Rest in Piece: The Forgotten Tributes of The Hunger Games

The District 7 Girl (far left) and the District 6 Boy (top right) are some of the most seen unnamed tributes.

For the bloodbath scene in The Hunger Games, there was a lot of stunts required. So it makes sense to hire a bunch of young-looking stunt people to play out most of the violence. There were also some hired as extras that did not participate for this iconic scene.

What is interesting is that some of the tributes cast were already in their 20s. Stunt actors Leigha Hancock, Sam Ly,  and Jeremy Marines were 25, 24 and 23 at the time of  filming, respectively. I guess it pays to be young-looking.

In one of the film guides for the film, each of the twenty-four tributes are featured. Many are unfamiliar, most having only moments in the entire movie. Some of them, however are seen frequently, such as the girl from District Seven. The boy from Six is the only minor tribute with a speaking part and a name, Jason.

The bloodbath scene is probably my favorite in the entire film. This is where many of the stunt people shine. Many are violently thrown to the ground and stabbed to death. Some run only to be tackled and killed. A girl with pigtails looks up at the Career from District One as he spears her in the chest. A small boy with curly hair hides in the Cornucopia only to have his neck slashed when he attempts an escape.

So much from the bloodbath was cut from the movie. In the special features, tributes such as the girl from Six is snagged by Glimmer and the girl from three battles two different people, only to die by the hand of the boy from Five.

The film inspired me to create a film trailer for a class in 2013. Using what little resources I had, I filmed my own bloodbath and additional scenes. The class gave it average reviews, to my dismay. The teacher, however stated it as his favorite, citing that the actors were "really into it." So suck it, 6th hour Digital Media.

A reply from a famous person

So, last year, I was still obsessed with the Hunger Games. I found it interesting that many of the tribute cast were stunt actors, one of which being Kara Petersen.


I remember reading in the Hunger Games Wiki that that the tribute played by Petersen had a name in the film, along with several other similar characters. I was curious to learn more about this tribute, as little was published about the character.

So far, my twitter hadn't been doing so hot. Every tweet so far went unanswered, I guess that's not a surprise, since most celebrities get hit with a thousand tweets a day. But decided, what the hell, it can't hurt, so I did it.

In a few days, I got a reply! I couldn't believe it. I got a response from someone famous. I suppose I bragged a bit on Facebook and Instagram, but I didn't care, this was the highlight of my year.

Tribute Much?

Since I saw The Hunger Games in 2012, I've been a fan of Suzanne Collins' hit franchise. After reading the book soon after, my interest deepened. I don't know what intrigues me more, teenagers fighting to the death or surviving a hostile environment. I know I'm not alone, but I sure get on the nerves on my mom and brother when I talk too much about it.

I suppose my interest comes from watching programs like Duel Survival and plenty of competition-themed movies and television. The part about the fighting probably is from watching my cousin play violent video games when I was younger.

Along with seemingly thousands of others, I write Hunger Games fan fiction. Originally, I was a bit naïve, wanting to get my work published as a short story or something along the lines of that. Everywhere I went, I was inspired. Camping with the Boy Scouts or when I was in Door County, Wisconsin. The untouched nature seemed to be the perfect place to have a bunch of kids kill each other, right?

Although I haven't worked on my fan fiction lately, I hope to finish it just for fun. I like to write and it would be fun just to see where this goes. Plus, I can't turn back now on all the work I've done already. Let the 63rd Hunger Games begin!