PRACTICALLY ALL OF E.T.
IN A FILM OVERFLOWING WITH HEART, WE COULDN’T PICK JUST ONE MOMENT
ELLIOTT’S FIRST KISS
To illustrate the idea that Elliott (Henry Thomas) increasingly feels E.T.’S feelings, Spielberg delivers a moment of low comedy combined with high romance. An increasingly sozzled E.T. watches John Ford’s The Quiet Man on TV. Just as John Wayne pulls Maureen O’hara into his arms for a passionate clinch, so Elliott, hopped up on Dutch courage by E.T.’S vicarious boozing, does the same with a class mate (Erika Eleniak, who later found fame in Baywatch)— only Elliott is standing on another kid to reach the taller girl’s lips. A simple idea beautifully executed.
PETER PAN
It’s one of E.T.’S most tender moments: E.T. eavesdropping on Mary (Dee Wallace) reading Gertie (Drew Barrymore) a bedtime story, Peter Pan (don’t forget Spielberg went on to make Hook), while simultaneously healing Elliott’s cut finger with his own glow-y digit. At a certain point in the script’s development, Melissa Mathison’s screenplay had E.T. develop a thing for Mary. But common sense prevailed and the scene both captures the charm and innocence of a child being read a bedtime story and the sense of an outsider finding solace in something three million light years from home.
RESURRECTION
E.T.’S resurrection is a thing of beauty, his comeback drip-fed in telling increments. As Elliott closes the chamber on his squat buddy, believing he is gone, we see — but he doesn’t — E.T.’S heartlight beginning to glow. Elliott wanders out, inconsolable, but catches sight of a dead flower flourishing, which keys him into E.T. being alive. Running back, he opens the body bag’s zipper, with E.T. babbling, “E.T. phone hooooome!” Elliott can hardly contain his joy. And neither can we.
INTO THE SUNSET
Elliott, E.T. in basket, flying his bicycle silhouetted by a full rich moon is one of
E.T.’S, not to mention cinema’s, most indelible images: it speaks to the power of imagination, the joy of flight and the delight in the unexpected. But it’s E.T.’S second bike ride that lifts the spirits and the heart, as it is deployed in a moment of narrative urgency: Elliott and the BMX gang facing a police blockade armed with guns. Seemingly lifted into the orange sunset sky by John Williams’ soaring theme, it’s an unforgettable punch-the-air moment.
RAINBOW’S END
After the heartbreak of E.T. and Elliott’s goodbye, the spaceship takes off into a twinkly sky. But as it jumps to light speed, the ship leaves a beautiful rainbow to lighten up the sky. Accompanied by a John Williams brass fanfare, it also brightens the story somehow, a portent suggesting that Elliott is going to be okay. Magical.