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 on domestic intimacy rather than spectacle, shot by Allen Daviau with a distinctly warm, child-eye perspective.

This cell, titled E.T. and Elliott, captures a quiet interior moment drawn from consecutive frames, showing E.T. and Gertie sharing the frame before Elliott enters the composition. The warm practical lighting and visible wooden elements ground the sequence in the film's characteristic home setting, preserving a brief, human-scaled exchange between three of the story's central figures.