E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Billing Displacement: Dee Wallace as Elliott's mother Mary.
  • Cast the Expert: The doctors are real doctors. Spielberg mentioned that this was necessary as they would be better at rapidly spitting out terminology that required years of medical school to learn than any actor who'd been simply given a briefing on it. Humorously, this led to some competition amongst local doctors who all wanted to be in the movie.
  • Classic Movie, Commercial Sequel: In 2019, E.T. returned to visit his friend Elliott, now grown up with his own family, in a four-minute minifilm to advertise Xfinity.
  • Colbert Bump: Sales of Reese's Pieces candy skyrocketed after their inclusion in the film.
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: Played straight with E.T. in the original version and in the Japanese dub, but averted in the Mexican Spanish dub.
  • Deleted Scene: Harrison Ford filmed a scene as the principal of Elliot's school, set after he frees the frogs, which Spielberg cut because he felt Ford's presence was too distracting.
  • Enforced Method Acting: Filmed in chronological order so that the cast could become genuinely attached to the E.T. character. Young Drew Barrymore, in particular, took it the hardest: she was genuinely frightened when she walked in on Eliot with E.T. in his room and in tears during his Disney Death scene.
  • Old Shame: Steven Spielberg came to regret the edits made to the film for the 2002 re-release.
  • Throw It In:
    • Gertie's line "I don't like his feet" was adlibbed, as was her "Give me a break" response to the claim that grown-ups can't see E.T.
    • When Elliott yells "It was nothing like that, penis breath", Dee Wallace was supposed to angrily yell at him to sit down. When she actually heard him say the line, she starting laughing and they left that take in the movie.
  • Unintentional Period Piece:
    • Averted nicely unlike a lot of 80's movies. You can tell it was filmed in the 1980's due to the cars, the TV, and the family owning an Atari 2600, but it doesn't stick out like other examples. Many of the pop culture references they make like Star Wars or The Twilight Zone are still known by today's audiences.
    • On the other hand, jock older brother Michael's introduction has him playing Dungeons & Dragons without hinting at him having any geeky or creative Hidden Depths, which firmly grounds the film in the early 80's (the height of D&D's popularity as a fad) for fans of the film who are roleplayers.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • The first choice to play Gertie? Juliette Lewis. Her father made her turn down the role, and Barrymore was cast instead.
    • Shelley Long was approached to play Elliot's mother. She turned it down as she was already signed on for the comedy Night Shift.
    • Stan Winston turned down the opportunity to work on E.T.. He would regret doing so.
    • The book "E.T. from Concept to Classic" features many plot points and scenes cut from the script. One subplot from an early draft was to have a rival to Elliott named Lance who wanted to expose E.T. The spaceship was going to land in a parking lot, but it was changed to a forest because that sounded more magical, amongst many others.
    • Spielberg mentioned once there was an idea for a sequel called Nocturnal Fears, which would be a horror movie. Yes, a horror movie. Supposedly, this Darker and Edgier continuation of the story would see Eliot and his family terrorized by far more malevolent aliens until E.T. returned to Earth to help his friends. Probably not a bad thing that this idea didn't get past planning stages.
  • Word of God:
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