Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Who She Is and What Happens to Her

Katniss Everdeen is the central character of the Hunger Games saga, a sixteen year old from the poor mining district of District 12 in the nation of Panem. She hunts illegally to feed her mother and her younger sister Primrose, and that practical, protective habit explains almost everything she does afterwards. Jennifer Lawrence plays her in The Hunger Games (2012), directed by Gary Ross, and in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015), all directed by Francis Lawrence. The differences between the novels and the films are covered in hunger games books vs movies.

Why is Katniss Everdeen so special? The short answer is that she never sets out to be a symbol. She volunteers at the reaping because Primrose's name is drawn, and the Capitol, the districts and eventually the rebels all read far more into that act than she intended. Her skill with a bow gets her through the arena, but it is her refusal to behave as the Capitol's entertainment that makes her dangerous to President Snow.

What is her personality like? On screen she is reluctant in front of cameras, which is why the stylist Cinna and the strategist Plutarch Heavensbee both have to work so hard to turn her into a public figure. She acts to protect others first and thinks about the consequences afterwards. Her credited name in every film is simply Katniss Everdeen.

What does she look like? The films build her image largely through costume: the wedding gown that transforms into a Mockingjay, and the bulletproof outfit that saves her when she is shot mid speech during the push on District 2. For the full list of players, see hunger games cast, and for the wider ensemble see hunger games characters.

On dates and numbers: she is a tribute in the 74th Hunger Games, and the 75th, a special Quarter Quell, brings her back as a past victor. The age that matters on screen is sixteen at the reaping.

Katniss's relationships are the clearest way to read her, because each one pulls her toward a different kind of loyalty. The strongest is her sister, primrose everdeen hunger games, whose name is drawn at the reaping and whom Katniss replaces. Prim is the reason she enters the first arena, and her death in the Capitol bombing, where bombs kill many children and then the medics, comes just before the final confrontation with Snow and Coin.

Peeta mellark hunger games is the baker's son chosen as the male tribute. Their romance begins as a performance for the cameras, and Peeta himself is unsure how much of her affection is real. After the Capitol conditions him in Mockingjay Part 1, he attacks her, and his recovery in the last film is slow. They return to District 12 together at the end.

Gale hawthorne hunger games is the other man closest to her. He is whipped in Catching Fire for stepping in to protect others, he tells her in District 13 that her family is safe, and he joins the rescue team that goes to the Capitol for Peeta. He is also in the unit that follows her into the Capitol in Mockingjay Part 2.

Her mentors and allies are a looser group. Haymitch hunger games is the drunken past winner who coaches the District 12 tributes, and in Mockingjay Part 2 he reads out the letter that clears her. Effie trinket hunger games is billed fifth in the cast of all four main films, cinna hunger games is the stylist who dresses her as the Mockingjay and is beaten by Peacekeepers before the Quarter Quell, and finnick odair hunger games becomes a close ally in the second arena.

Her enemies are coriolanus snow, who sees her act of defiance as a danger to his control, and Coin, who wants her as the symbol of the revolt and later proposes one last Games using Capitol children.

These five moments are my picks, and they are opinion, ordered by how much each one changes the story rather than by spectacle.

First, the reaping. Katniss volunteering for Primrose in The Hunger Games (2012) is the moment the whole saga rests on, and it works because it is quick and unplanned. In my opinion, nothing later in the series is as clear about who she is.

Second, Rue. After Rue is killed, Katniss mourns her with flowers, and the gesture sparks unrest in Rue's home district. It is a small, quiet set piece, yet it shows how a private act of grief becomes political, which is the thread the other three films pull on.

Third, the berries. The threat to eat poisonous berries rather than kill Peeta forces the Capitol to name two victors. It could be argued that this is the film's smartest piece of plotting, because it turns the rules of the Games against the people who wrote them.

Fourth, the arrow in Catching Fire. Using Beetee's wire and a lightning strike to break the arena is a clever piece of stunt staging, and it makes her the one who ends the Quarter Quell. Compared with the first film, where she survives by hiding and hunting, here she is plainly the aggressor.

Fifth, the shot at the end. Shooting Coin rather than Snow in Mockingjay Part 2 finishes her arc, since she refuses to let a new regime keep running the Games. If you are new to the saga, start with hunger games movies in order, and for a full comparison see hunger games movies ranked.