After various comments I’ve cone across about E.T. on other forums I’ve been extremely interested in finding out whether or not it’s possible that E.T. had 2 different theatrical sound mixes during its theatrical run.

Is it possible that the 70mm 6 track had differences from Dolby stereo? I’ve always known the VHS (and probably laserdisc, I’ve never seen it) has an alternate line in place of the terrorist line which was re ADR’ed altogether for the 2002 cut, but I never thought much of it until someone on Blu-ray.com said they saw a 70mm print from 1982 recently screened at the American Cinematheque which did not contain the terrorist line. I also seem to recall the VHS had a couple of minor sound differences to theatrical sound mix on the Blu-Ray as well as the 2002 DVD of the 82 cut.

I also found a quote from Kathleen Kennedy in 2001 around the time the 20th Anniversary Cut was being put together where she states that she and Spielberg didn’t even remember the terrorist line until the were going over the film and decided in light of then recent events to have new ADR done which was the Hippie line. Is it possible that the reason they forgot about the Terrorist line was because there were 2 different mixes and most people over the past 20 years had been hearing the other one?