A prehistoric man is discovered encased in Arctic ice, and taken to Arctic Science Headquarters, where Dr. Diane Brady readies her team to take the body apart for scientific study. But monitors detect cell metabolism and brain function. The iceman is alive. Cryoprotectants in his diet are credited for defending his cells from collapse when frozen. While doctors Brady and Singe want to mine his body for clues to life extension, anthropologist Stanley Shephard argues that the iceman is not a specimen, but a man, and that more may be learned from his spirit than his flesh. He pleads for two weeks to prove the value of studying his nature rather than his anatomy.
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The iceman awakens from sedation in the facility's glass-domed biosphere. Unaware that he is being observed in his little world of greenery and wildlife, he forages, kindles a fire, whittles weapons, and hunts. In time, Shephard descends into this world and approaches the iceman, winning his trust. Shephard interprets his name as "Charlie." A linguist observes unseen to try to decipher Charlie's considerable vocabulary. When Shephard sings by the bonfire, Charlie "sings" along.
But their bond is threatened. Intermittently, Charlie is put under for biopsies in the quest for the elusive cryoprotectant. Revived and returned to nature, he points angrily to his hurt torso, suspicious of Shephard. Shephard explains to Brady that this is alienating Charlie, and persuades her to come down to the iceman's world and meet him face to face. Her trepidation melts to sympathy after Charlie offers her a beetle for lunch and makes stick drawings of his family. But a helicopter flies over the dome and terrifies him. Believing it to be a bird-messenger from the gods, sent to judge him, he withdraws into hours of chanting. His trauma deepens when he touches the button that slides open the biosphere's door, and he walks alone into the alien high-tech world of photocopiers, light switches, intercoms, and forklifts. In panic, he stabs a man and escapes into a dreamwalk in the snow. Shephard realizes now that Charlie's future is limited to either terror at reality, or captivity and exploitation; and he is forced to redefine what is best for him.
The review of this Movie prepared by vjm
