Stargate: Continuum

Stargate: Continuum is the second Stargate film to be released on DVD following the end of Stargate SG-1. It is written and directed by Brad Wright and stars Richard Dean Anderson, Ben Browder, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge and Claudia Black. Shooting began on April 15, 2007. The first trailer was released on April 21, 2008.

thumb|200px|left|Stargate: Continuum trailer

The Plot
SG-1 plans to go to the Tok'ra homeworld, where SG-3 and General Jack O'Neill has sent the last of the Ba'al clones for a symbiote extraction. The Free Jaffa Nation has an entire fleet to prevent Ba'al from escaping. Vala decides to bring in an X-699, which she claims is a precaution. However, Mitchell takes it away from her. They invite General Landry to join them, who declines saying that he has to go through some paperwork.

When they arrive at the Tok'ra homeworld, SG-1 and O'Neill listen to the Tok'ra chant all of the crimes Ba'al committed during his reign, a list that lasts for three hours. During that time, Jackson notices that Vala has disappeared, but assumes that she did not want to watch the extraction, as she went through it herself whilst she was a host to Qetesh. Eventually, Ba'al is taken out of stasis and escorted to the extractor. There, he approaches the team and gloats that he is merely the last clone, and that the real Ba'al has a failsafe plan in the works.

Back in 1939, somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean, the freighter Achilles is travelling on a zig-zag course to avoid German U-boats. Captain Mitchell (Cameron Mitchell's grandfather) asks one of the crewmen to check the cargo after the ship starts to shake. The crewman approaches the container, only to be vaporized by the unstable vortex of an incoming wormhole. The "real" Ba'al, along with a few Jaffa secures the vessel and massacres the crew. Ba'al and the Jaffa depart through the Stargate and leave behind a bomb to destroy the ship, as well as the Stargate. However, a mortally wounded Mitchell is able to drop the bomb into the ocean before it detonates. At some point after that, Mitchell dies.

Back in 2008, Daniel becomes concerned over Vala's disappearance, as no one had seen her leave. It was as if she vanished into thin air. Then, just as Teal'c begins to talk, they see him disappear also. Many of the Tok'ra then begin to disappear. O'Neill confronts Ba'al about this, but he frees himself and uses the extractor to kill O'Neill. Mitchell then kills Ba'al, firing on him with a P90. Mitchell, Jackson and Carter are able to reach to the Stargate, as the skyline of the Tok'ra homeworld vanishes. However, just as they enter the Stargate, the wormhole briefly changes purple/pink before turning blue again.

The team goes through the gate, only to find themselves in a dark room, covered in ice and frost. After the gate deactivates, Carter notices that the temperature is rapidly dropping. They try to discover where they are and Jackson soon finds lifejackets which indicate that they are in the cargo hold of the Achilles, the ship that carried the gate from Egypt to the United States in 1939 to prevent the Nazis from getting their hands on it. However, the ship is now in the Arctic, meaning that the ship never reached the United States. Mitchell eventually manages to blow a hole in the ice, using C-4. They manage to escape the ship before the ship sinks into the ocean. However, in the process, Jackson gets frostbite on one of his feet, and is unable to walk. Jackson tells the rest to leave him behind to get help.

Mitchell and Carter speculate what happened. Carter suggests that Ba'al must have altered the timeline and created an alternate one in which the Stargate Program never existed. They are eventually found by three figures, which turn out to be a Colonel O'Neill and two other team members. They take Carter and Mitchell to the U.S.S. Alexandria, which had picked up Jackson earlier. He was treated, but unfortunately had to have his leg amputated.

The submarine takes the team to Alaska to be debriefed. The team explains the Stargate program, but nobody seems to believe them. Eventually after five days, they get frustrated and demand a halt to the questioning. The team then meets with General Landry, who seems to agree with them. They propose that they should change the timeline back to where it's supposed to be. Landry promptly refuses the request. Eventually the team is separated and provided with new identities, as in this timeline Carter was killed on a space mission, Jackson resides in Egypt due to being ridiculed because of his theory that the Pyramids were landing sites for alien ships, and Mitchell doesn't exist since he is a literal Grandfather Paradox.

A year later, Mitchell repairs his car and drives to Auburn, Kansas to visit the house he grew up in, only to find that a farmer has lived there for 35 years. Carter is frustrated with the fact that she can't work in any scientific areas. Jackson gets a prosthetic leg and enters a book shop and sees the alternate Jackson's book "The Truth About the Pyramids", which is selling at a 70% discount. He later finds a way to call his alternate self in Egypt, and tells him not to give up hope. Jackson's double promptly hangs up on him. Soon after, Carter notices an Al'kesh flying above her. The rest of the team are made aware of the event and are called to Washington D.C.

Meanwhile in another part of space, lies a massive fleet of Goa'uld Ha'tak vessels and a sovereign flag ship, which turns out to be Ba'al's. There, he has Qetesh as his queen and Teal'c as his First Prime. He has managed to defeat the other System Lords and has made himself the ruler of the galaxy. Teal'c brings in Apophis, who Ba'al had ordered him to capture with a promise that the Jaffa would eventually be free. Ba'al executes Apophis. Later, Cronus informs Ba'al that he has scouted Earth and discovers that the planet has billions of Humans but no defenses against the Goa'uld armada. The fleet jumps into orbit above the planet.

In Washington, the team are reunited and meet up with President Henry Hayes and Lieutenant General George Hammond in an underground bunker. The team warns them that the scout ship will send a fleet and that they have no chance to defend themselves and will all be either killed or turned to slaves. Hayes informs them that the Navy wasn't able to recover the gate under the Arctic, but did find the Beta Gate in Antarctica, and sent it to McMurdo Air Force Base. A team has also almost drilled to the Antarctic outpost, where they would be able use the drone weapons to destroy the fleet. However, they must commandeer a space ship and fly to Taonas to grab the Zero Point Module and gate back to Earth, power the control chair and wipe out the fleet. However, they had to act quickly, as they detected the fleet just exited hyperspace and spread out over the planet.

Ba'al meets with Cronus, Nirrti, Yu, Ra and Camulus to decide the fate of Earth. Qetesh and Nirrti propose to wipe out the Tau'ri to the brink of extinction. However, Ba'al has other plans. He grabs a Satellite phone and calls President Hayes, and claims that they come in peace. After the other System Lords leave, Qetesh gets suspicious of Ba'al and drives a sword through his chest. She asks him why he knows exactly what moves to make and why he knew about the untouched Earth. Teal'c enters and is ordered to attack the Antarctic base. Eventually, Teal'c notices Qetesh's intentions and Qetesh tries to kill him with a kara kesh, after killing Ba'al. Teal'c manages to escape.

Back on Earth, Hayes hears the news that the Antarctic base has been bombarded. The team, who are in a flight of F-15s are ordered to turn around, as the plan has failed. Qetesh later orders the Goa'uld to bombard the Earth. Teal'c escapes on a cloaked Al'kesh with a few Jaffa and sees the sovereign ship exit into hyperspace. Teal'c plans to reach the planet Qetesh plans to reach before she does, which contains Ba'al's time-machine. They go down to Earth to find a chappa'ai.

The Ha'tak vessels starts firing on all major cities, including Washington D.C.. General Hammond receives a communication and hears that "the Russians have the other one". He relays the message to the F-15s, before Washington is wiped out. The F-15's K-10 tanker is destroyed by Ha'tak weapons fire. The fighters head towards Russia. However, on the way there, they encounter a squadron of Death gliders. They are unable to shake them and are about to be destroyed when Carter detects a group of Russian MiGs coming straight at them. Jackson explains their identity over the radio to the MIGs, who easily destroy the oncoming gliders.

The Russians have managed to retrieve the Stargate from the wreckage of the Achilles and stored it in a bunker near a major city (possibly Moscow), which is being bombarded by weapons fire. SG-1 arrives and notices that the Russians can't find a way to power the gate, as main power has been lost during the bombardment. An Al'kesh lands above the bunker and Teal'c and two Jaffa exit. The two teams encounter each other which results in a standoff. Mitchell, Jackson and Carter realize that they are after the same thing, namely to stop this from ever happening. They form a truce and decide to work together, as Teal'c is passionate about the Jaffa becoming free. They activate the gate using a small device that powers it, and go through the gate before a Ha'tak destroys the complex.

They arrive at a Solar observation outpost, which was how Ba'al was able to alter the timeline. The outpost receives information from hundreds of satellites orbiting stars and monitoring their solar flare activity. Carter just has to find a star that can take them back to 1939 and stop Ba'al from ever altering the timeline.

However, several Jaffa come through the ring transporter. Mitchell, Jackson and Teal'c easily kill them all, but more waves of Jaffa keep coming down. Eventually Carter finds a suitable star, but the problem is that the flare will take them to 1929 instead. They decide to take it. However before they can dial the gate, Jackson is shot and mortally wounded by staff blasts. Mitchell orders Carter to dial the gate but just as she is finished dialing she is shot as well, Teal'c is shot shortly thereafter. Mitchell steps through the Stargate and gates to Earth in 1929.

Immediately Qetesh rings down and sees a dying Teal'c, who after a brief conversation with Qetesh says "I die free", and subsequently activates an explosive device, killing himself, Qetesh and the Jaffa, as well as destroying the entire outpost.

Back in 1939, Captain Mitchell orders one of the crewmen to investigate the cargo. There, he hears the chevrons encoding. At that point, a bearded Cameron Mitchell tells him to stay down. He hands him a Thompson submachine gun. They take cover and watch the gate activating. They easily kill the Jaffa the second they step through. The real Ba'al arrives seconds later, only to discover his Jaffa have all been killed. Mitchell then shoots him in the head, killing him. The timeline is restored.

Back in the present of the now-restored timeline, SG-1, completely oblivious of the previous events, watch the extraction proceed without incident. When it is done, which happens quite fast, much to Mitchell's surprise, Jack O'Neill says he'll buy lunch and he and Carter walk away talking about the plans for the new Lunar Base. Back on Earth, Daniel wonders what Ba'al meant by his failsafe, but they decide not to dwell on it. The final shot shows a close-up of a picture in Mitchell's locker, which has his alternate self standing alongside his grandfather. 

Goofs

 * Consistency errors: The location in the Arctic is specified as "above the Arctic Circle", but in this area, the sun does not rise as quickly as shown. Daniel Jackson also seems to be unaware of the fact that in the polar region, the sun only rises once per year, when stating "Once that sun rises, it's gonna warm right up," though this is probably meant to be a joke.
 * When Teal'c dials the gate in Russia using the handheld device to power it, he sticks the device to the inner ring of the Stargate. When the Stargate starts dialing, the inner ring does not move, although the sounds of dialing can be heard.
 * When the Stargate activates on the boat (both times) the container it's in has a circle disintegrated on both sides of the event horizon. Stargate canon clearly states that the vortex only shoots out one side. Though this could be explained by a strudle formation in the rear of the gate. This would be consistent with the timeframe of the device's activation.
 * After the "One Year Later" when Samantha Carter is shopping in the grocery store she picks up a box of "frooties" according to the front, although "rice krispies" can clearly be seen on the side.
 * Shortly before Vala disappears in the beginning of the movie, the Jacket she is wearing is the only one without two buttons on the right side of the collar.
 * While Samantha Carter theorizes that SG-1 was spared from the time changes by being en-route through a wormhole, the time changes actually began before they entered the Stargate (and interestingly, caused them to do so). This conflicts with previous examples of time travel in the Stargate universe, in which an alternate reality is generally created, separate from the parent timeline "Moebius, Part 1", "Moebius, Part 2", "2001", "2010", "The Last Man", "Time". One exception being in the SG-1 episode "1969" in which a seemingly stable time-loop was maintained.
 * Mitchell gates back to 1929, but we do not see where the Earth gate is at this time. It had only been dug up in 1928, so how Mitchell exits the gate at the Earth end of the wormhole is a mystery.

The Cast

 * Ben Browder as Colonel Cameron Mitchell and Captain of the Achilles
 * Amanda Tapping as Colonel Samantha Carter
 * Christopher Judge as Teal'c
 * Michael Shanks as Dr. Daniel Jackson
 * Beau Bridges as Major General Henry "Hank" Landry
 * Claudia Black as Vala Mal Doran and Qetesh
 * Richard Dean Anderson as Major General Jack O'Neill
 * William Devane as President Henry Hayes
 * Cliff Simon as Ba'al
 * Don S. Davis as Lieutenant General George Hammond
 * Steve Bacic as Camulus
 * Gary Jones as Chief Master Sergeant Walter Harriman
 * Jacqueline Samuda as Nirrti
 * Peter Williams as Apophis
 * Darcy Cadman as Russian Officer
 * P.J. Prinsloo as Alex
 * Jean Daigle as Bosun
 * Corey Turner as Helmsman
 * David Ingram as Air Force Major
 * Dan Shea as Master Sergeant Sly Siler
 * Martin Wood as Major Wood
 * Derek Peakman as Tok'ra Elder
 * Juan Llorens as Cab Driver
 * Ron Halder as Cronus
 * Alison Matthews as Interviewer
 * David Kaye as Interviewer
 * O.L. Bramble as Jaffa Leader
 * Reese Alexander as Jaffa Pilot
 * Mark Pawson as Jaffa Pilot
 * Tracy Trueman as Heather
 * Jason Benson as Officer
 * Kirsten Williamson as Officer
 * Campbell Lane as Older Man
 * Vince Crestejo as Yu
 * Jay Williams as Ra
 * Lebrone Flippin as Ba'al's Jaffa
 * Duke Shoebotham as Ba'al's Jaffa
 * Mike Roselli as Qetesh's Jaffa
 * Rob Boyce as Qetesh's Jaffa
 * Colin Cunningham as Major Paul Davis
 * Adrian Hughes as Peltac Jaffa
 * Jacqueline Becker as Lady Shopper
 * CDR Michael Bernacchi as Commanding Officer
 * CMDCM(SS) Wesley K. Koshoffer as COB
 * LCDR Jason M. Geddes as Officer of the Deck
 * LTjg Alan M. Roche as Officer on Guard
 * Barry Campbell as Crewman on Sail