National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Universal Pictures released E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in June 1982, with Steven Spielberg directing at the height of his commercial and artistic powers. The film became the highest-grossing release of its time, displacing Star Wars, and earned four Academy Awards. Its portrait of childhood wonder and suburban longing resonated across generations, cementing its place as one of the defining American films of the decade.

This cell captures Elliott guiding E.T. through the Halloween sequence, one of the film's most visually distinctive passages. E.T., draped in a white sheet as a disguise, rides in the basket of Elliott's bicycle near the tree line. The three consecutive frames from this single scene offer a rare, sustained look at a quiet moment between the two central figures before their famous flight across the moon.