The Hunger Games' Career Tributes Explained

In Suzanne Collins' 2008 dystopian teen novel "The Hunger Games" (which was subsequently adapted into a massively successful film franchise that kicked off in 2012), we're introduced to protagonist Katniss Everdeen, a young woman from the impoverished District 12 of Panem who illegally hunts to keep her family safe as they struggle to prepare for the annual Hunger Games. See, in Panem (a reworked interpretation of North America), a rebellion occurred years before Katniss was even born, and so the all-powerful Capitol flexes its strength every year by assembling 24 children (two from each of Panem's districts) to fight to the death in an arena, televising the event and dubbing it the "Hunger Games." When Katniss, played in the "Hunger Games" movies by Jennifer Lawrence, volunteers as tribute after her younger sister's name is chosen to compete, leaves her home behind and begins training for the Games, she and her fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) discover something troubling: they're woefully underprepared compared to some of the other tributes, particularly ones from specific districts.

Tributes from select districts — meaning wealthier ones like District 1, District 2, and District 4 — are dubbed "Career Tributes" by their fellow competitors because they're born to be champions. So, what does this mean specifically, and which "Career Tributes" do we meet in the "Hunger Games" franchise? Not to mention, what happens to them?

Right from the moment they're born, tributes from Districts 1, 2, and 4 are basically bred in a laboratory to be extremely fierce competitors in the Hunger Games. As Suzanne Collins writes in Katniss' voice in the book, most of her fellow tributes look extremely underfed, except for some: "The exceptions are the kids from the wealthier districts, the volunteers, the ones who have been fed and trained throughout their lives for this moment. The tributes from 1, 2, and 4 traditionally have this look about them. It's technically against the rules to train tributes before they reach the Capitol but it happens every year. In District 12, we call them the Career Tributes, or just the Careers. And like as not, the winner will be one of them." Note the use of the word "volunteer" — Careers also typically put themselves forward for the "honor" of representing their districts.

Later, in the training center, Katniss notices that, after she and Peeta made a splash with fiery outfits the night before during the Game's opening ceremonies, she sees "nothing but contempt in the glances of the Career Tributes. Each must have fifty to a hundred pounds on me. They project arrogance and brutality." Not only that, but she also tells the reader that the Careers know just how powerful they are: "I look around at the Career Tributes who are showing off, clearly trying to intimidate the field." Katniss puts it best: the Careers are easily the most powerful players in the Games, but in her very first Hunger Games, Katniss does manage to outsmart them right out of the gate.

Katniss, against the advice of her mentor and former District 12 champion Haymitch Abernathy (who is played in the original "Hunger Games" films by Woody Harrelson and is getting his own prequel novel and movie, "Sunrise on the Reaping"), runs and hides from the Careers during the start of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, electing to grab just a small backpack from the supply-laden Cornucopia that serves as a sort of trap to kill competitors as they're released into the arena. Katniss mostly hides out in the woods until the Gamemakers create a fire to drive her out, at which point she encounters the Careers while injured and clambers up a tall tree. (Much to Katniss' surprise, Peeta is with them.) Because Katniss earned such a high score during her evaluation by the Gamemakers, the Careers are desperate to take her out, but Katniss takes a handful of them down by cutting down a nest of tracker jackers (a genetically modified and deadly wasp) and dropping it on some of the Careers, taking out Glimmer (Leven Rambin) and stealing the dead girl's bow and arrow (Katniss' weapon of choice).

Later, Katniss dispatches Marvel after he kills her friend and ally Rue (Amandla Stenberg) from District 11; Clove (Isabelle Fuhrman) intercepts Katniss during a showdown at the Cornucopia and is about to kill her when Rue's fellow District 11 tribute Thresh (Dayo Okeniyi) encounters them and kills Clove in Rue's name, leaving Katniss alive. As it turns out, Peeta was only pretending to work with the Careers and is grievously, perhaps fatally injured — and when he, Katniss, and Career tribute Cato (Alexander Ludwig) emerge as the only remaining survivors, Katniss fends off Cato and lets him get torn apart by genetically modified "Mutts" before killing him with a mercy arrow. Peeta and Katniss threaten, in full view of the cameras, to eat poisonous berries rather than kill each other, and they're both declared the winners ... which really pisses off the Capitol.

The second movie in the original "Hunger Games" film series, "Catching Fire" (which is the best in the entire franchise, actually), is the last we see of Career tributes, but this time, Katniss and Peeta are forced to team up with a few. As retribution for Katniss' stunt with the berries, President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) orders that the 75th Hunger Games, which mark the 3rd "Quarter Quell," will reap its participants from only previous victors, meaning that Katniss will return to the arena. With Peeta by her side (who volunteers for the aging Haymitch), they prepare for a much larger and more difficult fight, only to discover that Haymitch is arranging a series of allies for them.

Katniss is hesitant, especially when it comes to allying herself with the former District 4 winners and current tributes Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) and the quite elderly Mags Flanagan (Lynn Cohen). Finnick irritates Katniss at first, but he turns out to be a valuable teammate ... and when he saves Peeta's life in the arena, their alliance is set in stone. Ultimately, at the end of "Catching Fire," Katniss destroys the force field surrounding the arena, which allows rebels from District 13 — a place she didn't previously know existed — to rescue her and Finnick, though Peeta becomes a hostage of the Capitol. With that said, this is where any mention of the Careers in "The Hunger Games" ends for good ... because the Games as we know them cease to exist as war begins.