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 story grounded entirely in childhood emotion and suburban American life. Its cultural footprint has never fully receded.

This cell carries the E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial title card, the image most associated with the film itself: Elliott and E.T. rendered as silhouettes against a luminous full moon, bicycle suspended mid-flight. Three frames of this composition on a single strip of 35mm represent an unusually concentrated piece of the film's most recognized visual moment.