Taglines: He is afraid. He is alone. He is three million light years from home.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial movie storyline. After a gentle alien becomes stranded on Earth, the being is discovered and befriended by a young boy named Elliott. Bringing the extraterrestrial into his suburban California house, Elliott introduces E.T., as the alien is dubbed, to his brother and his little sister, Gertie, and the children decide to keep its existence a secret. Soon, however, E.T. falls ill, resulting in government intervention and a dire situation for both Elliott and the alien.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction fantasy film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, and written by Melissa Mathison. It features special effects by Carlo Rambaldi and Dennis Muren, and stars Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote and Pat Welsh. It tells the story of Elliott (Thomas), a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed “E.T.”, who is stranded on Earth. He and his siblings help it return home while attempting to keep it hidden from their mother and the government.
The concept was based on an imaginary friend Spielberg created after his parents’ divorce in 1960. In 1980, Spielberg met Mathison and developed a new story from the stalled sci-fi horror film project Night Skies. It was shot from September to December 1981 in California on a budget of US$10.5 million. Unlike most motion pictures, it was shot in rough chronological order, to facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast.
Released on June 11, 1982 by Universal Pictures, E.T was an immediate blockbuster, surpassing Star Wars to become the highest-grossing film of all time—a record it held for eleven years until Jurassic Park, another Spielberg-directed film, surpassed it in 1993. It is the highest-grossing film of the 1980s.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, critics acclaimed it as a timeless story of friendship, and it ranks as the greatest science fiction film ever made in a Rotten Tomatoes survey. In 1994, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote, Dee Wallace, Sean Frye, Erika Eleniak, David M. O’Dell, Richard Swingler
Screenplay by: Melissa Mathison
Production Design by: James D. Bissell
Cinematography by: Allen Daviau
Film Editing by: Carol Littleton
Set Decoration by: Jackie Carr
Music by: John Williams
MPAA Rating: PG for language and mild thematic elements.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: June 11, 1982
Visits: 87
