I’ve spent the last week reading Sunrise on the Reaping after the upcoming Lionsgate movie dropped some new details, and I was entranced by the story and the much younger versions of characters like Haymitch and Effie. While there were so many incredible moments that played out in the book, particularly in the arena during the actual Second Quarter Quell, there’s actually one visual and emotional moment that I am just champing at the bit to see play out in the Sunrise on the Reaping movie, and it may not be the moment you’d guess.
I will be getting into book spoilers here, so if you haven’t read Sunrise on the Reaping yet, now is a great time to check out one of our other excellent articles.
Sunrise On The Reaping Has Some Great Moments With Chocolate, Potatoes, And Weapons Hitting Force Fields
The best part of all the Hunger Games movies are the scenes in the Capital where the games are played. From the outrageous fashion of the spectators and contestants to the gruesome obstacles placed in the games, it’s easy to see why the first of Suzanne Collins’ books resonated and led to so much additional material down the line.
To be clear, I’d love to see a lot of the scenes from the book play out on the big screen. Meeting Beetee’s son and learning about how to create electricity from a potato stands out to me, as do the wild variety of mutts that were brought in for Haymitch’s year. Even the moment Haymitch ultimately surprises the last Career and becomes the first District 12 victor in many years should stand out with audiences.
There are some emotional scenes during the games that should resonate with fans too, as when Haymitch drops Silka a piece of chocolate marking a temporary truce. That scene reminds me a little of the famous Christmas Day truce during World War I in 1914 in which soldiers exchanged gifts and played football in a rare ceasefire in order to improve morale. Like the WWI moment, the next day Silka brutally murders the last Newcomer outside of Haymitch, Wellie.
I can’t imagine how emotionally devastating that scene will be on the big screen, but there’s still another scene I absolutely need to see play out on the big screen exactly as it was written. Hear me out.
But The One Moment I Want To See Comes Very Early On In Suzanne Collins’ Story
The most important person to Haymitch throughout the whole of Sunrise on the Reaping is Lenore Dove, a character connected to Lucy Gray from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Her story with Haymitch is lovely and tragic and helps to define why he is such a lush by the time Katniss Everdeen enters the picture.
It’s Lenore Dove’s fault that Haymitch Abernathy even makes the Hunger Games, as his name is never drawn. He’s substituted after the original tribute is shot and pipes up about it. Lenore is Haymitch’s entire reason for breathing through the majority of the book, as his mother and brother’s arcs are notable but much less impactful. Did I mention this all also happened on Haymitch’s actual, literal birthday?
Despite this, we don’t get a ton of scenes with Lenore, just feelings from Haymitch and a few conversations at the beginning of the book, a phone call in the middle, and her untimely end orchestrated by Snow at the end of the book. For me, though, the key imagery of Lenore Dove and the catalyst for Haymitch enduring and enduring in the games comes in one moment when Ms. Dove foregoes her goodbye for the Capital cameras and runs to a ridge to share a private goodbye instead.
Collins wrote this one paragraph that’s so cinematic when you read it and so perfectly encapsulates everything that comes in the love story before and after this scene.
That’s when I see Lenore Dove. She’s up on a ridge, her red dress plastered to her body, one hand clutching the bag of gumdrops. As the train passes, she tilts her head back and wails her loss and rage into the wind. And even though it guts me, even though I smash my fists into the glass until they bruise, I’m grateful for her final gift. That she’s denied Plutarch the chance to broadcast our farewell.
There are obviously a lot of implications to this moment. To me, without this scene, the Lenore Dove and Haymitch love story is so much less convincing and meaningful. I don’t want to give everything away, but without this scene, the ending of the book and Snow’s heavy hand in that ending is so much less impactful. Without this scene, we never would have a clear understanding of why the adult Haymitch is as broken as he truly is by the time Katniss and Peeta meet him.
There’s a lot that doubtless will need to change when Sunrise on the Reaping is brought to the big screen by Lionsgate, but with any luck this moment will match up perfectly and resonate on the emotional level it did with me while reading — and that was before I even knew exactly where and how we’d end up. It’s a heartbreaking book, and I’m so happy it’s going to the big screen.
Sunrise on the Reaping hits the movie release schedule on November 20th, 2026. At one point the book was nearly very different, however, and Suzanne Collins recently spoke about what Sunrise could have been about if things had played out differently.