Hafthór Júlíus Björnsson is the internet’s favorite strongman thanks to his time as The Mountain That Rides on HBO’s Game of Thrones. On the show, he lops horse heads off with a single sword stroke and crushes heads like melons with his ham-sized hands. In real life, he claims Europe’s Strongest Man titles, competes in arm wrestling tournaments and, now, plays tug of war with massive Caterpillar tractors.
Okay, this isn’t real life. It’s all part of Caterpillar’s big #BuiltForIt ad campaign and spoiler alert: Hafthór wins due to the optimistic determination of a child and the Cat driver letting off on the gas. What, you thought Caterpillar was going to pay for a commercial where their tractor gets out-torqued by a human? Even an entire village of Icelandic super humans?
As heartwarming as this was, they could have shown the true power of their vehicles by having everyone’s arms simultaneously rip from their bodies in a massive orgy of blood and screaming. That’s how George R.R. Martin would have written it. The Red Tractor Pull, they’d call it. Or in Iceland, the Blóðugrauttdráttarvélarmurdag.
If you want a behind-the-scenes look on how they put this video together (more spoilers: it’s less impressive than Volvo’s Jean Claude Van Damme splits behind the scene video), check it out below:
