Katniss Everdeen wakes up on the day of the reaping, when the tributes are chosen
who will take part in the Hunger Games. Her mother and little sister, Prim, sleep
nearby. Her father died in a mine explosion years earlier. She goes hunting in the woods
outside her district, District 12, with Gale, her best friend. That night, at the
reaping ceremony, the mayor gives a speech describing how the governments of North
America collapsed and the country of Panem rose up in their place. A war ensued between
the Capitol and the districts. The Capitol won, and as a reminder of their defeat, the
Capitol holds the Hunger Games every year. The mayor then introduces Haymitch Abernathy,
District 12’s only living Hunger-Games winner, and he’s so drunk he ends up falling in
his own vomit.
The district’s female tribute is chosen, and to Katniss’s horror, it’s Prim.
Katniss volunteers immediately in Prim’s place. Then the male tribute is selected. It’s
Peeta Mellark, and Katniss remembers how years earlier, while searching for food for her
family in the garbage bins behind the town shops, Peeta gave her bread from his family’s
bakery. Katniss credits him with saving her that day. Katniss and Peeta say goodbye to
their friends and families and board a train for the Capitol. During the trip, she and
Peeta convince Haymitch, their mentor in the Games and the person responsible for
getting them gifts from sponsors, to take his duties seriously.
Once there, Katniss meets with her stylist, Cinna, who is designing her dress for
the opening ceremony. At the ceremony, Katniss and Peeta wear simple black outfits lit
with synthetic flames. The outfits are a huge hit with the audience and make Katniss and
Peeta stand out among the tributes. The next day, Katniss and Peeta attend group
training, and the tributes from rich districts who have trained for the Games their
whole lives, called Career Tributes, show off their skills. Later, the tributes are
interviewed by Caesar Flickerman, a television host. In his interview, Peeta reveals
that he’s had a crush on Katniss for several years.
Finally the time comes. From a small underground room, Katniss is lifted into the
arena and the Games officially begin. All the tributes are there, and in front of her is
the Cornucopia, which houses an abundance of supplies. Rather than fight, she runs away
as Haymitch advised. She hikes all day before making camp. After dark, someone starts a
fire nearby, and it isn’t long before a pack of Career Tributes arrives and kills the
person. To Katniss’s shock, Peeta is with them. The next day Katniss goes in search of
water. She walks for hours and collapses from exhaustion, but ultimately she finds a
stream. She’s woken in the night by a wall of fire moving in her direction, and as she
runs away one of the numerous fireballs falling around her grazes her leg, injuring
it.
That night, while she hides in a tree from the pack of Careers below, she notices
a young girl named Rue from District 11 in a nearby tree. Rue points out a nest of
tracker jackers, wasps engineered by the Capitol to be lethal, over Katniss’s head, and
Katniss cuts the branch holding the nest, dropping it onto the Careers. Two of them die
from the stings and the rest scatter. Katniss is stung a few times as well, but as she’s
running away, she remembers one of the girls who died had a bow and arrows, the weapons
she’s become proficient with from hunting. She runs back to retrieve them, and Peeta
happens to arrive as she’s grabbing the bow. He yells at Katniss to run just as Cato, a
very large and dangerous Career from District 2, shows up. Peeta stops him so Katniss
can escape, and she passes out in a ditch shortly after.
Katniss encounters Rue again, and the two quickly form a bond. They are able to
get food hunting and foraging, and Katniss realizes that the Careers would have
difficulty surviving without the supplies at the Cornucopia, so she and Rue devise a
plan. While Rue lights decoy fires, Katniss sneaks up to the Cornucopia. The supplies
are in a pyramid away from the main camp, and after the Careers leave to investigate the
fires, Katniss manages to blow up the supplies by cutting open a bag of apples with her
arrows, which sets off the mines set to protect the pyramid. When Katniss doesn’t find
Rue at their meeting spot, she goes looking for her and finds her just as another
tribute stabs her with a spear. Katniss kills the other tribute, and when Rue dies, she
covers her body in flowers.
Katniss is depressed all the next day, until an announcement is made that there
has been a rule change: Now, two tributes from the same district can be declared
winners. Katniss goes looking for Peeta, and it takes her a day but finally she finds
him. He’s severely injured from his fight with Cato and can barely walk, but Katniss
helps him to a cave where they’ll be hidden. Thinking Peeta may die, Katniss impulsively
kisses him. A moment later she hears a noise outside and finds a pot of broth sent from
Haymitch. She realizes that Haymitch will reward her for playing up the romance between
her and Peeta. The next morning Katniss sees that Peeta’s leg is badly infected and
he’ll die without treatment. Another announcement is made, this time saying each tribute
will find an item they desperately need at the Cornucopia. Katniss knows that means
medicine for Peeta’s leg, but Peeta thinks it’s too dangerous and doesn’t want Katniss
to go. Using a sleep syrup sent from Haymitch, Katniss knocks him out.
At the Cornucopia, Katniss tries to run and grab the item marked for District 12,
but she gets into a fight with a female tribute. The tribute is about to kill her when
Thresh, the male tribute from District 11 who came to the Games with Rue, kills the girl
instead. He spares Katniss because of the way she treated Rue, and Katniss makes it back
to the cave. She injects Peeta with the medicine just before passing out. They stay
there for a few days while it rains nonstop outside, and in this time the romance
between Katniss and Peeta progresses. When the rain lets up, Peeta and Katniss need to
find food. Katniss leaves Peeta in charge of foraging while she goes to hunt. She comes
back hours later and finds a small pile of poisonous berries Peeta collected thinking
they were safe. They discover the body of a tribute who Katniss nicknamed Foxface, and
Katniss realizes she died from eating the berries. By this point Cato, who killed
Thresh, is the only tribute left, and Katniss decides to keep some berries in case they
can trick Cato the same way. Eventually the streams and ponds dry up, and they know the
only source of water left is the lake near the Cornucopia. Without any other choice,
they start walking to the lake.
By the lake, Cato comes suddenly barreling toward them. Unexpectedly, however, he
runs straight by them. Katniss realizes there are strange creatures chasing him, and
they all run to the Cornucopia and climb up. The creatures are mutant wolves engineered
by the Capitol, and Katniss realizes they are actually the dead tributes, who have been
turned into these monsters. Taking advantage of the situation, Cato attacks Peeta, but
Katniss and Peeta manage to push him over the edge. The creatures overpower him, but
because of the body armor he’s wearing he remains alive for hours, until Katniss shoots
him out of pity. Just as Katniss and Peeta think they’ve won, another announcement is
made that there can only be one winner again. Neither Katniss nor Peeta will kill the
other, so Katniss takes out the poisonous berries. Just as she and Peeta pop them in
their mouths, the announcer shouts for them to stop and declares them both
winners.
They go back to the Training Center and Katniss is kept alone for days while she
recuperates. When she is let out, Haymitch warns her that she’s in danger. The Capitol
took her stunt with the berries as an act of defiance, so she has to convince everyone
that she was desperate at the thought of losing Peeta and not being rebellious, or even
her family could be at risk. In their final interview, she’s reunited with Peeta, who
lost his leg and now has a prosthetic. After, when Haymitch tells her she did great,
Peeta wonders what he means, and Katniss explains everything, including the romance
strategy during the Games. Peeta is angry and hurt, but as they arrive back in District
12, they hold hands one more time to greet the crowd and cameras.
