10 Sci-Fi Rip-Off Movies (That Messed Up What They Copied)

It's said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and where Hollywood is concerned, it's certainly not unusual for even tremendously talented filmmakers to borrow from that which came before.

But there's obviously a line, and sometimes it's painfully clear that a film is just cynically ripping off a recent mega-hit in the hopes of raking in some easy cash.

Trend-chasing is nothing new, but it's especially common in genre filmmaking where enterprising producers attempt to ride the coattails of whatever's hitting well with audiences at that time.

And sci-fi is certainly no exception, as the moment that any remotely original or distinctive sci-fi film makes a dent with the mainstream, there are going to be a bevy of cheaper, less-meticulous imitators rushed out to try and profit off its success.

And so here, we come to perhaps the most blatant, absurd, and in some cases lazy sci-fi rip-offs ever made.

While many unoriginal movies can still stand out on their own thanks to the efforts of the cast and crew, in the case of these 10 films, each fundamentally missed what made their inspiration so damn captivating in the first place...

Of the many rip-offs of James Cameron's The Terminator curled out during the 1980s, surely the most infamous of the lot is 1988's Lady Terminator. If the title might suggest that the film is nothing more than a gender-swapped riff on Cameron's film, that's not quite fair - for better or worse.

Indeed, Lady Terminator's setup is basically totally different, revolving around a young anthropologist, Tania (Barbara Anne Constable), who gets possessed by the soul of an ancient sex goddess (!), and then embarks on a murderous rampage across town. Yup.

It's only after Tania's transformation that Lady Terminator becomes a recognisable Terminator rip-off, with Tania rocking a leather ensemble and a giant gun as she chases down the great granddaughter of the man responsible for defeating her previously.

From here, countless key sequences from Cameron's film are listlessly aped, including the nightclub shootout, car chase, police station massacre, and most bafflingly even the eye-removal scene (even though the Lady Terminator isn't a cyborg).

It's not simply that Lady Terminator lacks the technical finesse of even early-era James Cameron, but that the film tries to have its cake and eat it too, ripping off The Terminator albeit with some highly deranged, original affectations of its own.

On one hand it's laudable to not rely entirely on Cameron's film, but on the other, if you're going to rip-off something as beloved as The Terminator, why not commit wholeheartedly to it? Instead, the end result likely satisfies only the most die-hard bad movie aficionados.