The Hunger Games book to film differences

The following are noted differences between the original 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, 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. Also, they do not see Lavinia and her companion during the scene.
 * 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.
 * In the book, Peeta's father gives Katniss cookies after the reaping, he is not seen in the moive 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 instructs her to hold hands.
 * 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, the Cornucopia is gold. In the film the Cornucopia is made of black steel.
 * In the book Katniss goes many days suffering from dehydration. In the movie she almost immediately finds a source of water upon running into the woods.
 * 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 gets a sleeping bag in the backpack she grabs, in the movie she does not.
 * 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 this didn't happen.
 * 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, they made out many times. In the movie, Katniss and Peeta kissed once.
 * In the book, Katniss and Peeta encountered Cato while he was running away from the muttations.
 * In the book the muttations were suppose to resemble the dead tributes, but in the movie they were just mutts.
 * In the book, Cato endures the pain from the mutts 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 mutts 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 mouth, and as Claudius tells them to stop, they spit them out. In the movie Claudius stops them before they put the berries in their mouth.
 * In the book, Seneca Crane is not shown commanding the Gamemakers what to do to the arena.
 * 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.
 * In the book, Buttercup is the color of a Buttercup. In the movie, he is not.
 * In the book, Haymitch instructs Katniss and Peeta not to do weightlifting and archery in the training center until their private sessions with the Gamemakers.
 * In the movie, even if Katniss didn't go to the archery station, Peeta did show his strength by throwing some sort of weight after Katniss instructed him to.
 * 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.
 * It was made clear in the book that both Peeta and Katniss should 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 and all the other tributes laugh at him, Katniss urges him to throw weights in front of them so they would stop making fun of him.