What Exactly Is an Amblin Movie?

Bicycles, Always Bicycles

One of the biggest signifiers of a child’s coming of age is when they get their first bicycle. It’s a measure of freedom that allows them to travel beyond the constraints set for them by their parents. Remember that nostalgia thing? Many adults have a vivid memory of when they got their first bike, how they would enjoy cruising around the neighborhood with their friends. The bicycles in E.T. capture that same sense of joy and adventure. In one of the most memorable sequences, Elliott, Michael and Michael’s friends use bikes to outrun the police and government agencies trying to capture them. Even though they are eventually cornered by police with shotguns, E.T. lifts them (and their bikes) to safety far outside the reach of the law.

Stranger Things so precisely captures the Amblin ideals that it must’ve been created in a lab by the Duffer Brothers to do so. Within the show’s first eight minutes, the boys have played a game of D&D while Mike Wheeler’s (Finn Wolfhard) parents are on parenting cruise control, Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) has tried to get the attention of the older Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer) and an unknown scientist has been presumably murdered by some alien. Then, they bike. Cinematographer Tim Ives gives special prominence to those precious modes of transportation before Chief Hopper (David Harbour) emphasizes the importance of bicycles: “A bike like this is like a Cadillac to these kids.” There’s nothing as liberating and important to a child as their two-wheeled ticket to freedom. The two shall never be separated when trying to create a project in the vein of E.T.

Raging Hormones

It might feel like a toss-away sequence in E.T., but there is still a moment spent with Elliott crushing on a classmate. There’s a girl (Erika Eleniak) in his class who seems interested in him, but as relationships go at that age, neither Elliott or the girl say much to each other. When E.T. starts drinking beer in Elliott’s home, he has already established a mental link with Elliott, making it seem like Elliott is inebriated at school. After freeing all the frogs scheduled for dissection in science class, Elliott stands on the back of a classmate and kisses his crush before being taken away by the teacher.

Raging hormones are an essential part of growing up—especially on screen. If there isn’t some kind of disagreement between friends over a particular love interest, then something isn’t working with a script. While it never amounts to much more than an innocent misunderstanding, two brothers are both smitten by the high school cheerleader, Andy (Kerri Green) in The Goonies. Mikey (Sean Astin) is firmly in the little kid category, but when he stumbles into a corner and kisses Andy, he’ll never forget that moment. Andy didn’t remember her love interest Brand (Josh Brolin) wearing braces, but she thought the kiss was great anyways. It isn’t until the climactic finale that all three laugh at the case of mistaken identity.

Flawed Authority Figures

For a significant part of E.T., the antagonist is only recognizable by the keys rattling from his belt. His characterization is so insignificant by Spielberg and screenwriter Melissa Mathison, that when it came time to give the character an official name he was known simply as Keys (Peter Coyote). The script ultimately tries to redeem him as a man whose obsession with extraterrestrial life forms has been his passion, and who wants to do what’s in his power to save E.T. Even with his good intentions, he’s still a flawed authority figure whose own narcissism outweighs the wellbeing of others.

Stranger Things has a plethora of adults that either take advantage of their position or fail to live up to a certain standard. When the audience is first introduced to Hopper, he’s drunk on his couch. He shows up to work late and refuses to take calls until he’s good and ready. Certainly, some kind of tragedy has influenced his fall from grace, but this cop is not suited for duty. Another shadowy authority figure is Dr. Martin Brenner (Matthew Modine), who was not only responsible for many of the experiments that haunt the town of Hawkins, Indiana but also for working on a number of test subjects including Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). Children look to authority figures for guidance, but many of the characters in Amblin adjacent properties are just out for themselves.

Scary, But Not Too Scary

There are some moments in E.T. that even cause adults to tense up. Whether it’s the jump scares or the trauma of seeing E.T. die, the movie can be legitimately frightening. The Goonies have the threat of the Fratellis always behind them, and the first introduction to Sloth (John Matuszak) would likely cause anyone to jump from their seat. The ultimate goal is to find a balance between being scary and family-friendly.

That’s why Stephen King’s stories like Stand By Me fit under the Amblin formula far more than those like It: Chapter One. They both have a group of preteen-to-teenage children going on an adventure and coming out the other end totally changed. But where those properties exist under or outside the family-friendly umbrella changes their relationship to Spielberg’s standard.

Max Covill is a freelance writer for Paste Magazine. For more anime, movie, and television news and reviews you can follow him, @mhcovill.