Elliot: He came to me, he came to me.
Keys: Elliot, he came to me too. I've been wishing for this since I was 10 years old, I don't want him to die. What can we do that we're not already doing?
Elliot: He needs to go home, he's calling his people, and I don't know where they are, and he needs to go home.
Keys: Elliot, I don't think he was left here intentionally, but his being here is a miracle, Elliot. It's a miracle and you did the best that anybody could do. I'm glad he met you first.

Is Keys saying that E.T. came to him when he was a kid a long time ago? When he says E.T. "came to him, too" is he referring to E.T. being chased by Keys before the space ship took off? If so, then what does he mean that E.T. met Elliot first?

This exchange still has me puzzled years later.

He means that Elliot does not have ownership over ET. Keys believes he has just as much right to do what he wants with ET as Elliot does.

I always took it to mean that although Elliot was the one to find E.T. Keys had been waiting for E.T. since he was a kid and E.T.'s landing on Earth was a dream come true for him as well.

He was glad that Elliot found him first because Elliot gave E.T. the friendship and help that Keys would have given had he found E.T. when he was a boy.

Its been so long since I've seen that movie, I have absolutly no idea who Keys is.

The Peter Coyote character is referred to as "Keys" because he's show from the waist and he has keys danging and jingling from his belt.

I agree with your interpretation.

But what does he mean by "he came to me too." Does he mean in a dream? At some unseen point earlier in the movie? When Keys was a 10 year old child? He's glad Elliot "met" him first, so how the hell did E.T. ever come to Keys? Is it literal, or figurative?

Lemme tell ya...MAC AND ME never left me dangling with those kinds of questions!

Is this serious?

He came to Keys in two senses:

1.) In the beginning of the movie with the trucks.

2.) in terms of him being someone who wanted to experience the same situation as Elliot.

I always thought it was left up to the viewer as to interpretation of that line. I figured he either saw an "E.T." from a distance, or became interested in the theory they existed, at a young age. That interest may have become an obsession to where he eventually became the head of a government department with enough manpower and resources to finally make contact... thus bringing a lifelong dream to reality.

No kidding. I didn't know this line was supposed to be confusing.

That being said GoldenJCJ hit it on the head:

Yeah, this isn't really meant to be that confusing DD. Elliot says "He came to me." and Keys is essentially saying "I've been dreaming of something like this happening all my life, I've wanted something like this to happen for as long as I can remember, I got into science hoping to make contact like this at some point. ET coming to you is also ET coming to Earth, to all of us, to me."

"And I'm glad he came to you first, to make a friend and see our world. Because if I had seen him first, I would've had to turn him in."

I think that movie left a lot of people dangling, because there's no way you could look at Mac's family and maintain an erection.

MAC AND ME is the Second Adventure on Earth that we never got to see.

Also, it's well-crafted enough that CGI enhancements were never needed.

This...if memory serves the novel expands on this, but I can't remember the specifics. The novel also hints at a future relationship between Mary and Keys (meaning he may become Elliot's stepfather down the road).