National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Universal Pictures released E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in June 1982, directed by Steven Spielberg at the height of his early commercial and artistic power. The film became the highest-grossing release of its time and remains a defining work of American cinema, celebrated for its emotional sincerity and its portrait of childhood wonder set against suburban domesticity and government intrusion.

This cell, titled Mary, captures three consecutive frames of Mary in a low-angle, intimate composition, her expression warm and open in what reads as a quietly emotional interior moment. Keys is present within the scene, grounding the sequence in the film's careful balance between the personal and the larger forces closing in around the family.