Mockingjay Part 1 starts where Catching Fire left off, with Katniss Everdeen being rescued from the arena and brought to District 13 together with Gale, her mom and sister Prim. The screen opens with Katniss hiding somewhere in the underground facility as she was having nightmares about her moments in the arena. She is forcibly taken by some men and brought to a hospital/clinic for treatment of post-traumatic stress along with her co-tribute Finnick Odair who she saw in the room next to hers mumbling something about wanting to go back for Peeta and Joanna. He also expressed worries about Annie because they have her too back at the Capitol. He wished they were dead...and that they were too.
Katniss next meets Colonel Boggs, District 13 head of security who would be taking her to President Alma Coin, 13’s leader. On the way, Boggs tells her that their District was bombed to rubble by the Capitol some 75 years ago but their military training taught them how to survive below ground. They built a bunker below the ruins - preparing, training for the day when they can finally come out and fight the Capitol once again, that time, they believe is NOW. Katniss meets President Coin with Plutarch Heavensbee, the former Gamemaster whom the Capitol never realized to be helping the rebels. The President welcomed Katniss to 13 and expressed admiration for her bravery. President Coin explained to Katniss that when she fired her arrow into the arena’s forcefield, she also electrified the nation and fired up the rebellion that caused riots and uprisings to occur in seven districts. 13 wants to keep the rebellion burning since they believe they would not have another opportunity like this to unite the districts and fight the Capitol for another 75 years.
The two try to convince Katniss to become the Mockingjay that would unite all the districts against the Capitol. They want everyone to emulate Katniss and stand up against the mighty Capitol. They plan to shoot a series of propaganda videos to continue to stoke the fires of rebellion and make everyone stand up against their common enemy. But Katniss was still concerned about Peeta’s fate since Plutarch left him behind in the arena and so she refuses to take part. Coin and Plutarch discuss their options to convince Katniss to join their fight. They decide to make it a personal issue for her and allowed her to see how much the Capitol ravaged her district. Coin, however, believes that the games must have destroyed her...but Plutarch believes that her anger can be redirected and she can become the face, their symbol for the revolution.
Katniss is allowed to go to District 12 and she goes with Dale convincing him that she needs to do this, to see for herself what happened to their home. Katniss is brought to tears seeing the destruction wreaked on her district, nothing was left standing, all buildings were burned and were even still smoking at the time she arrived. She steps on a skull which visibly shakes her knowing it may have come from somebody she used to know. She proceeds to the Victor’s village where she and Peeta and Haymitch lives and the houses were relatively untouched. She goes inside their home and picks up a few things she want to bring to 13, including some of Prim’s herbal oils. She sees Buttercup, Prim’s cat and brings her too inside the satchel bag then she sees a single white rose that President Snow had given her last year, still fresh and unwithered.
President Snow prepares to address the nation and decides he doesn’t want to mention the rebellion in his speech as it would legitimize them. Instead, he would call them radicals and highlight the long-standing peace they have had due to their respect for law and order. They said that the system they had long practiced kept them all alive since the Capitol served as the heart of that system. The radicals want to put the entire system in danger and so they must be punished. He ordered that all symbols of the mockingjay shall henceforth be forbidden and anyone who ignores shall be punished with death. He then proceeds to kill off several captured rebels to show Panem that he means business.
Katniss returns to 13 and gives her the cat, telling her to keep it hidden as she only smuggled the cat in. Then, while eating with Dale at the cafeteria, they get a broadcast from the Capitol and sees Peeta being interviewed by Caesar, the Hunger games host. Katniss was obviously glad to see he was alive but he seems to be somehow being misguided or made to believe that Katniss knew all along about the rebellion. At first Peeta denies this but Caesar wants him to think otherwise and was upset that they would think that. Peeta then addresses the rebels and urges them to stop and think what a civil war could mean...that killing/violence is not the answer. The people of 13 were obviously not happy with Peeta’s words and branded him a traitor to their cause. Katniss leaves the cafeteria and talks with Dale, agreeing that there can’t be a ceasefire after everything that Snow has done. Dale tells Katniss that maybe Peeta was just forced to say what he did, maybe even to protect her as he is wont to do.
Katniss dreamt about Peeta being there with her in 13 and Prim sees her awake. She tells Prim her thoughts about wanting so badly to save Peeta but knowing that once she openly joins the rebellion, she may end up killing him instead. Prim tells her how important she is to the rebellion and that she could demand almost anything she wants, even Peeta’s safety. The next day, Katniss meets with President Coin and Plutarch and agrees to ne their Mockingjay but on the condition that the other tribute-prisoners of the Capitol be rescued at the earliest opportunity and pardoned. But Coin disagrees since at 13 they believe in having a fair trial. But Katniss insists it wasn;t their fault being abandoned in the arena and now they are forced to do and say all sorts of things in order to survive. Katniss is determined that the tributes shall be pardoned in front of everyone in 13 or else they will have to find another mockingjay. Her anger convinced Heavensbee that their Mockingjay is definitely back so Coin agrees to her terms, even Katniss’ request that Prim can keep her cat.
Plutarch visits Effie Trinket, obviously annoyed at being made to wear a plain gray overall just like everyone else when she is used to the flamboyant wardrobe of the Capitol. He asks Effie to become part of Katniss’ team because she is someone that Katniss trusts, especially now that she has agreed to be the mockingjay. But Effie thinks that aiding a rebellion is not her cup of tea but Plutarch advises her that the days of the Capitol are over and she could choose to stay locked up inside like a prisoner (though she is obviously not) or she can be the mockingjay’s escort. In the end she agrees as she knew no one else in 13 knows Katniss like she does. That day, Coin addresses the people of District 13 and announces Katniss as the face of the rebellion. In exchange, she also promised to rescue the remaining victors still held hostage in the Capitol and pardon them for their crimes, though this was met with dismay by the people. But, if Katniss fails to fulfil her duties as mockingjay then the deal is off.
Katniss is elated to see Effie and admits that she too was ‘rescued’ and condemned to what she considers a horrible place of ‘jumpsuits’, without coffee and strict rules all the time. She missed her wigs and her outrageous outfits. Effie brings to Katniss some designs that were made by Cinna before he died, if and when Katniss decides to be the mockingjay. His designs emphasized Katniss role as the symbol of the rebellion, fully believing she would someday be their mockingjay. Katniss starts a series of propaganda videos under Plutarch’s direction, but she fails to deliver her lines with enough conviction. Then Haymitch arrives and recommends that Katniss be made to deliver her lines in spontaneous situations and not taught or coached on what to say. He suggests that they put her in the field, under protection and with a crew that can shoot propaganda footage while she is in action.
Beetee, took Katniss to his laboratory where he designed a new set of bow and arrows for her to use complete with color-coded bows (for incendiary or explosives). Before they leave, Katniss sees the weapons stockpile of 13 and wonders why they left the other Districts to fend for themselves. Colonel Boggs argued that they needed to find the right moment to attack and that if they did back then they all would have been annihilated by the Capitol. Katniss gets to meet film crew – Cressida (her director), director’s assistant Messala, cameraman Castor and Pollux, an Avox. Gale joins them as her bodyguard. The team averred that they all came from the Capitol and voluntarily left, for the rebellion, for the Mockingjay.
The team first fly out to District 8 where Katniss visits a hospital full of wounded rebels. The wounded soldiers and their families are obviously surprised by her visit and at the same time delighted that she came. She promised them that she would fight with them...and they all give her the three-fingered salute. But then the Capitol’s cameras identify Katniss which prompts Snow to send in jets to bomb the hospital compound, due to their association with the Mockingjay symbol. Colonel Boggs advised the team to hide in one of the abandoned buildings but Katniss and Gale, seeing that the bombers were targeting the hospital decided to do something and managed to fight off the bombers with her red-tipped bow. Katniss and her group then sees everyone in the hospital dead and she gives her most emotional speech yet urging others to help them stop the Capitol because they would stop at nothing, even bomb innocent civilians it is here that she delivers her famous lines – “Fire is catching...and if we burn, you burn with us!”
The video was shown and the people of District 13 and Coin were quite pleased with the footage telling Katniss that Plutarch’s faith in her was not misplaced. In another district, the workers were entering the woods led by soldiers and one of them sees the Mockingjay symbol on a tree and whistles. The group then started running away from the soldiers and going up the trees but they were shot at by the soldiers. Then bombs planted on the ground go off killing all the soldiers. Gale visits an obviously depressed Katniss with good news that Coin had allowed them to hunt above ground. Katniss sees an elk but she failed to shoot it since it did not want to run away. They find a pretty river and sit to calm themselves but after awhile they receive a message that they must go back to 13.
Inside they witness a live feed of another interview with Peeta being urged by Caesar to condemn Katniss for inciting people to violence. Katniss sees how different Peeta has become, how they seem to have tortured him to say anything they want. Peeta was made to think that Katniss was being forced to support the rebellion so he told her to start thinking for herself...that it was the rebels that made her into something she was not, something that could destroy everything. Peeta further urged her to make the rebels stop the war and even asked if she can still trust the people she works with. Gale and Katniss get into an argument over what Peeta just said since Gale thinks Peeta is a coward and he would never do what he just did. Katniss defended that Peeta was just saying these things to protect himself or maybe even Katniss.
Katniss thinks that Peeta may be unaware of what the Capitol did to his own district and so she decided to visit District 12 and show the world the devastation that the Capitol wreaked. Gale starts talking about what happened to 12 on the night that Katniss fired the arrow that ended the 75th Hunger games. The next day, when Gale saw that the peacekeepers were leaving, he and two others started pulling people from their houses, urging them to go over the fence line but most of them were afraid. He shared that only 915 made it to the fence and they watched in misery as bombers circled back and fired at the main highway. Only 915 made it out alive, out of ten thousand. He knew he could have saved so much more, carried more children but it was just too late to evacuate more. The crew visits Katniss’ old home at the Victor’s Village and inside Katniss and Gale share an intimate moment.
The crew rest near a river and they soon notice a few mockingjay birds flocking towards them and they whistle a tune which the birds imitate. Katniss is asked to sing a song and they film her while singing ‘The Hanging Tree’ and as soon as it was broadcast to the other districts, it was adopted as their protest song. A group of rebels conduct a mission aimed to destroy a large dam near the Capitol so that all power to the Capitol will be cut off. The outage temporarily cut power to even President Snow’s house and severely weakened their defences which enabled Beattie to enter their broadcast system. That night, Peeta gives another message to the rebels and he looks obviously tortured. Just then Beattie was able to enter their system and he airs Katniss footage at District 12. Peeta seem surprised to see Katniss alive but upon the prodding of Ceasar continues on with his message to the rebels but in the end he issues a warning to Katniss and everyone in District 13 that they will be coming to bomb them. But Peeta was silenced and the broadcast interrupted.
President Coin and the others then decide to quickly evacuate to the lower levels where they will be safe from the bombings. Katniss goes down with the others but she can’t seem to find Prim in the shelter so she goes back up to find Prim going back for her cat. Katniss goes back to the upper level and reaches her at the stairs just in time before the shelter locks down. As the bombers start dropping their bombs, Coin decides not to fire back so as not to reveal to the Capitol the extent of their defences. She effectively sealed the District and kept their weaponry hidden so that the Capitol would not know where to target them. While in the bunker, Prim shared to her sister that she had been promoted to work in the hospital as they are training her to be a doctor. Soon the people grow bored just sitting or lying on their bunk beds and decide to play with Buttercup, making it run after the light coming from a flashlight. She soon realized that it was what the Capitol was making Peeta do, to make him follow the light. She shares her realization with Finnick who tells her that she must love Peeta too and that their relationship was not truly an act.
The next morning, Coin made Katniss deliver a statement to Panem that District 13 is alive and suffered no casualties, thanks to Peeta, they were able to have some eight minutes of leeway time before the first bomb dropped. Katniss goes out of 13 to make the shoot and is surprised to see a whole meadow of white roses amid the rubble of the bombing. Katniss knew that the roses were meant for her, as a warning that he would kill all of the people she loved, particularly Peeta. Katniss decides she cannot do this anymore...she realizes that Peeta is being punished because she is the mockingjay and so she stops filming any propaganda for the rebellion as it would lead to Peeta’s demise. Katniss admits to Haymitch that she can’t be the Mockingjay anymore. Haymitch told her that they are now attempting to rescue Peeta and the rest of the tributes since Beetie was able to enter their defences when the power went out. Katniss wants to help but Haymitch tells her that the group of volunteers already left, led by Gale.
Finnick takes Katniss’ place to deliver the message to Panem that District 13 is alive and survived the bombing. Finnick also reveals many of Snow’s dirty secrets – how he was sold/pimped and couldn’t refuse or else someone he loves would be killed. He also revealed that President Snow uses poison to kill off his opponents in order to rise to power. Meanwhile, at the ops center, President Coin with the rest of the leaders, including Katniss and Haymitch see the rescue team enter the Capitol and reach the Tributes Center without being detected by their perimeter defence system, thanks to Beetie. They see the team going thru a laboratory containing several torturing devices. Then, the group reaches Peeta and the tributes but the power is suddenly restored and Beetie can no longer hack their system. Katniss decides that she be used to distract President Snow and eventually he responds. She tries to convince him that she did not really want to be part of neither the games nor the rebellion; she just wants to save her sister and Peeta. Snow did not seem to believe her and instead remarks that it is ‘the things she loves most that destroys us’. He also tells her that he knows that her friends are in the tribute center and then immediately cuts the broadcast off. Katniss bursts out crying fearing that she may lose them both – Gale and Peeta.
Later on, Katniss learns that the rescue team made it back home safely with the tributes. Katniss first sees Joanna Mason, obviously emaciated and tortured then Annie arrives shouting Finnick and they have a tearful reunion. Katniss sees Gale and asks if he was alright and he admits confusion because he knew every radar and weaponry at the Capitol saw them but they flew past them...it seems they were allowed to escape. He thanks Gale and Colonel Boggs and approaches Peeta for the first time. He looks weak and wounded but at the sight of Katniss he immediately springs into action and chokes her to death. It was only when Boggs knocked him unconscious that Katniss managed to survive. Plutarch later explains that what they did to Peeta was called hijacking through psychological torture and fear conditioning using tracker jacker venom. It seems that the Capitol had put in new and different memories for Peeta making him hate Katniss and turning him into the ultimate weapon to kill her. It is Snow’s ultimate revenge on her...though they could try to reverse what they did but it would be difficult. President Coin announces to the people of 13 the successful return of the rescue mission to liberate the tributes. Katniss, in the hospital, sneaks in to peek at Peeta and sees him kept in isolation, strapped to his bed and screaming in agony.
The movie ends here and expectedly this has left many of us hungry for more and wishing that the next movie instalment would come soon! Mockingjay, the book, is undoubtedly quite long but I am just so sad that for more profit the franchise was further split into two! So unfair! Expectedly, too since the setting of the Mockingjay is outside of the games already there was less action in the movie as compared to the first two instalments. Rather, the movie delved in the inner conflict within Katniss – as she struggles to accept becoming the symbol of the revolution in order to save the people she loved. The movie is set underground so most of the film is dark but in moments when the people of the movie do come out, we are greeted by breathtaking and dramatic scenery of the outside world, some parts still untouched while the rest destroyed by Snow. In all, I liked the movie but only just a bit... I hate the fact that the film was cut just when it got to the interesting part (Peeta is back!) and I have to wait 12 whole months to watch how the director interpreted the rest of the Mockingjay book. Ugh! This is just pure and absolute agony!
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