Revisiting Coriolanus Snow’s Big Scenes In the Hunger Games
Oct 27, 2023
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES opens November 17
When it comes to the latest and greatest movies that are releasing this year at a local AMC Theatre, one that should certainly come to mind is THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES. The movie, based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins, is a prequel to the famous THE HUNGER GAMES trilogy..
The movie features the origin story of Coriolanus Snow, who is the President of Panem during the time period of the original HUNGER GAMES story, when Katniss was in the games. THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES takes place several decades before that time period, and in honor of its release, we’re taking a look back at Coriolanus Snow’s most significant moments from the HUNGER GAMES films, showing just how cunning he is as a character in the later years of his adulthood, before this new movie shows us what he was like as a young adult.
THE HUNGER GAMES was the first movie where fans were introduced to President Snow, played by Donald Sutherland. While the first film does not feature Snow as much as the later ones, viewers do get to view some key scenes where they get a hint of how cunning, manipulative, and evil Snow can be.
The most significant moment of THE HUNGER GAMES is at the very end. Crane, who was acting as the game master, had declared both Peeta and Katniss the winners when they almost took Nightlock berries to kill themselves. President Snow wasn’t a massive fan of this, and to punish Crane, he gave him the same berries.
Before Crane could even ask what was going on, the door locked behind him, signaling his doom. Snow had locked Crane in the room with the berries, presumably leaving him to either starve to death or eat the berries and die quickly. It’s such a brief scene, but one that begins to indicate who Snow is as a person and as a leader.
While Snow and Katniss had already met when she and Peeta were crowned the winners, their first real conversation was at the very beginning of THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, when Snow came to visit Katniss in her new home after she and Peeta had won the games.
The conversation is pretty calm in comparison to much of the other war and action going on in the rest of the film, but Snow warns Katniss about what could happen should war come, should she keep pushing this narrative that there is a rebellion about to happen.
The scene shows Snow as calculative, knowing that he would rather have Katniss as his ally rather than his enemy.
Cinna, played by Lenny Kravitz, was a big supporter of Katniss from the moment the two of them met. He worked as her stylist when she was brought to the Capitol and was a good man. Quiet but kind, he wanted to make sure she stood out amongst everyone else.
However, Snow saw Cinna show his support for Katniss, and when Katniss was drawn up to be in THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE for the 75th games, Snow had Cinna killed. What makes it even worse is that Katniss was a witness to this, where she could do nothing as Cinna was beaten to death and she was pushed towards the arena, beginning her return to the games feeling devastated.
This is just another example of how evil Snow can be – and how calculative he indeed was.
One of the biggest moments of THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE was at the very end when Katniss woke up after destroying the electric force field that was surrounding the arena they were in. And it’s there that she finds out that not only was Finnick captured by the Capitol, but so was Peeta.
This capture was arranged personally by President Snow because he knew that he could use the young man against Katniss. And, of course, for most of THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY — PART 1, Peeta is in the Capitol's hands, and at the end, we see that the Capitol has brainwashed him and Peeta nearly kills Katniss by trying to strangle her. Truly, a major, major blow.
In THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY — PART 2, President Coin, played by Julianne Moore, was the president of District 13 and the leader of the rebellion against the Capitol, and was looking to help Katniss find a way to take Snow down. In this film, the City Circle bombing occurred, killing not only Katniss’ little sister, Prim, but several innocent civilians.
It was originally assumed that Snow, who had invited refugees into his home to use them as a human shield, had orchestrated the bombing, which turned his remaining supporters against him. However, Snow, in his second face-to-face conversation with Katniss, said that it was Coin who arranged it to trick the people.
Katniss, of course, does not believe him at first, but he reminds her of their promise to never lie to each other. This is the one good thing Snow ever really did for her, revealing the truth about her sister’s death, and it later leads to Snow’s last big moment.
The last big moment of Coriolanus Snow is his death, of course. President Coin had taken over as the interim president of Panem, and Katniss was primed to assassinate Snow. However, in a last-second moment, she aims her arrow instead at Coin, killing her.
This moment incites a riot. Snow laughs about Coin’s death, but he is later hounded by civilians, who mob and kill him. It was a fitting end because Snow took all his power from his followers – and now, all the power was ripped from him, as well as his life.
While Snow’s story may have come to an end in THE HUNGER GAMES film trilogy, it’s only just beginning in THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES. Be sure to check it out when it comes to your local AMC Theatre.
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES opens November 17
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