Hunger Games fans, are you still buzzing over the latest Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping trailer? Craving even more information about the film before it hits theaters in November? Don’t worry: We’ve got you covered.
In August, I attended a Sunrise on the Reaping filmmaker presentation in New York, where director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson screened the first 20 minutes of the movie, as well some key scenes. While we didn’t see Sunrise on the Reaping in its entirety, what we did see certainly left me eager for more. From the introduction of young Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zada) to the brutal beginning of the second Quarter Quell, here’s what the footage entailed.
The opening to Sunrise on the Reaping is ripped straight from the book.
Jesse Plemons, Joseph Zada, and Glenn Close in “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.”
Credit: Murray Close / Lionsgate
Sunrise on the Reaping‘s first 20 minutes are as close to a one-to-one adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ novel as you can get. Like in the novel, the film opens on Haymitch’s birthday, which also happens to be the day of the reaping. Before the Capitol chooses the next tributes for the 50th Hunger Games, Haymitch goes about his day as usual in District 12. Unlike Woody Harrelson’s hard-drinking, cynical take on the character in the original films, Zada’s Haymitch is friendly, kind, and hopeful. Learning how he lost that innocence is the devastating key to Sunrise on the Reaping.
Haymitch meets his love interest Lenore Dove (Whitney Peak) just outside of District 12, where they have a heart-to-heart about the reaping. In his mind, the Capitol will always be in control, and the Hunger Games will always happen. Lenore has a different view, though, hoping for resistance and a future free from the Capitol’s tyranny. Given that Collins opens Sunrise on the Reaping with a quote from Scottish philosopher David Hume about implicit submission, it’s exciting to see that Sunrise on the Reaping is fully engaging with those themes.
(Speaking of Lenore, the film opens with a musical nod to Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” the poem Lenore is named after. Given the role of the poem in the final section of the book, its presence here is a full-on gut punch to readers.)
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The opening continues on to the reaping, hitting the same beats as both The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. As Lawrence told press, “this story can be an entry point for new fans.”
However, this reaping is unlike any we’ve seen in the prior films. A violent crackdown from Peacekeepers means the Capitol has to restage an entire chunk of the reaping. Here, both Capitol escort Drusilla Sickle (an uncanny, delightfully unhinged Glenn Close) and cameraman Plutarch Heavensbee (Jesse Plemons) take center stage, showing the machinations behind the Capitol’s propaganda machine.
Sunrise on the Reaping introduces Caesar Flickerman behind the scenes.
Kieran Culkin in “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.”
Credit: Lionsgate
Sunrise on the Reaping‘s deep dive into the Capitol’s propaganda continues in another scene that Lawrence and Jacobson showed: the introduction of a younger Caesar Flickerman (Kieran Culkin).
In the original films, viewers mostly saw him conducting live interviews in front of a Capitol audience, or offering commentary on the games themselves. Sunrise on the Reaping offers up a glimpse of him behind the scenes as he meets the tributes for the first time. He, like Plutarch, is obsessed with capturing the right shot for the Capitol (and his own personal image). As a result, he’s rude, callous, and dismissive of the tributes. Typical Capitol behavior, right? Still, it’s a new, even more unnerving side to Caesar.
Sunrise on the Reaping‘s Cornucopia bloodbath is brutal.
Credit: Lionsgate
Lawrence and Jacobson also showcased the beginning of the second Quarter Quell. The scene begins with bubbly stylist Effie Trinket (Elle Fanning) helping prepare Haymitch for the games, a hint at their long partnership to come. From there, the tributes ascend into the arena, where they’re greeted with shocking beauty: Rolling green hills, stunning wildflowers, adorable bunnies, and butterflies flitting about. But this being the Hunger Games, you know that all that beauty and vibrant color conceals something much more deadly and sadistic.
The footage screened at the press event did not showcase these deadly twists yet. Instead, it focused on the bloodbath at the Cornucopia, in which Haymitch fights to escape the Careers in a brutal sequence. In terms of action and the scale of the arena, the scene feels akin to Catching Fire. Lawrence himself said that Sunrise on the Reaping is “similar structurally and tonally” to Catching Fire. That’s a high bar to set, given that the book and the film are widely considered to be the best installments in the series. However, based on the exceptionally strong footage Lawrence and Jacobson screened, Sunrise on the Reaping may be able to meet — or even top — that standard.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping hits theaters on Nov. 20.
