the rocky spoke, as a cannon sounds, where Mags is, where she frowning and pointing to Peeta fighting the District 9 male. Peeta repeatedly tries to climb back onto a podium, but the District 9 male keeps pulling him back in. Finnick dives in to save him, but the District 9 male finally pulls Peeta underwater with him. A few moments later a cannon sounds; Katniss is frightened as a corpse floats up. Fortunately, Peeta ascends, thrashing for air. Katniss is relieved but turns serious when she sees the Career Tributes have already formed an alliance and have gathered supplies, forcing them to leave.

Before Peeta killed the District 9 male, Woof and the Male Morphling arrive at the Cornucopia. While trying to get supplies, Brutus kills Woof and the Morphling was killed by Gloss. Soon afterwards, the District 9 female tried to kill Seeder, but failed, and hid, watching Cashmere kill Seeder instead with a knife to the neck. She then tried to kill the District 5 female, but failed, later getting into fights with both Enobaria and Cashmere. The District 10 female and Johanna fight over a tomahawk, which the District 10 female manages to win, but not before Johanna throws an axe at her, making her duck. After battling the District 9 female, Cecelia and Enobaria get into a fight over a sword, ending with Enobaria stabbing her in the abdomen, killing her instantly. The District 10 female then attacks Wiress, but, with the help of Johanna and Blight, Wiress manages to escape with an injured Beetee along with a coil of wire. The District 10 female then tried to take down Enobaria, before getting her stomach slashed open, and being killed by her. The District 9 female then grabs a knife to kill Brutus, almost succeding, but was spotted by him, and was speared to death. Her body was seen floating in the water by Chaff. The District 9 female was the final tribute to die in the bloodbath, and also the last tribute to die in any bloodbath. Cecelia's, the Distrct 10 female's and the District 9 female's cannons were heard in quick sucession while Katniss, Finnick, Peeta and Mags were running into the jungle.

Trivia

 * There are several goofs and errors during the bloodbath in the film adaption of The Hunger Games. The District 9 male, female, and District 10 female do not appear in the bloodbath scene as their portrayers are not stunt actors.
 * The District 10 boy is shown being killed by Cato, but he still survived up to the point where Glimmer was killed. His statistics were then given to the District 5 boy.
 * All the times are based on the portraits. Several errors occurred during the portrait and the actual time listing. Some timings are blurred out, excluding info. The sequences of events isn't in chronological order.
 * Instead of the District 9 boy being killed by Clove, the District 7 boy is shown instead. However, he is shown again fighting and being killed by Thresh.
 * In the film adaption of the 74th Hunger Games, there are twelve tributes killed during the bloodbath instead of eleven.
 * In the film adaption of the 74th Hunger Games, the podiums with the tributes seem to be in this order: (From left to right) District 5 male, District 4 male, Rue, Glimmer, District 3 male, District 3 female, District 10 male, Peeta Mellark, District 7 female, District 6 male, Cato, District 7 male, Foxface, Katniss Everdeen, Marvel, Clove, District 4 female, District 8 male, District 6 female, Thresh, District 8 female. The District 9 male, female and the District 10 female are missing, but in the gamemakers' table is seen that the District 9 female was situated next to the District 5 male, the District 9 male was situated between the District 6 female and the District 8 female and the District 10 female was situated between District 3 tributes, but it's confirmed that these tributes weren't in the bloodbath scene
 * In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss, Peeta, the District 3 male, Rue, Foxface, the District 10 male and the District 8 female are the only survivors to not have killed someone. However, Katniss, the District 3 male and the District 10 male did assist in a kill, but they didn't actually make it and the DIstrict 8 female slits the District 5 male's leg.
 * The District 9 male (74th HG), and the District 5 male (75th HG) are both similar, as they fought with Katniss in some way and are then killed by a Career Tribute, Clove and Finnick in this case.
 * According to the scoreboard behind Caesar, the death order was this: District 9 male, District 4 female, District 9 female, District 6 male, District 5 male, District 6 female, District 7 male, District 7 female, District 8 male, District 10 female, District 3 female, District 4 male. This death order is proven wrong as the District 4 female was killed after the bloodbath. However (excluding the District 4 female), this can be the book death order.

Baño de sangre