01
The Iron Giant
Why this pick
Like E.T., it turns a child’s secret friendship with an otherworldly visitor into an intimate, funny, deeply tender adventure, while keeping the adult pursuit genuinely tense.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE1982 2h 0m USA
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
AdventureFamilyScience Fiction
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
If you loved E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, try these.
01
02
The BFG
Why this pick
Spielberg again builds a luminous child-and-outsider friendship, balancing playful discovery, nighttime unease, and sincere emotional connection without losing its storybook scale.
03
The Goonies
Why this pick
For E.T.’s energetic group of kids and suburban-era wonder, this offers a scrappy, affectionate children’s adventure where friendship and peril feel equally immediate.
04
Super 8
Why this pick
It shares E.T.’s 1980s small-town texture, kids’-eye view, and mix of awe with government-threat suspense, though its mystery and danger are somewhat more intense.
05
A Monster Calls
Why this pick
A fantastical visitor gives a young protagonist room to face overwhelming feelings; it carries E.T.’s emotional sincerity and visual wonder in a more melancholy register.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
An extra-terrestrial is accidentally left behind on Earth by his ship and befriends a young boy, as well as his brother and sister. As the children attempt to help their new friend contact his home planet, so that he might be rescued, they must simultaneously elude scientists and government agents who are determined to apprehend the alien for their own purposes. In their quest to see E.T. return home, the children enjoy the greatest adventure of their young lives.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Dee Wallace
Mary
Henry Thomas
Elliott
Peter Coyote
Keys
Robert MacNaughton
Michael
Drew Barrymore
Gertie
Sean Frye
Steve
C. Thomas Howell
Tyler (as Tom Howell)
Erika Eleniak
Pretty Girl