Though the Denver International Airport has long existed as conspiracy fodder, with some speculating its alleged ties to the Illuminati, lizard people and the impending apocalypse, these conspiracy theorists have found some friends in the most unlikely of places – The Hunger Games fandom.


Amid the series’ ongoing renaissance – one both defined by striking analysis and terrible, terrible cosplays – pop culture analyst @kirby.alice took to TikTok to share a long-running theory surrounding the franchise – Panem’s capitol is partly located in the underground tunnels beneath what once was the Denver International Airport.


@kirby.alice Someone is going to be mad I called it the midwest, but look into your heart. You know it’s true. #hungergames #thg #katnisseverdeen #mockingjay #thehungergames ♬ original sound - kirby


“The theory is that the capitol is built around the city of Denver, but more specifically, that the most fortified part of the city is inside what once was the Denver airport,” she explained, noting that while there is no official map of Panem, fans have generally accepted The Capitol would loosely exist in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States.


According to the theory, she continued, the Transfer network of tunnels that run beneath The Capitol in both the books and films, are partially built from the pre-existing underground levels running below the airport’s main terminal, ones that airport officials have acknowledged IRL. 



“The Denver Airport is the largest airport in the United States, it’s an extremely well-fortified infrastructural hub, not to mention that it has an expansive underground tunnel system,” she elaborated, noting that in Mockingjay, the series’ last chronological installment, “Katniss and the rest of the rebels spend a lot of time-fighting inside of tunnels underneath the capitol.”


“The theory goes that the early people of Panem when they were building their own Capitol started it inside the most easily-fortified and defensible building in the Denver area, which would have been the airport,” she said.


The Denver Airport: conspiracy fodder for both end-time loons and The Hunger Games fangirls.