Also Known As:
Also known as: Big Foot, Yeti: The Giant Of The 20th Century
Plot:
When a block of ice washes up off the coast of Newfoundland, a brilliant scientist (John Stacy) and the grandchildren of a wealthy, badly dubbed industrialist (Eddie Faye) are delighted to discover that it contains the frozen body of a giant ape-man. Although it looks like an oversized hippie in an unfinished ape suit, Stacy informs all who will listen that it's actually a yeti (or, to Americans, Bigfoot). To bring the yeti back to life, Stacy hoists it into the air with a helicopter. When the plan goes predictably awry, the yeti angrily forces the helicopter down. After kidnapping Faye's grandchildren—comely Phoenix Grant and mute Jim Sullivan—the yeti decides to be cool, not act so uptight, and let Stacy take him to Toronto.
Key scenes:
As a sign that he's bonded with his kidnap victims, the yeti signals for Grant to comb his hair with the bone of a giant fish. Having apparently dated many men who've liked to have their hair fish-combed, Grant huffs, "Men, they're all the same." Later, when the yeti shows up in Toronto, he's greeted with a confusing display of enthusiasm, including footage from a parade that appears to have nothing to do with his arrival, and of a screaming crowd of people inexplicably wearing Toronto Blue Jays caps. When his handlers' decision to let him loose on the top of a skyscraper proves ill-considered, the yeti terrorizes his new hometown with a frightening rampage of rear-projection window-smashing and slow-motion attacks on model buildings. He also displays his power to heal Sullivan's mortally injured dog with his saliva, and to change size from shot to shot.
Can easily be distinguished by:
Apart from a score that borrows liberally from Carmina Burana while adding Yeti-specific lyrics, Frank Kramer's directorial signature is his frequent, creepy use of shots of the pint-sized Sullivan as seen through the yeti's hairy legs.
Sign that it was made in 1977:
Sullivan's little-boy-in-a-bow-tie look may have been a short-lived '70s fashion statement, or it might just suggest he's a twerp.
Timeless message:
Tampering with the forces of nature seldom works out well. Also, yetis are better left frozen.
Memorable quotes:
Grant may edge out Chief Seattle as environmentalists' bumper-sticker-motto generator of choice, thanks to her eloquent farewell to her yeti friend: "This world is not for you. Go back to the wilderness, to the mountains, where life is like you knew it."
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