Whatever Happened To Elliot?

I’m not sure what came across me to write this post. I guess just being the typical nostalgic person I am. I think we all watched E.T. growing up — maybe you got to see it in the movies or maybe a parent or sibling showed it to you, or hey maybe you were a rich ‘90’s kid and your parents left you with a big screen TV in the divorce settlement and ample time to play Nintendo and do fuck all. The first time I saw E.T. I stayed home sick from school and my stepdad showed me this fantastic movie. It was a green VHS tape. It was about a boy named Elliot, and his disconnection from the world. Unlike other films I had seen, this one was different. There was a single mom, a younger sister, and an older brother. Every character fit their mold, even Michael, who’s Elliot’s older brother. He was a football player who, before the Satanic Panic of the late 80’s and early 90’s, actually kicked off the movie playing Dungeons And Dragons with his friends. A few years later and that probably would’ve caused an uproar. It just goes to show you how Stephen Spielberg was as a director, writer and producer. We had “Jaws” and “Close Encounters”….but this was taking what people loved about “Poltergeist” and making it accessibly for a sci-fi audience. You can tell a lot of stories when the characters are relatable.

I’m a big fan of movies from this era, especially thanks to John Williams. He did lots of movie music magic that I bet you know, including Shaving Ryan’s Pri—-wait wait no Saving Private Ryan, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park; The list goes on and on via your finger tips at Wikipedia. I’m a big believer in the fact that without music, a lot of these big budget films would look and feel as unfulfilling as going to Taco Bell with only $5 in your wallet. You don’t just want anyone directing the score, just like I want more than one grilled cheese burrito. Williams is fantastic in getting emotion out of people. It’s why I always cry at the end of E.T. There are certain movies that bring you to tears because of the content, and others that bring you to tears because of the music - take Fox & The Hound vs. E.T. for example.

I was watching this movie the other night because it makes me feel safe and OK. It reminds me of feeling like a kid but also like I was allowed to be my own person. Which I was. I think my neighborhood growing up was truly the last group of kids who were actually allowed to do whatever we wanted and be out and explore. For better or for worse. Probably why I didn’t relate to anyone when my family moved or why I still don’t. Those kids were allowed to be out and about exploring and as long as you were home for school, dinner and bed, the rest was up to you. I hated watching that fade away, or worse, watching those kids impose different rules upon their possible future children. I mean, I understand times change but are we exasperating this change? I’ve come to realize that a lot of kids are sheltered because parents hear horror stories and make them that way. The term “helicopter parents” gets thrown around. I don’t have children so it’s not my topic to speak on but I think kids do have trouble maturing at a lower rate because they don’t have that “come home for supper when the lights are on”. It seems to be a cycle that we either need to accept why 13 year olds are acting like 9 year olds or why we (not me) as parents are afraid of giving our (not me again) kids some freedom. Just some food for thought, I really don’t know. I’m just throwing out there, parents - if you don’t like the childhood your kids have, I don’t know, maybe stop posting memes and throw them in the woods? Just a thought. And if you don’t have woods, let them be kids. Have a space for them to be unsupervised,

Anyway, I wrote this post because I was thinking about what happened to Elliot. Not after helping E.T. get back to his colony. But with what happened to him personally after that time — did he get grounded? Did Mike finish his D&D campaign? Did Gertie finish her latest bed time story? Did Pizza Hut finally make it on time? But more specifically, I want to know, what happened to Elliot?

That movie came out in 1982. My stepdad, who showed me that film, was 20 years old when it came out. I think he told me he saw it in the movies back then. My mom was 18. They probably both had thoughts about how they wanted to change the world. I’m sure a lot of people did. Doesn’t every person when they’re in high school listening to records and going to parties? The computer age had just emerged - kids were told to go to school for business, computers, engineering, “the future”. I’m sure a lot of “kids”/people that age were thinking how they wanted the world to see them. How they wanted to contribute. What the year 2000 would be like. What their kids would be like. Jeff Bezos was also 18 years old; Elon Musk was 11. And it might sound corny but I’m genuinely curious what happened to Elliot?

I ask because weren’t Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos Elliot then? Weren’t we all Elliot at one time? Shouldn’t we still be? Aren’t we still? I shouldn’t be the only person left in the world who wants to believe the scientist who says he’s been waiting for E.T. all his life. But where is he? If you’ve never seen the film, there’s a scientist who finds Elliot after E.T. and reminds him that he once was him, “that boy”, he was someone who wished for something out there, he wished for E.T. He wished for finding E.T. his whole life. But now his character is this scientist chasing the kids around and testing E.T. and doing awful things. Wasn’t he once Elliot? Weren’t we all? Shouldn’t we continue to be Elliot? Shouldn’t we all be trying to do the right thing with the environment, with our discoveries, with nature, with science? An in-ground swimming pool and a vacation to the Maldives that you paid for because you gave into to corporate greed might help you enjoy life now but you still have children and grandchildren…don’t you still maybe watch this movie at Christmas time or on school holidays? Maybe you dust a copy off from the basement when your nephew is home sick? You have to think back to it. Because you once believed in it.

And let me be perfectly clear - I’m not knocking wealth. How can I? I’m American. Money doesn’t buy happiness but it buys options and stress so take your pick. I know for myself how much being in sales and making money affected my personality. It wasn’t until I had a near death experience that I realized the more money I made, the more work I had to do, the more bills I had, the more stress I accumulated, the less time I had for myself, and worst of all, the more anger and agitation I had for those around me. And I sold telephones. I’m not avoiding the consequences of years of environmental degradation. But a lot of people are. A lot of Japanese companies are fishing wild dolphin pods out of the ocean for hunting and for sale at SeaWorld type locations around the globe - the latest one being in Abu Dhabi (I would link this but I get so much sadness on my feed on this topic, I would appreciate if people could look it up themselves. It’s something that affects me very deeply and I can’t pull anything up without it kicking my ass everyday, my apologies). Nestlé, who we all get our chocolate from, employs most of its workers from the Ivory Coast, which has had more than enough problems, mostly thanks to our presidents here in America. The World Cup? I think I read about 400 people died building the stadium. Here’s the main scary shit post but I’ve read on Reddit about people from African counties taking job offers in Dubai, only to get there and be told the pay had changed so they turn down the jobs and are kept in worker camps and never heard from again. Sadly,

I don’t know what ever happened to Elliot but I really hope he did something special. I don’t know why or when we stopped wishing to do something special for other people or the world we live in. I think that life causes us to be caught up in personal growth - gym, mental health, education, meditation, local political awareness. But if there are pods of dolphins and packs of coyotes that fight for others in their group, why are people so against fighting for a better *something*.

*Remember these tid bits?

2/10 people know that oil companies use the throw away ingredients from the refinery process to create plastics which they sold to corporations in the 80’s under lax economics laws IE EXXon sold trash to the US under the guise that it could be sold to corporations to package their products in the lax Regan era gov’t. The US, still to this day, sells and buys products that govts we label as “third world” IE Mexico sells us back things from their own refinery processes that they refuse to sell to their own back to us for our food. More on this later.

We’ve all seen ET growing up as kids im susre? At least I know I did. My atepdad had a nice tape that I would wtch when I was home sick oe idndt feel good. I think it was green with silver print or something weird. It wasn’t lke NORmal tape.

I had always been weird with the Myster fiels shelby woo and unsolves mustrres and x files so it would make sense that there would be other weirx kids tooo. But as I got older. I just found more people who do something that fits into a 9-5 box that Ican’t type out bc its so stupid. And theyre’e the kids of the people who this movie was writeen for! So I wonder……what ever happened to Elliot?

He was (I’jm not going to use that styoud tiktok shit ) but he was our bright shining boy, he belieevcd in animals ans welfare and kindness and questioning the govt. This was like the firsr live acion mizyaki film ever in th e us also the fisst time we saw dnd wihought satanric panic.

But what happened to elliot? Do you kknow the noises they male are the noises whene a baby whale or doplhin gets sepaeated from its mother? I know that sounds rnadom but I wanted to shae hat