MovieChat Forums > The Man from Planet X (1951) Discussion > TMFPX references in E.T.

TMFPX references in E.T.

posted 9 years ago by daybeausweeper
2 replies | jump to latest

While watching TMFPX this morning, I was reminded of a ship that looked fairly similar to the craft in the moor. It took a while before I realized that a fellow named Elliot tried to make friends with the alien, and at another point had his mental processes influenced by that alien. So, I came to this site to see if anyone else had pointed out elements from this movie that showed up in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The only comment I found was by Tennent in the "for the heck of it" thread (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043778/board/nest/46942793).

So, has anyone else noticed other TMFPX references in E.T.?

[–] scottyninethousand 9 years ago

Biking through the woods at night alongside wooden fences while being chased.
yeah i know its a stretch, But it happened

[–] hobnob53 9 years ago

I see a greater similarity between The Man From Planet X and another Spielberg film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The meeting and interaction of humans and aliens is a key element of both. And as the TMFPX DVD itself points out on its back cover, this film had the alien communicating using harmonic tones, a plot aspect not used again until 26 years later with Close Encounters. By contrast, I really don't see any links whatever between this film and E.T., other than the very broad (and therefore meaningless) notion of an alien landing on Earth.

I'm sure Spielberg has seen and appreciated The Man From Planet X. But I wouldn't stretch things too far to pick out similarities between this and any of Steven's films. Any connections are probably coincidental, and they're all pretty tenuous and vague anyway. There are certainly no "references" as such to TMFPX in any of Spielberg's films.