Summary

• Prehistoric movies often portray prehistoric life with a comedic slant and focus on sensational aspects like encounters with dinosaurs.
• These movies offer valuable commentary on present-day issues and pop culture, exploring human evolution and the significant strides humanity has made over time.
• Despite vast changes in environment and technology, many human concerns and behaviors remain constant through the ages, as these films demonstrate.

There are many great movies set in prehistoric times, all exploring fascinating elements from the early days of human evolution to the first early men. However, movies may not be the best source for accurate portrayals of prehistoric times. On-screen, prehistoric life is often depicted with a comedic slant. Some even choose to focus on sensational aspects like encounters with dinosaurs, as seen in One Million Years B.C., despite these creatures having been extinct long before the first humans.

These prehistoric settings often offer valuable commentary on present-day issues and pop culture. For instance, Early Man uses Bronze Age antics to mirror the historical underachievement of the English national football team. Stanley Kubrick's fantastic epic 2001: A Space Odyssey explores human evolution and the significant strides humanity has made over time by contrasting the tools of prehistoric apes to human achievements in space. These films and others prove that despite humanity's vast changes in environment and technology, many human concerns and behaviors remain constant through the ages.

10 Clan of the Cave Bear (1986)

Director: Michael Chapman

The Clan of the Cave Bear is a film that explores the dawn of humanity, paralleling modern issues, such as modern patriarchal structures, with the struggles of prehistoric life. The film follows a young Cro-Magnon, Ayla, orphaned and injured, who is reluctantly adopted by a Neanderthal tribe. Struggling with cultural differences and facing hardships, she defies norms, becomes a skilled healer and hunter, and eventually leaves the tribe, searching for her own people with her son. Unfortunately, The Clan of the Cave Bear fails to authentically portray the harsh realities of the period, too heavily leaning on a modern lens.

Stream on Apple TV.

9 Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey (2016)

Director: Terrence Malick

Terrence Malick's Voyage of Time is a 2016 documentary and a visual exploration of the universe's creation. Available in two versions, a 90-minute cut narrated by Cate Blanchett and a shorter IMAX version with Brad Pitt, it aims to chronicle the Earth's scientific history. Malick's film, devoid of actors and minimal human presence, presents a stunning array of images from cosmic vistas to microscopic details, blending natural footage and CGI. However, the film is more of an abstract, aesthetic experience than an educational documentary.

Stream on Amazon Prime Video.

8 The Good Dinosaur (2015)

Director: Peter Sohn

The Good Dinosaur is set in an alternate world where dinosaurs never go extinct and coexist with humans, following a dinosaur family running a farm and a young apatosaurus, Arlo, who befriends a human. The Good Dinosaur is a love letter to Hollywood's Golden Age, aiming to capture the expansive landscapes and a frontier spirit prevalent in many classic Westerns. Despite some visually stunning scenes, the film struggles with a lack of originality, borrowing elements from classic tales like The Jungle Book and The Lion King.

Stream on Disney+.

7 Quest for Fire (1981)

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

Jean-Jacques Annaud's Quest for Fire is a timeless epic. This historical drama revolves around three Cro-Magnon tribe on a cross-country journey to find fire after theirs is extinguished. The film focuses on one of the most pivotal moments in human civilization, the quest to control fire. Impressively, Quest for Fire involves an invented primitive language created by novelist Anthony Burgess. Quest for Fire is one of Jean-Jacques Annaud's best movies. It won Best Picture at the Cesar Awards, 's equivalent of the Oscars, and also secured an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Makeup.

Stream on Amazon Prime Video.

6 Iceman (2017)

Director: Felix Randau

Felix Randau's drama Iceman imaginatively reconstructs the life and death of a 5,000-year-old man found in the Austrian Alps, preserved in ice. It follows the iceman, played by Jürgen Vogel, who, after finding his settlement devastated by marauders, embarks on a revenge quest with a newborn infant and a nanny goat. The film does a great job portraying the brutality of the environment, the world, and the act of revenge. It's akin to a revenge western set in prehistoric times. Impressively, the film has a small amount of dialogue in a reconstructed Rhaetian language, developed specifically for the movie by a linguist.

Stream on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.

5 Early Man (2018)

Director: Nick Park

Early Man, an animation by Aardman Animations, brings comedy to prehistoric times. The film playfully imagines a clash between simple hunter-gatherers and advanced Bronze Age humans, with soccer replacing warfare. Set near Manchester, the film's protagonist, Dug, and his tribe face displacement by the bronze-loving Lord Nooth. Using soccer as their battleground, Dug and his friends challenge Nooth's team to save their valley. The film is full of clever gags and slapstick moments, and in a humorous tribute, Early Man's post-credit scene pays homage to One Million Years B.C.

Stream on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.

4 Ice Age (2002)

Director: Chris Wedge

Ice Age is a family-friendly animated film from 2002. Set during a great ice age, the story follows a woolly mammoth, a sabertooth tiger, and a sloth who team up to return a human baby to its parents. Traveling across the prehistoric frozen landscape, the unexpected journey fosters a unique friendship among the unlikely gang. Ice Age features impressive animation, humor, and a touching story about unlikely bonds. Notably, a subplot involving a squirrel's acorn struggles adds even more delightful humor to the film.

Stream on Disney+.

3 Three Ages (1923)

Directors: Edward F. Cline and Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton's 1923 film Three Ages was his first full-length feature as writer, producer, director, and star. The film, a parody of D.W. Griffith's Intolerance, cleverly interweaves three stories set in different historical eras, with Keaton competing against Wallace Beery for the same girl, Margaret Leahy. Notable for its inventive pseudo-historical details and daring stunts, Three Ages was well-received for its humor and creativity. The film includes standout, absurd gags like a caveman using a rock as a baseball or a sled pulled by dogs in a chariot race.

Stream on Amazon Prime Video.

2 One Million Years B.C. (1966)

Director: Don Chaffey

The 1966 film One Million Years B.C., a remake of the 1940 movie, completely disregards the 65-million-year separation and brings dinosaurs and humans together. It follows Tumak and Loana, played by John Richardson and Hollywood star Raquel Welch, through their journey in a prehistoric world. The film features Ray Harryhausen’s renowned stop-motion dinosaurs, with one of the film's most famous and iconic scenes being a fight between a Ceratosaurus and a Triceratops. Moreover, Welch’s iconic fur bikini became a symbol of the era.

Stream on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.

1 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the most famous movies of all time, is a visually stunning and prophetic masterpiece exploring space travel and human evolution. The film combines prehistoric life with space, notably in Kubrick's 25-minute opening segment in 2001, where apes, driven from their watering hole by rivals, encounter a monolith. This segment culminates in cinema's most famous cut: a bone transforming into a spaceship, brilliantly leaping millions of years in a single shot and symbolizing the dawn of humanity.

Stream on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.