22 Wonderful Shots of Steven Spielberg and E.T., Who Is Obviously a Real Alien and Definitely Not a Puppet

John Summers • Contributor

Dec 20, 2025 11:00 PM EST

There are movie monsters, movie heroes, and then there's E.T. A creature so gentle, so strange, and so emotionally devastating that an entire generation still gets misty-eyed just thinking about a glowing finger and a bicycle in the sky.

Looking at behind-the-scenes photos of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Steven Spielberg feels less like peeking behind the curtain and more like stumbling into someone's childhood diary. This wasn't just another blockbuster for Spielberg. It was personal. Deeply so. E.T. wasn't designed to be scary or sleek or cool. He was designed to feel old, kind, and a little broken. Like someone who understands loneliness because he lives in it.

What's especially wild is how physical this movie was. No pixels. No motion capture. Just puppetry, patience, and a director who treated the alien like a real actor on set. Spielberg famously shot scenes in order so the kids could genuinely bond with E.T., and it shows. You can feel it in every glance, every whispered goodbye, every quiet moment where the camera just lingers.

These photos capture something rare. A filmmaker at the height of his powers, gently guiding a story that's smaller, sadder, and more human than its sci-fi label suggests. It's not about aliens. It's about missing people. And somehow, that makes E.T. eternal.

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