Vacations, movies, holidays, leisure time, we all love these. Director Tim Burton once said, “Movies are like an expensive form of therapy for me.” Movies are therapy indeed after a long, stressful examination period. Trending recently was The Hunger games: Mocking Jay (Part 2), the most-awaited final part of the series . Let’s have a quick glimpse of what the series is about.

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About The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games is a sci-fi movie series is based on the adventure trilogy written by American author, Suzanne Collins – The Hunger games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Mockingjay, however, is split into 2 parts totalling to 4 movies. The events of movie takes place in a fictional world “The Hunger Games Universe” in an unspecified time in future. The games are held every year since Dark Days (occurring 75 years ago) hosted by the excessively wealthy Capitol using participants from the surrounding, poverty-stricken “districts”. The participants called “tributes” are chosen at random, each a boy and a girl aged 12-18, from every district through a lottery. The games are held to remind the district citizens of their failed rebellion, which had caused the Dark Days, and to emphasize the power of the Capitol. The 24 teenagers fight amongst themselves to the death until there is a final survivor and winner of the games, known as the Victor. The Victor is granted immunity from participation in future Hunger Games and their district is provided with food for a year.

The Hunger Games Universe
Panem: The fictional world ruled by nation of Panem in place of Canada, United States and mexico due to the failure of government of three nations.
Capitol: The seat of power of Panem’s brutal government that is located in Rocky Mountains of former United States. It is surrounded by 12 districts. It serves as the home of dictatorial President Coriolanus Snow. The citizens of Capitol exhibit a very high standard of living compared to those in the districts.
Peacekeepers: They are the combined military and police forces maintaining law and order and punish those who disobey laws of Capitol.
Districts: There are 13 districts in total of which 13th district remains hidden. The other 12 districts each have a specific characteristic – district 1 is wealthy; district 3 specializes in fishing and district 12, the home of major characters Katniss and Peeta, specializes in coal mining.

Main characters
The main characters in the movie are Katniss Everdeen (Jeniffer Lawrence), Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), Gale Hawthrone (Liam Hemsworth), Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) and Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields) all from district 12. Other main characters are Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks), President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland), Cinna ( Lenny Kravitz), Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) and Johanna Mason (Jena Malone).

Movie 1: The Hunger games (2012)

Katniss Everdeen volunteers in place of her younger sister Primrose Everdeen. She is joined by male tribute from district 12 , Peeta Mellark. They are taken to Capitol by chaperone Effie Trinket and and their mentor Haymitch Abernathy (past district 12 Victor). The tributes are groomed in order to attract sponsors and trained before the games starts. The event is nationally televised. In the end, Peeta and Katniss survive out of 24 tributes. Since only one can survive, both forces the authorities to change the rule that there cannot be two winners from the same district by threatening to poison themselves. They are then declared co-winners of 74th Hunger games when they are about to eat poisonous nightlock.

Movie 2: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
In this sequel, the winners Peeta and Katniss have returned to their home that (District 12) after winning. President Snow visits Katniss at her home to threaten to kill her loved ones and orders her to use upcoming “Victory Tour” to convince people that her actions in games were because of her love for Peeta and not against Capitol. As the 75th Hunger games are Quarter Quell (happens after every 25 years), it selects tributes from previous victors. When Katniss and Haymitch names were announced Peeta immediately volunteers to take place of Haymitch. In the games, Katniss shoots an arrow into the arena’s force field causing power failure that takes down Capitol’s surveillance, thus shattering the games forever. She woke in an aircraft along with a few fellow victors and head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee, who tells her that they are going to District 13, the headquarters of the new rebellion. She learns from Gale that her family is safe but District 12 has been destroyed by Capitol.

Movie 3: Hunger games –Mockingjay Part 1(2014)

After being taken to district 13, Katniss is introduced to rebel leader President Alma Coin who asks her to be the “Mockingjay” as part of their strategy against President Snow to which she refuses. After watching Peeta being used by Capitol through state television, she agrees to be “Mockingjay” and head their rebellion.
District 5 protesters destroy the dam which is the Capitol’s primary source of electricity. In the same night, District 13 is being attacked by the Capitol but facility survives the attack. They then rescue Peeta and Johanna. Soon Katniss realizes that Peeta has been brainwashed to kill her and needs treatment.

Movie 4: Hunger games –Mockingjay Part 2(2015)
Katniss, along with Gale, Finnick, Boggs, Peeta and others as a part of “Star-squad” tries to evade “pods” with the help of a map “Holo”. In a series of events, the members of squad are killed leaving few. On seeing her sister Prim killed by bombings, she fells unconscious. On recovering she learns that the Capitol has been conquered. She agrees to Coin’s proposal of a final Hunger Games on the condition that she is allowed to execute Snow herself.

Watch it or Not?
Watch it for the adrenaline rush. It is a great movie series that will make your summers action-packed, full of thrills and chills. So, what are you doing here reading my article? Go grab your DVD’s, Blu-rays and enjoy the latest one at a cinema near you. I enjoyed the series. What about you? Waiting to hear your opinions.