E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 science fiction film which tells the story of the young boy Elliott who befriends an alien being trapped on Earth and trying to find his way home. It stars Henry Thomas (Elliott), Drew Barrymore, Robert MacNaughton, Dee Wallace-Stone and Peter Coyote.

The original idea of E.T. was from the Indian director Satyajit Ray. Lacking funds for such a project, Ray sent copies of sketches to his Hollywood counterparts (as mentioned in Ray's Collection of letters).

The movie was written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Steven Spielberg. It won Academy Awards for Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Effects, Visual Effects, Best Music, Original Score and Best Sound. It was also nominated for Best Cinematography (Allen Daviau), Best Director (Steven Spielberg), Best Film Editing, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

The film is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films, was #25 on American Film Institute's 100 Years, 100 Movies and #44 on its 100 Years, 100 Thrills, and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

In 2002 a twentieth anniversary edition was released by Universal Studios. It adds five minutes to the film's run time, and includes special effects scenes that were not included in the original because of technical limitations or budgetary constraints. Other small changes, such as the replacement of all guns in the film with hand-held radio communicators, were made as Spielberg was unhappy with their inclusion in the original cut.