John Williams wrote the score for Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Williams’s music is central to the film’s emotional identity. Its soaring orchestral themes help create the sense of wonder, friendship, danger, and homecoming that defines Elliott’s relationship with the stranded alien. Spielberg and Williams had already worked together on films including Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The score earned Williams an Academy Award for Best Original Score. E.T. also won Oscars for sound effects editing, visual effects, and sound, making it one of the most celebrated science-fiction films of its era.
A common mix-up is confusing the film’s score with its songs. “Flying” and the other recurring musical passages are part of Williams’s orchestral score, while the end credits feature the song “E.T. and Me,” performed by John Williams’s longtime collaborator Michael Jackson on a later soundtrack project. Williams’s score remains one of the best-known film scores in cinema history.