The Hunger Games - Possible Spoiler.

[andy-hughes]

I have watched the first film a few times, but I'm puzzled by the use, or more accurately, absence of cannons when Tributes die.


If they are fitted with trackers that register when their hearts stop, why don't the cannons sound every time a Tribute dies - it seems some get a 'bang' and some don't.


I'm not sure of names, but when the black guy killed the girl who was about to kill Katniss, no cannon sounded, but when he died that night, a cannon sounded, and his image was flashed on the night sky.

Similarly, when Boo died, no cannon.


It doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the film, but has anyone else noticed these anomalies?

[ToraToraTora]

it's assumed detail, common in films, they establish what happens but don't necessarily show each one in the same detail or at all.

[Arksided]

As they weren't 'Main' Characters maybe they just got edited out. with the boomth.

[andy-hughes]

If you Google 'assumed detail' - and I did because I don't know what it means, you will discover that Google doesn't know either!

I can take an educated guess at what it means, but it doesn't satisfy my point.

If you set up a premise that, when a character dies a cannon sounds, then it's not a huge leap in terms of budget or film time, to provide consistency throughout the film.

I don't want to 'presume detail', in this case, I want to hear it.

[andy-hughes]

Arksided - // As they weren't 'Main' Characters maybe they just got edited out. with the boomth. //

Again, not an especially valid supposition.

If a character is supposed to set off a cannon sound effect by dying, then make it all of them or none of them - making it some and not others is a niggling and needless distraction.

[ToraToraTora]

Andy, I made that phrase up, I don't think it's a recognised term but many films cut detail that the view can assume. Eg In T1, the terminator kills 3 Sarah Connors before becoming the "phone book killer" - but we only actually see 1. Are you suggesting some other reason?

[andy-hughes]

TTT - // Andy, I made that phrase up, I don't think it's a recognised term but many films cut detail that the view can assume. Eg In T1, the terminator kills 3 Sarah Connors before becoming the "phone book killer" - but we only actually see 1. Are you suggesting some other reason? //

It is an excellent phrase, and admirably sums up the concept you outline.

I do understand that, for example, if you see someone start to dial a number on a phone, you don;t have to stay with them while they dail all the digits and wait for a connection, you can cut away and start the conversation.

But I do believe that in this instance, such a simple plot device should have been carried through, only because it is so absolutely simple to do, and in a film that has such an excellent creation of a dystopian society, this seems a pointless omission that irked me a little, and maybe others.

I shall watch it again though - the cosmic gorgeousness of Elizabeth Banks will take my mind of the absent cannons!!

[ToraToraTora]

I agree with you for this film just putting forward a possible explanation.

[andy-hughes]

Thanks - I think you are probably right.

Since my last answer, I decided to Google images of Elizabeth Banks again, and then everything went dark, and I woke up on the floor with the present Mrs Hughes yelling at me … again!!

[ToraToraTora]

Each to their own but next to Jennifer Lawrence? No contest!

[naomi24]

I read the books before seeing the films and knew that the cannon sounded when one of the tributes died. It wasn’t crucial to the story so it didn’t occur to me that it was sometimes omitted. I just watched the movies and thought no more about it.