E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (often referred to simply as E.T.) is a 1982 American science fiction-family film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison, featuring special effects by Carlo Rambaldi and Dennis Muren, and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore and Peter Coyote. 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 for the film 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 science fiction/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 roughly chronological order, to facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast.
Released on June 11, 1982 by Universal Pictures, E.T. was a blockbuster, surpassing Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 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 remains the 50th highest-grossing film of all time, and the highest-grossing film of the 1980s. 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. It was re-released in 1985, and then again in 2002 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, with altered shots and additional scenes.
Cast[]
- Dee Wallace as Mary Taylor, a single mother to Elliott, Michael and Gertie
- Henry Thomas as Elliott Taylor,[1][2] a 10-year-old boy who befriends E.T.
- Peter Coyote as Keys, a government agent bent on capturing E.T.
- Robert MacNaughton as Michael Taylor, Elliott and Gertie's older brother
- Drew Barrymore as Gertie Taylor, Elliott and Michael's younger sister
- K.C. Martel as Greg
- C. Thomas Howell as Tyler
- Sean Frye as Steve
- Erika Eleniak as Pretty Girl
- David O'Dell as Schoolboy
- Richard Swingler as Science Teacher
- Frank Toth as Policeman
- Robert Barton as Ultra Sound Man
- Michael Darrell as Van Man
- Matt Clark as Lock
Uncredited[]
- Corey Burton - Doctor, Man in Tube, Wire-tapped Neighbor
- Anne Lockhart as the voice of Nurse
- Rob Paulsen
- Pat Welsh, Steven Spielberg, and Kayden Green as E.T. (voiceover)
Gallery[]
- ↑ "E.T. Is Thirty Years Old This Year - What Happened To The Extra-Terrestrial's Cast?", Huffington Post (20 October 2012).
- ↑ "20 movies from the 1980s that deserve a reboot", Cleveland.com (19 September 2019).