Mockingjay Part 1 Ending Explained

The Big Picture

• Katniss Everdeen, under the leadership of President Coin, fights to save Peeta and leads the revolution against the Capitol in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 .
• Peeta and Johanna are rescued from the Capitol, but Peeta has been changed from his experience and sees Katniss as a threat, leaving her devastated.
• The ending sets up the final installment, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 , with Katniss seeking vengeance against President Snow and determined to save Peeta from his altered state.

In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1, the war in Panem is finally beginning. Following Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) after her narrow escape from the Quarter Quell arena at the end of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, we begin with her trying to work through her trauma over surviving another round in the games, living in District 13 with her mother and Prim (Willow Shields). After surviving that traumatizing experience in the arena twice, Katniss' entire being is shaken. However, that is partially due to Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) being held captive and tortured by President Snow (Donald Sutherland) in the Capitol, as they were unable to save him and Johanna (Jena Malone) after Katniss destroyed the arena. Nonetheless, after much pushing and pleading from those in District 13, including President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and former Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Katniss agrees to be the face of the revolution — the Mockingjay — with Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) and Effie (Elizabeth Banks) by her side. Their goal is to unify the districts against the Capitol using Katniss, Gale (Liam Hemsworth), and Finnick (Sam Claflin) to film anti-Capitol propaganda and rally the troops. But, at the end of the day, this turns out to be much more difficult than they anticipated. Particularly because Katniss is terrible at being told what to say and how to act, something that has gotten her into trouble throughout the previous Hunger Games films, and she works best under pressure, so faking it in the bowels of District 13 isn’t an option.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Katniss Everdeen is in District 13 after she shatters the games forever. Under the leadership of President Coin and the advice of her trusted friends, Katniss spreads her wings as she fights to save Peeta and a nation moved by her courage.

How Does ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1’ End?

As The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 comes to an end, the first of the two Mockingjay films, tensions are higher than ever. After Peeta warns District 13 of the bombers headed their way, District 13’s emergency sirens go off and the citizens head deep within the silo for protection. They sit in the dark as the bombs hit the ground above and everything shakes around them. While playing with Prim's cat Buttercup, Katniss realizes how Snow is using Peeta to continue manipulating her, despite no longer being in the arena. When the coast is clear, the team brings Katniss to the surface to record a message, wanting to inform Panem that she and District 13 are alive and well. But, she finds white roses covering the entire surface, a direct message from Snow that she interprets as his intent to kill Peeta. Later, Haymitch finds Katniss to inform her that a team, including Gale and Boggs (Mahershala Ali), is headed to the Capitol to rescue Peeta and the other victors. They have a small window of time to get in and out as the Capitol experiences electrical issues.

As the team storms the former Training Center, Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) breaks into the Capitol’s airwaves to stream Finnick recounting how Snow used to sell his body to the highest bidders in the Capitol (along with other victors deemed desirable), and how Snow would kill someone you loved if you refused. He continues to relay the secrets he has learned over the years of Snow’s use of poison to stop his enemies and potential mutinies before they occur. Snow would drink from the same cup to avoid suspicion, which is why he wears roses drenched in perfume to cover the scent of blood from the open sores in his mouth that antidotes will never heal. (And, after reading and/or watching the prequel, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, all of this makes even more sense.)

How Do Peeta and Johanna Escape Snow and the Capitol?

While inside the Training Center, power is restored to the Capitol, cutting off District 13’s connection to their team. To get their attention and keep the Capitol distracted, Katniss talks directly with Snow, who passes along a message that it is the things we love most that destroy us. Snow cuts off District 13’s connection, leaving it up in the air about what will happen to everyone inside. Katniss begins to panic, worried that she has lost both Peeta and Gale with this attempt. Haymitch attempts to console her, but there’s no choice but to wait painfully for word about whether they’ve escaped. After a brief chat where Coin attempts to relate to and console her, Katniss learns that the team managed to return with both Peeta and Johanna. However, Gale is confused about why the Capitol let them leave, as they had every opportunity to shoot them out of the sky.

Johanna and Peeta are both bruised, beaten, and ragged in the weeks that followed their capture in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Katniss immediately rushes to Peeta's side, but it is instantly clear how much he has changed. As she approaches him, Peeta wraps his hands around her neck and throws Katniss around the room. He begins to strangle her, nearly killing her. He is wild, unable to be stopped, at least until Boggs knocks him out with a metal tray. When Katniss wakes up, she’s in a neck brace and unable to speak due to the trauma to her neck. Beetee and Plutarch inform her that Peeta has fallen victim to a technique called "hijacking," which uses venom from the deadly muttations tracker jackers to induce fear and change memories. Thus, Peeta’s memories of Katniss were altered to make him believe she is life-threatening. Prim asks, for Katniss, if it can be reversed. Beetee instinctually says fear is the most difficult emotion to overcome, but Plutarch interjects to say they’ve established a team to help Peeta, and he’s optimistic. (Though it’s clear he has no idea what he’s talking about.) Later, as President Coin gives a riveting speech to District 13 about liberating the victors and their plans to take District 2 and then Panem, Katniss leaves her hospital room and makes her way to Peeta. She watches from outside as he thrashes against his restraints, clearly no longer the sweet and gentle boy with the bread that she knew and loved.

How Does the Ending Set Up 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2'?

As Coin says in her speech, the rebels still need to take District 2 before they can finally storm the Capitol. However, District 2 is the Capitol’s military base, which makes it the most difficult challenge they have faced thus far in the war. The rebels have come a long way in this war, but there’s still much more to do if they hope to finally free Panem. Coin is ready for the next phase, motivating her people while promising a blessed end to this war where people are free and no longer forced to fight each other for scraps. However, it is what Snow did to Peeta that drives Katniss into the next phase of the war. He stole the boy she loved from her. As far as Katniss believes, Snow turned him into a monster who wants to kill her for his own pleasure. She is hopeless about Peeta’s chance to recover from this form of torture.

Going into The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2, Katniss is thirsty for Snow’s blood and vengeance. She is more motivated than ever to kill him and make him pay for the atrocities he’s committed, which is certainly reflected in the decisions she makes moving forward. Additionally, she feels immense guilt for what has happened to Peeta, and seeing him like this is too difficult for her. So, the question is, can Peeta be saved and return to the boy she once knew?

'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes' Shows a Different Side of War

Throughout The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, we are thrust into this long-burgeoning war between the districts and the Capitol. However, in the prequel story, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, we get a glimpse at a much different side of war. Following a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as he is enlisted to support a tribute — District 12's Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) — in the tenth Hunger Games, this version of the Capitol and the games are nothing like the spectacle they have become by the time Katniss and Peeta arrive to compete.

The prequel book, in particular, depicts the aftermath of the first war — something we don't see much of with the second. The Capitol is struggling to recover after barely taking down the districts' first rebellion, leaving Snow and his cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer), as well as many others in the Capitol, penniless. Of course, given Snow is all about status and comes to be a person who attacks even the perceived notion of disrespect, he is desperate to keep others from learning how far the Snow family has fallen since the war. Helping Lucy Gray to win the Hunger Games is the only way to possibly ensure his future, but he's displeased with the tribute he's been assigned to mentor, as the District 12 girl is considered the least likely of the bunch to win. Without spoilers, his dynamic with Lucy Gray shakes up his world, which ultimately leads this young man on the path to becoming the vicious snake we see Katniss face off against in the original series.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is now in theaters. The Hunger Games movies are streaming on Peacock.

Watch on Peacock

ncG1vNJzZmibn6G5qrDEq2Wcp51kwamxjKGsp5%2BVp3qorcyeqmaln5i4qrrGo5iyZaCWv7V5kGacp5yZo7Rusdepo5qhnpqxcA%3D%3D