Continuity mistake: While Elliot and E.T. are saying goodbye to each other at the spaceship, you see Elliot's mom sink to her knees. Then, you see a close-up shot of Elliot and E.T. looking at each other and you can see her white shirt in the background as she gets back up, but then there is a close up of her face as she gets up again.
Continuity mistake: While all the boys are trying to escape with ET, there are black brake levers/clamps on Michael's and Greg's bike handlebars, and brass brake levers/clamps on Tyler's and Steve's handlebars, but in some closeups this changes. For example, after Steve shouts, "Let's split up," Michael's are brass, when Tyler pulls off his balaclava his are black, and when Greg shouts, "Tell me when it's over," his are brass. Presumably bikes were switched for closeups.
Deliberate mistake: At the end of the film when E.T. is leaving, there is a bright light from the ship, and wind and dust from the spaceship's liftoff. But when the spaceship has lifted off and has flown into space and made a rainbow, they show Elliot and the others and there is still the shining light, plus wind and dust blowing for no reason.
Revealing mistake: When the boys are racing away on their bicycles from the Feds, the stunt doubles for Elliott and his friends are obviously way too tall to be children.
Audio problem: When Mary is reading Peter Pan to Gertie, her shadow's lips don't match up with the words she is saying.
Other mistake: This concerns the 2002-Version. For this version a lot of scenes have been changed/remastered digitally, e.g. E.T.'s mimic, the flapping of Elliot's coat during the bike flight, or some cloud movement during the night scenes. Even the guns were changed into walkie talkies. But every person who was holding a walkie talkie is still pointing out his trigger finger as if holding a gun.
Revealing mistake: When Elliot, Michael, and E.T. arrive at the park after escaping the scientists, a ramp can be seen where they drive over the curb.
Continuity mistake: When Elliot's mother is retrieving a heavy blanket to put over him because he is faking an illness, she tears open the closet doors and the leading edges of both doors come free from their tracks. A moment later when the shot angle changes, and you see her from inside of the closet, both doors are open, but both are back on their tracks.
Continuity mistake: The street the boys turn onto during the chase, when the boy says "we made it," isn't the same street as they had turned into. There should have been houses, but instead there were just trees and cars.
Revealing mistake: The silhouette of the mime wearing the E.T. gloves can be seen through the railing when Elliot is luring E.T. with the Reese's Pieces.
Continuity mistake: The size of the eye holes on E.T.'s ghost outfit change shape and size several times (most noticeable when Michael finds the abandoned outfit when he is looking for E.T.).
Continuity mistake: When Elliot is leading E.T. up to his bedroom for the first time first his shadow is in front of him on the candy, then in a reverse shot it is behind him.
Visible crew/equipment: After Mary and all the boys look in the shed and find tracks, when they head back to the house Tyler stops at the pizza box, and note the three distinct marks on the ground to inconspicuously signify where actors should stand while discussing the pizza. Michael stands at his curved mark, Elliott stands at his L-shape mark, and Mary's mark is in the shape of a T-mark.
Continuity mistake: When Elliott slices his finger on the Kromedge saw blade, it's the index finger of his left hand, but in the closeups of his finger he's actually holding up the index finger of his right hand.
Revealing mistake: In the opening chase scene where E.T. is running back to the ship you can see the cart that E.T. is on when it is the side shot of E.T. and to left there is a gap in the plants and you see part of the cart.
Continuity mistake: After Mary carries Elliott downstairs the government agents start entering her home, and in the next closeup of ET lying on the floor there's a large bath towel hanging over the side of the bathtub, but in the next shot of ET from behind the "spacesuit", there's now a small bath mat (same color as the previous towel) hanging over the side of the tub.
Continuity mistake: When Mary and the boys go to the tool shed after Elliott's encounter, as Tyler and Michael kneel down to inspect the tracks on the ground, the trash can beside Tyler is partially under the table and a roll of fencing is upright behind him. However, after Michael mentions the coyote, the trash can is now to the left of the table, the roll of fencing is lying on the ground in front of the trash can, and some long-handled tools have moved as well.
Continuity mistake: When Elliott is trying to lure ET into his room by leaving Reese's Pieces on the carpet, the red helmet is lying on the table with its white stripe facing the doorway and its opening facing the bunk-bed, but when ET reaches the doorway the helmet has turned itself around so it's facing the opposite way.
Continuity mistake: When the two government agents pull over at the bottom of the hill to cut the boys off, in the shot from inside the car we see Greg and Tyler riding their bikes over the car and zooming off, then the agent inside the car lifts his head as yet another bike lands on the car, but in the next exterior shot it's Tyler (note his black high-tops) who lands on the car's roof, knocking off the magnetic beacon light. (Elliott's conspicuously missing from these few shots).
Continuity mistake: Many of the night scenes take place in the back yard, or in the cornfield which is shown to be behind the back yard. Daytime shots show the house to be in the suburbs, on a hill, with no cornfield or possible space for a cornfield.
Answer: The BMX stunt riders were aged between 15 and 20, so older than the kids in the film who were about 10.
Sierra1 ★