What you need to know
- Google’s latest search engine Easter egg is entirely Hunger Games-themed, building anticipation for the upcoming movie
- It’s essentially a scavenger hunt that puts you through a series of quests, testing your Hunger Games knowledge with interactive games
- The next movie comes out on November 20, so it’s likely Google’s hidden gem will disappear by then
The anticipation for the next installment of The Hunger Games saga has never been this fierce (I should know; I’ve had my IMAX screening tickets booked for weeks), and it seems Google is holding its own celebrations ahead of the Second Quarter Quell.
If there’s one thing Google is great at, it’s the fun Easter eggs in its web and mobile search engines, especially when it comes to huge movie launches. The company did one for Wicked (2024), making your search results ‘defy gravity’, but its latest one is all about the upcoming The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping movie, which arrives in cinemas on November 20.
When you search ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’, or ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ on Google, you’ll find a symbol depicting a snake entwined with a mockingjay bird (or the ‘flint striker’ as hardcore fans know it). Click on it, and you’ll be transported down an interactive rabbit hole that tests your knowledge of all things from the world of Panem.
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Basically, the feature is a 12-step quest that leads you through a series of questions intertwined with interactive games you have to play to unlock the answers. Split into six sections, once you complete each one, it unveils one digit of a six-digit code that you can crack to unlock files and ‘access The Capitol vault’. It’s simple, but once you get sucked in, you’ll find it’s quite addictive.
Starting off simple and easy, Google tests your Hunger Games literacy with questions such as ‘Who said “I volunteer as tribute”?’, which you have to unlock by completing a memory game. It seems like a breeze at first; you’re also asked questions about other characters, but then it really tests your Panem knowledge — I can’t lie, I started to sweat a little.
As you complete each quest, the tasks and questions get progressively more challenging to the point where you’re quizzed on each District’s specialty trade, which, if you’ve read the books back-to-front, should be a piece of cake. For someone who hasn’t read the books (me), this part takes some time to complete.
Luckily, these rounds are quite lenient, eliminating the options you get wrong until you find the correct answer. Although that does mean you have to keep track of which District matches which trade. I played them multiple times, and I still can’t remember if District 3 is technology or fishing.
Once you’ve completed every quest, you unlock access to a video that stars one of the actors from the upcoming movie, along with one final clue to complete the final puzzle. However, each outcome is different for each player, but when you combine the final clues, it forms the phrase ‘the snow may fall, but the sun also rises’.
Type this into the Google search bar, and you’ll be taken through to an exclusive, unlisted YouTube video with additional trailer footage from the movie, marking the end of Google’s Hunger Games scavenger hunt.
Google’s Hunger Games search engine quest is still live, but it’s likely to disappear when the movie is released on November 20.
