Ah, the mysteries of the deep sea. There have been many a time when we found ourselves wading in the open water thinking, “What in the heck is happening just below our feet?”

We’ll be honest— mostly, we are doing our best to skirt imaginary sharks — which is completely reasonable, by the way! — but this habit also means that we don’t give much consideration to the other, often-overlooked swimmers.

Take the clever octopus, for instance. We’ve featured this stealthy cephalopod displaying some rather unlikely behaviors in the past—i.e. giving love to a swimmer and building a house out of a coconut—but the one that we are going to show you today blows the others right out of the water. (No pun intended!)

What we love about this particular video is that it so accurately illustrates how disconnected we land-dwellers are from sea life. The vast majority of us can’t routinely strap on a mask and explore the murky depths, so our perception of these animals is quite lacking.

Don’t believe us? OK, then we’ll ask you this question: did you know that a 600-pound octopus can contort its body so that it can fit through an opening the size of a keyhole?

It may sound like something from a bad science fiction novel, but it’s completely true. Creepy huh?!

The octopus contortionist

Today’s video features an octopus that is much smaller than its 600-pound brother from another mother. Just the same, it does a fine job of squeezing itself out of an impossibly small space.

This viral clip begins with a close-up of a beer bottle sitting on the bottom of the ocean. No, this isn’t an anti-littering campaign; it’s something a bit more unexpected.

Suddenly, we see something pop out of the top of the abandoned bottle. We suspect that it is just a clustering of air bubbling up towards the surface, but when we look closer, we see something more amazing…

Some sort of, well, THING is attempting to crawl out of the discarded cerveza can. And while we can’t confidently determine whether it’s an animal, mineral, or vegetable, we do know for certain that it is mesmerizing to watch.

Right when we’ve finally hit that mark when we can’t take the suspense any longer, the animal slowly but surely squeezes out of the lip and fully reveals itself—it’s an octopus!

The fact that it found a way to easily remove itself from the bottle is pretty mind-blowing, but as we mentioned above, it certainly is not unheard of. You see, this animal can technically make its way through any hole that is smaller than its beak—the rest is completely pliable. Amazing stuff!

Now that we’ve regaled you with the details of this incredible octopus’ escape, it’s time for you to see the rousing footage. Click on the video below to witness this Houdini-like magic trick for yourself. We did NOT see that coming!

We can’t wait to hear what you have to say about this octopus’ squeeze to freedom! Have you ever seen anything like this in person before? If so, how did you first come across the creature? What’s your all-time favorite sea animal?