Google releases Thanos easter egg to mark new Avengers film Endgame

Search engine doesn't feel too good

An Avengers fan in costume arrives at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of "Avengers: Endgame" (REUTERS/Mike Blake)

Google is commemorating the release of Avengers: Endgame with a hidden, destructive Easter egg.

Anyone searching for the word "Thanos" today, as the film is released, will see normal results. But clicking on the Infinity Gauntlet that lurks in the corner of the screen will unleash a powerful destructive force.

Just like in the film, in which half of the world – and many of the world's favourite superheroes – were wiped out with just a click of the fingers, pressing that cartoon glove will destroy half of the search results.

At the time of publication, there are some 95,200,000 results for the word Thanos. Pressing the button cuts those in half, and the search results shown on the page will break up and drift off just like characters did in the film.

All you need to do to make it happen is to search the word Thanos (or click this link) and press on the gauntlet that appears in the top right corner of the screen, next to his name. As soon as you do that, the gauntlet's power will be unleashed – and there is no way to stop it destroying half the results on that page.

Thankfully, refreshing the page or clicking the glove again will bring everything back to normal. (That isn't thought to be a clue to how easy fixing everything will be in Avengers: Endgame.)

Some fans may be fearful about searching the word for fear of seeing spoilers appear, but it seems to be safe for now. At the time of publication, the first article that showed up was about exactly this Easter egg, and the second and third were about Thanos's past and possible future.

Avengers: Endgame is out now and is already being heralded as "surely the most complex and emotional superhero movie in Marvel history" by The Independent's critic.