Which 1982 film directed by Spielberg features an alien stranded on Earth?

The 1982 Spielberg film featuring an alien stranded on Earth is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The story centers on Elliott, a lonely boy who discovers the gentle extraterrestrial and helps hide him from government agents while E.T. searches for a way home.

Melissa Mathison wrote the screenplay, and Spielberg directed and produced the film. Henry Thomas played Elliott, with Dee Wallace as his mother and Peter Coyote as a government agent. The film’s emotional focus is the friendship between a child and a visitor who is separated from his family.

E.T. was made on a budget of about $10.5 million and became a massive commercial success. Its themes of childhood, separation, friendship, and returning home helped it connect with audiences well beyond the science-fiction genre.

A common mix-up is with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another Spielberg alien film. Close Encounters, released in 1977, is about human contact with extraterrestrial visitors; E.T. specifically follows one alien stranded on Earth and befriended by a child.