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 remains a defining work of the New Hollywood era — a science fiction film built entirely around emotional intimacy rather than spectacle. Its cultural footprint has never fully receded.

This cell captures the Trying To Flee The House sequence, a tense interior moment rendered in the film's characteristic warm, low-angled firelight. Elliott and Michael appear as silhouetted figures gathered around E.T., the framing tight and urgent as the household scrambles. It is a quiet but pivotal beat, preserving the film's signature blend of domestic warmth and encroaching dread.