If you saw E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in 1982, you never quite forgot that ending. The glowing fingertip. The tears. The little alien rising into the sky and leaving Elliott behind on the hillside.
For more than four decades, fans have quietly carried the same question: did Elliott ever see his friend again?
Steven Spielberg has finally answered it. And no, he did not soften the blow.
“No. Never saw him again.”
That was Spielberg’s definitive response when asked about the two characters’ fate. No reunion. No second goodbye. Just the memory of what happened that night.
He did add one small comfort. “He did dream about him,” Spielberg said. “There was a psychic link between them.” That is a nod to the iconic moment at the end of the film, when E.T. presses his finger to Elliott’s forehead before boarding the ship.
A Film That Stayed With Our Generation
When E.T. opened in the summer of 1982, it topped the box office for six weeks straight. It went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time, a record it held until Jurassic Park came along in 1993.
What made it stick was not the special effects. It was the feeling. A lonely kid. An unlikely friendship. A farewell that hurt in a way you did not expect from a movie about a little alien.
That emotional pull is exactly why people are still debating this almost 45 years later. When Spielberg’s answer went public, fans had plenty to say.
Whether you make peace with the answer or not, the reaction says everything. A movie from 1982 still has us feeling something. That is a classic doing exactly what a classic is supposed to do.