The Earthling is a 1980 American-Australian adventure film directed by Peter Collinson, and starring William Holden and Ricky Schroder.

Discovering he has terminal cancer, he decides to return to the Australian outback where he grew up to die in solitude.

His plans are interrupted however when ten year old Shawn Dailey's parents die in a horrific accident leaving the boy alone and helpless.

The film was shot from September to October 1979 in the Blue Mountains, Barrington Forest and Warrumbungle National Park.

[citation needed] It played to little notice in theatres, but later became something of a daytime staple on HBO and other cable-movie channels in the 1980s.