Iza trains Ayla as a medicine woman 'of her line', the most prestigious line of medicine women out of all of the Clans. She is self-willed and spirited, but tries hard to fit in with the Neanderthals, although she has to learn everything first-hand she does not possess the ancestral memories of the Clan which enable them to do certain tasks after being shown only once. After traveling with them for a while and starting to heal, Ayla wanders away from the group when they stop to discuss what they should do and she discovers a huge, beautiful cave, perfect for their needs many of the people begin to regard Ayla as lucky, especially since good fortune continues to come their way as they begin to accept her in the fold.Īyla's different thought processes lead her to break important Clan customs, particularly the taboo against females handling weapons. He cites the cave lion attack the girl experienced shortly before being discovered as proof that its spirit marked her so that she could be adopted into the Clan. Through meditation, Iza's brother, Creb (the group's shaman), comes to believe that the child may be protected by the spirit of the cave lion, a powerful 'totem' that is never given to a woman and very few men. The Clan calls her 'Ayla', the closest they can come to pronouncing her birth name.

Brun refuses to accept Ayla when Iza adopts her, only allowing her to stay with the Clan because Iza refuses to abandon her. She is rescued by Iza ( Pamela Reed), the healer of a group of Neanderthals who call themselves 'The Clan', against the orders for her to be left to die by the clan's chief, Brun (John Doolittle), because she is clearly a member of 'the Others', the distrusted antagonists of the Clan. After suffering from starvation, exhaustion, and infection of her wounds, she collapses, on the verge of death. Suffers a severe injury to her legs from a nearby cave lion. Waites).ĭialogue is conducted mostly through a form of sign language which is translated for the audience with subtitles.Īfter losing her mother in an earthquake in Paleolithic Europe, 5-year-old Cro-Magnon Ayla (Emma Floria) is left alone in the woods. As the years go by, her own intelligence causes disaster for the entire tribe, especially its future chief, Broud ( Thomas G. She is found by a group of Neanderthals and raised as one of their own. Waites.īased on the novel of the same name, a young Cro-Magnon woman named Ayla ( Daryl Hannah) is separated from her family and orphaned during an earthquake. The film stars Daryl Hannah, Pamela Reed, James Remar, and Thomas G. The Clan of the Cave Bear is a 1986 American adventure film directed by Michael Chapman and based on the book of the same name by Jean M.

Clan of the cave bear order