The Hunger Games book to film differences

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

Please note: Changes are now organzied by section and are presented in close to chronological order.

Perspective

 * The book is written in the first-person perspective of Katniss Everdeen. Several changes are made to how the story is told, rather than using voice-overs or other conventions.
 * President Snow has more screen time than in the book.
 * Seneca Crane is shown commanding the Gamemakers what to do to the arena. There are several cuts to the Gamemakers a few times to show them controlling the arena: trying to hit Katniss with fireballs and releasing the muttations.
 * Caesar Flickerman and Claudius Templesmith are shown commenting on the Games. Most significantly, they explain trackerjackers and hint at the trap in the Career's camp.
 * In the film, the sponsor gifts come with notes from Haymitch Abernathy, arrive in protective cases, and emit a distinctive chime.
 * There are scenes of Prim, Gale and other characters watching the games.
 * The riot in District 11 after Rue's death is not mentioned in the book as Katniss would not know it had occurred.
 * Further, after Katniss has shown up the Capitol with her actions after Rue's death, she briefly thinks (in the book) about how they won't show some of what she has done on TV, the film shows us Haymitch convincing Seneca Crane not to kill her which leads to the rule change.
 * Seneca Crane is shown being locked in a brilliant room with a bowl of nightlock to eat. (It is implied at the beginning of the second book that he had been executed.)

District 12

 * In the book, Peeta gives Katniss bread when they are around 11/12. In the film they appear to be approximately the same age as they are during the main story.
 * When Peeta gives Katniss the bread he only gives her one loaf, whilst in the book he rips some off but gives most of two loaves to Katniss.
 * In the opening scene of the film, Katniss was shown singing a lullaby to Prim. In the opening scene of the book, Katniss woke up seeing Prim curl up on her side and sleeping with their mother.
 * In the book, Buttercup is described as being a dirty, yellow color, a color that Prim insisted was an exact match of a buttercup flower, which was how he got his name. In the film, however, he is a black-and-white cat.
 * In a direct contradiction to the book, workers are seen going to the mine on the morning of the Reaping.
 * 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. Also, she neither stops to listen for a hum nor does she struggle to sneak under the fence in the film as she is described to do in the book.
 * In the book, Prim leaves goat cheese for Katniss the morning of the reaping, which is eaten with the bread Gale provides; however, in the film, the bread is eaten alone.
 * In the book, The Hunger Games were mandatory viewing for Panem. In the film, Gale and Katniss have a conversation about what would happen if everyone stopped watching, indicating that the viewing was not mandatory.
 * When Gale and Katniss are in the woods, the hovercraft arrives noisily and ominously. In the book, the hovercraft arrives soundlessly.
 * Madge Undersee, the mayor's daughter, is not in the film.
 * 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, Effie's reaping clothes were a spring green dress, in the movie, it is magenta.
 * In the movie, Effie states that Katniss is the first volunteer from District 12 ever. In the book, it says that volunteers from 12 are a rarity and there hadn't been one in decades.
 * Lady (Prim's goat) is not in the film but is mentioned.
 * Katniss refers to Gale having to take care of his brothers, indicating the exclusion of Posy Hawthorne.
 * 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, Peeta's father gives Katniss cookies after the reaping. He is not seen in the movie but it is mentioned that Katniss sells squirrels to him.

Tribute token

 * In the book, the mockingjay pin was given to Katniss by Madge. In the film, Katniss is given the pin at The Hob and gives it to Prim. After the reaping, Prim returns the pin to Katniss to take with her for luck.
 * 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.
 * Only Rue's and Glimmer's tokens are described in the book. Glimmer is a ring with a concealed poisoned spike that was discovered and confiscated, leaving her as the only tribute without a token.

Career Tributes

 * In the movie, Haymitch Abernathy tells Katniss Everdeen the Career Tributes train in a special academy until they're 18 and then volunteer. There is no mention of the age they volunteer at in the book. This is odd because Clove is depicted as 15 in the film and Glimmer and Marvel are depicted as 17. Cato is the only one of the four who is depicted 18.
 * 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, 13 tributes died on Day 1, 12 having been killed in the bloodbath. In the book, only 12 had died on Day 1, 11 having been killed in the bloodbath.
 * 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 movie, Glimmer and Cato are shown to have a flirtatious relationship. The book makes no mention of this.
 * In the book Katniss makes note that Glimmer was keeping guard the night before the tracker jacker attack. In the film, Clove is shown to be keeping guard.

The Capitol

 * 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 film, Katniss is seen selecting a view from her window on a remote control in her room at the Capitol apartment. She lands on an image of a forest and is emotionally affected due to it reminding her of the woods beyond District 12. This scene is not in the book.
 * Octavia, Venia and Flavius, Katniss's prep team, are only seen once very briefly 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 movie Octavia's skin is not green.
 * In the book, Glimmer and Marvel were wearing jeweled togas while their skin was painted silver during the chariot rides. In the movie they are seen wearing pink feathery costumes.
 * 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 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 Training Center, Katniss and Peeta are the only ones with matching training outfits. In the film everyone wears the same outfit, the only difference being their district number attached to it.
 * In the book, Haymitch instructs Katniss and Peeta to hide their true strengths and talents in front of the other tributes. In the film, Peeta mentions Haymitch's instructions but Katniss urges Peeta to ignore them. After Peeta falls from a climbing exercise in the training room, the Careers laugh at him and Katniss tells him to throw a weighted medicine 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 book, Peeta enters his private session with the Gamemakers before Katniss. In the movie, Katniss goes first.
 * In Catching Fire, Katniss recognizes Plutarch Heavensbee as having been the gamemaker who walked backwards into a punch bowl. This isn't seen in the movie.
 * In the book, when the tributes' scores are revealed, it is merely a picture of the tribute, and the score beneath it. In the film, Caesar Flickerman reads out their name, district and score.
 * A buzzer sounded ending the interviews in the book but in the movie Caesar just tells them.
 * 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 book, during the interview with Caesar Flickerman, Glimmer is described as wearing a provocative see-through gold gown while in the movie, she is wearing a shiny pink cocktail dress.
 * In the book, Rue's interview dress is said to have gossamer wings; these wings are not seen in the movie.
 * 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 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 movie, the backstory about the Avoxes is not revealed; however, the redhaired girl that Katniss and Gale saw one day in the woods who asked for their help can be seen in the apartment and credited as "Avox Girl" in the film. Other Avoxes can be seen serving people of the Capitol in the training center and sponsor parties.

The Hunger Games

 * 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) plane wreckage.
 * 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, 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 colors (gold).
 * In the book, the backpack Katniss collects is small and orange in color, whilst in the film it is a medium sized black pack with three orange sections.
 * In the film, after getting away from the Cornucopia, Katniss runs into Foxface, where the two exchange wary glances, before running away from each other in opposite directions. In the book, this never happens.
 * 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 book, the girl tribute from District 10 is the final dead tribute to be shown in the sky on the first night. In the film, it is the girl from District 9. This is likely a production error as it can be assumed based on the amount of tributes killed that the girl from District 10 died on the first day.
 * 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 once by the Career pack and is killed by Glimmer.
 * In the book, hovercrafts picked up the dead tributes' bodies but in the movie, no hovercrafts appeared to do so.
 * In the book, Katniss meets Rue while bathing in a stream. In the movie, she meets Rue when they are up in the trees and Rue tells Katniss about the nest. Also, Rue tells her about District 11 in the book.
 * 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.
 * The night vision glasses that allow the tributes to see at night are not mentioned in the film.
 * In the book, after the Careers' food supply was destroyed, Katniss sees Foxface in the ruins of the explosion. Foxface is laughing as she finds a knife and a metal pot that were not damaged in the explosion. There is no mention of this in the movie.
 * 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.
 * Rue is attacked with the spear while in the trap in the book. In the movie, she is hit with Marvel's spear while standing at the same time that Katniss kills Marvel with an arrow.
 * 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.
 * The movie contradicts the book when as Rue is dying from the spear attack, Katniss comforts Rue and tries to tell her she will be okay whereas in the book, she thinks to herself that "there's no point in comforting words, in telling her she's alright. She's no fool."
 * Katniss did not receive bread from District 11 in the movie after Rue's death.
 * In the book, Claudius Templesmith repeated the rule change (both tributes from the same district will be declared victors if last two are standing) twice. In the film, it was only announced once.
 * 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, when Katniss is looking for Peeta in the stream, she yells out "Peeta!" and Peeta answers "You here to finish me off, sweetheart?", before she finds him wounded, but in the movie, she just finds him camoflauged when he moves his hand to grab her boot.
 * 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, Katniss gives Peeta some berries mixed with sleep syrup to make him sleep while she goes to the feast. In the movie, she just leaves while he is sleeping that night.
 * 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 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 smashes her against the Cornucopia twice and her neck is snapped. 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 to be seen though Clove screams for him before she is killed.
 * In the book, it mentions how Peeta has blood poisoning. In the movie, there is no mention of blood poisoning.
 * In the book, Peeta's medicine was in a syringe. In the movie, it was in the form of a balm.
 * Katniss doesn't tell Peeta of the story about how she got Prim's goat, Lady, in the film.
 * 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, Katniss and Peeta made out many times. In the movie, they kissed once.
 * In the movie, there is no rain or thunderstorm whilst Katniss and Peeta are in the cave.
 * In the book Peeta and Katniss received goat cheese, rolls, and a tureen of wild rice and lamb stew. In the movie, this doesn't occur.
 * In the book, Thresh is killed by Cato but in the film, he is presumably killed by the mutts.
 * In the book, Foxface dies after Thresh, but in the movie, she dies first.
 * 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 due to genetically engineered DNA, but in the movie, they were genetically engineered dog-like creatures and the muttations were never addressed by name or as having the tributes' DNA in the film (though Gary Ross asserts that if the viewers look closely, they will see the mutts have human eyes).
 * 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 after being dragged into the mouth of the Cornucopia, and mouths "please" to Katniss, indicating for her to kill him already. When she can get a good shot angle, she shoots him in the head. In the movie, Katniss shoots him in the heart almot immediately after he falls to the muttations to spare him the pain. This wasn't possible in the book because he was wearing body armor.
 * In the book, the mutts ran away down into a hole. In the movie, after Cato dies they run back into the woods.
 * 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, having been bitten by a muttation in the leg, is in danger of bleeding to death. The idea of double suicide by nightlock is a desperate attempt to end the suffering either by forcing the Gamemakers' hands or by death itself. In the movie, there is no desperation in the double suicide attempt - the weather is nice and neither tribute has life threatening wounds to speak of - but the Gamemakers fold on the bluff anyway.
 * 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.

After the Games

 * In the book, Peeta's leg is amputated and replaced by a prosthetic. In the movie, he doesn't lose his leg.
 * 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.
 * In the book, Katniss and Peeta each receive half of the crown; in the film, Katniss and Peeta get a whole crown each (although Peeta receiving his is not shown; his crown can be seen on a pillow in the background).
 * In the book, Katniss and Peeta get in an argument on the train home about whether Katniss was faking her love for him or not. Peeta is crushed when he realizes Katniss was (mostly) faking for the Games. This argument is not shown in the film though there is a subtle moment of realization by Peeta after she tells him she wants to forget what's happened and he sees how happy she is to see Gale. He joins hands with her and his doing so juxtaposes his doing so on the chariot ride into the Capitol - knowing it's primarily for the audience and not for him.