| abstract | - Encino Man is a 1992 comedy movie in which a caveman named Link (played by Brendan Fraser) goes from being frozen in a block of ice to being the most popular guy at Encino High, with help from Dave (Sean Astin) and his friend Stoney (Pauly Shore). This movie provides examples of:
* All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: Averted.
* Annoying Younger Sibling: Teena
* Asian and Nerdy: the lone Asian student to play a (minor) role is portrayed as an overenthusiastic geek, always trying to get more students to join the Computer Club.
* ... and he's played by a then-teenaged Jonathan Ke Quan.
* Berserk Button "Maybe Matt Wilson was right about you all along."
* Blooper: The scene where Link is driving and Dave is stuck on the window, in one brief shot you can clearly see Dave's Stunt Double.
* Broken Aesop
* Contemporary Caveman
* Death Glare: Link, when Matt punched the glass he was drawing on with mustard.
* Extreme Omnivore: Link will eat anything. Anything.
* Fridge Logic: Why was there a block of ice in the ground in California where it is warm most of the time? A block of ice that has to be frozen for millenia in California?
* Dave didn't understand why Link didn't hit Matt back. Stoney tells him it's because, like all cavemen, Link fought for food and survival, not for popularity. Though they may have fought for tribal leadership.
* Happily Married: Despite the Ice Age, Link and his wife loved each other very much.
* Harmless Freezing
* Heroic BSOD: Link freaks out at the museum. See Mood Whiplash below.
* Human Popsicle: Link
* Insistent Terminology: "Parallel parking is not a 'thing', alright? It's not a feeling, it's not a state-of-mind, it's not one of your personal disco records."
* Jerk Jock: Matt Wilson
* Little No: Link's first word.
* Makeover Montage: Dave and Stoney transform Link from a muddy, clay-caked naked wild man into a goofy-looking 90s teenager through the magic of a completely unnecessary and ineffectual haircut, a toothbrush, and lots and lots of soap. Link even wears a towel turban for part of the scene.
* Mood Whiplash: The museum field trip, where Link realizes what exactly has happened to him (and the presumed fate of his wife).
* Nubile Savage: Initially averted with both Link and his wife, who are dirty, have rotten teeth, and are clothed in lots of furs (they are living through an ice age). However, Link cleans up nice, and at the end, so does his wife.
* Ow, My Body Part
* Stranger in a Familiar Land
* Shout-Out: "I'll be back."
* Link drives like Julius.
* Surfer Dude: Stoney
* Those Two Guys
* The Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer
* The Voiceless: Link, for most of the movie. Though he does pick up some words, he only understands about half of what he says, so he communicates primarily through body language.
* Walk This Way: As the class heads to the museum, Stoney (exaggerately) mimics the way Matt Wilson's cohorts walk, while talking behind them.
* What Does She See in Him?: Robyn goes out with Matt at the star to the movie, which Dave just found out. He even says this. Soon she broke up with him due to his Jerkass-ness.
* Wild Hair: Link, obviously. Even though the boys give him a haircut.
* You Can't Go Home Again: Link, when he realizes his world, his old life, and his wife is gone. However, his wife has also been frozen in ice and is reunited with Link.
* You Suck: Dave and Stoney.
* Your Mom:
- The film opens during the first ice age where a caveman attempts to make fire with his girlfriend, however there is an earthquake that 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) who, along with his best friend Stanley "Stoney" Brown (Pauly Shore) strive to attain popularity in high school but come off more as rejects and outcasts. Dave is in love with Robyn (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 (Michael DeLuise) is a dim witted 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. They leave the ice block unattended in the garage and space heaters left on cause the ice to melt, releasing the caveman (Brendan Fraser) 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. Upon 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 bathing him and trimming him to look like an average teenager, Dave names him "Link" as in the missing link. Despite their intention to keep this a secret, the boys are about to change Link from a once living fossil to a cultured sophisticated man about town. They manage to fool Dave's family into thinking he is actually an Estonian exchange student sent to live with them, and enroll him in school where Link's bizarre behavior and supreme athletic skills shoot Dave and Stoney to popularity by association, allowing Dave to get closer to Robyn, to Matt's chagrin. It soon becomes apparent that Stoney's bizarre attitude is having an effect on Link's actions and speech, which causes a rift between Dave and Stoney and after a fight with Matt at a skating rink, as well as an attraction developing between Robyn and Link. Dave tries to send Link away, but a fight between him and Stoney cause Link to come running back. On prom night Link is a hit at the party with Robyn as his date while Dave stays in for the evening. Matt breaks into Dave's bedroom and steals photographic evidence that Link is a caveman, but his plan to uncover the "freak" backfires as the information instead makes Link even more popular. Dave and Robyn make up, and the three boys lead the entire prom in an impromptu caveman-like dance. After the prom, the students attend Dave's house for a pool party where Dave and Robyn kiss. Meanwhile, Stoney and Link follow clues similar to when they found him ranging from breast prints on the slider and paint covering the walls. They follow the muddy footprints to the bathroom and discover a beautiful cavewoman (Sandra Hess) in the bathtub who turns out to be Link's girlfriend from the beginning of the film. He joins her in the bathtub as Stoney cheers them on and embraces her happily.
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