E.T.

a step outline


  1. A spacecraft has landed. Aliens collect plant samples (hook).
  2. Humans arrive, scaring them off. ET is stranded (complication).
  3. Eliot is ostracized and ignored by his older brother and his friends.
  4. Going out to get a pizza delivery, Eliot hears a strange noise. When he throws a ball, someone/something throws it back.
  5. Nobody believes him, but the older boys go out to investigate. They find tracks - assumed to be coyote tracks.
  6. Early a.m., Eliot hears noises again. He investigates and finds ET. Both are scared stiff and run.
  7. Eliot tries to bait ET back to the house (call to action).
  8. Eliot defends seeing ET to mother, brother, sister. Nobody believes him.
  9. Eliot waits for ET at night - and the alien comes. They meet.
  10. Eliot coaxes ET into the house. They get to know one another.
  11. Men from above are out searching for ET.
  12. Eliot fakes illness in order to stay home from school and be with E.T.
  13. Eliot spends day with ET, shares his toys. They get closer.
  14. Later Eliot gives ET a meal.
  15. After school, Eliot shows ET to his brother. His sister comes in and meets the alien.
  16. Mother walks in, ET hidden, but she suspects something. Eliot says he's keeping him, only us kids can know (end of act one, plot point).
  17. Men continue search for ET.
  18. Eliot shows ET a map. ET gestures he is from outer space, performs magical feats.
  19. Eliot sees men near the house.
  20. ET brings dead flowers to life.
  21. At bus stop, kids tease Eliot about his "goblin."
  22. Mother hears noise upstairs, investigates. ET hidden with stuffed animals.
  23. At school, Eliot's class is dissecting frogs.
  24. At home alone, ET gets drunk.
  25. Eliot at school also gets drunk - he and ET have magical biological connection. Eliot sets free all the frogs.
  26. Mother gets call from school about ET, who is with sister in kitchen but mother keeps missing him. Sister teaches ET to talk.
  27. Sister shows Eliot that ET can talk. ET says, "ET phone home" - he wants to go home (midpoint).
  28. Men looking for ET come in vans to house. They are bugging the kids.
  29. Eliot and brother prepare to get material so ET can make a phone. Brother says ET doesn't look too hot.
  30. They sneak the material into the house for ET.
  31. ET builds a communication device.
  32. On Halloween, the kids sneak out ET, dressed as a ghost.
  33. They go to ridge to set up device, their bike magically flying.
  34. When mother leaves the house on Halloween, men enter.
  35. The device works and starts sending signals.
  36. The house is searched and tested by the men.
  37. At the ridge, Eliot begs ET not to go home.
  38. Eliot falls asleep, wakes next morning at the ridge - but ET is gone.
  39. Mother reports Eliot is missing. But he returns as she is being questioned, with news that ET is missing.
  40. Brother takes off to look for ET, gets followed by men in car, ditches them.
  41. He finds ET under an overpass, dying. A helicopter looms overhead.
  42. Brother brings ET home, finally shows him to mother. Eliot believes he and ET are dying.
  43. The house is invaded by men in high tech suits, house quarantined.
  44. Eliot and ET are captured in adjacent beds, heavily monitored. ET is dying (end of act two, plot point).
  45. Eliot tells sympathetic scientist that ET needs to go home in order to survive.
  46. ET has no pulse.
  47. ET left for dead, men pack up to go.
  48. Eliot gets moment with ET's body.
  49. When Eliot says, "I love you," ET revives.
  50. ET tells Eliot his people are coming, "ET go home."
  51. Eliot tells his brother that ET is alive. They kidnap ET, the brother driving the ambulance.
  52. Long chase to get ET safely to the ridge in time to go home.
  53. They ditch the men and make it to the ridge. ET goes home.

a sequence outline

These steps can be organized under the major sequences of the story.

  1. "ET is stranded." (steps 1-2)
  2. "Eliot is lonely." (steps 3-5)
  3. "Eliot finds ET." (steps 6-11)
  4. "Eliot gets to know ET." (steps 12-14)
  5. "Eliot shares ET with his brother and sister." (steps 15-18)
  6. "Eliot realizes that men are looking for ET." (steps 19-22)
  7. "Eliot and ET are physically, spiritually connected." (steps 23-26)
  8. "ET wants to go home and Eliot will help him." (steps 27-33)
  9. "Men take over the house." (steps 34-36)
  10. "ET is missing." (steps 37-42)
  11. "ET is captured by the men." (steps 43-50)
  12. "Eliot helps ET escape and catch his ride home." (steps 51-53)

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SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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