sddavis63 If you can set aside the scientific implausibilities (or impossibilities) that abound in this movie, you can appreciate it from a number of angles. I first saw it many years ago and just watched it again - and still found it touching and relevant. Timothy Hutton starred as Sheppard - part of a scientific team in the Arctic who discover something frozen in the Arctic ice, and eventually discover that it's a Neanderthal who was somehow trapped there perhaps 40000 years ago. Intending to thaw him out and cut him up and ship various parts of his body around the world for study, the team is shocked when the Iceman comes to life. Played superbly by John Lone, the Iceman is alone, afraid and bewildered by the strange surroundings in which he finds himself, and the team basically continues to see him as a science project for lack of a better way to describe it - a specimen to be studied. But Sheppard sees him as a man and tries to understand him, communicate with him and befriend him. The interaction between the two came across as authentic, and the bond between them was believable. The viewer bonds with the Iceman too - or, if you don't, there's something wrong with you. The viewer starts to see him as a person; starts to sympathize with his plight. This is definitely a movie that pulls you in successfully.It's also a movie that - while dated in many ways - does have a strange relevance to today's world. We're not likely to ever find a frozen Neanderthal and bring him back to life. Even Otzi the Iceman (who was frozen in ice only 5000 years ago is most definitely dead and not coming back.) But there are scientists who think they can bring back extinct species like mammoths, and some speculation that eventually someone might try to bring back a Neanderthal (notwithstanding that most of us aside from Africans already have Neanderthal DNA in our bodies.) Watching this movie and thinking about that possibility - I started to wonder. Should we? Even if we could? What sort of life would we give to the poor creature? Would we treat it as a human, or would we treat it as a lab rat, subjecting it to never ending experiments and tests and studies? Would we be Sheppard - or would we be everybody else? I suspect I know the answer to that.Maybe it's best to leave the Neanderthals where they are - buried deep in our own DNA. (7/10)

tavm After the last 34 years of only knowing about this movie and its premise, I finally watched this on YouTube just now. Timothy Hutton is among a group of scientists who discover a man from thousands of years ago being preserved in ice. Once he is thawed, Hutton argues with his teammates over the best course of action: should they experiment on him or try to get to know him socially. Hutton chooses the latter and he and John Lone as this Neanderthal man have quite a humorous and touching give-and-take in communicating with each other, Lone by mainly dong many grunts and hand gestures. I was pleasantly surprised one of the scientists was played by the same person who was Principal Strickland in the Back to the Future movies! I really enjoyed this film including the way it ended. So on that note, I highly recommend Iceman.

juneebuggy I can't believe there hasn't been more said about this movie over the years, its seriously underrated, just an excellent movie. Released in 1984 except for the clothes and possibly Timothy Hutton's hair Iceman stands up perfectly fine today, I never once thought that's cheesy (as you do with 80's movies.Hutton plays a scientist who is part of an arctic exploration team that discover and revive a 10,000 yr. old prehistoric hunter. The opening scenes where they thaw Iceman out are excellent, very exciting and done in a way that's plausible for the sake of the story. There is a bit too much time spent on the whole male bonding & language issue but I think the real reason this is so good is the Oscar worthy performance from John Lone as the Iceman. Wow, just amazing. The mannerisms and amount of research that must have gone into how this Neanderthal man would act and interact in his environment and with people. I enjoyed the story here too as Hutton wants to protect "Charlie" and the scientists want to study/dissect him. It was interesting watching Charlie become aware that he was actually in captivity. Sigh the ending. 7/26/14

dallasryan This is what I love about Movies back in the 80's and 90's, and really just older movies in general, you can see the difference. The difference is they didn't have the technology to make what they do today, which in actuality is usually too much! Therefore though, that's what people like, so that's what you get nowadays, tons of special effects with the same type of action, CGI, with little or no story. The older movies had better stories and were more clever about their action and special effects, and actually I preferred the not so fancy special effects, in my opinion, it kind of ruins a movie nowadays it seems because it's just too much CGI and too much action. So with Iceman, this is a very thought driven movie. Lot's of crazy ideas/concepts being thrown out there. I'm not sure how John Lone didn't get nominated for any kind of awards here(I mean he's even academy award nomination worthy here as his portrayal as the Neandrathal Man).It's truly a brilliant performance by Lone, and probably one of the best portrayals I've ever watched in a film of an actor playing a Neandrathal Man. Iceman is really worth a look just for John Lone's performance, it's a brilliant performance to watch. John Lone is an excellent actor, you won't even be able to believe that this is the same guy/actor from The Last Emperor.