Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), Beetee (Jeffrey Wright), and Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) are taken to District 13 after being rescued from the destroyed arena of the 75th Hunger Games. District 13 is underground--a district separate from the rest of Panem where the rebellion is headquartered. Katniss finds her mother (Paula Malcomson) and her sister Primrose (Willow Shields) safe in that place, and she is introduced to President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), the rebel leader. Katniss learns that her destruction of the forcefield sparked riots in half the districts. President Snow (Donald Sutherland) bombed district 12 in retaliation. The rebellion wants Katniss to become the Mockingjay, symbol of the rebellion.
First she visits her old house in District 12, then she meets her team, including her stylist Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) and her bodyguard Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth). Katniss is filmed with wounded civilians in District 8. Seeing this footage, President Snow has the hospital bombed, killing everyone. Then she is filmed shooting down two hovercraft in a rage. Loggers in District 7 revolt. Then she is filmed singing “The Hanging Tree” in District 12. Protesters in District 5 engage in a suicide attack on a hydroelectric dam, shouting her words as they die. Power in the Capital is knocked out.
She watches her love Peeta Mallark (Josh Hutcherson) being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci). The signal is hijacked to show her face. Peeta shouts that District 13 is about to be attacked. The rebels retreat underground and survive, but they find the area filled with white roses, a message from President Snow that Peeta is being tortured in retaliation.
A special forces team is sent to rescue Peeta, along with Hunger Games victors Johanna Mason (Jena Malone) and Annie Cresta (Stef Dawson). Beetee (Jeffrey Wright) hijacks the Capital’s defense system with a message for other districts. Katniss communicates with Snow to gain more time. When she meets Peeta, he tries to strangle her because his mind has been hijacked. He is put in solitary confinement as they try to cure him. Now, the only district left loyal to Snow is District 2, and that is next.
This is the third of four Hunger Games films, based on the first half of the last book of Suzanne Collins’s young adult book series. It was directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong. It was a commercial success and was generally praised by critics, though criticized for a lack of action, and some wondered if it really needed to be two films. In truth, the first half of the movie was character development, and the second half was full of action. It received nominations for Saturn Awards and Critics Choice Awards. It was filmed back-to-back with Part Two.
Philip Seymour Hoffman died after filming most of his part and it was dedicated to him. The three-finger salute used by the Panem rebels was copied by protesters in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Catalan, and because of that the movie was pulled in China and Thailand. Jennifer Lawrence sang and hated the experience, but the song went Number One on iTunes. Jena Malone (Johanna Mason) was in the film for a grand total of 30 seconds. Julianne Moore tried out for President Coin at the insistence of her children. Liam Hemsworth said the worst part of the job was kissing Jennifer Lawrence, who ate garlic before each kissing scene just to mess with him.