Stargate (film)

The whole premise of the Stargate franchise began with the feature film Stargate, released theatrically in 1994 by MGM. It was directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Emmerich and Dean Devlin and starred Kurt Russell, James Spader and Jaye Davidson.

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 "Cold Lazarus" 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."



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 were 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 Abydonians 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 Abydonians, validating Ra's position as their god. If Daniel refuses to do this, Ra will kill him, his comrades and, evidently, all the Abydonians.



At a large public event, Jackson begins to grudgingly carry out the executions. However, Skaara reveals that he and the other Abydonian 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 Abydonian 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 as well as some characters who never appeared in the series.

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

Film/Series Inconsistencies

 * Instead of Cheyenne Mountain, the movie places the Stargate in a fictional Creek Mountain.


 * When the bomb is sent aboard Ra's ship, Ra changes back into his alien form. This contradicts Stargate SG-1, where his race, the Goa'uld, are snake-like parasitic creatures and not humanoid in form.


 * Unlike in the television series, the chevrons do not glow red when engaged.


 * Though it's stated in the film that Abydos is "on the other side of the known universe" and that it is located in the Kaliem Galaxy, in Stargate SG-1, Abdyos is located in the Milky Way and is one of the closest planets in the gate network to Earth.


 * There are a couple structural inconsistencies in the Stargate facility. For example, in the film the blast doors that obscure the gate are in front of the window in the briefing room, rather than on the outside.


 * Considering that, according to the series at least, Goa'uld motherships have shields that prevent ring transporters from working, it seems rather foolish that Ra would have kept the shields down when he knew that the Jaffa he had send down had been killed, since the head was ringed onto his ship. Of course, this could be attributed to Goa'uld arrogance.

Mistakes and Possible Explanations

 * There is a logical flaw in the film. Since there are thirty-nine symbols on the gate and the first six symbols were known, it would take only thrity-three random tries to open the gate. However, there is a possible explanation. Since the gate actually has nine chevrons, it may have not been known that only seven chevrons were required to reach Abydos.


 * The subtitles contain some grammatical errors. For example, "God" is capitalized when it's not being used as a proper noun and, when Ra explains how naquadah will "increase your weapon's destructive power," there is no apostrophe in "weapons" making it plural rather than possessive. The latter was corrected in the "ultimate edition" DVD.


 * It is stated that the cartouche is ten thousand years old and Barbara Shore states that this is known since the sonic and radiocarbon tests were conclusive. These tests would determine the age of the stones, but not the writings on them.


 * The stars in constellations only appear to be close to each from the point of view of Earth, so a constellation cannot be considered a single "point" in space.


 * When the team enters the gate on Earth, the blast doors are closed over the control room in the shots in the gate room, but in cutaway shots of the control room, the blast doors are open.

Other Notes

 * Stargate has the distinction of being the first film to have an official website.


 * No DHD is ever shown in the film, making it unclear how Daniel Jackson managed to redial the gate.


 * Though Jack O'Neill stated the bomb had been rigged, there is an alternative explanation for why he couldn't disarm it. In the episode "Scorched Earth" of Stargate SG-1, Samantha Carter stated that a naquaada bomb cannot be deactivated once it has started. Since Ra had had naquaada added to the bomb, this may have caused the same effect.


 * Though it is heavily implied, the film, contrary to popular belief, never actually states that Ra was the last of his race or that he built the Stargates.


 * Ra seems to be certain what world the travelers had come from, which is based on the fact that, in the film, the Stargate only went to one planet. However, it is possible that he could have determined it through torturing the captives.


 * In a scene in the "ultimate edition" DVD, Ferretti, when asked by the other soldiers why they can't turn the gate on themselves, says "we could turn the thing in the wrong order and materialize in the vacuum of outer space." This not only implies the existance of other Stargates, later established in Stargate SG-1, but also suggets that gates can be placed in outer space, as later seen in Stargate Atlantis.


 * In the opening scene with the discovery of the gate in 1928, the language spoken is actually Swedish.

Awards

 * Won Saturn Award for "Best Science Fiction Film"


 * Won BMI Film Music Award (David Arnold)


 * Won Golden Screen


 * Won Universe Reader's Choice Award for "Best Science Fiction Film"


 * Won Universe Reader's Choice Award for "Best Special Effects in a Genre Motion Picture" (Jeffrey A. Okun)


 * Won Universe Reader's Choice Award for "Best Supporting Actress in a Genre Motion Picture" (Mili Avital)

Nominations

 * Nominated for Saturn Award for "Best Costumes" (Joseph Porro)


 * Nominated for Saturn Award for "Best Special Effects" (Jeffrey A. Okun and Patrick Tatopoulos)


 * Nominated for International Fantasy Film Award for "Best Film" (Roland Emmerich)


 * Nominated for Hugo for "Best Dramatic Presentation"

Trailer

 * A trailer for Stargate