Adaptation Displacement: The film is much more well-known than the book in the English-speaking world.
Fair for Its Day: Paleolithic hunter-gatherers are called "savage" in the novel but are still portrayed much more complexly and humanly than most depictions at the time.
Fetish Retardant: The infamous sex scenes in the film are more cringe-inducing than sexy. Which, to be fair, is realistic given that the characters are primitive, apelike cavemen. Ron Perlman summed it up pretty well; "There's not a lot of foreplay, it's just (*obscene grunting*)."
Moe: Ika is a petite woman with big soulful eyes, a high voice and a generally cheerful and carefree nature which makes her pretty adorable, next to all the rough cavemen she interacts with.
Special Effects Failure: The mammoths have not aged well. They are very obviously elephants in costume and their much smaller real tusks are visible in some shots.
Vindicated by History: Profitable but unspectacular upon release, Quest for Fire has become probably the most well-respected and acclaimed film in the prehistoric genre, although its historical accuracy still leaves a lot to be desired.
The Woobie: Poor Ika gets put through so much by the end, you kind of want to wrap her in a blanket. First, she and her mate get captured by cannibals, who eat his arm. They are freed, only for the male to die of his injuries. She gains the trust of three primitive men who give her protection, but use her for sex then abandon her when she wants to go home. When she returns home, we see that she is something of a social outcast who is abused for not conforming to her tribe's narrow (or rather thick) beauty standards, in particular, loudly rebuked for trying to initiate sex with Noah. At least she is able to take charge of her situation and earn her happy ending, but still.
