The Ending Of The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes Explained

Grab a plate of potatoes and get ready to head back to Panem. Here's a breakdown of the 10th Hunger Games, Snow's short-lived excursion to the districts, and where he and Lucy Gray landed after the Games.

#HungerGames #Ending #Explained

Recapping the plot | 0:00
A twisted ending | 1:12
The end of Snow's journey | 2:02
You can't trust anyone | 3:07
Only the most cutthroat survive | 3:56
Holding onto humanity | 4:32
What happened to Lucy? | 5:38
Satisfaction in villainy | 6:44
A sequel? | 7:39
The future of the franchise | 8:41

Voiceover By: Dexter Manning

[Sandrilyonaify]

When Snow shoots at Lucy and seemingly sees her fall - she is wearing the colorful dress from the arena, when in reality she wore different clothes at the moment, so I think that's a hallucination. In the book he hears her cry out and it's unclear what happened. I like to think she survived, but most likely she was wounded and bled out somewhere in the woods.

[a.m.]

I like how Snow really had no intention of killing anyone from the start and he had no innate pleasure to do so. He snitched on Sejanus mainly to save his own reputation along with the assumption that Sejanus’ rich parents will ultimately get Sejanus out of trouble anyway. There was no murderous intent as seen when he was shocked and broke down upon seeing that his choice still led to Sejanus getting hanged.

[sebastianpobletecarvalho]

I think that the title of the movie is a not so subtle metaphore of Lucy (the songbird) and Coriolanus (the snake). The former sings and enchants the later with her voice, like she did with actual snakes, but deep down he was always ruthless and poisonous and bites when she stops singing

[levlowell]

I've always felt snow never shot lucy. I think the snake bite caused him to hallucinate because she wasn't even wearing the colorful dress when they left 12. I think he decided it was best to not go after her and to instead erect a fence, so that no one else could leave and she could never come back. Makes sense for him to let her stay out there than for her to come back and all the tea be spilled

[juliesheart]

See, the film lacks an important side of Snow intentions. In the book, his actions are selfish from the start because even when it seems he's doing it for his family in reality his interest is purely in re-establish the name of Snow in the high society of Capitol. He is convinced to be better than everyone and to deserve fame and power. At first, he tries to convince himself that what he is doing is for others, that he's a good person and the power would be only a secondary gain of his actions, but as the events progress he embraces his desire for fame and power above everything else. 
Lucy Gray run away from him because she understands he would have killed her to eliminate any threats to his new shot at fame in District 2, and she was right!  
The story of young Snow is a story of privilege, about what being raised wirh some set of values, like being better than the others from birth right, being the civilized one vs the primitives etc., can influence deeply the actions and the morale of a person. It is a pity the film shows very little of that (and makes it seems like he is "turned bad" by the betrayal of Lucy, while it is really Snow who betrayed her in the first place).

[josephpasquarella]

I think it’s a film you have to see 2 or 3 times to really understand and appreciate certain points in it. I saw it once and I thought the last act dragged a little too long, and the ending was very confusing. But overall it’s a great movie and I think seeing it again will age it better.

[ashleighstratmann]

I don’t know about the movie as I haven’t seen it yet but in the book biggest surprise was that because of Snow’s Relationship with Lucy Grey, Snow actually knew all the secret locations of the woods outside district 12 and black market that Katniss Gale and others had hopes no one in the capital find out, and yet he let it continue as it is up until Catching Fire, and he only did something then to try and set Katniss straight.

[ItsMeRhaine]

They should make an anthology Hunger Game series in which each season focuses on a different victor of the games like Haymitch, Finnick, Mags, Johanna

[Sameer-dw]

The way I see it is the Hunger Games was his birthright set in motion by his father with the help of Dr. Gaul. This is first evident when Snow and Tigrus go their grandmother who shared the news of his father’s death, but when you see his father’s stern image, that seems to foreshadow how he is looking after him. He thought he was in the bottom the whole time trying to climb up to be on top, when in actuality, his father set him up to be on top this whole time.

[elliotthill]

I knew Nothing and I mean nothing about the hunger games going into this movie. and after seeing it with people who knew about it then they said this guy was the president and he was the bad guy everything was making sense. But watching Snow and believing he was a good guy most of the movie made it so gripping because I agree with all his decisions. I didn't believe he was bad because I didn't know who he would become. He went from a good kid trying to help his family to a killer and the president of a murder game. It fascinates me how anyone can become evil without realizing it. Until you get there you don't see the damage you do and when you make it you're numb to what evil you've seen and it doesn't affect you enough to bring you back to the light.

[TheLegendaryMovieCritic]

The ending shows exactly how Snow became a powerful leader in The Capital & his rise to power!

[randomgeekcrap]

Gotta give it to Lucy her victory was iconic

[ashleighstratmann]

Interesting fact: I actually heard the first district 12 victor won the 10th Hunger Games before the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was release, and I was actually impressed because at the time I thought the Capital were still in the early stages of experimenting each hunger games set up, what kind of challenges there be and stuff. So when the book was published and I read it, I was surprise to find there hadn't been any planning process for the Hunger Games or anything special in the first 9 hunger games and the 10th one was the first time they decided to go further and experiment starting with mentors. No wonder the Hunger Games wasn't doing well in the Capital in forms of entertainment.

[TheSithLord]

It was a good movie. I had my concerns but it was really well acted and directed.

[terrydow]

Snow wanted to go back to the capitol, but there were two loose ends, the guns and Lucy. Snow discovers the guns in the floorboards of the cabin and realizes he has been redeemed. All he has to do is ditch the guns and kill Lucy. Snow told Lucy he couldn't live in District 12, and he wanted to return to the capitol. Lucy realizes she is danger after Snow found the guns, so she ran.

[themcusbiggestfan]

Katniss reminded him of his old situationship and he got pissy

[marvelxdcx]

Walker Scobell would be perfect for a young Finnick. I would love to see his story cause they describe a little bit of it in Catching Fire. I also would like the see both 25th and 50th Hunger Games since they were the only other two Quarter Qwells

[antonboludo]

Viola Davis plays a really scary lady.

[IncognitoSprax]

Was supposed to see a different movie but ended up being late so we were to switch to this movie instead and Viola Davis is fantastic as always. Movie was also well shot, especially the third act.

[algill]

Am I the only who thought she was a mut being mind controlled. I mean after she won she was in the capitol for who knows how long.

Then she took Snow to that cabin that just so happens to have the gun that he needs to get rid of.

Then when Snow made his way back to the capitol. Gaul said he passed every one of her test.

Just seem like Gaul planned all this so Snow can take over