E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
A boy and his alien friend change cinema forever.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fantasy film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. The story centers on Elliott, a ten-year-old boy who discovers and befriends a gentle alien left behind by its visiting group in a California forest. Elliott names the creature E.T. and, with the help of his older brother Michael and younger sister Gertie, hides him from their single mother, Mary. The alien displays telekinetic abilities, shares an emotional and physical bond with Elliott, and learns to speak English. Inspired by a comic strip, E.T. builds a makeshift communication device to signal his home world. On Halloween, Elliott helps him set up the device in the forest. E.T. grows weak, and Elliott falls ill in sympathy. Government agents, led by a man named Keys, quarantine the house. E.T. appears to die but is revived when his people return. Elliott and Michael flee with E.T. on bicycles, and E.T. uses his powers to lift them past a roadblock. After a heartfelt farewell, E.T. boards his ship and departs, leaving a rainbow in the sky. The film was shot in rough chronological order to help the young cast deliver convincing emotions, and its animatronic creature was designed by Carlo Rambaldi. Premiering at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, it became a massive box office success, surpassing *Star Wars* to become the highest-grossing film at the time, a record it held for eleven years. It received nine Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Original Score, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing. The film is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential ever made, and was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry in 1994.
- director
- Steven Spielberg
- writer
- Melissa Mathison
- genre
- Science fantasy
- academy_awards_won
- 4
Lore & Background
E.T. is a short, stout extraterrestrial with a long, wrinkled neck, a bulbous head, and large, expressive eyes. His skin is a mottled brown, and his fingers glow with a soft, warm light. He communicates through a limited English vocabulary and telepathic connection, sharing emotions and physical sensations with the boy Elliott. His home world is represented by a planetary system he levitates, and he demonstrates telekinesis, the ability to revive dead plant life, and instantaneous healing. Stranded alone on Earth after his fellow aliens departed, he takes shelter in a family shed in a California forest. The creature is gentle, curious, and deeply homesick, building a makeshift communication device from household items to "phone home." He is also vulnerable, growing pale and weak when separated from his ship and his kind. His defining characteristic is his profound, empathetic bond with Elliott, which allows them to share thoughts and feelings, and his ultimate act of levitating the boys on their bicycles to safety before his rescue.
Reader's Guide
The film’s concept originated from an imaginary friend Spielberg created after his parents’ divorce. After meeting writer Melissa Mathison in 1980, they developed the story from an unrealized project called *Night Skies*. Mathison wrote the first draft, titled *E.T. and Me*, in under two months, followed by two rewrites. Columbia Pictures rejected the project due to doubts about its commercial potential, but Universal Pictures purchased the script for $1 million. Filming occurred from September to December 1981 on a $10.5 million budget. Unusually, the movie was shot in rough chronological order to help the young actors deliver convincing emotional performances. Carlo Rambaldi designed the animatronic creature. The film premiered as the closing film of the Cannes Film Festival on May 26, 1982, and was released in the United States on June 11. It became a box office smash, surpassing *Star Wars* (1977) as the highest-grossing film ever, a record it held for eleven years until Spielberg’s own *Jurassic Park* (1993). The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1994 for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” It was re-released in 1985, in 2002 with altered shots and additional scenes for its 20th anniversary, and in IMAX on August 12, 2022, for its 40th anniversary.
Did You Know?
- The film was shot in rough chronological order to facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast.
- Columbia Pictures rejected the script, believing it had limited commercial potential and would appeal mostly to young children.
- The animatronics for E.T. were designed by Carlo Rambaldi, who also designed aliens for Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
- E.T. surpassed Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a record it held for eleven years.
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