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 early career. The film became the highest-grossing release of its time, displacing Star Wars, and remains a defining work of American cinema — a story of childhood, wonder, and belonging that shaped the cultural memory of an entire generation.

This cell, titled E.T., preserves three sequential frames from the film's most enduring image: bare winter branches silhouetted against a luminous backlit sky in deep twilight blue. The low-angle composition captures the atmosphere of the iconic flying sequence, with the glowing light source anchoring each frame. Held together, the three frames offer a rare sense of motion frozen across a single continuous shot.