I saw this again after many years, and was not disappointed. It's a well written, thoughtful SF film that doesn't insult the viewer's intelligence. John Lone is very moving as the bewildered hunter who is discovered by scientists. Timothy Hutton is credible as Shepherd, the compassionate scientist who connects with the Neanderthal, who he calls "Charlie". The film's portrayal of Charlie as a human being with a deeply spiritual side is strangely prescient, especially in light of recent discoveries about our own Neanderthal DNA. The scene where Shepherd and Charlie try to sing Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" is memorable and fun. This is a quietly effective film with a subtle message that doesn't beat you over the head with it.

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

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.

It's hard to judge some of these old 1980s movies due to the fact they tend to age badly. But then again, Iceman is still pretty decent after all of these years. While the story isn't terribly exciting, it is more or less a morality tale, a movie that more or less tells us to stay the heck out of nature's business.Timothy Hutton had a pretty good little streak with this movie and Turk 182!, but like all movies from the 1980s, you either still enjoy them or you're completely embarrassed you ever watched them. I did like parts of he ending, but the last five minutes of the movie was the only reason why this movie didn't get a higher grade. When you think about it, this film also had a pretty solid cast.