Back in the 1980s, Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was one of the most entertaining, heartfelt, and scary movies a kid could possibly watch. In the absence of being allowed to watch the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Poltergeist, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, sci-fi offerings like E.T., which had the odd scary moment in them, were the closest things 80s kids could get to watching horror.
The scene in E.T. in which the eponymous alien is chased by the “bad people” and ends up at Eliott Taylor's house was pretty thrilling and frightening for a young child.
But a youngster being scared senseless may well have missed the Star Wars references in the movie – especially if they hadn't seen Star Wars at that time.
- When Elliott shows E.T. his action figures, three of them are Star Wars figures. The figures in question are Greedo, Boba Fett, and Lando Calrissian.
- At one point, Eliott's older brother Micheal imitates Yoda while making fun of Elliott.
- When Mary Taylor, Elliott's mother, sees the mess in Elliott's room, she says, “this is no room, it's an accident,” which is a reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi's famous line from A New Hope, “that's no moon, it's a space station.”
- A child in a Yoda costume can be seen during the Halloween walk scene. E.T. starts walking towards him exclaiming, “Home.”
- Iconic composer John Williams who wrote the music for Star Wars also did so for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and, in the above scene, you can hear a brief moment of Yoda's theme, which he wrote for The Empire Strikes Back movie which saw Yoda's introduction to the Star Wars universe.
Rather famously, George Lucas noted the references and returned the favor in The Phantom Menace by sneaking in some characters who looked exactly like E.T. during a great scene at the Galactic Senate (see the picture above).