The Story Behind The Shot: How did Steven Spielberg make Elliot’s bike fly in ‘E.T.’?
It’s the most iconic shot in 1980s cinema, and you don’t even need to be a child of the ’80s to recognise its power. In fact, it’ll probably remain embedded in the cultural imagination long after its director has passed on, having provided the signature logo for his production company, Amblin Entertainment. It is, of course, the famous bike ride scene in Steven Spielberg’s 1982 science fiction movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
For those of you who have spent the last few decades living under a rock, E.T. tells the story of Elliot, a young boy who adopts a friendly alien after he becomes stranded on Earth. Forced to keep his existence a secret from everyone but those closest to him – his brother and his little sister Gertie – Elliot invites the alien into his suburban world, where it attracts the unwanted attention of the US government.
The bike ride scene, in which E.T. makes Elliot’s bicycle fly, is now over 40 years old. Age has in no way diminished its power. Speaking to Yahoo, Henry Thomas, the now 50-year-old actor who played Elliot, spoke about what it was like to film the scene for Spielberg. “That was me on a bike on a crane arm on a soundstage with a blue screen behind me,” he said, referring to the moment Elliot and E.T. flew across the moon. “I was just up and doing going ‘Woo-hoo! Wow! Amazing!’ Of course, in the theatres, you see it with the rear projection, and it’s this beautiful Redwood forest floating beneath you.”
According to Thomas, the most commonly-asked fan question about E.T. is how Spielberg got the bike to fly. “Back then, special effects weren’t as publicised as they are now.,” he said. “A lot people didn’t have a clue about how they were done. It was just movie magic, which is kind of interesting because it wrapped the whole industry in a little bit of an enigmatic thing, and that was part of the fun of seeing films.”
Spielberg was just 33 when he made E.T. As a young director, he had an eye for the new. Alongside cutting-edge CGI technology, he included paraphernalia that would be attractive and relatable to young viewers. “BMX racing was new, so that was in the film,” Thomas added. With John Williams’ transcendent score providing emotion by the bucketload, Elliot, an ordinary child from an ordinary town, floats high above the redwoods, amazed and terrified in equal measure. “Don’t crash, please,” he whispers. And with that, one of Spielberg’s most iconic scenes cuts to footage of Elliot and his friends out-cycling the police. Soon enough, the whole gang are flying, this time across a heavy orange sun.
You can revisit the scene in the clip below.
