Continuity mistake: When Elliott asks Mike about joining the Dungeons and Dragons game, Steve turns his head toward Elliott. In the next shot Steve is staring down at the kitchen table instead. (00:08:45)
Continuity mistake: While escaping from the cops, right before ET makes the bike fly, Elliot is pedalling standing away from the seat, half a meter above ET's head. A frame later, from the front angle, he is seating, his head at ET's level.
Continuity mistake: When the van enters the playground, the 3 friends and their bikes are parallel to each other. A frame later, the guy with a red cap is several meters behind.
Continuity mistake: The van reaches the playground, skids and white chunks fall off the rear, covering the grass. When the angle changes, the grass is clean and the chunks are falling down again, though much less amount than before.
Continuity mistake: When the van enters the playground, a woman in blue walking by the curb suddenly disappears in the following angle.
Continuity mistake: When Elliot is in the cornfield and sees ET for the first time, there are several shots of him shouting, crawling backwards really nervously. However, there's suddenly a brusque cut to an angle from behind where Elliot stands still totally calm. This shot is senseless.
Continuity mistake: When the family is having dinner, Gertie's head position and her hands on the fork are inconsistent between shots.
Continuity mistake: When ET's spaceship takes off and starts flying, the sky is red, a shot later it's blue.
Continuity mistake: At the end, ET's finger glows and he says "I'll be right here" but in the immediate opposite angle the finger's not glowing.
Continuity mistake: When Gertie first meets ET his neck is either stretched or not depending on the angle.
Continuity mistake: Elliot runs the curtain in the van where his brother is at the wheel. He grabs the curtain with his right hand, but in the next shot it has swapped to the left, and the right one is grabbing the lower part of the curtain.
Continuity mistake: When Gertie enters Elliot's room and sees ET for the first time, her doll switches around between shots.
Continuity mistake: While the van is escaping from the bad guys with the plastic tube attached to it, from the outside angles there are houses to the right, but from then shots inside the van there are hills. This changes back and forth.
Continuity mistake: During Halloween night, a guy smashes an egg on Elliot's mom's car. A second later the car is clean and the guy is throwing the egg again.
Continuity mistake: When the movie starts with all of Mike's friends in the house, one of them picks up some snacks while someone speaks on the phone, yet in the inmediate angle from behind his hand is lowered.
Continuity mistake: When Elliot grabs the jar to free the frog, the frog stretches up and climbs the side, yet a frame later, from a different angle, it's sitting on the bottom of the jar.
Continuity mistake: When the kids are running away from the cops, the way the white blanket is folded around ET differs between the wide shots and the close-ups.
Continuity mistake: When Elliot and the bikers are about to fly, Elliot closes his eyes and there's a close-up on ET's eyes, which reflect a group of people running in front of him. From a wider angle, a frame later, there are two cars with 2 cops standing, no men running.
Continuity mistake: At the end, when ET tells Gertie to be good, the plant disappears, only to reappear in the next angle.
Continuity mistake: Elliot shows ET where home is and a close-up shows ET's hands very close together fidgeting with a red object. When the angle changes, the hands are way apart, and the object is gone.
Answer: The BMX stunt riders were aged between 15 and 20, so older than the kids in the film who were about 10.
Sierra1 ★