The Hunger Games, Act II, Part 2

Two notes before we launch into the Act II:2 breakdown:

What’s the real Midpoint?

Now, I’ve said that the end of Act II:1 is that moment of betrayal: Katniss finding out Peeta is in an alliance with the Careers, and that her SECONDARY OPPONENT, Cato, has a PLAN to use Peeta to find Katniss and kill her. [1 hour 16 minutes in]

But maybe you thought the end of Act II:1 and the Midpoint Climax was the battle at the Cornucopia and Act II:2 starts when Katniss runs into the forest—or maybe when the butterfly lands on her hand to give her a moment of hope and then she starts the survival montage…

So which is right?

Whatever feels right to you!

A Midpoint is often a whole progression of scenes like this. Maybe we should even say that there are more than Eight Sequences in this movie, and there are two or three short sequences right around the Midpoint that make up the Midpoint Climax.

Whatever’s most useful to your writing process.

The Dark Forest

There’s often a scene in this Act that takes the Hero/ine into a Dark Forest or equivalent symbolic location of the unconscious, where important new revelations can occur. You’ll usually find it in the second sequence of II:2 — Sequence 6— but sometimes it’s earlier, in Sequence 5.

(The Dark Forest is actually such an important element of Act II, Part 2 that I’ve done a whole separate post on it.)