The Hunger Games: Why President Snow Coughs Up Blood, Explained

President Snow is Katniss Everdeen’s tyrannical enemy, and while he may appear untouchable for most of The Hunger Games he has a secret weakness.

In The Hunger Games films, President Snow (Donald Sutherland) coughs up blood for a specific reason. The Hunger Games is a four-part film series that is based on the hit trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins. It’s a dystopian young adult series that is set in a version of the United States after a monumental war that saw the country divided into districts that are now forced to sacrifice two children yearly to a free-for-all battle to the death for the elite’s viewing pleasure. It’s tribute Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) who eventually leads a revolution against their oppressors.

The new United States is known as Panem in The Hunger Games, and the Capitol is the city that rules over the other districts and forces the Hunger Games as a way of punishing the other districts under their rule. The ruler of the Capitol, and therefore Panem, is President Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland) a white-haired, tyrannical, megalomaniacal ruler who becomes the main adversary to Katniss as she tries to bring him down. He is remorseless, shrewd, and paranoid and has managed a tight grip on Panem for 25 years thanks to his willingness not only to kill enemies but allies too.

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President Snow Coughs Blood Due To The Sores In His Mouth

When Katniss first meets President Snow, she immediately notices the smell of blood mixed with the smell of the white rose on his lapel. What Katniss doesn’t know is that President Snow’s mouth is full of bloody sores that are the source of the smell. Finnick Odair, one of The Hunger Games‘ most dangerous tributes in the third quarter quell, tells Katniss in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire that President Snow once poisoned all his allies, concerned that they would become too powerful. In order to allay any suspicion, Snow drank the poison as well and gave himself the antidote afterward. However, the antidote was not a perfect solution.

President Snow developed bloody sores as a reaction to his brief poisoning. This is the primary reason Snow surrounds himself with white roses. They are ostensibly a show of his purity and symbol of beauty, a version of himself Snow finds it important to promote. But their real use is that the strong, genetically enhanced smell is supposed to cover up the smell of blood and of the young Coriolanus Snow’s crime. Just as the smell of roses is unable to cover the blood, all the beauty and trappings the Capitol is known for in The Hunger Games are not able to cover the violence and murder lurking just below the surface.

The Ironic Symbolism Surrounding President Snow’s Death

At the end of The Hunger Games, Katniss has defeated the Capitol and Snow. When she is set to execute Snow, Katniss instead shoots President Coin, and Snow dies laughing and though it is never confirmed, choking on the blood from his sores. His whole life as president had seen him trying to hide his many crimes, including using roses to mask his bloody scent. His death can be read as him never being cured of the positioning; it simply took a while to take effect. Snow spent most of his life plotting against others and destroying their lives, and ironically, he died because of his own schemes.

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