In the nation of Panem, the Capitol forces each of its twelve districts to send two children a year into a televised fight to the death. Katniss Everdeen of District 12 survives two Games, becomes the face of a rebellion that topples President Snow, and ends up home with Peeta; the prequel shows Snow as a young mentor in the 10th Games. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, about Haymitch Abernathy's 50th Games, is due November 20, 2026.
- Recapped
- 5
- Watch time saved
- 12 hours
- Latest
- 2023
No. 01 · 2012 · Film
The Hunger Games recap
When her twelve-year-old sister Prim is chosen at the reaping in District 12, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her place in the 74th Hunger Games. The boy chosen is Peeta Mellark, a baker's son who once gave her bread when her family was starving. In the Capitol, their drunk mentor Haymitch, their escort Effie and the stylist Cinna prepare them for the crowds, and on live television Peeta says he has loved Katniss for years. In the arena, Peeta seems to join the Careers hunting her. Katniss drops a tracker jacker nest on them and learns Peeta was protecting her. She teams up with Rue, a small girl from District 11, but Rue is speared; Katniss sings to her as she dies and covers her body in flowers, which sets off a riot in District 11. The Gamemakers then announce that two tributes from the same district can win together, and Katniss finds Peeta badly wounded and nurses him.
How The Hunger Games ends
Katniss and Peeta outlast everyone, and Katniss ends Cato's suffering with an arrow after mutant dogs maul him. The Gamemakers then cancel the two-winner rule, so Katniss and Peeta threaten to eat poison berries together, and the Games are stopped and both are named victors. Haymitch warns Katniss that the Capitol sees the stunt as defiance. President Snow has the head Gamemaker, Seneca Crane, locked in a room with the same berries. Back home, Peeta learns that much of the romance was played for the cameras.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 02 · 2013 · Film
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire recap
Before the victory tour, President Snow visits Katniss and tells her to convince Panem that the berries were an act of love, not rebellion, or her family will suffer. On the tour, her speech in District 11 leads to an old man being shot for whistling Rue's signal, and the districts grow restless. Peeta proposes on live television, and new Peacekeepers crack down on District 12, whipping Gale. For the 75th Games, the Quarter Quell, Snow and the new head Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee, announce that tributes will be drawn from past victors, which sends Katniss back in. Haymitch is drawn, and Peeta volunteers for him. Cinna turns Katniss's wedding dress into a mockingjay costume on stage and is beaten and dragged away. In the arena, built like a clock with a new danger every hour, Katniss allies with Finnick, Johanna, Beetee and others, and the old victor Mags dies in a poison fog.
How The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ends
Katniss fires an arrow wired to a lightning strike into the arena's force field and blows the dome apart. She wakes on a hovercraft: Plutarch, Haymitch and several tributes were part of a plan to rescue her for the rebels. Peeta and Johanna were captured by the Capitol instead. Gale tells her that District 12 has been firebombed and destroyed, and Katniss's grief turns to rage, setting up the war in Mockingjay.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 03 · 2014 · Film
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 recap
Katniss recovers in District 13, a military bunker city run by President Alma Coin, with Plutarch now working for the rebels. She walks through the ruins of District 12 and then sees Peeta on Capitol television calling for a ceasefire. Coin wants Katniss to be the Mockingjay, the face of the rebellion, and she agrees on condition that Peeta and the other captured victors are pardoned. A film crew led by Cressida follows her into a bombed hospital in District 8, where she shoots down Capitol jets with Gale and vows on camera that if the rebels burn, the Capitol will burn with them. Her song, The Hanging Tree, spreads through the districts, and rebels blow up a dam that powers the Capitol. Peeta, visibly beaten, warns 13 of an air raid on live TV. Snow bombs 13 and leaves white roses for Katniss. Gale joins a team sent into the Capitol to rescue Peeta, Johanna and Annie.
How The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 ends
The rescue team brings Peeta, Johanna and Annie back to District 13, but when Katniss goes to Peeta he tries to strangle her. The Capitol has hijacked his mind with tracker jacker venom and taught him to see her as the enemy. Coin announces that the rebels' next target is the Nut, the Capitol's military stronghold in District 2, and the film ends with Katniss watching Peeta strapped to a bed, setting up the final part.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 04 · 2015 · Film
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 recap
Peeta is slowly being treated for his conditioning while the rebels take the Nut in District 2, where Katniss is shot and survives because of her armour. She slips onto a supply ship to the Capitol and joins a propaganda squad led by Boggs, filming behind the front lines. Coin sends Peeta to join them, though he still has violent episodes. The streets are full of booby traps, or pods, built by the Gamemakers; Boggs is killed and leaves Katniss a holographic map. The squad moves through the sewers, where lizard-like mutts kill Finnick and others. Katniss heads for Snow's mansion to kill him, where Capitol children have been gathered as human shields. A hovercraft with Capitol markings drops parachutes that explode among the children, and when rebel medics rush in, a second blast kills them, including Prim.
How The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 ends
Snow tells Katniss that Coin ordered the bombing to end the war, and Katniss believes him. At Snow's public execution, she shoots Coin instead, and Snow dies as the crowd surges over him. Katniss is sent home to District 12, and Commander Paylor becomes president. Peeta returns and plants primroses, and they slowly heal together. Years later, they are married with two children, and Katniss tells her baby how she copes with her nightmares.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 05 · 2023 · Film
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes recap
Sixty-four years before Katniss, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow is a poor Capitol student who needs to win the Plinth Prize to save his family. Students are made mentors for the 10th Hunger Games, and Snow gets Lucy Gray Baird, a singer from District 12 who wins over the crowd at the reaping. Rebel bombs hit the arena before the Games, and Snow gives Lucy Gray rat poison and tells her about tunnels the blasts opened. His friend Sejanus Plinth sneaks into the arena to honour his dead tribute, and Snow kills a tribute while bringing him out. When head Gamemaker Volumnia Gaul releases snakes to kill the remaining tributes, Snow slips a handkerchief with Lucy Gray's scent into their tank so they leave her alone, and she wins. Dean Highbottom finds the evidence and sends Snow to District 12 as a Peacekeeper. There, Snow records Sejanus helping rebels, shoots Mayfair Lipp in a struggle, and his report gets Sejanus hanged.
How The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes ends
Snow and Lucy Gray run away into the woods, but when he finds the hidden gun that ties him to Mayfair's death, she senses what he is and disappears. A snake bites him, and he fires into the trees after her, then sinks the gun in a lake and returns. Gaul secures his pardon and a university place, and Sejanus's parents make him their heir. Highbottom says Lucy Gray's fate is unknown, and Snow poisons him, beginning his rise to power.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
Common questions
What is the Hunger Games story so far?
In the nation of Panem, the Capitol forces each of its twelve districts to send two children a year into a televised fight to the death. Katniss Everdeen of District 12 survives two Games, becomes the face of a rebellion that topples President Snow, and ends up home with Peeta; the prequel shows Snow as a young mentor in the 10th Games. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, about Haymitch Abernathy's 50th Games, is due November 20, 2026.
Where did Hunger Games leave off?
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) is the latest. Snow and Lucy Gray run away into the woods, but when he finds the hidden gun that ties him to Mayfair's death, she senses what he is and disappears. A snake bites him, and he fires into the trees after her, then sinks the gun in a lake and returns. Gaul secures his pardon and a university place, and Sejanus's parents make him their heir. Highbottom says Lucy Gray's fate is unknown, and Snow poisons him, beginning his rise to power.
Keep reading
Watch order guideHow to watch the Hunger Games movies in order5 titles · 12 hours- Catch-up guideWhat to watch before The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the ReapingOut November 20, 2026
Skip guideWhat can you skip in Game of Thrones?2 titles you can skip
RecapChainsaw Man recap: the story so far2 titles recapped
Watch order guideHow to watch the One Piece movies in order8 titles · 498 hours
Skip guideWhich Star Wars movies can you skip?5 titles you can skip