Since the first Star Wars (now called A New Hope) was released in 1977, the film has become a staple of the sci-fi genre and pop culture as a whole. It has influenced a number of different forms of media, from television series, books, and movies.
Star Wars is action-packed, with a strong narrative story that draws audience members right in. The space battles in 1977 were superb and the effects were illuminating, to say the least. The films have become the inspiration and the influence for many and have even been the reason why modern directors pursued working in film in the first place.
10 Fanboys
The absolute comedy that is Fanboys is deeply rooted within Star Wars as its main plot revolves around a group of Star Wars obsessed friends committing to a cross-country voyage to break into Lucasfilms in order to see Star Wars: The Phantom Menace a year before its release in 1999.
Fanboys is the perfect comedy for any Star Wars fan and will totally have them laughing at several points throughout. The film is obviously based on Star Wars and wouldn't exist without it.
9 Toy Story
This one may come as a bit of a surprise, but many of the aspects of Buzz Lightyear's backstory were actually heavily based and inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy.
Buzz was a space ranger superhero, but the real inspiration from Star Wars went to his archnemesis, Evil Emperor Zurg. Zurg not only resembled Darth Vader in appearance and voice, but the two also shared a parody scene of a pretty dramatic, near word-for-word scene of The Empire Strikes Back in which Zurg tells Buzz he is his father.
8 Alien
Ridley Scott has said time and time again that his initial film, Alien, was heavily based on the first Star Wars film, A New Hope. After seeing the film in theaters, the director scrapped the film he had currently been working on, thinking and feeling like it wasn't enough.
Filled with sudden inspiration, Scott decided he wanted his next project to be big. When he received the script for Alien, he was immediately invested. Later, Scott also mentioned how he saw a few sketches from George Lucas and adored the retro mixed with futuristic designs of everything which is how many of the set pieces of Alien came into fruition.
7 The Dark Knight Rises
It is heavily believed that Bane's mask in the third installment to The Batman films, The Dark Knight Rises, is greatly inspired by Darth Vader's helmet. Both of the characters speak with a sort of respirator problem (both of which have been greatly memed over the years) and they both share a very similar design around the mouthpiece.
Nolan even confirmed his inspiration by saying that Bane was in fact inspired a bit by Vader and commented on how much Star Wars has impacted his directorial style.
6 Guardians Of The Galaxy
It is no mystery that Guardians of the Galaxy was based on Star Wars. Peter Quill is the perfect replica of a Han Solo, scoundrel type character. In fact, all of the guardians are. This film plays on Han and Lando's rougher smuggler side and plays it up incredibly by telling their story as the main heroes.
Just like the Guardians, Han never believes the life of a hero really suits him. He tries to leave a number of times before he finally accepts that he is a good person, underneath the scruffy-looking nerf-heder.
5 Star Trek
The newest Star Trek films are undoubtedly inspired by Star Wars, as it has been confirmed by J.J. Abrams himself, who later went on to make The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker. He based some of the film's rhythm and added comedy into the fray.
What's interesting is that the original Star Wars is also undoubtedly inspired (no matter how much fans would like to deny it) on the original Star Trek. Spock and Kirk's relationship in the new films also resembles Han and Luke pretty nicely.
4 Serenity
Serenity is the film that came out as a way to wrap up the fan-loved series, Firefly, that was, unfortunately (and untimely) canceled. The series is a space western, much like a lot of the themes in the original Star Wars trilogy (and now again in The Mandalorian).
Many of the characters also seem heavily influenced by the Star Wars characters. Inara has a bit of a Princess Leia vibe, and Mal seems to be heavily influenced by Han Solo.
3 Spaceballs
Spaceballs is an actual parody film on Star Wars. Everything about this film is obviously influenced by Star Wars. The film was released in 1987, a few years after the last of the original trilogy. This film parodies everything from Han Solo and Chewbacca to Darth Vader (as the also iconic Dark Helmet).
This film is comedy gold and will definitely be loved by any fan of Star Wars. This sci-fi parody also takes elements of other popular sci-fi media such as Star Trek and Alien.
2 Akira
Akira is an anime movie that is said to have taken a number of influences from Star Wars in order to implement them into the film. Katsuhiro Otomo, the director behind Akira, has explained a number of times that he was influenced by Star Wars during the production process.
Akira is a post-apocalyptic/cyber-punk story and a resistance fighting against the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, much like the Empire vs the Rebels. The film also had espers that were reminiscent of the Jedi and their powers.
1 Independence Day
Independence Day is a classic, both of the people behind the scenes of the film were greatly inspired by Star Wars, not only for this film but for their entire film careers.
Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich dreamed of having a big special-effects heavy film, with amazing space battles that greatly resembles the space battle of A New Hope, a space battle where all the odds were against them but were incredibly high-stakes and would save the world.