ET the Extra-Terrestrial at 40: Spielberg’s sci-fi smash remains a wonder

There’s a crucial domestic scene early in ET the Extra-Terrestrial where 10-year-old Elliott (Henry Thomas) is trying desperately to convince his mother (Dee Wallace), his older brother Michael (Robert MacNaughton) and his little sister Gertie (Drew Barrymore) that he’s found an alien in the back yard of their suburban home. Nobody believes him. So he lashes out, like many children would in that situation. He claims his absent father would have believed him. And he tells his harried mother, who’s still raw from the divorce, that his dad and a woman named Sally are vacationing in Mexico.