Movies That Totally Ripped Off Blade Runner

In Kathryn Bigelow's criminally underrated neo-noir Strange Days, audiences experience a momentary break from reality by entering a depraved, simulated world of memory and emotion ... like it's 1999. In futuristic L.A., two days prior to the millennium, Ralph Fiennes is Lenny Nero, a former LAPD cop who now illegally deals recordings that capture immersive, lived-in experiences via a device plugged directly into the cerebral cortex. Naturally, this technology is exploited for a whole host of deviant uses.

Perhaps inspired by Dixie Flatline's saved consciousness in William Gibson's Neuromancer (a concept also explored in Netflix's Altered Carbon), these recordings can be played back and experienced at a later date. While immersed in a recording, Nero stumbles across the gruesome assault and murder of a prostitute. What unravels is a dark exploration of challenging themes, including racism, voyeurism, rape and murder.

Rain-covered streets and futuristic L.A. aside, there's one significant similarity between Strange Days and Blade Runner — the respective leads. "Lenny and Deckard could almost be neighbors," Deborah Jermyn writes in The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow. "One an ex-cop, one semi-retired from LAPD; both holed up in the same city; both caught up in detective stories which will make them question what they see and what they remember." Unfortunately, Strange Days is remembered as a box office flop, making just $8 million against its $42 million budget.