[deanmine]

Fans who watched the whole way though may feel the need, as we do, to settle the science of skull crushing. Could the Mountain actually explode a human skull using just his hands?

There are two factors that need to be considered here; the strength of the Mountain and the force required to smash a human skull.

According to a NASA report an average male can exert around 90 kg (200 pounds) or 1000 Newtons of force in a static push. A boxer can deliver 5,000 newtons of force with a single punch but their hand travels really fast (and, if you recall, The Mountain was pressing down not punching).

Neither the Icelandic strongman, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, who plays the Mountain, nor George R.R. Martin’s fictional character are anything like the average white male. Björnsson is the second strongest man in the world.

He is nearly 7 feet tall, weighs 190 kg (419 pounds) and can lift 419 kg (925 pounds). I haven’t read the books but Lily Rothman from TIME who clearly has reported that the Mountain is 8 feet tall, 190 kg (420 pounds) “with massive shoulders and arms thick as the trucks of small trees.” We have to assume that The Mountain is going to have a much better chance at popping a skull than your average male.

So onto the second question: how much force required to crush a human skull?

Human bone is incredibly sturdy. It is stronger than steel and concrete of the same mass. The human skull encases the most important organ of the human body, the brain, and has evolved to be as strong as possible to withstand trauma.

Lenny Bernstein from the Washington Post spoke to neurosurgeon Tobias Mattei and reported that a skull fracture requires 500 kg of force. It would be possible for a man who weighed 500 kg (remember The Mountain only weighs 190 kg) to fracture a skull by stepping on it but, according to Mattei, it would be “impossible [for a man] to break [a skull] with his hands even if 90 percent of the 235 kg were biceps muscles.” Moreover, “It would be almost impossible … to ‘blow up’ the head’s top from inside… No explosion would be seen. The eyes of the victim would be pushed backward some few inches. That’s it.”

Cynthia Bir, a biomedical engineer at the University of Southern California, confirmed this assessment writing that “ there is no way to get the head to ‘explode’ by applying pressure from the eyes. You would need to create pressure inside the cranium. Even if you could generate pressure by squeezing the outside of the head, once the cranium is breached at the orifice where the eye nerves enter, this pressure would be greatly diminished."

Kyle Hill at the Slate asked the question about a similar stunt in the Star Trek movie. Quoting a bike-helmet study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, he wrote that 235 kg (520 pounds) or 2,300 newtons of force would be needed to crush a human skull, almost twice as much force as human hands could possibly muster.

You may recall from high school physics that Force = Mass x Acceleration, so something quite heavy has to be travelling very fast to generate enough force to crack a human skull. The Mountain might be able to lift 235 kg (520 pounds) but he probably couldn't channel that strength into his fingertips and exert enough force to crush a human head.
I’m calling it. In real life the Mountain could not break skulls like he did on TV. I’ll give HBO points for making it look believable.

But could a chimpanzee do any better? Chimpanzees are about 4 times stronger than humans and have been known to tear people’s faces off. Recent research even suggests that the evolution of large brains in humans was a trade-off for muscle strength.

And to wrap up, here's a little something to distract you from the painful knowledge of Tyrion’s imminent death:

[kellyhound]

yup impossible to do that with only using bare hands

[Kelseecat65]

You say Thornes, I say Thrones...

[Cabiacoco]

Still was awesome as hell

[commondenom]

was a great scene...if a little disappointing

[rapeWhistle]

Pffft, I suppose that those dragons are fake too...?

Didn't seem like he 'crushed' the skull in that scene, it was more like he gouged the eyes out with his thumbs then ripped the skull apart by pushing the thumbs outwards once they were in the ocular cavities... or maybe crushed the back of the skull with his body weight.

Still interesting to know how tough the skull really is though.

[Sharon]

Ha ha that video was cool.

Interesting read, thanks. We see the devastation to heads from firearms, injuries and road accidents - never from human hand crushing though.

[themissinglink]

He punched his head in, in the books that is!!

[Feirefiz]

What?! Tyrion's dead?!
.
.
.
That was the biggest spoiler ever, you bastard.