12 Things You Probably Never Knew About E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Just like Elliott, Spielberg had a turbulent childhood and it was always thought that his own personal experience living in a broken home and being moved around a lot inspired the plight of his main character. The director later confirmed this to be the case, revealing the details of his childhood that fuelled his desire to make the film:

"We would go from town to town. And it would just so happen I would find a best friend, and I would finally become an insider at school and at the moment of my greatest comfort and tranquillity we'd move somewhere else. And the older I got the harder it got. And E.T. reflects a lot of that. When Elliott finds E.T., he hangs on to E.T. and he announces in no uncertain terms, 'I'm keeping him,' and he means it."

Spielberg also revealed that he himself had an alien best friend as a child – albeit an imaginary one. When his parents divorced in 1960 the young Spielberg invented an alien companion to help him relieve the emotional stress he was going through, describing his friend as someone who could be the brother he never had and the father he didn’t feel like he had anymore.