President Alma Coin

"Thirst for blood is a difficult urge to satisfy. So, I offer an alternative plan. A majority of four may approve it, no one may abstain. The proposal is this: In lieu of these barbaric executions, we hold a symbolic Hunger Games."

- Coin's proposal that exposes her villainous nature

"I told you we should have rescued the boy first."

- President Alma Coin on Peeta

President Alma Coin is the hidden main antagonist of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay and both of its 2014 and 2015 film adaptions, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 1 and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part 2. She is the President of District 13 and the leader of the rebellion against the Capitol.

She is portrayed by Julianne Moore, who also played Margaret White in the 2013 remake of Carrie.

Biography
"Welcome to the new Panem. Today, on the avenue of the tributes, all of Panem, a free Panem, will watch more than a mere spectacle. We are gathered to witness an historic moment of justice. Today, the greatest friend to revolution, will fire the shot to end all wars. May her arrow signify the end of tyranny and the beginning of a new era. Mockingjay, may your aim be as true as your heart is pure."

- Coin's hypocritical speech during Snow's execution - her last words.

During the 75th Hunger Games, President Coin starts the second rebellion against the Capitol to take control over Panem. As she needs Katniss Everdeen for her unique position as a symbol of rebellion to the districts, she rescues her, Finnick Odair and Beetee from the arena and hide them in District 13. This caused the Capitol to bomb District 12, Katniss's home, but Coin showed little emotion to this.

However, Coin soon discovers it is hard to cooperate with Katniss, who dislikes her for her selfishness and ruthlessness. Coin often regrets openly she couldn't have saved the more charismatic Peeta from the arena instead of Katniss.

Before the attack on the Capitol, Coin realizes Katniss could menace her position of President, as people still love Katniss more than her. To destroy her rival's psyche completely, she decides to murder someone Katniss really loves. In the Capitol, Coin uses a Capitol hovercraft to launch bombs (placed in supply packages) on some children. When they blow up, Rebel medics, alongside with Katniss' sister Prim, run there to help injured kids. However, once they reach them, the other bombs blow up, killing all the children and medics, including Prim. After that, the Capitol gives up to the rebels.



Katniss, who saw her sister die, is now heavily dazed. Meanwhile, Coin becomes the new President of Panem and decides to organize the last Hunger Games in which children of the Capitol would fight to death. Horrified, Katniss plots to foil her plan and Snow, who is being sentenced to death for his crime, tells her that the bombs that killed her sister was sent by Coin and not him. She initially disbelieves him but after remembering the promise that they made to not lie to each other, Katniss realizes Coin's true goal: she planned the rebellion in the districts by having them fight it out, leaving District 13 untouched; once the districts were hers, the Capitol could easily be nabbed for her to control, making her and Snow the two sides of the same coin. To avenge her sister's death, Katniss assassinates Coin after her speech during Snow's execution by shooting her in the heart with an arrow. Snow then insanely laughs at this as a massive mob of shocked and enraged citizens surge towards him and trample him to death.

Personality
"I want you to know something. We had eight extra minutes of civilian evacuation because of Peeta's warning. I won't forget that."

- Coin, before she goes mad with power.

Alma Coin is a born pragmatist and an egotistical leader. She is rather cold and emotionless, perhaps due to the loss of her family, but does appear to have a relatively kind side in the movies. It is unknown just how much she cares for Katniss, but she still goes out of her way to console her when she's sad about Peeta's predicament. However, Coin is shown to be quite frustrated whenever people don't listen to her, as she doesn't like what she cannot control. She takes this to an extreme when she decides Katniss is more useful to her when she was dead.



While Coin superficially seems to be a "better" leader than Snow, she still turns out to be a complete sociopath. She is very relaxed by nature, and never once loses her temper with anyone. Coin is callous and analytically ruthless to a fault: she does not emotionally react to loss or defeat, and has absolutely no complaints about sending people to their deaths, or worse. Coin also possesses a logical, calculative and subtle intellect, and is a virtually flawless strategist when it comes to propaganda, warfare, politics and democracy. Her confidence, magnetic vocabulary and apparent empathy make her a brilliant public speaker and a master manipulator - her methods are far more subtle than that of President Snow.

As she gets closer to overthrowing Snow, the power gets to her head, and she becomes much more cold-blooded and less passionate about freeing Panem. Coin becomes extremely arrogant and overconfident to an extreme, conceitedly believing that things will go perfectly according to her preconceptions and predictions. In the end, she goes as far as to bomb children and hold a new Hunger Games just to secure her victory. It still is possible that she genuinely wants to make Panem a better place, but her methods become inhumane.



In the end, her own delusional idea of Panem is her undoing, since she ignorantly trusts that Katniss is okay with her being the new president of Panem. When Coin holds her final triumphant speech, there's no more sentiment left in her voice - only blind pride. She goes from being a visionary official to becoming a corrupt ruler with the same intentions as President Snow - genocide, power and absolute control, only far more unquestioning and a lot depraving.

Killed Victims

 * Primrose Everdeen (caused)
 * President Coriolanus Snow (caused)
 * Countless unnamed Capitol citizens

Quotes
"I have taken the burden and the honor of declaring myself as interim president of Panem."

- Coin announcing herself as new President "She can't handle it. The Games destroyed her."

- Coin discussing Katniss "Miss Everdeen. This revolution is about everyone. It's about all of us. And we need a voice."

- Coin saying that she is trying to help Katniss and Panem.

"It's the worst torture in the world. Waiting, when you know there's nothing you can do."

- Coin seemingly sympathizing with Katniss "Whatever strength, courage... madness keeps us going, we find it, in times like these. You have it, soldier. It's what kept you alive all this time. And it won't fail you now."

- Coin giving Katniss an inspirational speech.

Trivia

 * While the  book portrayed Coin as a relatively sinister character right off the bat, the has Julianne Moore adding a more sympathetic side to her. Moore says she wanted to show that Coin went from having good ambitions to becoming corrupted by power.
 * Another change made to Coin in the movies is that her eyes are now gold instead of gray, perhaps to help conceal her darker side.
 * All in all, Coin was shown to be more of a charismatic villain in the film trilogy than a Complete Monster she was in the books.
 * Even though Coin becomes the main antagonist, her personality remains ambiguous. It's unknown just how many of her actions were planned, but since she ends up killing countless children of the Capitol, it's safe to assume that she's always had malevolent ambitions.