Due to an uprising that was squelched by the high-tech Capital, the 12 remaining districts that make up Panem are forced to offer as tribute their greatest resource - the generation of tomorrow - one male and one female between the ages of 12-18. Along with 22 others, these two teens are forced to fight in a gladiator meets Survivor epic battle to the death. The last living tribute is crowned victor.
Adult masses play two distinct roles in the film. The vast majority are worker drones so beaten by the political system that they are a shadow of humanity, powerless to care for the youth in their lives. Their world is grey, bleak, hopeless. The other adult crowds are the self-indulgent masses, the uncritical consumer feeding an insatiable appetite for entertainment. Though their world is full of color and creativity, it merely serves to mask their pasty existence. In this part of the adult world, there are no teens in the crowds, adolescents have no space and little interaction with adults except for that which has been set aside to prepare them as entertainers. The crowds stand by, either indifferent or helpless until finally, at one awful moment in the film, the anger and pain become catalyst for a quickly squelched riot. The Games adapt to maintain the balance, and the crowds are quickly distracted.
The leading characters of youth in the film are portrayed as fatherless, left to provide for each other and forced to remind grown-ups to act like adults. Their mentor is a jaded drunk who originally counsels the teens to accept their fate. Their only hope before and during the Game is to depend on themselves and master the art of playing to adults to acquire the necessary resources for survival. In this world, even love becomes suspect as adult manipulation to secure necessary ends. The best any adult who cares for these teens can do is offer advice, provide props that might help win adult favor and offer good luck. "May the odds ever be in your favor".
The books and now this movie are being embraced by teens and it seems doubtful this is due to any social economic message. Somehow it speaks to their experience of abandonment even as it seems like a caricature to adults. An apocalypse may not serve as the background setting of our culture, but that aside, are we really all that different? Adults in our world are highly stressed, seemingly living either at the edge of exhaustion or the brink of financial disaster. In this world, the home becomes enclaves of escapism and altars of entertainment while physically shared and public interactive space for youth and adults continue to be reduced in gathering spaces like our work, churches and vacations. Consider the Internet, where the vast majority of teens are active apart from any significant adult guidance and interaction, yet we expect 13 year olds to use social media as if they had adult abilities and wonder why 16 year olds post risky online content seemingly oblivious to any social consequence. In this culture, the virtual world becomes a natural place for teens to connect with their friends, allows them ongoing and immediate support, and on occasion can be a tool used to destroy one another.
From the perspective of our youth, are we really all that different?
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