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Dad showed his 10-year-old son E.T. and his emotional reaction is triggering Gen X nostalgia

Gen Alpha, phone home.

Photo Credit: Canva, Wiki Commons, Universal Pictures

E.T. is chilling in a basket. Elliott takes E.T. for a bike ride.

One can't fully be prepared for the emotional splash of waterworks that come with viewing Steven Spielberg's masterpiece E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (better known as simply E.T.). This is especially true upon seeing it for the first time. Nothing of its kind had ever quite been attempted and while often imitated as an homage to Spielberg, it hasn't been replicated.

The film, about an adorable extraterrestrial who befriends a boy named Elliott (played by Henry Thomas) after a spaceship accidentally leaves him behind, is a love letter to cinema. It won Oscars, broke box office records, and changed filmmaking forever, as many Spielberg movies tend to do.

For many Gen-Xers like myself, this film helped shape our childhoods. It gave us dolls, repeatable dialogue, and our own delicious candy (fun fact: Spielberg initially wanted M&Ms to be the treats Elliott leaves as a trail to lure E.T. to safety, but the Mars Company declined, so Reese's Pieces became iconic). For an extra layer of magic, I saw it the weekend it came out in 1982, at the exact age Elliott was in the film. It introduced me and many of my friends to the vastness of the universe and the importance of kindness across dimensions.

-A scene from Spielberg's film E.T. www.youtube.com, Universal Pictures

Now, Gen-Xers are showing it to their kids to get their reactions. On the Subreddit r/scifi, a self-described "ceramics guy" who loves nature, science, and sci-fi posted, "Just watched ET for the first time since I was a kid, with my son who is the same age now as I was then." Under this caption, he gave the experience a review: "10 out of 10 would absolutely recommend. What an incredible film. And getting to see my son watch it for the first time was even better than seeing it the first time myself."

Many commenters agree. One actually took their 10-year-old son to see it in the theater when it made the rounds recently. "I had the pleasure of taking my 10 yr old son and his best mate to see ET for the first time in our local cinema last year. It was magical and still absolutely holds its own, despite some scenes looking pretty basic with the CGI kids are used to now. Was great watching their faces and seeing them get totally hooked in emotionally. My son is a big fan of Stranger Things and he was loving the 80s vibes."

E.T., Spielberg, movies, Gen X E.T. looks up. Giphy GIF by MANGOTEETH

Lots of Redditors discuss the unabashedly earnest tear-jerking tactics. "One of the first movies I can remember as a tearjerker," one said. "I can remember being 6 or 7 and crying but not having the emotional maturity to understand why."

The film touches on friendship, but perhaps more than that—the idea of a touchstone. E.T. forms a beautiful bond with Elliott, but still longs for his home. So when he assembles a Speak & Spell as a communication device and starts muttering "E.T. phone home," there wasn't a dry eye in the theater. Spielberg threw in a seven-year-old pigtailed Drew Barrymore, a Golden Retriever mix, and a moonlit bike ride to cement the deal that we were all going to bawl. He showed no mercy.

The "I'll be right here" scene from Spielberg's E.T. www.youtube.com, Universal Pictures, MovieClips

Tod Perry, my colleague at Upworthy, also just recently watched E.T. with his child. He shared that they both loved it and openly wept. He further noted, "The big takeaways were the kids in that movie are so feral and unsupervised compared to kids today. Like Elliott stays home from school, alone. Normal then, criminal today. That and Spielberg pulls absolutely no punches, goes for the jugular with how emotional that movie is."

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Steven Spielberg once played an epic prank on 'Goonies' director during his vacation from set

“I’ll get you.”

via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons and MaybeMaybeMaybe/Wikimedia Commons

Director Steven Spielberg and director Richard Donner

“The Goonies” is a classic ‘80s film about energetic, fast-talking kids searching for One-Eyed Willie’s treasure. It’s fun for two hours, but the day-in and day-out grind of working with the young cast was a bit much for director Richard Donner.

“Everyone we cast was high energy, and after a while, it kind of started working on Dick. It’d tear him apart a little bit, a piece [at a] time,” the film’s writer-producer Steven Spielberg later recalled in “Reunited Apart with Josh Gad.”

“And so by the end of the movie, in the last two weeks, Richard just kept saying, ‘Oh, my God, I got two weeks to go, and I can’t wait to finish, and I’m going to go to my house in Hawaii, and I’m gonna get away from all of this noise. It’s extraordinary, and I love ’em to pieces, but I can’t stand it anymore,’” Spielberg continued.

Donner’s exhaustion inspired Spielberg to pull an epic prank. He flew the cast of kids out to Donner’s house in Hawaii, including Sean Astin (Mikey), Josh Brolin (Brand), Jeff Cohen (Chunk) and Martha Plimpton (Stef). He also sent the actors who played the obnoxious Fratellis, Anne Ramsey (Mama), Robert Davi (Jake) and Joe Pantoliano (Francis).

Video of the prank recently surfaced on Twitter, where Cohen can be seen telling him, “We’re gonna stay with you the whole time we’re here.” Astin adds: “We’re gonna do a sequel to the movie.”

At the end of the clip, Donner laughs as he flips the middle finger to someone off-camera, presumably Spielberg, saying: “I’ll get you.”


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Steven Spielberg went the extra mile to keep E.T. 'alive' on set for Drew Barrymore

7-year-old Barrymore thought E.T. was real, so Spielberg kept the illusion going even when they weren't filming.

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Drew Barrymore believed E.T. was real.

It's understandable that a young child seeing a movie like "E.T." might think the wide-eyed creature from another planet is real. After all, it's an award-winning film with still-impressive animatronics that bring E.T. to life. One would probably assume, however, that a child who acted in the movie and saw the behind-the-scenes filmmaking process firsthand would know he wasn't real.

However, that wasn't the case for actress Drew Barrymore.

Barrymore played the main character's younger sister, Gertie, in the film. After an initial scare, Gertie adored E.T.—and as it turns out, so did 7-year-old Barrymore.

Barrymore recently had some of the cast members on her daytime talk show for the film's 40th anniversary and they described how she would interact with the E.T. character, even in-between takes. Henry Thomas, who played the main character Elliott, shared that it had been cold on the set one day and Barrymore asked the wardrobe lady for a scarf to put on E.T. so he wouldn't get cold.

"I really, really loved him, in such a profound way," said Barrymore, adding that she would take lunch to the adorable alien on set.

Dee Wallace Stone, who played Elliott and Gertie's mother in the film, said "We found you over there just talking away to E.T., and so we let Steven [Spielberg] know. And so Steven, from that time on, appointed two guys to keep E.T. alive so whenever you came over to talk to him, he could react to you."

How incredibly sweet is that?

For young children, the line between reality and fantasy can be quite fuzzy. Kids' imaginations allow them to believe in everything from fairies to Santa Claus to monsters in their closets, and the fact that Barrymore believed E.T. to be real is such a pure example of childhood innocence.

That Spielberg took care to honor that innocence and nurture Barrymore's imagination even when they weren't filming is so touching. It's particularly moving in this case, considering how key adults in Barrymore's life were famously not protective of her childhood.

Barrymore has shared that Spielberg has been "a big father figure" in her life and that he refers to her as his first kid. The two have been close since E.T. was filmed four decades ago and she credits Spielberg and the entire E.T. cast with showing her the true meaning of family.

The full reunion episode of "The Drew Barrymore Show" with the "E.T." cast is set to air on Monday, Oct. 31.

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3 of Steven Spielberg's 30 films have female leads. Elizabeth Banks isn't here for it.

While accepting an award on June 14, Elizabeth Banks had a gutsy message for Hollywood powerhouse Steven Spielberg.

Banks was on stage at the Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel when she brought up a sad truth about one of the world's most celebrated directors:

“I went to 'Indiana Jones’ and ‘Jaws’ and every movie Steven Spielberg ever made," Banks said. "And by the way, he’s never made a movie with a female lead. Sorry, Steven. I don’t mean to call your ass out, but it’s true.”

OK, so it's not entirely true. But it's almost true.

Of the 30 films Spielberg's directed, just three have featured female leads (a fourth is in production now), The Wrap reported. Most notably, Banks failed to remember Spielberg was behind the iconic and consequential "The Color Purple" (Twitter users were quick to remind her). He also directed 1974's "The Sugarland Express" and "The BFG," released last year, both of which featured female leads.

The sentiment behind Banks' comment was spot on, however. Spielberg's preference for male-led films isn't unique to him — it's reflective of an industry-wide problem.

Most popular Hollywood films are dominated by male characters, The Washington Post reported in April. It's an issue that'd surely get much better if more women were directing films (men run the show behind the vast majority of movies being made), but women are continuously struggling to be taken seriously as the one helming the ship. The problem is demonstrably worse if you zero in on women of color.

For Banks — who directed "Pitch Perfect 2" and is working on 2019's "Charlie's Angels" — part of the solution starts at home, with the audience.

“Buy a fucking ticket to a movie with a woman," she told parents in the crowd while accepting her award. "Take them, give them the experience of seeing amazing women on film."

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