10 Sci-Fi Movie Rip-Offs You Won't Believe Exist

You're probably aware of the E.T. rip-off Mac and Me, but what about Nukie? Released in 1987, this South African sci-fi romp revolves around the titular alien who crash-lands in Africa and teams up with two local children to rescue his brother, who has been kidnapped by the U.S. government.

The similarities in premise alone speak for themselves, and indeed, Nukie is what you'd get if E.T. was made on a shoestring budget without the backing of a major studio - or a skilled cast and crew.

Even the production company, Trimark Pictures, sounds like a knock-off of TriStar Pictures founded two years prior.

Yet what truly sinks Nukie isn't the terrible script or atrocious acting, but Nukie himself. The creature design is less adorably ugly like E.T. than genuinely nightmarish, even putting aside its evidently thrown-together conception.

It's painful to say it, but if you're gonna hedge your bets on one E.T. ripoff, it should probably be Mac and Me, which is at least good for some honest-to-God laughs.

Fun yet perhaps-not-remotely-true fact: it's been widely circulated online that Nukie was one of Nelson Mandela's favourite movies of that release year.