Alternate ending

At the end of the movie, E.T. leaves the devastated family to return to his own kind, never to see them again. However, that wasn't originally how it was going to go!

In the beginning, Spielberg planned to show that Elliott was still in contact with his alien friend, but decided to cut it so that the emotional moment where E.T. leaves Earth is not undercut.

Reflecting on the original ending, Robert MacNaughton - who played teenager Michael Taylor, Elliott and Gertie's older brother - said: "They would pan up to the roof and you’d see the communicator and it’s still working — in other words, Elliott is still in touch with E.T. But after they did the score and they saw what they had with the spaceship taking off and everything ... How can you follow that? I mean, it was a wise choice."