Missing Link (1988 film)

Plot

Set in Africa roughly one million years ago, the film depicts a time when Australopithecus robustus was being displaced by ancestors of modern humans, possibly Homo erectus, though they are never named and are only called "man." These humans have invented the ax and use fire. The story follows the last man-ape, played by Peter Elliott, after his tribe is killed by these humans. He travels through a savanna, an oasis, a desert, and finally a beach, witnessing wildlife and avoiding the humans. After eating a hallucinogenic plant, he realizes the stone ax he found is a weapon. At the ocean shore, he finds a human footprint, sniffs it, and begins hitting it with the ax, but then relents and throws the ax into the sea. The film ends with him sitting mournfully on the beach at sunset, and closing text states that the man-apes were likely the first species humanity pushed into extinction.