E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a Academy Award-winning 1982 science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg that tells the story of a young boy, Elliott, who befriends an alien being called E.T. stranded on Earth and trying to find his way home. This film was produced by Amblin Entertainment, distributed by Universal Pictures, and originally released to movie theatres in 1982.

The movie was written by Melissa Mathison and the movie poster was created by artist Drew Struzan, a favourite of director Steven Spielberg who decreed Struzan the only artist allowed to depict the character.

The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, and won 4; losing best director and best picture to Richard Attenborough's Gandhi.

Plot
An alien botanist stranded on Earth is found by 10-year-old Elliot (Henry Thomas), who, along with his older brother Michael (Robert MacNaughton) and his younger sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore), teaches him to communicate and helps him build a device to contact his people to pick him up.

Cast

 * Elliott (Henry Thomas)
 * Gertie (Drew Barrymore)
 * Michael (Robert MacNaughton)
 * Mary (Dee Wallace)
 * Keys (Peter Coyote)
 * Voice of E.T. (Debra Winger)

20th anniversary edition
An extended version of the movie, E.T. the Extra- Terrestrial: The 20th Anniversary, was released by Universal Studios in 2002. It adds five minutes to the film's run time, and includes special effects scenes that were not included in the original because of technical limitations or budgetary constraints. Other small changes, such as the replacement of all guns in the film with hand-held radio communicators, were made as Spielberg was unhappy with their inclusion in the original cut. Also, a mention of the word "terrorist" was changed to "hippie." Two changes of this film are featured in the South Park episode, Free Hat. In the end of that episode, Steven Spielberg died by having his head explode when he saw the changed version of the Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Alleged plagiarism
Indian director Satyajit Ray wrote a script entitled "The Alien" in 1967 with many similarities to E.T., and attempted to raise funds for its production in the late 1960s. After a falling out with a prospective producer, he lost interest in the project, and rejected later interest from Hollywood in the script. After E.T.'s release, Ray stated that "ET would not have been possible without my script of "The Alien" being available throughout America in mimeographed copies." Spielberg claimed to be unaware of Ray's work, stating "I was a kid in high school when his script was circulating in Hollywood" when questioned about it in the press in 1982.

Awards and rankings
It won Academy Awards for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Effects, Visual Effects, Best Music, Original Score and Best Sound. It was also nominated for Best Cinematography (Allen Daviau), Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Film Editing, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

The film is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films, was #25 on American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies and #44 on its 100 Years, 100 Thrills, and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Trivia

 * E.T. was designed by Carlo Rambaldi.
 * Originally the script called for the use of M&Ms (which survived into the novelisation). However, M&M Mars did not agree to the contract (because they thought E.T. was ugly and would scare children) and, instead, Reese's Pieces by Hershey's were used. A week after the movie premiered, sales of the candy tripled.
 * When E.T. is covered with a sheet and goes "trick-or-treating" with the children, he sees a child in a Star Wars character's mask (Yoda) and begins to follow that child saying "Home....home....". Also, composer John Williams includes a snippet of his "Yoda Theme" from Empire Strikes Back to accompany this scene.
 * In 1998, the title character was licensed to appear in television public service announcements produced by Progressive Insurance in which E.T.'s voice reminded drivers to "Buckle up" their safety belts. Traffic signage depicting a stylized portrait of E.T. (wearing his safety belt) was also installed on selected roads in the USA.
 * The movie inspired a sequel in the form of a licensed novel, E.T.: The Book of the Green Planet, released in 1985. It was written by William Kotzwinkle, who had also novelized the film, and takes place after E.T.'s return home.
 * When the movie was released, Steven Spielberg, a Porsche 928 aficionado, had his moon-roof button re-designed with the movie's logo as both a gag for passengers and a tribute to the movie's success.
 * E.T. can be seen in "Da Boom" episode of the popular animated series Family Guy.
 * E.T. can be heard (off-screen) in an episode of Muppet Babies.
 * Aliens of E.T.'s race can also be seen in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in the Senate Chamber. It is believed this is a friendly response to Spielberg prominently using Star Wars references in E.T.
 * The E.T. video game for the Atari 2600 is considered one of the worst video games of all time.
 * Spielberg and Mathison wrote a treatment for a proposed sequel called E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears.
 * The movie inspired the hit (but often-ridiculed) song "Heartlight," written and performed by Neil Diamond.
 * The plot of the movie is extremely similar to that of the 1988 movie Mac and Me.