You probably remember the glowing finger. Or the red hoodie. Maybe it’s the image of a bicycle silhouette crossing a massive, white moon that sticks in your brain. But when you start digging into the history of cinema, the specific timeline gets a little fuzzy for people. What year was ET made? It’s a question that usually leads people down a rabbit hole of early 80s nostalgia and Steven Spielberg trivia.
The short answer is 1982.
But movies aren't just "made" in a vacuum. If you’re asking about the physical production—the actual cameras rolling on a suburban street in California—that happened in 1981. If you’re talking about when it changed the world and became a cultural phenomenon, that was June 11, 1982.
It’s kind of wild to think about.
At the time, Steven Spielberg was coming off the massive success of Raiders of the Lost Ark. He was the golden boy of Hollywood, but he wanted to do something smaller. Something personal. He originally had this dark, scary idea called Night Skies, which was basically about malevolent aliens terrorizing a family. It was intense. It was mean. But while filming Raiders in Tunisia, Spielberg felt lonely. He started thinking about his parents' divorce and the imaginary friend he created as a kid to cope with that void.
That’s how E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was born.
The 1981 Production: Building a Legend
To really understand what year was ET made, you have to look at the "hidden" year of 1981. This was when the magic actually happened on set. Filming began in September 1981 under the secret working title A Boy’s Life. Why the secrecy? Spielberg didn't want other studios stealing the idea or people knowing he was making a "sensitive" alien movie.
He was protective.
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The shoot lasted only about 61 days. That's incredibly fast for a blockbuster, but Spielberg was working with a relatively modest budget of roughly $10.5 million. Most of that went into the puppet. Since CGI didn't really exist in a usable form for a character like ET, they had to rely on mechanical wizardry.
Carlo Rambaldi, the Italian special effects master, was the guy who brought the alien to life. He’d previously worked on Close Encounters of the Third Kind, so he knew his way around an alien's anatomy. But ET was different. He needed to look ancient, wise, and slightly "ugly-cute." Rambaldi famously used the faces of Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, and a pug dog as inspiration for the creature’s features.
Imagine that combination.
Why the 1982 Release Date Changed Everything
When June 1982 rolled around, the box office was crowded. People often forget that E.T. shared the summer with The Thing, Poltergeist, and Blade Runner. It was a heavy-hitter season for sci-fi.
But E.T. crushed them.
It stayed at number one for six weeks. Then it dropped. Then it went back to number one. It was a juggernaut that stayed in theaters for a literal year. If you were a kid in 1982, you didn't just see it once; you saw it four, five, or six times. It became the highest-grossing film of all time, a title it held until Spielberg beat his own record with Jurassic Park in 1993.
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The movie resonated because it wasn't about space. It was about childhood.
The Melancholy Soul of the 80s
What most people get wrong about E.T. is thinking it's just a "kids' movie." Honestly, it’s pretty dark. There are themes of abandonment, government overreach, and the literal death of a friend.
Melissa Mathison wrote the screenplay. She was Harrison Ford’s girlfriend at the time, and Spielberg basically cornered her on the set of Raiders to pitch the idea. She captured the way kids actually talk. Not the "gosh-shucks" dialogue of 1950s sitcoms, but the messy, insulting, brotherly bickering that felt real to audiences in 1982.
Henry Thomas, who played Elliott, gave one of the greatest child performances in history. During his audition, he was told to imagine his dog had been taken away. He cried so convincingly that Spielberg famously said, "Okay, kid, you got the job."
They filmed the movie in chronological order.
That’s rare. Usually, movies are filmed based on location or actor availability to save money. But Spielberg wanted the emotional bond between the kids and the puppet to grow naturally. By the time they reached the ending—the famous "I'll be right here" scene—the tears the actors were shedding were largely real. They were saying goodbye to a puppet they had spent months treating like a real person.
Technical Details from the 1981-1982 Era
- Cinematography: Allen Daviau used a lot of low-angle shots. He kept the camera at the eye level of a child. Notice how you rarely see the faces of adults (except for the mother, Mary) until the third act? That was intentional. It made the adults feel like a different, somewhat threatening species.
- The Score: John Williams. Need I say more? The music is so integral that Spielberg actually edited the final chase scene to match Williams' music, rather than making the composer fit the film. That almost never happens.
- The Puppet: It cost $1.5 million. It had layers of polyurethane skin and a complex system of cables and motors. There were actually three different versions: a mechanical one, an electronic one, and a "suit" worn by small actors (including Tamara De Treaux and Pat Bilon) for walking shots.
Was it Actually "Made" Earlier?
If we’re being pedantic, the seeds were planted in 1978. After Close Encounters, Columbia Pictures wanted a sequel. Spielberg wasn't interested in a direct sequel, but he had that Night Skies treatment. When he eventually pivoted to the heart-tugging story of Elliott and his visitor, Columbia actually passed on it.
They thought it was a "wimpy Walt Disney movie."
Universal Pictures picked it up, and Columbia kept a percentage of the profits as part of the deal. It ended up being the most profitable mistake Columbia ever made.
So, when you're looking at what year was ET made, 1982 is the cultural milestone, but the creative labor was a multi-year journey starting in the late 70s, peaking with production in 1981, and finalizing with the June '82 release.
The 20th Anniversary Changes
In 2002, Spielberg did something controversial. He "re-made" parts of the movie.
He used CGI to enhance ET’s facial expressions and, most infamously, replaced the federal agents' guns with walkie-talkies. He also added a scene with ET in a bathtub. Fans hated the changes. It felt sterile. Years later, Spielberg actually admitted he regretted it. He realized that the 1982 version was a product of its time—flaws, puppets, and guns included—and that's how it should stay.
Today, if you watch it on 4K or Blu-ray, you’re usually seeing the original 1982 theatrical cut.
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Actionable Steps for the Ultimate ET Experience
If you're looking to dive deeper into this specific era of film history, don't just stop at the movie.
- Watch the Documentary: "The Evolution and Creation of E.T." is an incredible look at the 1981 set. It shows the struggle of working with the puppet and how much of a gamble the movie felt like at the time.
- Visit the Locations: Most of the "suburbia" scenes were filmed in Tujunga and Northridge, California. You can actually still see the house used for Elliott’s home (it’s a private residence, so be respectful).
- Listen to the Soundtrack Separately: John Williams won an Oscar for this score for a reason. Listen to "Adventures on Earth" on a good pair of headphones. You can hear the exact moment the bicycles take flight without even seeing the screen.
- Check Out the Story of "Mac and Me": If you want a laugh, look up this 1988 "ripoff." It shows just how much E.T. influenced the decade and how hard it is to capture that 1982 magic.
The legacy of 1982 stays with us. It’s the year that proved a movie about a brown, wrinkly alien could make grown men cry and change the way movies were marketed forever. Whether you call it an 81 production or an 82 release, it remains a cornerstone of the "Amblin" style that defines modern blockbusters.