The Hunger Games book to film differences

The following are noted differences between the originaI The Hunger Games and the The Hunger Games movie. This page contains spoilers from The Hunger Games film and book.



Changes
Please note: Changes are not in any particular order.
 * In the book, the mutts ran away down into a hole. In the movie, after Cato dies they just walk off.
 * In the book, the Career Tributes are from Districts 1,2, and 4. In the movie, the Careers are just from 1 and 2.
 * In the movie, Avox are never mentioned, neither is the redhaired girl, that Katniss and Gale saw the day at the woods, and asked for their help.
 * In the movie, Haymitch Abernathy tells Katniss Everdeen the Career Tributes wait until they are 18 and then volunteer. There is no mention of the age they volunteer at in the book.
 * In the book, Peeta loses his leg and gets it amputated. In the movie, he doesn't lose his leg.
 * Madge Undersee is not in the film.
 * When Gale and Katniss are in the woods, the hovercraft arrives noisily and ominously. In the book, the hovercraft arrives soundlessly.
 * In the book, the mockingjay pin was given to Katniss by Madge. In the film, Katniss bought it at The Hob and gave it to Prim. After the reaping, Prim returns the pin to Katniss to take with her for luck.
 * In the book, Peeta's father gives Katniss cookies after the reaping, he is not seen in the movie once.
 * In the book, Haymitch Abernathy falls down on the stage in the reaping ceremony and throws up on the train. In the film, he is not present at the ceremony.
 * In the book, Katniss and Peeta are told by Cinna to hold hands in the tribute parade, but in the film, Peeta suggests that they hold hands and initiates the movement.
 * In the Training Center, Katniss and Peeta are the only ones with matching training outfits. In the film everyone wears the same outfit with their district number attached to it.
 * In the book, each of the Tribute chariots are pulled by different kinds and colours of horses, whereas in the film they are all the same.
 * In the book, Rue's interview dress is said to have gossamer wings; these wings are not seen in the movie.
 * In the book, the Cornucopia is gold and described as looking like a horn. In the film the Cornucopia is made of black steel and resembles (for lack of better comparison) a squashed plane wreck.
 * In the book Katniss goes many days suffering from dehydration. In the movie she finds a source of water almost immediately upon running into the woods.
 * In the movie, 13 tributes died on Day 1, in the book, only 11 had died.
 * In the book, Katniss gets a bottle of iodine and uses it to clean her water. In the movie she doesn't have the iodine.
 * In the book Katniss meets Rue while bathing in a stream. In the movie she meets Rue after waking up from tracker jacker hallucinations. Also, Rue tells her about District 11 in the book.
 * In the book, it mentions how Peeta has blood poisoning. In the movie, there is no mention of blood poisoning.
 * In the book Katniss's hearing in her left ear is repaired by Capitol medics after her and Peeta win the games. The movie shows that she momentarily loses her hearing.
 * In the book, the sponsor gifts did not come with notes from Haymitch, nor did they arrive in protective cases.
 * Marvel is shot in the neck by Katniss' arrow and drowns in his own blood in the book. In the movie he is shot in the heart and immediately dies.
 * Rue is attacked with the spear while in the trap in the book. In the movie she is hit with Marvel's spear at the same time that Katniss kills Marvel with an arrow.
 * Katniss did not receive bread from District 11 in the movie after Rue's death. There was also no riot in District 11 in the book.
 * In the book, after Claudius Templesmith announces the new rule that two tributes from the same district can be victors, Katniss impulsively yells out Peeta's name. In the movie she only whispers his name.
 * In the book, Katniss gives Peeta sleeping syrup and heads to the feast. In the movie, she waits until he falls asleep.
 * In the book, as Clove pins Katniss to the ground, Katniss yells out Peeta's name to distract her. In the movie she does not scream Peeta's name.
 * In the book, Thresh kills Clove by smashing a rock into her skull. In the film he repeatedly smashes her against the Cornucopia. Also, in the book, Cato was nearby and rushed to save Clove as she was being held up by Thresh, but he was too late. In the movie he was nowhere nearby.
 * In the book, Peeta's medicine was in a syringe. In the movie, it was in the form of a balm.
 * In the book, Katniss and Peeta made out many times. In the movie, they kissed once.
 * In the book, Katniss and Peeta encountered Cato while he was running away from the muttations.
 * In the book, the muttations were supposed to be wolf-like creatures that resemble the dead tributes, but in the movie they were genetically engineered dog-like creatures and the muttations were never addressed as so in the film.
 * The muttations were also capable of moving in a bipedal fashion in the book, but they never do so in the film.
 * In the book, Cato endures the pain from the muttations ripping him apart for several hours, and mouths "please" to Katniss, indicating for her to kill him already. In the movie Katniss kills him immediately after he falls to the muttations to spare him the pain.
 * In the book, hovercrafts picked up the dead tributes' bodies but in the movie, no hovercrafts appeared to do so.
 * In the book, Katniss and Peeta put the berries in their mouths, and as Claudius tells them to stop, they spit them out. In the movie Claudius stops them before they put the berries in their mouths.
 * In the book, Seneca Crane is not shown commanding the Gamemakers what to do to the arena. In the movie, the movie cuts to the Gamemakers a few times to show them controlling the arena, trying to hit Katniss with fireballs and releasing the muttations.
 * In the book, Katniss and Peeta has each half of their crown, in the film, Katniss and Peeta get a whole crown each (although Peeta recieving his is not shown; his crown can be seen on a pillow in the background).
 * In the book, nothing is said about Seneca Crane being executed, but in the movie he is shown being locked in a brilliant room with a bowl of nightlock to eat.
 * In the book, the hole in the fence where Katniss climbs under is behind the butcher. In the movie, it is in an open field. She also does not stop to listen for a hum in the film as she is described to do in the book.
 * In the book, Buttercup is the color of a Buttercup. In the movie, he is not.
 * In the book, Haymitch instructs Katniss and Peeta to hide their true strengths and talents in front of the other tributes, but in the film, after Peeta falls from a climbing exercise in the training room, the Careers laugh at him and Katniss urges him to throw a weighted ball in front of them to intimidate them. This may also be a more explicit reason for the Careers enlisting Peeta into their group.
 * In the film, Rue is the one who suggests that Katniss should saw down the branch the tracker jackers hang from so that they would fall on the camp below, while in the book, she merely points out to Katniss that she is in close proximity of the tracker jackers, and Katniss comes up with the idea herself of releasing them onto the campsite herself.
 * In the book, the backpacks left to the tributes in the Cornucopia that contained "something they desperately need" were all different colors and sizes, but in the movie, they appeared to be identical except for the district numbers.
 * In the film, they never truly address that Katniss and Peeta had to pretend to be in love to gain sponsors, instead, it was made to appear more like true love, even on Katniss's part. However, whether the movie was showing true love or falsity remains unclear as there are facts to support both arguments.
 * Katniss's forehead wound that came from Clove's knife during their struggle at the Cornucopia did not fully recover until she was named a victor and treated back at the Capitol for several days. However, in the film, the medicine that was sent to heal Peeta's leg seemed to heal the would overnight.
 * Peeta's leg is almost completely healed after the medicine is supplied in the film, whereas he remained severely injured in the book.
 * In the book, when Rue was dying from the spear attack, Katniss states in an inner monologue that "there's no point in comforting words, in telling her she's alright. She's no fool", but in the film, she repeated comforts Rue and tries to tell her she will be okay.
 * Katniss doesn't tell Peeta of the story about how she got Prim's goat, Lady, in the film.
 * The night vision glasses that allow the tributes to see at night were not mentioned in the film.
 * In the book, the District 8 girl had to be attacked by the Career pack twice, the second time being ultimately killed by Peeta, who was also part of the Career pack. In the film however, the District 8 girl was only attacked/killed once, by the Career pack as well.
 * In the book, Thresh is killed by Cato but in the film, he is killed by the mutts.
 * In the book, Foxface dies after Thresh, but in the movie, she dies first.
 * In the book, the District 4 girl travels with the Careers and is killed along with Glimmer by the tracker jackers. In the movie, the District 4 girl is killed in the bloodbath at the Cornucopia.
 * In the book, each tribute is allowed a tribute token to take with them into the Games. In the film, it is unclear if this was changed due to Cinna seemingly hiding the mockingjay pin within Katniss' jacket and there being no mention of any other tokens for other tributes.
 * In the book, Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith are not shown commenting on the Games. In the movie, this happens frequently, mostly because the movie is not viewed in first person from Katniss.
 * In the movie, Katniss is shown watching a clip before the games of a tribute killing another tribute with a brick in a previous Games, and Caesar Flickerman comments on how it was one of his favorite games and arenas. In the book, there is no mention of this.
 * In the book, Katniss's interview dress is made of different gemstones creating a pattern of flames, but in the film it is a simple red dress with more false fire (as seen in the opening ceremony) implanted in panels along the hem.
 * In the film, Katniss is seen selecting a view from her window on a remote control in her room at the capitol. This scene is not in the book.
 * In the movie, there are scenes of Prim, Gale and other characters watching the games. These scenes do not appear in the novel.
 * President Snow has more screen time than in the book.
 * In the book, both Katniss & Peeta are near death from cold and battle wounds just after the rule change reverting back to a single victor. Peeta has seconds to live. The idea of double suicide by nightlock is a desparate attempt to end the suffering either by forcing the Gamemakers' hands or by death itself. In the movie, there is no desparation in the double suicide attempt - the weather is nice and neither tribute has life threatening wounds to speak of - but the Gamemaker's fold on the bluff anyway.
 * A buzzer sounded ending the interviews in the book but in the movie Caesar just tells them.
 * In the book, Effie's reaping clothes were a spring green dress, in the movie, it's magenta.
 * In the book, as Gale is leaving when his time is up with saying goodbye, he says, "Katniss, remember I-", This doesn't happen in the movie.
 * In the book, when Peeta is telling Katniss about his early admiration for her, he also tells her that his father initially wanted to marry her mother but her mother married a different man (Katniss' father). This also explains why Peeta's father promised Katniss that he will take care of Prim when they are in the games while he is giving the cookies to her after the reaping (which is also not shown in the film); Prim looks a lot like Katniss' mother.
 * In the book, it is said that the tributes are wearing the same black hoodie when initially at the Cornucopia but in the movie, it is not the case since some of them are wearing jackets of different color (gold).
 * In the book, during the interview with Caesar Flickerman, Glimmer (District 1 Tribute) is described to be wearing a provocative see-through gold gown while in the movie, she is wearing shiny pink cocktail dress.
 * Lady (Prim's goat) is not in the film.
 * Octavia, Venia and Flavius, Katniss's prep team, is only seen once in the film before the chariot rides to the training center while in the book, they are also featured when dressing Katniss up for the interview with Caesar Flickerman.
 * In the book, after Peeta's interview with Caesar Flickerman, Katniss pushes Peeta into an urn and this cut his hands, in the movie, Katniss just pushes Peeta against the wall and shouts at him; there is no urn to be seen and his hands do not get cut up.
 * In the book, when Katniss is looking for Peeta in the stream, she yells out "Peeta!" and Peeta answer "You here to finish me off, sweetheart?" before she finds him wounded, but in the movie, she just finds him in a camoflauge when he moves his hand to grab her boot.
 * In the book, Plutarch Heavensbee walked backwards into a punch bowl. He wasn't mentioned in the movie and he didn't fall into the punch.
 * In the book, Peeta enters his private session with the Gamemakers before Katniss. In the movie, Katniss goes first.
 * In the book, all of the tributes sat onstage during Caesar's interviews before standing next to him during their own. In the movie, the tributes wait backstage and only one tribute is on stage at a time. During the interview they sit down across from Caesar.
 * In the movie, Effie states that Katniss is the first volunteer from District 12 ever. In the book it just says that volunteers in 12 are a rarity.
 * In the movie, Glimmer and Cato are shown to have a flirtatious relationship. The book makes no mention of this.
 * In the book, Peeta gives Katniss bread when they are around 11/12. In the film they appear to be the same age as they are during the main story.
 * Katniss refers to Gale having to take care of his brothers, indicating the exclusion of ​Posy Hawthorne.
 * When Peeta gives Katniss the bread he only gives her one loaf, whilst in the book he rips some off but gives them both to Katniss.
 * In the movie, the drama crying of Katniss after she shot an arrow at the Gamemakers was not shown.
 * In the book, the backpack Katniss collects is a small, orange thing, whilst in the film it is a medium sized black pack with three orange sections.
 * In the movie, there is no rain or thunderstrom whilst Katniss and Peeta are in the cave.