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