stewart (06/21/82)
It seems clear that E.T.'s recovery is due to the return of his craft.
When Elliott runs back to the casket and finds E.T. alive, he asks
"Does this mean they're coming back?"; E.T. says yes.
As for the cause of E.T.'s illness, it wasn't the spending the night
outside or Elliott's cold. Elliott's older brother had noticed that
E.T. wasn't looking very good even before either of these occurred.
The most reasonable explanation is that E.T. could only survive a short
time away from his craft/species.
Bob Stewart
...!ihnss!ihldt!stewart