8 Original Movie Endings That Never Made It To Screen

E.T. is the quintessential 80s Spielberg film - a semi-autobiographical tale of a young boy growing up in the suburbs with a freshly divorced mother and absentee father who must find an outlet to bond and co-exist with his family. It just so happens that outlet is a cute, Reese's Pieces-obsessed alien and not a Super 8 camera.

It's the heart of E.T., the spirit of riding through suburban streets on bicycles on Saturday afternoons, that allow it to endure, as well as its heartfelt ending that finds our sweet hobo extraterrestrial hitching a ride back to his planet, never to see those whose lives he changed forever again.

But even Spielberg can grasp a little too firmly to that nostalgic reverie, not wanting to let go. So much so that, originally, the director had his surrogate Elliot (Henry Thomas) stay in touch with E.T. via makeshift radio atop his house. It's a silly addition, one that would have added nothing even if they had gone forward with the sequel involving an evil clan of aliens.