Continuity mistake: When Elliot shows up the morning after Halloween her mum hugs him and gets dark paint on her cheek. When the angle changes the stain vanishes.
Suggested correction: Mary doesn't get "dark paint" on her cheek when she hugs Elliot. When Mary's standing at the fridge door speaking to the police officer, she's still wearing her Halloween dress and the mark on her right cheek is the black heart (part of her Halloween makeup). This mark is still visible on her cheek in the wide shot (viewed on Blu-ray) when she tells Elliot she's sorry that she yelled at him, and sits Elliott down on the kitchen seat.
Other mistake: Whatever E.T. feels or things happen to him, Elliot experiences them too, but when Mary takes a photo on Halloween, only he faints and Elliot doesn't, despite their mental link.
Suggested correction: E.T. doesn't faint. He is just startled and stumbles and falls over backwards.
Corrected entry: When Elliott is sitting in the garden waiting for ages for E.T. to come out of the shed, the position of the moon in the night sky doesn't move during that time.
Correction: The night that Elliott's on the chaise lounge waiting in the backyard with the flashlight, in the 1982 version we only see the crescent moon in just one wideshot, so it cannot be said "the position of the moon...doesn't move during that time" since there's nothing to compare it to, and in the 2002 version the moon has actually been edited out completely in that shot.
Corrected entry: Before the spaceship arrives it's daylight but moments before it lands it's completely dark.
Correction: There is a lot of time between Elliot and the others landing in the forest and the spaceship landing. As Elliot and the others arrive at the forest its already dusk and the sun sets pretty quickly in autumn and behind a mountain.
Corrected entry: When Elliot goes to wash the dishes at the beginning, he turns on the water, and in only about two or three seconds, massive amounts of steam start rising up. Sink water never heats up that fast.
Correction: The mom was at the sink before Elliot, so she could have had the hot water on while doing the dishes.
Correction: It can, if the hot water had been running shortly before and the water in the pipes is still hot.
Corrected entry: At the beginning, when the men are searching for E.T., the keys on the "Key Man" keep changing sides between shots.
Correction: During the opening scene, while the men are searching for ET, the keys are hanging from the left side of his pants in every shot we see them.
Corrected entry: Mike and Elliot hijack the van holding E.T. and abandon it in a park, which is shown to be a significant distance from their home. When the Feds and Elliot's mother (Mary) finally show up at the now abandoned van, Harvey, the family dog, is shown waiting for them at the rear of the van. How did Harvey get there? He didn't go in the van with Mike and Elliot. If you look carefully at Mary's car when she is backing out of the driveway, you see that there is no dog, only Mary and Gert. Even if Mary did take the dog, it is shown being there before they arrive at the park.
Correction: When Michael drives the van onto the playground and stops, in the shot from behind the three boys on their bikes we actually see Harvey, the dog, between Greg and Steve. Earlier, when Michael steals the van he stops to tell his three friends to bring his and Elliott's bikes and to meet up at the playground, so we can surmise that Harvey went along with Steve, Tyler, and Greg (and the extra two bikes) to the playground, and when all the boys took off with ET they presumably told Harvey to stay put and wait at the van.
Corrected entry: When Elliot and his brother are searching in the garage for items to help ET create his "phone", the garage door is obviously closed, and they are using flashlights to see what they are looking around for. However, right outside, the government agents are spying on an open garage that has all the lights on. They go back and forth to the kids (dark garage) and agents (open, lit up garage) a few times.
Correction: The van is in front of the house where Elliot lives. This is still a mistake, however I don't believe the garage is "closed", rather the lights are off in the shots inside. This explains why they need the flashlights as the original post said. I still believe this is a continuity error. The garage at Elliot's house is brightly lit when we see exterior shots of it at night. Also, regarding arousing suspicions, moments later the agents are full on parked across the street from Elliot's house. They come out of the car when Mary leaves. I doubt the government van was worried about suspicions.
Factual error: Unbelievable that for 30 years no one has pointed out that in every shot with the moon, except when the moon is full, the crescent is pointing the wrong direction. In the evening (ordering pizza), in the Northern Hemisphere (California), a crescent moon will always be pointing down to your right (the bright side will be on the lower right). The only time it could point the way it does in these scenes is in the wee hours of the morning, at 4 or 5 a.m. and looking to the East. Spielberg didn't even fix it in the re-release.
Suggested correction: Actually the problem with moon scenes that we see a crescending moonphase (less than a quarter) when Elliott first meet E.T. After that in a couple of days there is a full moon which could be reached in about 16-17 days from that phase which we saw first. It would be also about 11 days if the first shot was mirrored and actually was an increasing moonphase. But the whole story is about 6 days long. So a full moon couldn't be reached from a quarter of moon.
