Sunrise on the Reaping

Haymitch Abernathy wakes in District 12 in the futuristic nation of Panem. It is his 16th birthday and reaping day—the day the government chooses two kids from each district to participate in the annual Hunger Games, in which children fight to the death on live television. This year marks 50 years since the war between the Capitol and the districts, so twice as many participants will be selected as punishment for the districts’ past rebellion. Before the reaping, Haymitch visits his girlfriend, Lenore Dove, who has a dangerous love of seditious songs. She gifts him a flint striker shaped like a bird merged with a snake. Unlike Haymitch, Lenore Dove believes the districts should resist the Capitol’s oppression rather than assume the Hunger Games inevitable.

At the reaping, two girls and one boy are chosen: Louella McCoy, Maysilee Donner, and Wyatt Callow. The last tribute, Woodbine Chance, tries to run and is brutally killed by Peacekeepers (the Capitol’s military police force). Lenore Dove confronts the Peacekeepers, prompting Haymitch to intervene. Because of this, he is chosen to replace Woodbine as a tribute in the Hunger Games. Capitol representatives Drusilla Sickle and Plutarch Heavensbee try to gloss over the chaos while conducting the televised ceremony. They allow Haymitch a brief goodbye with his Ma and younger brother, Sid. Ma reminds him of Pa’s advice to another tribute, Sarshee Whitcomb, before he died: “Don’t let them use you[.]”

On the train, Haymitch, Maysilee, Louella, and Wyatt watch the reaping’s broadcast. Plutarch has reworked the footage to suggest everything went smoothly. Haymitch finds this disingenuous, remembering how Pa urged Sarshee not to let the Capitol “paint their posters with [her] blood,” meaning that she shouldn’t let them use her as a propaganda tool. Haymitch offers to be Louella’s ally, but he distrusts Maysilee because of her cruel demeanor and Wyatt because his family is known to bet on the Games.

In the Capitol, prep teams assemble the tributes for the opening ceremony. During the parade through the Capitol, the horses pulling District 12’s chariot spook and go on a rampage, killing Louella. Enraged, Haymitch carries her body and presents it to President Coriolanus Snow while sarcastically applauding. Peackeepers take the remaining District 12 tributes to an apartment where they meet their mentors, former victors Mags and Wiress. The next day, Mags asks the tributes about their goals. Haymitch wants to spare his family the pain of watching him die slowly. He also wants to hold the Capitol accountable for the suffering they’re causing, but he doesn’t know how.

Later, Haymitch and the other tributes report to the gym for training. Haymitch encounters Beetee, a mentor who is being forced to watch his son, Ampert, participate in the Games as punishment for conspiring against the Capitol. Maysilee, Haymitch, and Wyatt decide to join Ampert’s alliance of several districts who call themselves the Newcomers.

That evening, Plutarch escorts Haymitch alone to his mansion. President Snow wants to speak with him. Snow is very ill, presumably from consuming some of the poison he just used to kill parade master Incitatus Loomy. Seeing Haymitch’s flint striker, Snow implies he knows about Lenore Dove and her rebellious Covey family. He threatens to kill Haymitch painfully if he doesn’t start behaving. Snow also introduces a body double of Louella McCoy—a girl who has been drugged and tortured for unknown reasons, and who will pretend to be Louella throughout the Games. Haymitch and the rest of the team call her Lou Lou.

That night, Beetee sneaks into the apartment and invites Haymitch to help him and Ampert destroy the Games arena. Haymitch agrees. In his private session with the Gamemakers, during which they rate each tribute’s likelihood of winning the Games, Haymitch earns a one by calling them murderers. The next day, the tributes have televised interviews with Caesar Flickerman. Haymitch pretends to be a charming rascal, hoping this will earn him some sponsored gifts in the arena. Afterward, Plutarch covertly arranges a phone call with Lenore Dove, who has been arrested for singing seditious songs. Plutarch claims he is working with Beetee and gives Haymitch information for the arena plot, but Haymitch doesn’t know whether to trust him.

The next day, the Hunger Games begin. The arena includes an idyllic forest, meadow, and mountain. After grabbing some supplies and fleeing to the woods (as Beetee instructed), Haymitch learns that the water and seemingly edible vegetation are poisonous. For the next few days, he waits alone, tracking the tributes who have died (including Wyatt and Lou Lou) as their images are projected in the night sky. He receives a few gifts from sponsors, delivered by drone. Finally, Ampert arrives, secretly carrying the explosive. Haymitch sneaks underground via a portal through which the Gamemakers release mutts (genetically-altered animals). Though Haymitch successfully uses Lenore Dove’s flint striker to explode the water tank, causing damage throughout the arena, squirrel mutts kill Ampert. Furthermore, the arena immediately recovers, suggesting it’s running on a backup generator. While searching for this machine, some Careers (kids who are given fighting training in case they’re chosen to participate in the Hunger Games) almost kill Haymitch, but Maysilee rescues him.

Haymitch persuades Maysilee to investigate a hedge that he suspects conceals the edge of the arena, but they are attacked by ladybug mutts. Maysilee hopes one of them wins since they are both unwilling to be used for Capitol propaganda. On the sixth day, while battling more Careers, they encounter Gamemakers repairing the damaged arena. Maysilee kills one of them. Realizing they can combat the ladybugs by burning through the hedge, Haymitch and Maysilee reach the edge of the arena where a cliff looks out onto the generator, whose forcefield repels projectiles. Shortly afterward, bird mutts kill Maysilee, presumably as punishment for killing a Gamemaker.

With only three tributes left alive, Haymitch locates the only surviving member of the Newcomer alliance: a girl named Wellie. But Silka—the last Career—soon finds and beheads Wellie. She chases Haymitch to the cliff’s edge and throws her ax, which rebounds off the forcefield and strikes her in the head. Haymitch assembles another explosive from spare parts, ignites it, and throws it toward the generator before passing out.

As victor of the Hunger Games, Haymitch parades around the Capitol for celebrations. But Snow implies that Haymitch’s various rebellions will be punished. When he arrives home in District 12, Haymitch finds his house on fire with Ma and Sid dead inside. Likewise, Lenore Dove is released from prison only to die when she consumes poisoned gumdrops, which she thought were from Haymitch. As she dies, Lenore Dove makes Haymitch promise to never let the sun rise on another reaping. Haunted by her memory, Haymitch sinks into alcoholism and depression, despite Plutarch’s attempts to recruit him to the growing resistance efforts against the Capitol. Ultimately, Haymitch keeps his promise to Lenore Dove by shepherding Katniss Everdeen, the girl who finally puts an end to the Hunger Games. He feels Lenore Dove has been with him this whole time.