Investigating it, Elliot tosses his baseball into the shed and it comes back out. Screeching, Elliot runs back into his house telling all of the intruder in the shed that threw his ball back to him. The mother laughs at Elliot and makes him feel stupid in front of his friends. She assumes that because Elliot is a child, he was just frightened and imagining things. He couldn't possibly have found something. This is the first example where the adult shows signs of close-mindedness. The entire household now investigates, even after the command of the mother telling them to all stay in the house. Armed with Mom's twenty-dollar kitchen knives, the older boys rush out and all others follow. Finding some footprints in the dirt, Michael proclaims the coyotes are back. Then all retreat back into the house. This scene reflects the close-mindedness the mother showed and the complications that occurred because of it. .
The next place the filmmaker shows the effects of close-mindedness occurs when the children are running from the police to save E.T. The police are so close-minded that they will do anything to get E.T. back. They put the children and their lives in danger in a high speed chase to stop them. The police are not able to psychologically deal with the fact that the children are right to try and save E.T. The film shows the effects of close-mindedness through the actions of the adults, and through the children's open-mindedness and acceptance to do the right thing even in times of extreme peril.
The scene where Elliot befriends E.T. is the first instance when open-mindedness and acceptance is introduced through the eyes of the children. Elliot's curiosity eventually breaks down his inhibitions and leads him to reinvestigate the sounds outside. Elliot and E.T. meet for the first time with mutual screams in a cornfield. Once parted, Elliot again succumbs to his curiosity and leaves a trail of candy from the nearby forest back to his home.