ET: Why does E.T. Get sick?

[Kinthalis]

I'm watching E.T on the sci-fi channel. I'm up to the point where he gets sick and the government goons show up.

My question is: Why does E.T get sick? Elliot is sick as well, did E.T get sick because elliot got sick, or did eliiot get sick because E.T got sick?

[Earl of the CC]

E.T. gets sick because he's desperately homesick. Elliot gets sick because E.T. has forged some kind of direct bond between their minds.

[Atreyu]

I always thought that E.T. got sick because the conditions on Earth was simply not agreeable enough with his physiology to permit a long-term stay.

Earl of the CC nailed it with the reason why Elliot got sick. Elliot and E.T. had formed a telepathic bond, and Elliot's illness was the result of his body responding to E.T.'s failing health.

[moriah]

The water in a foriegn planet will always get you.

[Zebra]

Actually a direct cause of ET illness is never set down in the film. The fact that he is on an alien planet is a good assumption but there is nothing in the film that gives an answer. ET and Elliot do have a bond that ET forges in Elliot's room the first night.
Since Elliot gets better when the bond is broken it's logical to assume that ET is sick and the link caused Elliot to be sick but it's not explained in the film. You could argue that all the doctors and medicine work better on Elliot than they do on ET.

But you see

ET is an emotional sci-fi story. The exact whys and hows don't really matter. It the emotions you feel when ET and Elliot get sick and when ET breaks his bond with Elliot to sacrifice himself and let Elliot live that are important.



Try not to think so much.

[GuanoLad]

ET's return to full health is a reaction to the return approach of his fellow botanists on the spacecraft. So there's something about being away from his fellows, probably some kind of symbiosis, the same kind between ET and Elliot, that is at play.

[tracer]

Originally Posted by Atreyu

I always thought that E.T. got sick because the conditions on Earth was simply not agreeable enough with his physiology to permit a long-term stay.

"Not agreeable enough" is probably the understatement of the year.

Take some distilled water, let it set out for a few hours, and then look at it under a microscope. It'll be crawling with bacteria it picked up from the air. E.T.'s alien lungs would've been inhaling dozens of those little microorganisms with every breath he took.

Sure, us human beings inhale the same bacteria, but we've co-evolved with them for millions of years and have all sorts of built-in defense mechanisms against them. E.T.'s body has never seen anything like terrestrial bacteria before. E.T.'s lungs evolved to ward off infection from the germs on his home planet, which are going to be ever more dissimilar from our germs than Sequoia trees are dissimilar from people.

I'm surprised his crewmates were running around out in the open without wearing biohazard suits.

[Chronos]

I never got the impression that ET broke his bond with Eliott, and just let him recover on his own. I had always figured that he was actively healing Eliot through their bond, by channelling his remaining life-force (or whatever) over to Eliott.

Of course, the real question about ET is why a Jew would create such a blatant allegory of Jesus.

[dalovindj]

Of course, the real question about ET is why a Jew would create such a blatant allegory of Jesus.

Damn. Seems a little harsh. I must admit that my favorite part of the New Testament is when Jesus gets into the wine and all the apostles on the fishing boat end up being drunk as a result, so they release all of the bait, causing much hi-jinx to ensue.

Perhaps the answer is that Spielberg just wanted his own . . . personal . . . Jesus.
Any Depeche Mode fans out there?

DaLovin' Dj

[asterion]

Originally Posted by Chronos

Of course, the real question about ET is why a Jew would create such a blatant allegory of Jesus.

Okay, now I want to see a Photoshop of ET replacing Jesus on those shots from the Passion.

[Anaamika]

Originally Posted by Chronos

I never got the impression that ET broke his bond with Eliott, and just let him recover on his own. I had always figured that he was actively healing Eliot through their bond, by channelling his remaining life-force (or whatever) over to Eliott.

Of course, the real question about ET is why a Jew would create such a blatant allegory of Jesus.

Huh.

First the Chronicles of Narnia, and now E.T.

I am so oblivious.

Damn this Jesus guy.