- Klimpt: "Does he speak Mandarin?"
- Murray: "No. He doesn't speak."
- ― Klimpt and Murray about Strong Boy
Strong Boy is a recurring character in TNT's Snowpiercer. He is portrayed by Kurt Ostlund.
History[]
Throughout The Series[]
Season 1[]
In First, the Weather Changed, he is one of the leaders of the failed revolution and holds Bess Till hostage.
In Prepare to Brace, he is put in the Drawers along with Pike and Z-Wreck.
In Justice Never Boarded, Strong Boy appears in a flashback, eating a piece of the heart of the Tailie Cannibalism Cult leader.
In These Are His Revolutions, Strong Boy is rescued from the drawers by The Last Australian, Miss Audrey and Henry Klimpt as Layton's revolution begins. Upon awakening, Strong Boy starts speaking in Mandarin to the shock of the Last Australian as he doesn't speak at all.
In The Train Demanded Blood, the Last Australian realizes that while Strong Boy's brains are scrambled, his personality and reflexes remain intact. The Last Australian leads Strong Boy and Z-Wreck towards the tail where they encounter Andre Layton and Roche struggling with Nolan Grey and the Jackboots. Strong Boy comes to Layton's rescue, beating Grey unconscious. Layton stops him from harming Grey further due to a lack of time and orders the group to take the unconscious Roche up train to safety.
In 994 Cars Long, Strong Boy enjoys the fruits of the rebellion and is amongst the force gathered to greet the people coming aboard from Big Alice.
Season 2[]
In The Time of Two Engines, after Layton holds a brief meeting in the Night Car, Z-Wreck and Strong Boy see Zarah and starting to attack her because she betrayed the Tail and exposed Josie. Zarah is forced to reveal her pregnancy with Layton to the train.
In Smolder to Life, Strong Boy is shown to slowly be regaining his ability to speak English, much to the delight of Murray who finds his progress encouraging.
In A Single Trade, Strong Boy is a part of a group of Tailies who ambush Boki in the Market in retaliation for the mutilation of Lights, although Boki denies being responsible for it.
In Our Answer for Everything, Astrid warns the Tailies that they need to get everyone back to the Tail and safety as tensions are starting to boil over following the murders of the Breachmen. However, Murray tells Strong Boy to stay behind as he stands out too much.
Season 3[]
In The Last to Go, Strong Boy is a member of the resistance under Ruth Wardell's command. He has also regained the ability to speak English completely, communicating in full sentences. Strong Boy helps Ruth, Pike and Lights attempt to disarm Wilford's EMP weapon, warning them that Jackboots and Kevin McMahon are coming. After Ruth sacrifices herself to buy them time, Strong Boy accidentally activates the weapon at full power while tearing it open. Unable to disarm it, the three throw the weapon off of the train with Strong Boy using his massive strength to do most of the work once the others open the door. The EMP detonation signals their location to the Pirate Train.
Later, Strong Boy kneels next to Pike as Wilford prepares to freeze Ruth's arm off in punishment. Before he can go through with it, the Pirate Train suddenly races up alongside on a parallel track and both the resistance and Wilford's forces begin heading for their battle stations.
In The First Blow, Strong Boy attacks the Jackboots to buy Pike time to get away. He is captured and tortured by Kevin McMahon, volunteering himself to protect his friends. Kevin begins freezing his fingers and smashing them off, trying to force Strong Boy to name his collaborators and eventually removing Strong Boy's tongue, sending freezing air into his mouth in the process.
Strong Boy is ultimately tortured to death by Kevin before Layton manages to retake the train. In order to be on the right side of history, LJ Folger kills Kevin for this crime. His body is later laid out in the Tail where his friends somberly pay tribute to Strong Boy's sacrifice. Seeing his friend's partially removed tongue, Pike covers his mouth with a sheet to hide this mutilation.
In Bound by One Track, Pike mentions that Strong Boy had died after Layton returned.
In Born to Bleed, Pike has a nightmare of Strong Boy attacking and strangling him.
Killed Victims[]
- 1 Jackboot (slashed by Strong Boy with a knife during the failed insurrection)
- 1 Jackboot (slashed with a knife and neck snapped by Strong Boy during the failed insurrection)
- 1 Jackboot (hand ripped off and slammed headfirst into a wall by Strong Boy during the failed insurrection)
Personality[]
Strong Boy mainly acts as the strong, silent muscle of Pike and the Tailies. He also appears to be especially violent in battle, holding Bess Till hostage and beating Nolan Grey badly before Layton stops him with his violent tendencies proving to be extremely useful at times. However, he doesn't seem to enjoy unnecessary violence, looking distressed while holding Till hostage with his hand visibly shaking before Layton got Strong Boy to release her, suggesting that Strong Boy didn't like doing it but felt that he had no other choice.
For an unknown reason, Strong Boy is initially mute with his sudden ability to speak after his rescue from The Drawers shocking Murray who had known Strong Boy for years. His restored ability to speak suggests that whatever the problem was may have been psychological rather than physical as the Drawers and the effects of the drugs used in them wouldn't have repaired a physical defect. Rather than reverting into a mute, Strong Boy slowly regains his ability to speak English, broken at first, but months later he is communicating in full sentences.
Despite being violent and mute, Strong Boy is not unintelligent, something that becomes clear after his rescue from the Drawers when he inexplicably regains the ability to talk. Despite his brains being scrambled by the Drawers, he retains his intelligence and personality which Murray quickly realizes despite Strong Boy's inexplicable ability to speak in Mandarin suddenly.
Strong Boy's courage is seen especially when he volunteers to be tortured to spare his fellow revolution prisoners and he refuses to break, ultimately costing Strong Boy his life. After his death, his friends line up to pay tribute to him, showing just how many people cared for Strong Boy and how much he meant to everyone.
Appearances[]
| Appearance | EP1 | EP2 | EP3 | EP4 | EP5 | EP6 | EP7 | EP8 | EP9 | EP10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | ✔ | ✔ | In Drawers | In Drawers and F | In Drawers | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| Season 2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||||
| Season 3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | M | H | |||||
| Season 4 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Appeared | Did Not Appeared | H = Hallucinations | ||||||||
| V = Voiced | M = Mentioned | F = Flashback | ||||||||
Trivia[]
- His real name and nationality are so far unknown.
- His character seems similar to Grey from the film.
- He has a train track tattoo on his back.
- He is also one of the strongest people on the Snowpiercer being able to tear off human limbs with only his hands as well as hold open the gate doors of the Bio-Security Car.
- The reason for his muteness is never explained, although it is most likely psychological rather than physical as The Drawers wouldn't have been able to fix a physical defect in a person. In addition, it is still unknown why he came out of the Drawers speaking Mandarin.
- As seen in The First Blow, while he can speak English fully again, he can also still speak Mandarin, calling a Jackboot a bastard (hundan) in that language.
- Due to his tongue partially being removed, Strong Boy effectively ended his tenure on Snowpiercer as the mute that he was when he started.