When ET and the flower are brought back to life, I always thought it was because his people zapped the general area with a reanimation ray. That’s why Eliot asked “Does this mean they’re coming?” (To which ET replied “Yes!”)
ET was dead as a doornail. How would he ever be able to resurrect himself? Despite the Jesus allegory, I always considered the movie from a scientific (not religious) viewpoint. Once you’re dead, you’re dead, unless there’s some kind of external intervention.
I think it’s the symbiosis. That’s why he got sick, and why he came back. Remember, he also revived dead flowers and healed wounds.
Symbiosis with whom? Eliot? His people (other ETs)? 
I don’t think even Jesus could reanimate himself. I believe resurrection came from the outside.
All of the above, but he needs symbiosis with his own people to maintain his life force; and if he is separated from them, he has a certain amount that he can use for himself and also on others, but they are a drain on him and he is only replenished when he is around his own kind.
Of course, here’s the real question:
If E.T. could fly at the end of the movie, why didn’t he fly up to the spaceship at the start of the movie and save himself?
The door was closed.
Oh great, that ruined the movie for me now! I have no answer for that one.
OMG, I just learned my wife (b. 1984) has never seen this! Mind blown.
And the ship was moving *way *too fast!
What about when he was first trying to get back, though?
Since the zombie has arisen already - years of sci-fi movies and books notwithstanding, the odds of the physiology of an ET matching close enough to anything on Earth to serve as a breeding ground for bacteria seems to this non-biologist to be extremely low (and let’s not even talk about half-Vulcans . . .)
Hmmm, maybe Spielberg thought of it as a Moses story but then Mathison got all Jesusy with it. This was during the period when she had a thing for carpenters.
As I remember, in the scene at the end where the scientists are examining the dying E T and Elliot, one of them announces excitedly that the alien has DNA. So maybe?
Yes! I’m alive!
I’m always worried that one of my zombie threads will pop up and I’ll be dead and miss out on the follow ups.
Definitely deserved props on that Symbiosis answer.
Follow up, unrelated question: What age to introduce kids to ET? I want my son to see it, but he’s only 3, so probably not yet. How old were you when you first saw it?
Data point #1. Drew Barrymore was 7 when she played Gert.
Data point #2. Gert was a five-year old.
You should be able to take it from there.
I was 26.
IIRC, my first daughter saw it when she was two, and she loved it.
That movie was great fun to see for the first time in a full movie theater.
Jumping into all of those pits looking for telephone parts is why E.T. got sick. If you’re going to be hanging around in a bunch of pits, you’re bound to come into contact with some really disgusting stuff. And the stress of constantly having to run away from all of those federal agents is bound to compromise your immune system. I hope they had some fancy antibiotics on the ship.
Love it! </Atari kid>
He didn’t listen when he was warned not to drink the water.