Set 24 years before Katniss Everdeen's story, the film opens on the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games, the Second Quarter Quell, where District 12 sends twice the usual tributes. Young Haymitch Abernathy fights in this brutal arena, hinting at the games' unique twists amid Panem's oppressive spectacle of "twice the glory." Francis Lawrence directs this adaptation of Suzanne Collins' novel, exploring rebellion's dawn through Haymitch's harrowing survival.