MovieChat Forums > Threads (1984) Discussion > They Killed E.T. !!!!

They Killed E.T. !!!!

posted 8 years ago by cableaddict
5 replies | jump to latest

At about 50 minutes and 16 seconds, (on my version, at least) After the first bomb explodes in England, and a woman yells "Michael" -

There is a series of short cuts, and one of them can only be described as E.T. The Extraterrestrial, sitting against a wall and going up in flames. (Alive)

Seriously.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31826742/Threads%20-%20ET%20%20A.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31826742/Threads%20-%20ET%20%20B.png

Somebody HAS to explain this to me.

[–] greg-233 8 years ago

A lot of toys caught fire that day. E.T. dolls were popular in the 1980s. Ten days after the attack there was a survivor sitting in the ruins with what looked like a set of Star Wars figures. I'm guessing they belonged to the survivor's dead son.

[–] badcommand 8 years ago

Years before DVD and stuff, even when videos and hence the Pause button were a dream, I always thought that was a person burning up. I was quite disappointed to discover it was ET.

[–] cableaddict 8 years ago

I guess it was the kid Michael's toy, meant to imply HE was burning without actually showing it.

Clever, but it didn't work since the image was so confusing.

[–] tgs333 8 years ago

Poor Michael. He was really look forwarding to being commander of their bomb shelter.

"I'm a vehemently anti-nuclear, paranoid mess, harbouring a strange obsession with radioactive sheep."

[–] epa101 7 years ago

That was probably the goal. Barry Hines seems to like that sort of thing. There's a similar red herring in his film The Price of Coal, which makes you fear for the worst.