A huge aspect of this movie is that the two of them are connected. When E.T. is sick, Elliott is too. What E.T. feels, Elliott feels.
... But why? How is this possible? Is there a hidden explanation that I missed? This suddenly started bugging me today.
No, you didn't miss anything. It's implied that they have formed a sort of "psychic connection", but it's never really explained.
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A journey into the realm of the obscure: http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/
Maybe he was an empath. You can feel what others feel, think and sense. Over time you gain their ability.
shareFantastic answers....I think it was implied he (E.T.) was in telepathic contact with his crewmates. They all stood still whenever their chest glowed red. Since he lost his crewmates and felt lonely, it seemed like he bonded (telepathically) with Elliot as a member of his species. Just a theory.
shareI like your explanation about the telepathic bond.
This part of the film always bugged me. The way Elliott behaves like ET. When they both get sick, it was my understanding that ET let Elliott go so that both won't die (he lets him survive in a way). But then, a few minutes later, ET is actually alive. Did he fake his death to get away from the doctors and scientists?
Did he fake his death? That's a great observation and makes perfect sense in context of the story.
I never believed E.T. was dead and figured he was just biding his time until his people showed up.
"A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference." Eeyore
Yeah, it seemed like something of mental link or an empath type of thing. You and the other poster have some great questions about him faking his own death. It was weird and unexplained when he started to lose vitality. It seemed like E.T. was dying until he somehow knew his crew was coming back. It was like he was powered by some sort of bio battery or something....I wonder if his heart or lungs were a node in network which received power from the ship. I guess they revived him by sort of signal or something. Great movie, but I hear ya kinda weird and screwy in some parts. Unexplained.
shareI like your explanation better than mine. When he gets sick and is found by the river, he's really sick and not faking it. He really seems to be slowly dying. So maybe he kind of dies (he got a flat heart line and all) but may come back to life as the spaceship is approaching. This can be explained by the special mental link they all seem to have.
I always wondered why ET gets sick. Maybe it's because the ETs all need to be together to be healthy (due to their special bond) and also because while on earth, he wasn't able to adapt himself to the new environment (food, weather, whatever). I even wondered if Elliott passed him the cold he got when they were in the forest.
Anyway thanks for your inputs. I'm glad I'm not the only one who wonders about these things :)
I often wonder if maybe some using some of his abilities (healing, telekinesis) drained him too. Thanks for your input, I like reading about stuff like this.
shareMaybe he couldn't adapt to our polluted atmosphere.
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House. My room. Cant walk. My medal. My father. Father, dont!
This. It certainly took care of those aliens from War of the Worlds.
"A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference." Eeyore
Good point man, I wish Spielberg would've clarified.
shareIts the force.
Just another silly aspect of this bad movie.
Elliott is connected with E.T. in terms of some sort of telekinesis power that is unexplained. Elliott's brother explained in the best to the guy when he said "No, Elliott feels his feelings". His race were all connected in some sort of a way to the ship it seemed. Without his other alien brother and sisters he suddenly felt alone and to feel normal I think he connected with Elliott, which would be similar to how he went about his daily life in the ship. My theory is that he has a lot of unseen powers that we never get glimpses of either. Maybe ET had a way of scanning people on a mental level and he found that Elliott gave him the best chance of survival / helping him get back home, within close proximity to where he was first lost in the forest. I do not think he stumbled upon Elliott by accident.
Thing is, most powers like his are never really explained in movies and we can just assume that E.T. connected with Elliott on a level that we couldn't possible understand even if it were true.
Bluetooth.
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