45 “Mockingjay” quotes missing from both films

Mockingjay is the third, and last, novel in Suzanne Collins‘s inspiring, gripping yet heartbreaking trilogy, The Hunger Games. The trilogy is one of the most popular Dystopian Future novels, selling over 65 million copies worldwide. And the franchise became even more popular when the film adaptions were released, grossing over $275 million worldwide.

However, as it always happens with film adaptions, some books fans favourite lines and conversations didn’t make it to the script.

Here are 45 of the most popular and beautiful quotes from Mockingjay, that never made it to the script of either of the films.

1. “First of all, you have to imagine how it felt in the arena. It was like being an insect trapped under a bowl filled with steaming air. And all around you, jungle … green and alive and ticking. That giant clock ticking away your life. Every hour promising some new horror. You have to imagine that in the past two days, sixteen people have died – some of them defending you. At the rate things are going, the last eight will be dead by morning. Save one. The victor. And your plan is that it won’t be you.”
– Peeta Mellark

Peeta tells Caesar Flickerman the truth about what it was like to be in the arena for the Quarter Quell. In the film, we watched Peeta say just a few words, but in the book we get to see him use his power of words. He painted the best picture of the Games without using a brush. Moviegoers didn’t see the extend that the arena really had on it’s tributes.

2. I must still look perplexed because Gale delivers the next line very slowly. “Katniss … he’s still trying to keep you alive.”
To keep me alive? And then I understand. The Games are still on.
– Gale and Katniss

Gale can see what Peeta was trying to do by calling for a ceasefire. In the film we see that Gale was unhappy with what Peeta did and says as much. However, in the book, Gale understands why he did it: to keep Katniss alive. They had left the arena, but since both Katniss and Peeta weren’t killed, Peeta’s last wish to preserve her life still stands. Gale understands Peeta more than the movie lets on.

3. “It’s more complicated than that. I know them. They’re not evil or cruel. They’re not even smart. Hurting them, it’s like hurting children.”
– Katniss Everdeen

Katniss’s prep team actually make quite an impression in the books. They go from being just her prep team, to actually caring about her, to becoming alliances of a sort. At first, she hated them. Making her up to go into the Games. But they worked with Cinna, and helped him and they grew on her. Not only that, they genuinely cared about her by the time she was going into the Quarter Quell. When Gale goes on a rant about how he doesn’t like them, with them being Capitol citizens, Katniss attempts to explain the situation. In the film they hardly make an appearance, let alone have a conversation about them.

4. “During the Quarter Quell, Octavia and Flavius had to quit because they couldn’t stop crying over me going back in. And Venia could barely say goodbye.”
“I’ll try and keep that in mind as they … remake you,” says Gale.
“Do,” I say.
– Katniss and Gale

Again, here Katniss is talking about her prep team. She tries to put it into perspective for Gale in an attempt for him to understand them without just looking at them and seeing “Capitol citizens” rather than people. They mean something to Katniss, even if she can’t exactly explain why.

5. “Knowing it and seeing it are two different things,” says Fulvia.

I loved this quote, and it came from prep team member, Fulvia. We don’t see them really interacting with Katniss and this was one of those few times where they say something meaningful. They want to hide Katniss’s scars, even though everyone is aware she has them. There’s a sort of truth in what she says. I wish we got to see it in the film, too.

6. “I play it over and over in my head. What I could have done to keep him by my side without breaking the alliance. But nothing comes to me.”
– Katniss Everdeen

Katniss and Haymitch made a deal to protect Peeta and they never. They both failed. And although it was acknowledged in the film, we don’t actually see how much she was effected by the moment where she and Peeta separated. It breaks her to know that he’s being tortured in the Capitol, and she replays the moment over and over again to see if there was some way she could have stopped it from happening.

7. “Why? Do you find this” – he strikes a ridiculously provocative pose – “distracting?”
– Finnick Odair

This is the first that we see fragments of the old Finnick emerge again. The Finnick that we met in Catching Fire. It’s one of they few times he and Katniss actually have a genuine laugh together, and even more so because his actions actually make another character, Boggs, so uncomfortable. In the film we mostly just see Finnick upset and thinking about Annie. It would have been nice to see him laugh.

8. “Well, don’t expect us to be too impressed. We just saw Finnick Odair in his underwear.”
– Boggs

Johanna is busy ogling Gale, Boggs jokingly informs her that he’s not going to be too impressed after seeing Finnick in his underwear. It was the first we saw that Boggs has a sense of humour, and because of it, was the reason and moment Katniss decided to like him. Movie fans have no idea such a scene exists.

9. “I didn’t do much, really,” I say.
“You have to give yourself some credit for what you’ve done in the past,” says Boggs.
– Katniss and Boggs

Katniss has done so much already for the rebellion. When going to the hospital in District 8, she doesn’t feel like she’s doing much. Boggs reminds her that she needs to remember all she’s already done.

10.”Ask yourself, do you really trust the people you’re working with? Do you really know what’s going on? And if you don’t … find out.”
– Peeta Mellark

Katniss and Finnick accidentally see a Capitol propo with Peeta. They weren’t supposed to see it and everyone seems determined to keep it a secret. This was his words to her, almost a warning. Only we don’t actually see this propo in the film.

11. “Peeta, this is your home. None of your family has been heard of since the bombing. Twelve is gone. And you’re calling for a ceasefire?” I look across the emptiness. “There’s no one left to hear you.”
– Katniss Everdeen

We see the devastation that the bombing of district 12 has left on Katniss, her family, Gale and his family. But we don’t actually know about the effect it has on Peeta’s family, and with him in the Capitol he doesn’t even know himself. He talks of a ceasefire with the same people that killed his family. This is Katniss’s attempt to make him see reason.

12. “Katniss, I don’t think President Snow will kill Peeta,” she says. Of course she says this; it’s what she thinks will calm me. But her next words come as a surprise. “If he does, he won’t have anyone left you want. He won’t have any way to hurt you.”
– Primrose Everdeen

Prim is my favourite character in the trilogy. She sees the truth in everything, and can see more than what’s really going on. She understands what President Snow is doing: using Peeta to get to her. That’s why he’s torturing him. Even if Katniss doesn’t see it yet, Prim does. We only see Prim and the small sister needing protection, when in fact, she’s not the frail little girl who Katniss volunteered for in the first Games. I wish we saw more of Prim in the last two films.

13. “So, what do you think they’ll do to him?” I ask.
Prim sounds about a thousand years old when she speaks. “Whatever it takes to break you.”
– Katniss and Prim

Yet another moment that we see Prim at her finest. Another moment where we see her becoming the strong, smart young woman she is becoming. If only we got to see more of her in the films.

14. “Want a sugar cube?” he asks in his old seductive voice. That’s how we met, with Finnick offering me sugar.
– Finnick Odair

Again, going back to what I said earlier about Finnick, this is another one of the few moments where we see Finnick as the way he was in Catching Fire. We see little glimpses of the boy we met at the Quarter Quell through the book. It would have been good for moviegoers to see these glimpses, too.

15. Several sets of arms would embrace me. But in the end, the only person I truly want to comfort me is Haymitch, because he loves Peeta, too.
– Katniss Everdeen.

When Katniss finds out the truth about how Snow is using Peeta, she doesn’t want to be comforted by those who feel like strangers who just want to make her feel better. She wants to be comforted by someone who understands, who is also grieving, who is also in pain. Haymitch loves Peeta, too. He, more than anyone, understands Katniss at this time. He has almost became a father figure for her, it would be good to see how much she actually needs him in the film.

16. “Don’t you see, Katniss, this will decide things. One way or the other. By the end of the day, they’ll either be dead or with us. It’s … it’s more than we could hope for!”
– Finnick Odair

When Katniss finds out about the rescue plan to save Peeta, she becomes terrified and filled with anticipation of what could happen. When she rouses Finnick, after deciding she can’t handle it alone. He sees the good in the dooming situation, and eases her mind. Moviegoers have no idea he did such thing.

17. “We had never even spoken. The first time I ever talked to Peeta was on the train to the Games.”
“But he was already in love with you,” says Cressida.
“I guess so.” I allow myself a small smile.
– Cressida and Katniss

Katniss doesn’t talk about Peeta in front of camera often. Talking about him makes her vulnerable. Most of what she says about Peeta is lies about their “relationship”, but this is one of the few moments where she’s totally honest about what she has with Peeta. Especially now when she’s first allowing herself to love him. It would have been good for moviegoers to see something real between her and Peeta.

18. “President Snow used to… sell me… my body that is… I wasn’t the only one. If a victor is considered desirable, the president gives them as a reward or allows people to buy them for an exorbitant amount of money. If you refuse, he kills someone you love. So you do it.”
– Finnick Odair

This is the first anyone openly talks about what it’s really like to be a Victor. The truth that goes on behind the curtains of a Victor’s life; what President Snow really put them through.

19. “Is that what happened to you?” I ask Haymitch.
“No. My mother and younger brother. My girl. They were all dead two weeks after I was crowned victor. Because of that stunt I pulled with the force field,” he answers. “Snow had no one to use against me.”
– Katniss and Haymitch

Haymitch is a main character, key to each novel. We finally get to hear his story and what happened to him after he showed the Capitol up. Not only that, but probably the reason he started drinking, too.

21. “I was the example. The person to hold up to the young Finnicks and Johannas and Cashmeres. Of what could happen to a victor who caused problems,” says Haymitch.

Again, more to Haymitch’s story that moviegoers never got the chance to hear.

22. “Did you love Annie right away, Finnick?” I ask.
“No.” A long time passes before he adds, “She crept up on me.”
– Katniss and Finnick

I love this. At the time when I first read it I thought about how much I would hate to have realised love like that. It sounded really eerie to me, in a negative way.

In retrospect, I understand Finnick much more than I did then. It’s taken me this long to realise that Finnick’s response was probably the most honest that I’ve heard. To me, you don’t just fall for someone the second you lay eyes on them, especially for me, because I’m a much guarded person. You talk to someone, get to know them. Befriend them even. You let them in, piece by piece, tell them your secrets in the dark, and discover theirs. You share laughs, cry in front of them, lean on them for support and lend them yours. Let a careful eye turn into easy smiles, learn their jokes and fears, the way their body moves and how their laugh sounds. Memorise the colour of their eyes and where the dimples on their cheeks show when they smile. Gradually, the accusatory looks have been replaced by sly smiles. How you’re not the same as you were a year ago, or even when they first came into your life. Then you realise, that it’s so much more than need. That this terrible closeness you felt passed need so long ago. And even though it seems like a big step realising how you feel, it doesn’t feel really seem like that big a leap in that moment. It appears to you that you’re not just falling for him, you already fell for him. It feels like you’ve landed long ago, but have taken this long to find your bearings.

That’s what it’s like to have someone creep up on you, and that is what Finnick was really trying to say, that it’s not like what I originally thought.

23. “No. If you force me to leave, I’ll go directly to surgery and tell my mother everything that’s happened. And I warn you, she doesn’t think much of a Gamemaker calling the shots on Katniss’s life. Especially when you’ve taken such poor care of her.”
– Primrose Everdeen

We see Katniss protecting Prim so many times in so many ways, but the film adaptions cut out the moments where Prim protects Katniss. We sometimes forget that Katniss needs protecting, too.

24. “There’s a chance that the old Peeta, the one who loves you, is still inside. Trying to get back to you. Don’t give up on him.”
– Primrose Everdeen

When Katniss finds out that Peeta has been hijacked, she thinks the worst. That the boy with the bread, the boy who loves her, is gone. Prim swoops in to remind her that there’s a chance that he’s still there, aching to come home to her. It may be small chance, but it’s still a chance. And that’s something Katniss needs to hear. Her younger sister, yet again, protecting her.

25. “I thought … I’ll never compete with that. No matter how much pain I’m in.” He spins the feather between his thumb and forefinger. “I don’t stand a chance if he doesn’t get better. You’ll never be able to let him go. You’ll always feel wrong about being with me.”
– Gale Hawthorne

Gale finally understands Katniss’s feelings for Peeta and knows where her heart is. This is the first that he finally admits it out loud to Katniss with total honesty.

26. “The way I always felt wrong kissing him because of you,” I say.
Gale holds my gaze. “If I thought that was true, I could almost live with the rest of it.”
“It is true,” I admit. “But so is what you said about Peeta.”
– Katniss and Gale

Where Gale bears all with Katniss, Katniss bears all with Gale. She admits her conflicting feelings for both Gale and Peeta, and also confirms what Gale has already figured out. It would have been good to see this in the film, though.

27. I wish Peeta was here – the old Peeta – because he would be able to articulate why it is so wrong to be exchanging fire when people, any people, are trying to claw their way out of the mountain.
– Katniss Everdeen

Not as much of a quote, but in the film we can clearly see how uncomfortable Katniss is with the idea of blowing up the mountain and then opening fire on the few survivors. I wish she openly said in the film how much she yearned for Peeta’s presence in the moment – especially with Gale thinking it’s a good idea.

28. “We were outside at the end of the day. I tried to catch your eye. You looked away. And then … for some reason, I think you picked a dandelion.” I nod. He does remember. I have never spoken about that moment aloud.

The first time when Peeta remembers something real. A moment that all readers know about but was never spoken about: the dandelion that reminded Katniss that she was not doomed.

29. “Well, you’re a piece of work, aren’t you?”
– Peeta Mellark

Peeta’s parting words with Katniss after their first proper meeting since he become hijacked. We see him being spiteful to her, but I wish they added this to the script in Mockingjay Part 2.

30. “I don’t think I can do it,” I confess.
“You can do it. We both can. We’re victors, remember? We’re the ones who can survive anything they throw at us.”
– Katniss and Johanna

Katniss and Johanna have a love/hate relationship, but at the end of the day they’re there for each other and support each other. They keep each other going. More so in the books. This is a simple example of that, when Katniss doesn’t feel she can go on, Johanna pushes her forward and reminds her of her strength. It would have been good to see more of the the evolved relationship between these two.

31. “Haymitch says he’s getting better,” she says.
“Maybe. But he’s changed,” I say.
“So have you. So have I. And Finnick and Haymitch and Beetee. Don’t get me started on Annie Cresta. The arena messed us all up pretty good, don’t you think? Or do you still feel like the girl who volunteered for your sister?” she asks me.
– Johanna and Katniss

Katniss is heavy with the thought of how much Peeta has changed in snows hands, believing that this makes him doomed and unreachable to her. However, Johanna reminds her that everyone that survives the Games has changed dramatically. Katniss isn’t the same, she went from the girl in the Seam to the leader of the rebellion. Johanna has also been tortured. Finnick was driven mad by the idea of the love of his life being tortured to hurt him (like Katniss). They’re all messed up – it’s not just Peeta.

32. “Good seeing you, Peeta.”
“You be nice to her, Finnick. Or I might try and take her away from you.”
– Peeta and Finnick

This whole conversations screams wrong. The fact that Finnick and Annie could ever be separated, the idea he’d even try to take her away from Finnick, having said this in front of Katniss… Nothing is right about this. Nothing. It just shows how much Peeta has changed. I wish it was added into the film.

33. “Yeah, a lot of things should count for something that don’t seem to, Katniss. I’ve got some memories I can’t make sense of, and I don’t think the Capitol touched them. A lot of nights on the train, for instance,” he says.
– Peeta Mellark

President Snow has ruined all and any happy memories of Peeta and Katniss together for the both of them now. Their relationship was complicated form the get-go, and there are things neither of them could really explain anyway – even before Peeta was hijacked. On the train, Katniss only kept her sanity because she was wrapped in Peeta’s arms and he guarded of the nightmares. But now, Peeta doesn’t trust her. Everything has just became a lie to him, everything just a way of Katniss misusing him, even those few moments that were genuine.

34. Prim walks me as far as the hospital doors. “How do you feel?”
“Better, knowing you’re somewhere Snow can’t reach you,” I say.
“Next time we see each other, we’ll be free of him,” says Prim firmly. Then she throws her arms around my neck. “Be careful.”
– Prim and Katniss

This is Prim and Katniss last goodbye. I don’t even need to explain why this should be in the film.

35. “You’re punishing him over and over for things that are out of his control.”
– Haymitch Abernathy

Katniss is punishing Peeta because of how much his hijacking has changed him, but that’s not his fault. He can’t help it. Haymitch is the only person to call her out on it. We see Katniss be hostile to Peeta in the films, but we don’t see anyone call her out on it.

36. “If you’d been taken by the Capitol, and hijacked, and then tried to kill Peeta, is this the way he would be treating you?” demands Haymitch. I fall silent. It isn’t. It isn’t how he would be treating me at all. He would be trying to get me back at any cost. Not shutting me out, abandoning me, greeting me with hostility at every turn.
“You and me, we made a deal to try and save him. Remember?” Haymitch says. When I don’t respond, he disconnects after a curt “Try and remember.”
– Haymitch and Katniss

Haymitch forces Katniss to switch the scenario in her head, in an attempt to make her understand what she’s doing. He forces her to see that it’s not his fault, that she’s taking her blame out on the wrong people, to remind her to save his life and keep him alive. As I’ve said, we see Katniss be hostile to Peeta in the films, but we don’t see anyone call her out on it.

37. Peeta holds out a can to me. “Here.”
I take it, not knowing what to expect. The label reads LAMB STEW. I press my lips together at the memories of rain dripping through stones, my inept attempts at flirting, and the aroma of my favourite Capitol dish in the chilly air. So some part of it must still be in his head, too.
– Peeta and Katniss

It is one of the first moments where Peeta remembers something real. He remembers, somewhere, that Lamb Stew was her favourite dish. He remembers how happy, how close they were together as they first came together in their first Games. Some moments real, some not. This was one of the real ones. Only moviegoers have no idea.

38. Peeta sounded like his old self, the one who could always think of the right thing to say when nobody else could. Ironic, encouraging, a little funny, but not at anyone’s expense. I glance back at him as he trudges along under his guards, Gale and Jackson, his eyes fixed on the ground, his shoulders hunched forward. So dispirited. But for a moment, he was really here.
– Katniss Everdeen

Not really speech, but we don’t really see moments where the old Peeta comes back and shines through. This is one of those moments and the film adaption cuts it out.

39. “Can’t help him!” Peeta starts shoving people forward. “Can’t!”
Amazingly, he’s the only one still functional enough to get us moving.
– Peeta Mellark

Again, another moment when we see the old Peeta, the real Peeta, shining through. I wish we saw this in the film.

40. “I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss,” says Peeta. “Even if my mother isn’t a healer.”
I’m jolted back in time, to another wound, another set of bandages. “You said that same thing to me in the first Hunger Games. Real or not real?”
“Real,” he says. ““And you risked your life getting the medicine that saved me?”
“Real.” I shrug. “You were the reason I was alive to do it.”
– Peeta and Katniss

Here, Peeta directly quotes himself from the first Games, another sure sign that he remembers something real. Only they couldn’t add this conversation in the film if they wanted to, because they never added the line to the first one. So if they added it to the last film, the significance would be lost.

41. “I think … you still have no idea. The effect you can have.”
– Peeta Mellark

Again, Peeta directly quotes himself from a conversation before their first Games with Katniss and Haymitch that at this point only Katniss knows about. It’s another sure sign that he remembers something real. Only they couldn’t add this conversation in the film either because they never added the line to the first one. So, again, if they added it, the significance would be lost.

42. “Never underestimate the power of a brilliant stylist,” says Peeta.

Again, another moment when we see the old Peeta, the real Peeta, shining through. Another moment cut from the film adaption.

43. “Let me go!” I snarl at him, trying to wrest my arm from his grasp.
“I can’t,” he says.
– Katniss and Peeta

Katniss tries to take the Nightlock pill to kill herself after shooting Coin. But Peeta stops her, evidently saving her. When she asks him to let her go, he admits he can’t. The same way she couldn’t let him go when he begged her to after witnessing himself lose it. The same way he called for a ceasefire to protect her from Snow after being captured after Quarter Quell. The same way she couldn’t let him go when his heart stopped in the Quarter Quell. The same way she couldn’t let him go in the first Games and nursed him back to health. So many times they couldn’t let each other go. I could go on forever listing all the ways they protect each other. Because that’s what they do. They keep each other alive. They protect each other.

44. I begin to sing. At the window, in the shower, in my sleep. Hour after hour of ballads, love songs, mountain airs. All the songs my father taught me before he died, for certainly there has been very little music in my life since.
– Katniss Everdeen

This is the first we really see Katniss sing for herself. She sang for others, but not for herself. We watched her sulk in the corner in the film, it would have been good to see this instead.

45. That what I need to survive is not Gale’s fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.
– Katniss Everdeen

Moviegoers will always believe that Prim’s death at the fault of Gale will always be the sole reason why she chose Peeta. And although it tributed, it wasn’t completely the case. I wish they added this as a voiceover at the end when they showed the epilogue. It’s also a beautiful quote, too, and only spurs on the Everlark inside us all.