Skip to content
Answering Your Questions About Reactor: Right here.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Everything in one handy email.
When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

It’s here—the first teaser trailer for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire! Our first glimpse at the second film in Suzanne Collins’ dystopian trilogy aired during the MTV Movie Awards, and it looks pretty damn fantastic. It’s exciting to see Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen again, especially because we get such a keen sense of how much emotional torture she’s going to go through even before the major plot-driving twist of the second book is revealed…

[Warning: the post below contains some spoilers for those unfamiliar with the original books.]

In some ways, we saw so much more than the typical teaser trailer, but also less. Fans hoping to catch a glimpse of victors like Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) and Johanna Mason (Jena Malone) will be disappointed; the scenes are mostly taken from Katniss and Peeta’s (Josh Hutcherson) Victory Tour and the District 11 riot. That said, the dichotomy between their reality-TV existence in the Capitol and the injustices back home in District 12 is chilling.

Let’s break the trailer down:

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

I really love how the movies show us so much of President Snow’s side of things. In the books we only saw through Katniss’ eyes how Snow stalked her, but here we get a true sense of how early on he’s identified her as a threat.

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

Ooh, Philip Seymour Hoffman is super creepy even though we know that Plutarch Heavensbee is on the rebels’ side. He is playing Snow so hard right now.

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

Yep, the quickest way to turn Katniss crazy is to torture and kill people in front of her. Like this poor old guy in District 11 who gets beaten to death just for showing his solidarity. Since the next time we see Katniss she’s playing along with the Capitol’s decadent games, it’s no wonder everyone thinks she’s a phony.

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

“This trip doesn’t end when you get back home. From now on, your job is to be a distraction until people forget what the real problems are.” Haymitch, telling it like it is.

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

Really digging the anti-Capitol graffiti in the districts. It’s futuristic, but not.

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss Effie Trinket

”Chins up. Smiles on.” Oh, Effie. Never change.

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

Not gonna lie, it will never stop amusing me how they draw parallels to today’s celebrity culture, with Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) hosting what looks exactly like Entertainment Tonight.

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

Um, can we get that mockingjay poster? Because it’s rad.

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

The Katniss/Gale kiss! There’s actually very little Peeta in this trailer, because it’s time for the other ’shippers to get their moment.

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

And here’s the beginning of Prim’s storyline. When she talks about helping out in the fight, you just want to hug her and never let go, y’know?

Catching Fire teaser trailer MTV Movie Awards Katniss Everdeen Jennifer Lawrence Peeta Mellark Josh Hutcherson Plutarch Heavensbee Philip Seymour Hoffman District 11 Gale Hawthorne Liam Hemsworth Gale Katniss kiss

There goes Katniss, protecting her men from The Man.

My very favorite part comes right at the end, as President Snow knits together the two disparate plotlines of Catching Fire with one line: “Her entire species must be eradicated. The other victors. Because of her, they all pose a threat. Because of her, they all think they’re invincible.” Yeah, I shivered.

Catching Fire comes to theaters November 22, 2013! Can’t wait to see more detailed trailers—with all those dangerous victors—in the coming months.


Natalie Zutter is a playwright, foodie, and pop culture blogger. Her writing has appeared on BlackBook, Ology, Bookish, and Crushable, where she discusses celebrity culture alongside internet memes (or vice versa). Weekly you can find her calling in to the Hunger GamesFireside Chat podcast, reviewing new releases at Movie Mezzanine, and on Twitter.

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Natalie Zutter

Author

Learn More About Natalie
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
7 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments