Stargate (film)

Stargate began with a movie. The series Stargate SG-1 followed.

The Plot
The movie begins with a quick flashback to an archeological dig in Giza, Egypt in 1928, where Professor Langford discovers an artifact, a large (10 meters in diameter?) metal ring with symbols all along the edge with nine chevrons, that has been protected by coverstones. His young daughter Catherine acquires an amulet.

In the "present" (1994 when the movie was released), Catherine Langford is an old woman. After becoming the laughing stock at one of his seminars, where he proposes unpopular theories about the building of the Egyptian pyramids, Dr. Daniel Jackson, a radical, young, down-on-his-luck Egyptologist, is confronted by Catherine about a job decoding Egyptian hieroglyphics for the Air Force.

Meanwhile, Jack O'Neill is an Air Force colonel (see episode? for information about why he retired) who has just been recalled to active service. O'Neill has recently experienced the death of his son, who accidently killed himself with his father's gun. Consequently, O'Neill has become sullen and morose.

Meanwhile, thrilled at having achieving employment, Dr. Jackson travels to Colorado to accept Catherine's proposal. Inside a former nuclear missile silo, he is presented with the coverstones. He finds the translation of the hieroglyphics on the inner tract is wrong and corrects it, discovering the portion translated as "door to heaven" really reads "Stargate." Colonel Jack O'Neill immediately makes this information classified.

Over the course of the next two weeks, Dr. Jackson puzzles over the mysterious seven symbols in the center of the cartouche. Due to a chance incident, he discovers that these seven symbols are not words to be translated, but star constellation. When explaining his findings to General West, he states that the cartouche charts a course to a point in deep space with seven symbols -- six for the destination and one for the point of origin.

General West decides to show Dr. Jackson the artifact discovered in 1928 -- the Stargate itself. After Daniel quickly discovers which symbol on the gate is the point of origin, the gate is activated, creating a wormhole between it and another gate "on the other side of the known universe." An initial probe is sent through the gate, revealing the planet on the other side can support human life.

The military is planing on sending a reconnaissance team, headed by Colonel O'Neill, through the gate, but the symbols of the gate on the other side are different. Dr. Jackson volunteers to go along so he can realign the Stargate on the other side, so the team can return to Earth. General West okays the mission and Catherine gives Daniel her amulet so he can bring it along as good luck. The team steps through the gate and comes out in an Egyptian temple of the desert planet Abydos.

However, the team is in for an unpleasant surprise when they discover Jackson doesn't know how to realign the Stargate, lacking the proper order of alignment or the point of origin for Abydos. Jackson believed another cartouche would be waiting right on the other side with this information, but this was not the case. Most of the men become very angry with Daniel when they discover they may not be able to return home, but unflappable O'Neill seems to accept this fate in stride and begins setting up a small nuclear bomb near the Abydos Stargate.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jackson has a run-in with a local beast of burden and is dragged across the desert. The team splits up with one half, under the command of O'Neill, heading after the hapless archeologist while the others, commanded by Louis Ferretti, stay behind at the temple. After catching up with Jackson, O'Neill and the others discover, just over a nearby hill, a group of primitive people mining naquadah, the same mineral the Stargate is made out of.

Upon spotting Catherine's amulet, which has the Eye of Ra on it, the people immediately begin worshipping the travelers, believing they was sent by the god Ra. The people take the team to their primitive walled city, which protects them from a coming sandstorm. O'Neill's team remains at the city overnight while Ferretti's forces are forced to retreat inside the temple due to the storm. Meanwhile, Jackson is unknowingly married to Sha're, the daughter of their patriarchal leader Kasuf, while O'Neill befriends Kasuf's son Skaara.

In the middle of the night, an alien spacecraft lands on a pyramid behind the temple and several armored guards round up Ferretti and the rest of his team. Sha're, meanwhile, leads Jackson to a room filled with writings. He discovers that the people of Abydos are ruled by an alien being posing as the god Ra. Ra, he discovers, has achieved immortal life inside a human body and forces the Abydosians to mine naquadah for his technology.

Charles Kawalsky finds another cartouche with the return coordinates in the same room. However, the seventh symbol has worn off and is now indecipherable. Convinced they will by trapped on Abydos forever, the team heads back to the temple, but O'Neill and Jackson are captured and brought before Ra. Ra presents them with the bomb O'Neill planted and Daniel is horrified to discover what the colonel had been planning. O'Neill attempts to kill Ra, but he is overpowered and Daniel is killed in the struggle.

However, Daniel awakens in a sarcophagus and confronts Ra. Ra tells him that he plans to send the nuclear bomb back to Earth with a dose of naquadah, making it powerful enough to, apparently, destroy the Earth. Furthermore, Ra tells Jackson to kill his comrades before the Abydosians, validating Ra's position as their god. If Daniel refuses to do this, Ra will kill him, his comrades and, evidently, all the Abydosians.

At a large public event, Jackson begins to grudgingly carry out the executions. However, Skaara reveals that he and the other Abydosian kids have firearms from the team. At the last moment, Daniel turns his staff weapon on Ra and fires. The team and the kids retreat into the desert to hide from Ra. Jackson forces O'Neill to reveal his orders involving the bomb and explains Ra's plan to the others. When he finds Skaara sketching a drawing of their successful escape from Ra, Daniel discovers the point of origin for Abydos.

The Abydosian youngsters and the team advance towards the temple, but Jackson, O'Neill and Sha're are trapped inside. Kawalsky, Ferretti, Skaara and the others are trapped outside, where they are assaulted by two Death Gliders. Inside the temple, O'Neill sets the bomb for seven minutes. When Sha're is killed by a guard, Daniel uses the ring transporter to go aboard Ra's ship and bring her back to life with the sarcophagus.

After Jackson and Sha're escape off Ra's ship, O'Neill attempts to disarm the bomb, but discovers that it has been rigged. Meanwhile, Kasuf leads the rest of the Abydosians down on Ra's forces and Ra, realizing the Abydosians are rebelling against him, makes his ship lift off. In an act of desperation, O'Neill and Jackson send the undisarmable bomb aboard Ra's ship with the ring transporter. The bomb goes off, killing Ra and destroying his ship.

O'Neill and his men return to Earth, but Jackson chooses to stay behind with Sha're. Before O'Neill leaves, Daniel hands him Catherine's amulet and tells him to tell her that it brought him luck. O'Neill agrees and, after bidding farewell, steps through the Stargate.

(rated PG-13, approximately 120 minutes)

The Cast
The original movie had a different actors playing some of the key roles than in the later series.

* Jack O'Neill's name is spelled with only one L in the original movie, but with two in the series.

** Although two of Ra's guards are credited as "Anubis" and "Horus" (referring to their helmets which are in those shapes), when brought into the continuity of Stargate SG-1, they are really Jaffa guards and not as credited.

Credits
The following credits are incomplete. Casting by April Webster, C.S.A. Music by David Arnold Digital and visual effects supervisor: Jeffrey A. Okun Special creature effects created by Patrick Tatopoulos Costume designer: Joseph Porro Edited by Michael J. Duthie and Derek Brechin Production designer: Holger Gross Director of photography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub, BVK Co-Producer: Ute Emmerich Executive Producer: Mario Kassar Written by Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich Produced by Joel B. Michaels, Oliver Eberle, Dean Devlin Directed by Roland Emmerich

Trailer

 * A trailer for Stargate