20 Movies Where The Hero Winning DIDN'T Matter

20. The Hunger Games

The thing with dystopian game shows, as will be explored multiple times on this list, is that when you are shoved into what is typically a fight to the death against your will, even winning isn't really winning. The prize may be life, at least for the time being, but at what cost?

When Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark (Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson) were thrown into the Hunger Games arena, they under the idea that only one could survive. Until however, they threatened to both lose, leaving the Games without a winner, and in the process outsmarting and embarrassing Donald Sutherland's President Snow and his entire regime.

A victory of course, but not one that lasted long. When they left the arena, all they had done was paint a target on their backs, with Snow still very much in control of their lives. Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) told them as much, that they were enslaved to him forever, even as victors. This was proven in Catching Fire, when they were thrown back into the arena once again on the whim of Snow. 

Winning the Games wasn't really winning, something that stretched even further than just the competition. When they ultimately overthrew Snow, there was another in Julianne Moore's Alma Coin, ready and waiting to step into his shoes and continue his megalomaniacal work.