Trivia for
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) More at IMDbPro »

• At the auditions, Henry Thomas thought about the day his dog died to express sadness. Director Steven Spielberg cried, and hired him on the spot.
  
  
• Harrison Ford played the school principal, but his only scene was cut as Steven Spielberg considered his presence would be too distracting. Ford's wife Melissa Mathison wrote the screenplay.
  
  
• ET's face was modeled after poet Carl Sandburg, Albert Einstein and a pug dog.
  
  
• ET's communicator actually worked, and was constructed by Henry Feinberg, an expert in science and technology interpretation for the public.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg shot most of the film from the eye-level of a child to further connect with Elliot and E.T.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg shot the film in chronological order to invoke a real response from the actors (mainly the children) when E.T. departed at the end. All emotional responses from that last scene are real.
  
  
• In the Halloween scene, when a child dressed as Yoda from Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) walks by and catches E.T.'s eye, a snatch of composer John Williams' Yoda theme is heard.
  
  
• The extraterrestrial's plant collection includes a triffid (from The Day of the Triffids (1962)).
  
  
• When E.T. watches John Ford's The Quiet Man (1952) on the family TV, composer John Williams quotes a few bars from the Victor Young score as John Wayne embraces Maureen O'Hara.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg personally screened his film at the White House for Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis.
  
  
• When the film was released on video in the U.S., the cassette was made from green plastic as a measure to confound video pirates.
  
  
• When it was test-screened at the Cannes Film Festival as an unofficial entry, it brought the house down, receiving a standing ovation that had eluded most of the official entries.
  
  
• E.T. riding in the basket on Elliot's bicycle flying in front of the moon has become the trademark image of Amblin Entertainment.
  
  
• The late Michael Jackson owned one of the E.T. puppets.
  
  
• One of the movie clips E.T. watches on TV is from This Island Earth (1955).
  
  
• The script was written on the location of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) during filming breaks. Steven Spielberg dictated the story to Melissa Mathison because she was a screenwriter and because she was there to be with her husband at the time, Harrison Ford.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg is reported to have spent $100,000 digitally removing guns from the 2002 20th Anniversary re-release of the movie. He regretted using the scene and said he would remove it if he ever re-issued the film.
  
  
• Besides Yoda appearing in the Halloween scene, various Star Wars toys appear in Elliot's room. Star Wars creator George Lucas returns the favor by adding E.T.s in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).
  
  
• Almost 10% of the surprisingly low $10.5 million budget went on the alien creature puppets and related animatronics.
  
  
• Elliot's last name is never mentioned.
  
  
• With the exception of Elliot's mom, no adults' faces are shown until the last half of the film.
  
  
• Peter Coyote's character's (Keys) real name is never revealed.
  
  
• This script was being developed at Columbia at the same time as another script about an alien visitation. The studio did not want to make both, so the head of the studio had to choose which film to make; he decided to let ET go and make Starman (1984).
  
  
• The song sung by Michael (Elliott's brother) when he is looking in the fridge is "Accidents Will Happen" by Elvis Costello.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg stated in an interview that E.T. was a plant-like creature, and neither male or female.
  
  
• Debra Winger not only provided the temp voice for E.T. but also played one of the ghouls in the Halloween sequence. She is wearing a monster mask and a lab coat and carries a poodle.
  
  
• Was voted the 20th Greatest Film of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
  
  
• The gag where the mother looks in the closet and sees the alien surrounded by toys was dreamed up by Robert Zemeckis.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg's original concept was for a much darker movie in which a family was terrorized in their house by aliens. When Spielberg decided to go with a more benevolent alien, the family-in-jeopardy concept was recycled as Poltergeist (1982).
  
  
• At the 20th anniversary re-release premier, John Williams conducted a live orchestra as the film played, much like an orchestra would do for a stage musical.
  
  
• James Taylor wrote a song intended for use in the movie called "Song For You". The song was ultimately not used in the movie. However, it was eventually recorded in the mid 1980's for release on his 'That's Why I'm Here' album.
  
  
• Was the highest-grossing movie of all time until Star Wars (1977) was re-released in 1997.
  
  
• Voted number 1 in channel 4's (UK) "Greatest Family Films"
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Steven Spielberg] [music] The music is composed by John Williams.
  
  
• Though many have suggested that the film contains elements of Christian allegory, director Steven Spielberg says any parallels are strictly coincidental. Furthermore, Spielberg adds that if he ever made a Christian allegory, his mother, a devout Jew would probably never forgive him.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Steven Spielberg] [father] Elliot's father deserts the family to go to Mexico with Sally.
  
  
• The role of Mary, the children's mother, was first offered to Shelley Long but she had already signed to film Night Shift (1982) and was forced to decline.
  
  
• Foley Artist John Roesch said he used a wet T-shirt crammed with jello to simulate the noise of E.T.'s waddling walk.
  
  
• Michael Jackson recorded the theme song "Someone in the Dark". It was never used, but can be heard on the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Story Book Album, narrated by Jackson. This boxed set included an LP, a book to read along with it and a poster of E.T. and Jackson. It was produced by Quincy Jones. In fact, release of the ET album delayed the release of another album Jackson had recorded. The record company did not want the two albums released at the same time so they would not compete against each other. The other album was "Thriller".
  
  
• Steven Spielberg worked simultaneously on both this film and Poltergeist (1982) in 1982, and both were made to complement each other. This represented suburban dreams, and "Poltergeist" represented suburban nightmares.
  
  
• The working title for the film was "A Boy's Life". It was changed during production.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg and Melissa Mathison came up with the concept of a sequel called "Nocturnal Fears", where Elliott and his friends are kidnapped by aliens and E.T. would help them out. E.T.'s name would be Zreck, and his species was at war with the other aliens.
  
  
• This film is ranked #6 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers.
  
  
• This film is ranked #3 on the AFI's top 10 science fiction films.
  
  
• The origin of E.T. lies within Steven Spielberg's abandoned science-fiction horror thriller "Night Skies", which was to be directed by cartoonist 'Ron Cobb (I)' and written by John Sayles, with special effects by Rick Baker. Spielberg eventually dropped the evil aliens and had only a good alien in the final film.
  
  
• The end of the film was one of the most significant musical experiences for composer 'John Williams (I)'. After several attempts were made to match the score to the film, Steven Spielberg took the film off the screen and encouraged Williams to conduct the orchestra the way he would at a concert. He did, and Spielberg slightly re-edited the film to match the music, which is unusual since normally the music would be edited to match the film. The result was Williams winning the 1982 Academy Award for Best Original Score.
  
  
• E.T.'s voice was provided by Pat Welsh, an elderly woman who lived in Marin County, California. Welsh smoked two packets of cigarettes a day, which gave her voice a quality that sound effects creator Ben Burtt liked. She spent nine-and-a-half hours recording her part, and was paid $380 by Burtt for her services. Burtt also recorded 16 other people and various animals to create E.T.'s "voice". These included Spielberg; Debra Winger; Burtt's sleeping wife, who had a cold; a burp from his USC film professor; as well as raccoons, sea otters and horses.
  
  
• The young actors (Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore and Robert MacNaughton) found the ET puppet's eyes too far apart to comfortably look ET in the eye when they had to act with it. The actors solved the problem themselves by selecting a single eye to look at for every scene.
  
  
• In 1967 Satyajit Ray wrote a script for a movie entitled "The Alien". Columbia Pictures was in talks to produce this movie. Peter Sellers and Marlon Brando were rumored to play the leading parts. However, Ray was surprised to find that the script he had written had already been copyrighted as a co-written work and the fee appropriated. The other 'writer' credited for the script was Mike Wilson - a friend of Sci-Fi author Arthur C. Clarke and it was credited as "Mike Wilson and Satyajit Ray", in that order. According to Ray, Wilson's only contribution to the script was his suggestion of the word "broad" instead of "chick" at one place in the script. Wilson had initially approached Ray as a promoter for the film in Hollywood and negotiated with Columbia. Later Brando dropped out of the project and, though an attempt was made to bring James Coburn in his place, Ray was disillusioned, had enough of Hollywood machinations and returned to Calcutta. Columbia was interested in reviving the project in the 1970s and 1980s but nothing came of it. When E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was released in 1982, many, including Arthur C. Clarke, saw striking similarities in the film to Ray's earlier script. Ray believed that Steven Spielberg's movie "would not have been possible without my script of 'The Alien' being available throughout America in mimeographed copies." Spielberg denied this by saying, "I was a kid in high school when this script was circulating in Hollywood".
  
  
• Most of the full-body puppetry was performed by a 2' 10 tall stuntman, but the scenes in the kitchen were done using a 10-year old boy who was born without legs but was an expert on walking on his hands.
  
  
• ET's plants included some made from inflated condoms with polyester blooms.
  
  
• The Universal logo at the beginning of the movie is played backwards.
  
  
• John Sayles wrote a semi-sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) called 'Night Skies', about a group of hostile aliens that come to Earth and lay siege to an isolated farmhouse where a terrified family has barricaded itself inside. Spielberg decided not to go ahead with the rather dark project, but a subplot about the relationship between the lone good alien and an autistic boy inspired him to redevelop the concept as 'E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial".
  
  
• E.T. provided the inspiration for Neil Diamond's song "Heartlight" but no mention is ever made of the movie in the lyrics.
  
  
• C. Thomas Howell's film debut.
  
  
• Juliette Lewis auditioned for the role of Gertie, but her father reportedly made her turn it down.
  
  
• The filmmakers had requested that M&M's be used to lure E.T., instead of Reese's Pieces. The Mars company had denied their request and so Reese's Pieces were used instead. As a direct result, Reese's Pieces sales skyrocketed. Because of this, more and more companies began requesting that their products be used in movies. Thus, product placement was born.
  
  
• Elvis Costello was asked by Q music magazine March 2008 if he was paid handsomely for the use of Accidents Will Happen of which two lines were sung by Robert McNaughton. He replied: "No, I don't think they offered any money. We had no way of knowing it was going to be so huge so there was the chance we'd given it for nothing and they'd use it for some big production number. Haha! But you really have to paying attention to notice."
  
  
• In mid 2009, the home featured in the film, located in the Tujunga Canyon was saved from immolation in the treacherous Station Fire. The owner of the residence said the scorched hill behind the house "looks like the surface of the moon," but that the structure itself incurred no damage in the wildfire, which up to that time had burned over 127,000 acres and claimed 62 homes.
  
  
• The Japanese release features a different cut of the epic "I'll be right here" scene. Instead of Eliot's heart, E.T. is shown to point to Eliot's head without the glowing effect. Love is traditionally associated more with the mind than the heart in Japan.
  
  
• In the doorway conversation between Keys, played by Peter Coyote, and Gertie, played by 'Drew Barrymore', Keys asks Gertie if there are any "Coyotes" in the neighborhood.
  
  

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