re: #150 Major Tom

It’s not a subtle point in the film, and that’s not my issue. It’s the thousands of acres of forest, and starvation. It’s the ability to just create something out of thin air, and the rampant scarcity… Maybe these things are better explained in the books, or are being saved for plot color in future movies, but I didn’t get much of an explanation in the film. It was hard to believe a society like that could/would exist is all i’m sayin.

The technology used by the game-makers is never explored from an engineering standpoint (for that matter, nobody explains FTL drives in science fiction, but faster than light travel is a given). As far as the thousands of acres of forest etc, the movie takes place several hundred years in the future after the fall of modern society. Most of North America is in ruins and has been reclaimed by nature (like Germany during the Hundred Years War) and parts of it are under water after the ice caps melted. Starvation is a control (see Stalin’s policy towards the Ukraine during collectivisation) and along with the Games, is used to keep the rebellious districts in line.