Suzzane Collins’ series of novels was like a resurrection of the YA genre, especially when they were adapted into movies in 2012. The series went on to become such a huge global phenomenon that it gave birth to numerous other movies that used the premise and went on to become mega hits on their own. However, it’s safe to say that The Hunger Games franchise used the Battle Royale narrative to the best of its abilities, mixing coming-of-age stories with a more grounded and political context. Now, the prequel to the original trilogy, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, explores the origin story of one of the most ruthless and captivating characters from the original trilogy, i.e. President Snow. Most of the story deals with the deliemma that snow faces when he gets to known Lucy Gray Baird, a covey from District 12 who is forced to become a tribute. In the following article, we will take a detailed look at The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and discuss the many twists and turns leading up to that ambiguous ending. If you wish to watch the film and not ruin your experience, I’d recommend that you come back to the post because this is going to be filled with spoilers.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Set in post-war Panem, we are first introduced to young Coriolanus Snow who lives with his sister Tigris and Grandma’s. The three were once part of a prominent family but the war and its many consequences have left them with a dilapidated house with not enough money to make the rent.
Coriolanus is an ambitious scion who is putting the fate of his family’s future by securing ‘The Plinth Prize.’ A coveted monetary prize that is given to the best student passing out of university. Snow is sure that he will secure this prize because he has been really good at school and has always been a top grader.
What changes are made to secure ’The Plinth Prize’?
As Snow gets ready and reaches the capitol for the announcement of the winner, we also learn a few things or two about him. Even though he comes from no money at all, he uses an air of superiority in order to fit in with the other rich students. You can feel his manipulative gaze from the word go.
Anyway, as the students sit down to hear the winner of the prize, Dean Casca Highbottom announces that there is a slight change for who would be the winner of The Plinth Prize this year while also introducing us to the game maker of The Hunger Games – Dr. Volummnia Gaul. She is a ruthless scientist, a bitter woman whose only aim is to make the games more interesting and violent. The sadist nature of her ideas involves experimenting with creatures to have more and more control over how the games would pan out. The two of them – Gaul and Casca make it their purpose to introduce the young students to the failure and dip in the viewership of The Hunger Games. This is where we also meet Sejanus Plinth, whose father is the one paying the Plinth prize. He is rich and even naive, but we can see his stand when he says that the games are morally reprehensible and should be stopped instead of being paid more heed.
However, Gaul and Casca want the students present in attendance to fight for the Plinth prize by being mentors for tributes who have been rounded off from the various districts in order to be slayed on live television in the arena. Their job would be to help their tributes secure more sponsorship for the games from the rich folks of Panem.
Who is Lucy Gray Baird?
Everyone is randomly assigned a tribute from a district. Snow is assigned with a tribute from District 12 named Lucy Gray Baird. She looks meek, and Snow is initially defensive. But once Lucy starts singing a rebellious song, he gets captivated by her talent and charm. So, he decides to be her mentor and help her secure some sponsorships, if not win the Hunger Games. We learn that Lucy is actually not a citizen of District 12 but a Covey – a group of ever-moving musicians. Snow tries his best to aid Lucy by offering his trustworthy gaze to her, and we can clearly see some romantic feelings between the two. Slowly, the two of them help each other out by laying down a natural progression of loyalty.
Before the Games could begin, there is an attack on the Arena where the Hunger Games usually takes place. A couple of tributes are killed, and others, including Snow, are injured. However, Dean Casca and Gaul decide to carry on with the games and not get scared of the rebellions. During the game, we see Snow using his connections and a few sly tricks in order to get Lucy the upper hand. We also see a darker side of Snow’s character when he is forced to kill a tribute during one of his visits to the Arena during the games. Killing the tribute leaves him with a sense of power that he greatly enjoys in spite of feeling like his actions are morally corrupt. This decline in Snow’s character serves as the central conflict of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Snogbirds and Snakes.
Who wins the 10th Annual Hunger Games?
If continuing with the games, in spite of the rebellion attack, wasn’t enough, Gaul decides that there won’t be any winner of the 10th Annual Hunger Games. So, in order to make a statement, she sends in her experimental tank of colorful snakes that would kill the last few tributes left in the Arena. However, Snow is clever enough to know about this tactic beforehand and uses the knowledge of the snakes being susceptible to a person’s scent to his advantage. He sneaks in a handkerchief that has Lucy’s scent into the tank, allowing her to be the only one who is not killed. This makes Lucy the winner of the Games.
Why is Snow banished from the Panem?
Before Snow can celebrate his victory and finally get the Plinth prize, Dean Casca rounds up his cheating in the games and going against the gamekeeper’s rules. Being a traitor means that he would be banished from the state and thrown into one of the districts as punishment. While he is assigned to a district that he doesn’t want, he uses his last cents to be assigned to District 12. On his way to District 12, he also meets his mate – Sejanus, who is also banished because of his strong opinions against the games. The two of them are sentenced to serve as Peacekeepers in the district but we do understand that Snow is somehow conflicted between his chance to have a new life with Lucy and be a loyal pawn to the Capitol and return to Panem.
He meets Lucy and her Covey companions but soon realizes that some of them are planning to go against the Capitol’s wish and join the rebellion by escaping their rule and becoming free. The conflict in Snow’s mind is further deepened when he is unable to pick between Lucy and his allegiance to the Capitol.
Lucy, Sejanus, and Snow get wrapped up in a messed-up situation when Snow fires a gun and kills the governor’s daughter. However, because he used Gaul’s songbirds to record Sejanus’ confession, his betrayal costs his friend’s life. Lucy asks him to run away with her, but we can clearly see and feel that he is going with her not because of his love but because he doesn’t want to get trapped for killing the governor’s daughter.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) Movie Ending, Explained:
Is Lucy dead?
Both Snow and Lucy manage to escape into the woods as she leads him to a small cottage that she knows of. As he is trying to search for a fishing rod, he discovers the gun that he had used to kill before. Lucy has been having doubts about him for quite some time because of his wobbly nature, but when she offers him the idea of getting rid of the gun, seeing his eyes glitter with hope makes her believe that she can no longer trust this man. We had earlier heard her say that the only thing she would want from him is his trust, and when that is shattered, she realizes that there is no need to stick around with him anymore. So, she leaves him alone in the woods as he gets rid of his gun. The estranged nature of their connection leads to the frenzied pursuit of sorts in the woods, where Snow is bitten by a snake leading him to fire his riffle trying to apprehend Lucy.
While we see one of his shots hit Lucy, it is uncertain if she is dead or if she escaped. Let’s just assume that she isn’t dead because there is more to her than this, for sure. Adding to that, the constant reference to “Katniss” might also culminate in something.
What happens to Snow?
Unable to escape with Lucy and having gotten rid of the evidence, Snow returns to the Capitol, where he is granted a transfer because of his good grades. Sejanus’ parents were the ones who asked for him to return and are also paying for his university fees. The action moves ahead in time, and we see that Snow becomes Gaul’s prodigy of sorts by embracing his cunning nature. The shift in his personality can be clearly seen when his cousin, Tigris, who used to adore him, also has a sense of fear around him.
The ending of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes finds Snow poisoning Dean Casca – the inventor of Hunger Games, not as a sort of revenge but to pave a path for him to become president Snow. The final lines of the movie repeat the iconic President Snow’s quote – “It’s the things we love most that destroy us,” in Donald Sutherland’s (the older version of Snow from the original trilogy) voice.
