Pod

"Each light is called a pod. It represents a different obstacle, the nature of which could be anything from a bomb to a band of mutts. Make no mistake, whatever it contains is designed to trap or kill you."

—Plutarch Heavensbee

Commander Paylor giving a speech in front of a digital screen with information about pods.

A pod is an obstacle or weapon designed to trap or kill anyone in proximity of its activation. The Capitol planted many pods around the city, which served in its defense during the Second Rebellion.

History

The creation of pods dates back to the Dark Days, though it's unknown whether or not any were actually weaponized during the First Rebellion. More pods were added over the years. As a Gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee designed a number of them himself.

Battle of the Capitol

With the use of a Holo, rebel units during the Battle of the Capitol could access a digital map marked with pods. Using this information, rebels could attempt to navigate around the marked pods or purposefully trigger them at a safe distance, like defusing a bomb.

Plutarch's map had been secured by a rebel insider before they fled the Capitol with him; however, the intel was several months old by the time it was put into use, so some of the data points were outdated. For example, on Squad 451's fourth morning in the Capitol, Leeg 2 hit a mislabeled pod that was supposed to release muttation gnats, but she was shot in the brain by a "sunburst of metal darts" instead.

Squad 451 activating the gunfire pod.

Several days later, the squad was set to film a propo on a block with several active pods: one set off a "spray of gunfire", while the other was meant to net an unfortunate rebel for "interrogation or execution". The gunfire pod was triggered without causing any injuries, but their commander, Boggs, stepped on an unlabeled pod that blew off his legs. He would die soon after from blood loss.

Aftermath of the tar and barbed wire net pods.

Gale Hawthorne and Leeg 1 shot at other pods in the area in an attempt at minesweeping, triggering explosions and a wave of a black, tar-like substance. In the chaos, the hijacked Peeta Mellark found himself triggered and tried to attack Katniss Everdeen. Mitchell intervened, but Peeta threw Mitchell into the other marked pod; it turned out that the net was made of barbed wire, piercing him instantly and hoisting him overhead. The rest of the squad got away, and the black wave cleared the way for them by setting off several other pods, including a swarm of tracker jackers. Later that night, Squad 451 decided to travel through the sewers because there were less pods than aboveground, and Pollux had insider knowledge, having formerly worked there. Katniss mentioned being guided away from pods that would trigger gas, live wires, and rats the size of beavers. After a rest, they were chased by lizard mutts into the Transfer, where Katniss quickly detonated a pod that held flesh-eating rats. She planned on leading the others to avoid a pod that would destroy the ground underneath their feet and feed them into "something called a Meat Grinder".

Messalla is disintegrated by a beam of light.

However, Finnick Odair stopped Katniss from running headlong into an unlabeled pod: a "wide shaft of golden light" that melted Messalla's flesh off his body. As the rest of the group pushed onwards, Jackson and Leeg 1 stayed behind to hold off the mutts at the Meat Grinder, where they were then killed. It is unknown whether the pod or the mutts ended their lives.

While sheltering at Tigris's shop, the remainder of the squad checked a paper map and determined they could walk to the President's mansion through a zone where pods were deactivated for the safety of citizens who lived there. They also learned from television reports that rebels had begun letting unmanned cars drift down the street to trigger pods. However, the Capitol quickly disabled some and reenabled them when rebel forces followed after the vehicles; Katniss mentioned watching a group of rebels get "blown to bits by a row of potted rosebushes in front of a flower shop".

When Squad 451 split up and progressed towards the mansion, Katniss and Gale witnessed a pod ahead of them release a "gush of steam" that boiled its victims to death. Another pod, spanning an entire block, gave off a purple beam of light that caused all the people within it to bleed from every orifice; it only turned off once everyone was dead. At the last pod they encountered, the two sides of the street folded down like flaps into an underground space below, where mutts crawled in the shadows to kill anyone who survived the fall. Katniss narrowly managed to hang onto the edge, inch over to the corner, and swing one leg up to pull herself out.

Film adaptation

In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2, Squad 451 safely triggered a flamethrower pod. Later, they triggered the Meat Grinder and had to run away as it tore up the ground beneath them. All the pods leading up to the president's mansion were omitted from the film version.

Squad 451 activating a flamethrower pod

Running from the Meat Grinder

Known casualties

Known victims

• Leeg 2 - District 13 - shot in the brain by a metal dart
• Mitchell - District 13 - caught and speared in a net of barbed wire
• Boggs - District 13 - legs blown off by a mine, succumbed to blood loss
• Messalla - The Capitol - immobilized by a beam that melted off his flesh

Possible victims

• Jackson - District 13 - killed by lizard mutts or Meat Grinder
• Leeg 1 - District 13 - lizard mutts or Meat Grinder

Unnamed victims

• Rebels
• Capitol refugees
• Peacekeepers

Trivia

• Despite their design as mechanisms in defense of the Capitol, pods killed combatants on both sides, as well as many civilian refugees.
• For Mockingjay - Part 2, the black tar scene was filmed at Les Espaces d'Abraxas in Noisy-le-Grand, France.
• The Meat Grinder scene was filmed at the Messedamm Underpass in Berlin, Germany.