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E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

November 17, 2015 by Graham Pellegrino   

E.T. is a movie we all probably grew up watching.  Steven Spielberg mashes usually scary aliens, with a cute kids going on adventures, to create one of the best family movies of all time.  E.T. was so captivating for kids of our generation that we still make “phone home” references and pretend to have a light on the end of our fingers and touch our friends heart.  E.T. is a classic movie that while released in the 1980’s, still gets me excited to find on TV today.  While kids acting is usually not that good, something about Elliot, Gertie, and all the friends seemed just so honest and believable, and reminds all of us of our carefree days of our youth.  Little did we know that Elliot (Henry Thomas) was the same kid from the 1981 Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad with Joe Green, commonly remembered for iconic line “Hey Kid, Catch!”.  Becoming even more famous than Elliot was Gertie, played by Drew Barrymore who would become a star in movies like Donnie Darko, Scream, and Charlie’s Angels.  For as good as E.T. is there is one gaping plot hole that as children we were too young to see and now usually are just so focused in watching a movie that reminds us of our childhood, we do not notice either.

So in the end of E.T.  we learn that the alien can levitate, as while running from the authorities on bicycles the kids are all picked up into the sky and fly away to escape.  So why does the alien not levitate to his ship as it flies away, or does this in the beginning of the movie just to escape the authorities?  Using the levitating power when it is convenient in the story and supplies a swell of emotion in viewers does not always make sense logically.  If the alien used this power more logically he could have gone back to his ship, tapped on its window, let on board the ship, and flown away.  Now this would not make for much of a movie, but it would have at least made some logical sense of use of this levitating power.  One explanation is that he was adjusting to Earth’s gravity, and did not know how to levitate here yet.

So while there is this one plot hole it does not take away from the quality of the movie.  Providing one of the most iconic images in film history, the bike flying in front of the moon, the movie is entertaining for all ages.  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is one of the greatest movie made by Disney and Steven Spielberg, and if you have not seen this movie already over Thanksgiving break watching it should definitely be on your list of things to do!  


1 Comment »

  1. Samantha Kielar says:

    I never thought of that about the levitation before… You’re right; it’s a great movie anyway, though.

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