10 Movies That Definitely "Influenced" The Hunger Games

7. Punishment Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLr6dmW8m0 Dystopian Future: No Reality TV Aspects: Sort Of Battle Arena: Yes Captive Fighters: Yes Children As Fighters: No Set in an alternate reality rather than the near-future, Punishment Park is unique for the list in that it is a mockumentary of sorts, with the premise being that a film crew has been allowed to film the events that occur in the eponymous park, rather than said events being beamed out for television viewers to enjoy as they are in The Hunger Games and most of the other films on this list. However, the themes of the upper crust of society controlling the lower classes by destroying any seeds of rebellion are all there, as the participants in Punishment Park are all people who have fallen foul of the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, which was put in place to weed out Communists and other "anti-authority" figures. Those arrested under the act are given the choice of spending their sentence in a Federal prison or traversing more than 50 miles of desert as they are chased by National Guardsmen. While the participants are not pitted against each other as they are in The Hunger Games, many of the political themes of the movie are similar, though then ending of Punishment Park offers far less hope for the downtrodden.