National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Universal Pictures released E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in June 1982, with Steven Spielberg directing from a screenplay by Melissa Mathison. The film became the highest-grossing release of its time and remains a defining work of the era, blending suburban realism with science fiction in a way that reshaped family filmmaking and studio expectations for years to come. John Williams composed the score, and the production shot on 35mm, giving the image a warmth and grain that digital formats have never quite replicated.

This cell, titled E.T., captures three successive frames of the film's most iconic visual: the glowing fingertip or chest light radiating a deep amber warmth against near-total darkness, with a hand reaching toward the source. The organic textures surrounding the light are visible in each frame, and the repetition across three images gives the collector a rare sense of the shot's duration as it existed on the original 35mm print.