Encino Man
| Encino Man | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Les Mayfield |
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| Music by | J. Peter Robinson |
| Cinematography | Robert Brinkmann |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Buena Vista Distribution |
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Release date
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Running time
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88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7 million |
| Box office | $40.7 million |
Encino Man (known as California Man in Europe) is a 1992 comedy film directed by Les Mayfield and starring Brendan Fraser, Sean Astin and Pauly Shore. The plot revolves around two geeky teenagers from Encino, Los Angeles, California, played by Astin and Shore, who discover a caveman in Astin's backyard frozen in a block of ice. The caveman, played by Fraser, has to learn to live in the 20th century. Along the way, he teaches them about life. It was followed by a TV movie spin-off, Encino Woman, in 1996.
During the first ice age, a caveman (Brendan Fraser) attempts to make fire with his girlfriend (Sandra Hess). An earthquake causes a cave-in that buries the two of them.
This segues into a present-day Los Angeles earthquake that awakens average teenager Dave Morgan (Sean Astin). He, along with his best friend Stoney (Pauly Shore), strives to attain popularity in high school but comes off more as a reject and an outcast. Dave is in love with Robyn Sweeney (Megan Ward), a sweet and attractive girl who has been his best friend since grade school, and until she reached "babehood" had been rejected by Dave on several occasions. Her boyfriend Matt Wilson (Michael DeLuise) is a dimwitted jock and school bully who is constantly responsible for making both Dave and Stoney the objects of ridicule by embarrassing them in various ways, usually directly due to Dave's growing affections toward Robyn.
One day, as Dave is digging a pool in his back yard, he comes across a chunk of ice that has the body of a man in it following an earthquake. They leave the ice block unattended in the garage and space heaters left on cause the ice to melt, releasing the caveman from the opening of the film. The caveman falls head first into the 20th century, discovering a garbage truck which he misinterprets as a mammoth from his time, and television which he discovers upon entering Dave's house. When the boys return home, they find hand paint covering the walls and the house is in disarray. Investigating a beeping smoke alarm, they discover the caveman in Dave's bedroom, attempting to start a fire "Indian-style" by rotating a stick in the center of a pile of kindling. At first, the caveman panics at the sight of them, but then Stoney quickly calms him by using the flame of a lighter to mesmerize him after he panics from the phone ringing. After bathing him and trimming him to look like an average teenager, Dave names him "Link" as in the missing link.
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