The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

In war-ravaged Panem, Coriolanus Snow is one of twenty-four Academy students selected to mentor a 10th Annual Hunger Games tribute. Coriolanus hopes to win the Plinth Prize scholarship to restore his family's prosperity, which was lost after his father's death. Coriolanus is assigned District 12's female tribute, Lucy Gray Baird. During the reaping ceremony in District 12, she engages the Capitol television audience by slipping a snake down the dress of Mayor Lipp's daughter, Mayfair; then defiantly singing to the crowd. Coriolanus earns Lucy Gray's trust while accompanying her to the Capitol Zoo, where tributes are publicly caged. While a few mentors visit the tributes at the zoo, fellow mentor Arachne Crane taunts and then is killed by her tribute Brandy, who is immediately shot and killed by Peacekeepers. While touring the game arena, rebel bombs explode, killing several tributes and mentors, and fatally wounding the President's son, Felix. After Lucy Gray saves Coriolanus from falling debris, he gives her rat poison as a weapon and says the bombings have opened tunnels in the arena, providing additional hiding places during the Games. Following the bombing, District 2's male tribute, Marcus, flees the arena in an attempt to escape the Games. He is later captured and beaten by peacekeepers, who string him up in the Arena as an easy and vulnerable kill. This enrages Sejanus, who had previously lived in District 2 and attended school with Marcus. The Games commence the next morning, with Lucy Gray surviving the initial bloodbath and reuniting with Jessup, District 12's male tribute. Lamina, District 7's female tribute, mercifully kills Marcus by plunging an axe into his neck and then cutting the ropes that strung him, letting his body fall to the ground. During the games, Sejanus bribes a Peacekeeper and sneaks into the arena to ceremoniously sprinkle breadcrumbs on Marcus's body, a District 2 ceremony and belief of feeding the soul one last time in transition. Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul is disturbed by this act of rebellious defiance and recruits Coriolanus to enter the arena and bring Sejanus back. The two are attacked by a tribute, whom Coriolanus brutally kills, before the pair escape a pack of allied tributes who taunt and threaten Coriolanus and his mentee, Lucy Gray. Jessup, weakened by rabies, later dies to a fall. During the Games' last round, genetically modified venomous snakes are dropped into the arena to avenge Felix's death. With Coriolanus's help, Lucy Gray avoids being bitten and wins the Games. Afterwards, Dean Casca Highbottom accuses Coriolanus of cheating, showing a handkerchief dropped into the snake tank to recognize Lucy Gray's scent and his mother's compact filled with the poison Lucy Gray used. Consequently, Highbottom sentences Coriolanus to 20 years as a Peacekeeper. Coriolanus bribes an officer to transfer him to District 12. Sejanus, who is disillusioned with the Capitol's ideals, volunteers to join him. In District 12, Coriolanus and Lucy Gray reunite. Shortly after witnessing a rebel's execution, Coriolanus sees Sejanus meeting with rebels. He confronts Sejanus and turns on a jabberjay to record Sejanus's plans to support the rebels. Coriolanus later finds Sejanus meeting with rebels Spruce, Billy Taupe (Lucy Gray's former love interest), and Mayfair. In the ensuing confrontation, Coriolanus fatally shoots Mayfair and Spruce kills Billy. Spruce hides the guns, but he and Sejanus are later hanged for treason after Coriolanus's jabberjay report reaches the Capitol. Lucy Gray and Coriolanus flee north. At a small cabin, Coriolanus finds the hidden weapons tying him to Mayfair's murder. Lucy Gray, having seemingly become distrustful of Coriolanus and suspecting his involvement in Sejanus's death, disappears into the woods. Coriolanus searches for Lucy Gray, but is bitten by a snake that was hidden under his mother's scarf that he gave to Lucy. Unable to know if the snake was a trap or not, an enraged Coriolanus attempts to shoot Lucy Gray, but is unable to locate her. He hears her sing a verse from The Hanging Tree and the Jabberjays repeat it while surrounding Snow. This proves enough of a distraction for Lucy to get away. Subsequently, Snow disposes of the guns into the lake near the cabin, and then, with no remaining witnesses, he returns to District 12. Coriolanus is sent to the Capitol, where Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul reveals she procured his pardon and scholarship to the Capitol University. Sejanus's parents, unaware Coriolanus caused their son's death, make him their heir. Dean Highbottom tells Coriolanus that he conceived the Hunger Games while he was drunk, with unwanted assistance from Coriolanus's father, and has been traumatized ever since. Coriolanus poisons Highbottom's drug stash, killing the Dean and beginning his rise to power, while Lucy Gray's fate is left unknown. == Cast ==