The age of the iceman in the film was forty thousand years. Seven years after this film was released, a real "iceman" was discovered in the Ötztal Alps in 1991. Named 'Ötzi the Iceman', the real-life iceman had pollen found in his stomach just like the iceman in this film.
This movie was part of a 1980s cycle of prehistoric man movies. The films included: Altered States (1980), Caveman (1981), La guerre du feu (1981), Cavegirl (1985), Luggage of the Gods! (1983), Hundra (1983), Iceman (1984), Ghost Warrior (1984), The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) and Missing Link (1988).
The name for the type of environmentally-controlled enclosure, in which the iceman lived, is a "Vivarium". They are usually used for doing research on animals or plants.
One of the film's main movie posters had a long preamble that read: "HE'S 40,000 YEARS OLD. Deep within an Arctic glacier they found him, preserved by a miracle of nature, brought back to life by a miracle of science. Now medical science wants to exploit him in the name of research. One man wants to stop them...in the name of humanity. But he'll need more than a miracle to survive...he'll need a friend".
The film opens and ends with a title card quotation from an Inuit Legend that reads: "I, who was born to die shall live. That the world of animals, and the world of men may come together, I shall live."