E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Continuity mistake: When Elliot falls asleep in the garden and sees ET, from the side angle his hair is messy and sticking up, but brushed in the front angle.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: During the bicycle chase, when the cops stop chasing the kids, they pedal next to a dark brown house. In the close-up angle they swerve next to the house, but in the next angle they are pedaling several meters away from the house.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When ET gets beer from the fridge, he tosses food at the dog. The dog is always close to the fridge, by the oven, except for the shots where he is tossed the potato salad, where he is several meters behind, on a rug by the cupboards. This change of position swaps back and forth.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When the final bike chase starts, the kid with the blue ski mask who cries "We made it!" changes positions 3 times in less than 2 seconds: 1) To the left of a kid with a red hat, both behind the one with a cap. 2) To the right of the one with a cap, riding parallel to him. 3) Behind everyone, completely alone.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When ET is about to drink beer, the kitchen towel next to the fridge changes positions between shots, notice the folding of the pattern.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When ET grabs the potato salad the position of his fingers differs between the first and second shot.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: Home alone, Elliot leaves for the kitchen and the dog enters the room, scaring ET, who bounces backwards and crashes against a table. When the angle changes, he is repeating all previous movements.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: During the bicycle chase, when a police car is about to swerve towards the hills, watch the kids in the background: They're seen approaching the cops, but in the next angle they're meters behind, repeating the previous movements.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: After drunken Elliot sinks down his chair, he raises and looks at the girl, his left arm on the desk. A frame later, from the opposite angle, the arm is down.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Elliot carries the pizza and walks towards the shed, a baseball bat laying on the grass changes positions between shots, and also a big white ball moves closer to him.

Sacha

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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.

Super Grover

Right after she hugs Elliot there's a wide angle where she says "Sorry" and her cheek is spotless. Screenshot uploaded.

Sacha

More quotes from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial trivia picture

Trivia: Steven Spielberg has a cameo as one of the doctors when Elliot and E.T. are 'hospitalized' inside the house.

wizard_of_gore

More trivia for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Question: When Elliott, Mike and Mike's friends are escaping from the agents on their bikes, are the actors' stunt doubles adults or teenagers? Asking because I've heard of teenagers being stunt performers in movies.

Answer: The BMX stunt riders were aged between 15 and 20, so older than the kids in the film who were about 10.

Sierra1

More questions & answers from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.