10 Ripped Off Characters Movies Didn't Even Try To Hide

E.T. left a pretty massive impression on American cinema upon its release in 1982, as Steven Spielberg flicks tend to. The film was, at the time, the highest grossing movie ever made, a record set by Spielberg’s own Jaws and bested by his later Jurassic Park. So, in this context it was inevitable that, like Joe Dante’s mischievous Gremlins, Spielberg’s raisin-faced alien would prompt a string of rip-offs varying in quality.

Deep down at the bottom of the mortifying pile lies 1988’s Mac and Me, a film whose limited special effects serve as a pretty great reminder of everything Spielberg’s earlier film got so right. Outside of a wheelchair-bound protagonist, the film offers no meaningful divergence from E.T.’s blueprint, slavishly recreating the film whilst also managing to strip it of its charm and, naturally, originality.

Lest you feel compelled to defend the film for its attempted diversity, however, it’s worth noting that said wheelchair-bound protagonist is tossed off a cliff come the climax in a melodramatic moment so poorly handled that it remains a running joke between Ant Man star Paul Rudd and late night host Conan O’Brien decades later.