If the The Hunger Games movie and book franchise is fine art to you, the Palace of Fine Arts’ Innovation Hangar just opened The Hunger Games: The Exhibition to whet your appetite with a voracious collection of film set recreations, games and high-tech interactive installations based on the blockbuster dystopia battle series. SFist took a tour through the traveling exhibit that remains on display through the end of July to provide a little preview of Hunger Games: The Exhibition’s elaborate props, costumes and odds and ends that are ever in your favor.
There’s plenty for film production geeks to obsess upon in this exhibit, with more than a dozen film set replicas whose props are the exact props that were used on set and appear in the film. Every costume, wig, Mockingjay pin and day-glo cupcake in the exhibit are those from the films’ shooting. (Fun Production Fact: In the name-drawing lottery scene depicted above, every single slip of paper in each respective fishbowl said “Primrose Everdeen” or “Peeta Mellark”, thus ensuring that the proper name got drawn in every take. These very slips of paper are part of the exhibit.)
The exhibit’s high-tech interactive displays are so fun they’ll turn your pompadour purple. The video above shows a cool sketchbook feature with blank white pages, but the projections change whenever you turn the page. Kids will dig the digital interactive maps, game control tables just like from the movies, stunt choreography stations and lots of other immersive experiences. And you’d better believe there are oodles of selfie-taking opportunities with Hunger Games statues, sets and ephemera.
Image: Joe Kukura
But the costumes and artifacts from the film are what really deliver goosebumps to visitors of The Hunger Games: The Exhibition. A photo cannot do justice to how breathtaking that wedding dress and Mockingjay dress really are in person. And if you’re into boots, the collection of knee-highs, motos, riding boots, peep-toes and other footwear from the films’ wardrobe department get their true acknowledgement in this museum setting. The Hunger Games had really, really cool boots that did not get much time onscreen.
Image: Joe Kukura
Upon leaving this exhibit that takes an hour or two to walk through (depending on how obsessed you are), you find yourself in a themed retail bazaar hawking Hunger Games t-shirts, action figures, belt buckles, mousepads, leggings, coffee cups, boxer shorts, ballcaps, wine glasses, pint glasses and more. And if you look hard enough through this retail area, you might even find a couple copies of the Hunger Games books.
The Hunger Games: The Exhibition remains on display through July 31, 2016 at the Palace of Fine Arts Innovation Hangar (3601 Lyon St.) 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday - Tuesday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesday and 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $27.50 for adults, $25 for seniors, $22 for kids 5-12 and kids under 5 get in free. There is nothing too scary or violent for kids in this exhibit and none of the dresses on display present a fire risk.
