“He doesn’t want to hurt anybody.”
John Carpenter has made a pretty decent career from films in which creepy-crawlies of all kinds harass and/or straight-up murder folks, so this was a nice change-of-pace for the director.
The alien invader played by Jeff Bridges comes to Earth in response to a message broadcast by the Voyager 2 space probe, only to be shot down.
Scrambling to reunite with his own kind, the peaceful explorer takes the appearance of Karen Allen’s late husband, setting up a cross-country journey and a tentative love story.
Warm and hopeful, this is E.T. for adults.