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Stargate is a science fiction/action film released in 1994, directed by Roland Emmerich and written by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, with a soundtrack by David Arnold. It was originally intended as the start of a movie franchise, but creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were distracted by Independence Day. Instead, it inspired the television series Stargate SG-1, still in production as of 2006, as well as its new spin-off, Stargate Atlantis, and a poorly-received animated series Stargate Infinity (not considered canon). See Stargate for more about this science fictional universe.
Cast Richard Kind Rae Allen Leon Rippy Storyline In 8000 B.C., in a predynastic Egyptian village, an alien vessel descends and abducts one enraptured boy. Cut to 1928, Giza Plateau, Egypt, during an archaeological expedition. Beneath colossal coverstones, an enormous stone ring is found and excavated to the astonishment and wonder of its discoverers. The daughter of the expedition's commissioner takes an amuletic necklace from a work table at the site, a contextual artifact, inscribed with the wadjet of Ra. This and she will be important later. In the present day, an old woman, wearing the Ra necklace, walks into a symposium hosted by the brilliant but quirky Egyptologist Daniel Jackson. He is giving a presentation of his theory that the pyramids weren't built in the 4th Dynasty. After some derision, his audience walks out. Afterward, in the rain outside, the old woman induces him to join her in a car. She makes him an offer: the chance to translate Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that may prove his theories at last. Daniel's reluctance is overcome by curiosity. Before leaving, the woman gives him travel plans to an Air Force installation. Elsewhere, two Air Force officers come to the house of retired Air Force colonel Jonathan "Jack" O'Neil, calling him back for active duty. Several years ago, O'Neil's young son accidentally shot himself with his father's gun. The grief-stricken O'Neil promptly retired from the service and fell into a deep apathy. The officers find him slouched over the pistol in his son's bedroom, where they inform him that he has been "re-activated". At a U.S. military installation deep inside Creek Mountain, Colorado, Jackson is brought before the coverstones found in Giza. There, he meets the old woman, who introduces herself as Catherine Langford. Daniel correctly translates the hieroglyphs on the coverstones, which read, "A million years into the sky is Ra, Sun God. Sealed and buried for all time, his Stargate." When he asks why the U.S. is interested in "5,000 year old tablets," the re-activated Colonel "Jack" O'Neil enters, stating, "my report says 10,000 years old", the first indication that established history is about to be overturned. O'Neil then declares all information regarding the project classified, and Daniel must proceed with his translations without further revelations regarding the nature or origin of the stones. Two weeks later, after exhausting all avenues, Daniel makes an accidental breakthrough when he recognizes star constellations printed on a newspaper as identical to the glyphs etched into the stone. A meeting is convened. Daniel bumblingly disseminates his findings. He postulates that the constellations on the coverstones define a coordinate location in three-dimensional space, with a seventh glyph denoting "a point of origin". An immediate objection is raised. There is no seventh symbol on what is enigmatically called "the device". "What device?," Daniel asks. A command is given and blast louvers lift, revealing the subject of the project: the enormous ring found at Giza. Dazzled, Daniel manages: ". . . What is that?" And Langford replies, "It's your Stargate." Daniel swiftly identifies the "seventh symbol" that evaded previous researchers and the base goes into immediate activity. The ancient ring has bands of hierglyphs or tracks -- called chevrons -- which rotate with the assistance of robotic motors; triangular "locks" ratchet into position as the constellation coordinates are entered in sequence. A perceptible rumble builds in intensity as the coordinate "sentence" approaches completion. With the sixth chevron entered, the base rattles with tremendous violence, and Langford calls to Jackson over the din, "This is as far as we have ever been able to get." Then Jackson's seventh chevron is entered and the center of the ring seems to explode with light; a great plume surges into the chamber and collapses into itself, settling down to a strange, ethereal watery membrane seeming to glow from within. The Gate is open. A probe is sent through, and is tracked to "the other side of the known universe," where it reaches its destination -- a location tracked to somewhere in "the Kalium Galaxy" (others interpret this as Caelum). The probe sends back a brief stream of images before the gate's glowing membrane abruptly disintegrates: closed. Upon reviewing the probe's data, it is decided that the destination world is very comparable to Earth. Different symbols are observed on its stargate. Failure to interpret these would preclude any recon team from returning. When the prospect of sending a team through is almost discarded on this account, Daniel convinces them to go, claiming that he will be able to decipher the other stargate. After preparations, including the conferring of Langford's 1928 Ra necklace to Daniel, the stargate is activated again, and the team (which includes Colonel O'Neil and Daniel Jackson) is sent though. On the other side, they find themselves deep inside a structure, which is revealed to be a pyramid -- an "exact replica of the Great Pyramid of Giza" -- when they exit it to reach the outside. The pyramid is in the midst of a desert, barren and sere, devoid of any immediate signs of civilization. When O'Neil orders Daniel to "dial" the stargate so that they can reach Earth and report these apparent negative (though suspiciously premature) results, Daniel reveals that returning home is impossible without the co-ordinates for Earth, which aren't likely to be nearby because -- this being an apparent copy of the Great Pyramid -- there are probably no writings to be found. Accepting this with military coldness, O'Neil orders the team to set up a base camp, and returns the pyramid, where he begins to assemble something in secret. Outside, Daniel is eating when he notices tracks. He follows them to an alien beast, a Mastadge, grazing at a small desert brush. When the other team members arrive, Daniel announces, "It's domesticated!" The beast panics. Daniel gets caught in its reins and is dragged off. The team members follow; when the mastadge finally stops, they find a small human civilization, mining. At their approach, the miners immediately bow before them, assuming them to be gods. O'Neil tries to offer friendship to a boy named Skaara, but in fear, the boy runs off to get Kasuf, leader of the tribe. The team is brought back to an enceinte-city and are given a warm welcome. When the tribe unveils a large golden wadjet of Ra, Daniel realises that the people must think they are messengers from Ra. O'Neil sardonically tugs at Langford's Ra necklace around Jackson's neck, says, "I wonder what gave them that idea." Suddenly, horns are sounded, and the people close the city gates. O'Neil and the other team members try to leave, but change their minds when Skaara shows them an approaching sandstorm. Back at the pyramid base camp, engulfed completely in the buffeting storm, the other members of the team head into the stone pyramid for shelter. At the city, Daniel attempts to communicate with the locals by writing, but discovers that this practice is forbidden. A young woman is presented to him as a gift; he attempts to communicate with her, and learns that her name is Sha'uri. When Daniel tries to show her where they came from by writing pictures in the sand, she shows him one of the symbols found on the stargate. He asks her to show him where she saw this symbol, and she leads him to it. Eventually Daniel learns that the main language of the people is a dialect of ancient Egyptian, which as the team's Egyptologist, he understands fluently. Back at the pyramid, the sandstorm is at its worst. A strange vibration begins, and a huge pyramidal craft begins to land directly on top of the pyramid. The team members still inside the pyramid are attacked by an unknown entity, later revealed to be a creature with the head of a jackal (the Egyptian god Anubis). In the city, O'Neil is looking for Daniel, who is off with Sha'uri. With the help of the local boys, O'Neil finds them in a secret cave covered in hieroglyphs, a lost "hall of records," where he discovers that Daniel has figured out how to verbally communicate with the locals -- . While in the cave, Daniel is able to learn much about the stargate, and how humans came to be on this planet. Apparently, the Egyptian god Ra was a humanoid alien, the last of a dying race, who traveled the galaxies looking for a way to extend his own life. Upon reaching Earth, he encountered a primitive race - humans - a race which, with his power and technology, he could maintain indefinitely. He also discovered that within a human body, he had a chance for eternal life. He found a young boy, possessed his body, and appointed himself ruler of Earth. Using the stargate, Ra transported thousands of people here, mostly from Egypt along the Nile Delta, to mine the mineral upon which all his technology depends. On Earth, however, humans rebelled and buried the stargate after learning that Ra was not a god. Fearing the same would happen on this planet, Ra outlawed reading and writing so that the population there would not learn the truth. After Daniel finishes recounting this to the rest of the team, they discover that the cave contains a center stone like the one that contained the coordinate chevrons on Earth, but its bottom half has eroded away, obscuring the last necessary symbol. Concluding that they can't get back to Earth without the last symbol, O'Neil orders the team to return to the pyramid. The next day, the team leaves the city, secretly followed by Skaara and his friends. Upon reaching the pyramid, O'Neil, Daniel, and the rest of their team see the pyramidal craft resting on top of the stone pyramid. Going back inside (still under observation by Skarra and his friends) they are attacked by a creature with the head of a hawk (the Egyptian god Horus). After the other team members are disabled, O'Neil and Daniel retreat further back into the pyramid to where the stargate is. O'Neil looks for the object he was working on earlier, but it's gone. Suddenly, a wedged hatch in the ceiling opens, and nine rings descend. In a flash of light, the Anubis creature appears inside the rings, and is joined shortly by two Horus creatures that followed O'Neil and Daniel down to the stargate. Using the same rings, the Anubis creature takes the two humans up into the pyramid craft, and produces them into a throne room. There, they meet a figure in an elaborate Osirid pharaoh mask: the sun god, Ra. Ra has the object O'Neil was looking for, which Daniel then discovers is a hydrogen bomb. After stating that O'Neil has come to destroy him, Ra motions to his guards, and each press a stub at the base of their necks. The metallic animal heads melt away, and the beings are revealed to be mere humanoids. When O'Neil attempts to disarm Ra's guards and kill Ra, he is subdued, but in the resulting firefight, Daniel is shot and killed. O'Neil is thrown into a dungeon, where he finds the other members of his team. Deep inside Ra's chambers, Daniel wakes up in the same majestic stone sarcophagus that Ra uses to regenerate and sustain his own captured body. Daniel finds himself completely healed and alive; a child finds him and guides him to where Ra is preparing himself. Ra speaks with Daniel; he tells him that Earth should not have re-opened the stargate. As an act of revenge for Earth's rebellion, Ra explains that he intends to destroy Earth by sending the bomb back through the stargate with a shipment of his mineral, which will increase the bomb's destructive power by a factor of one hundred. But first, he explains, Daniel must kill his team members, to show the inhabitants of this planet that Ra is their one god who they should not disobey. If Daniel refuses, Ra threatens to kill Daniel and all who have seen him. Back in the city, Sha'uri tells her fellow people what Daniel read to her from the hieroglyphs in the secret cave; she begins to tell them the truth about Ra, and that they should no longer live as slaves. At first, many don't believe her. The next day, the people of the city gather before Ra's pyramid craft to witness the execution. Skarra signals Daniel, and covertly displays the fact that he and the rest of the locals have guns taken from the team's arsenal. Knowing he has support, Daniel turns and shoots toward Ra, while the locals fire into the air to create a commotion. In the ensuing confusion, O'Neil, Daniel, and the rest of the Earth team flee Ra's pyramid and, with a a group of locals, take shelter in a cave. In the cave, Daniel confronts O'Neil about the nuclear bomb. O'Neil explains that his orders were simple; if the team found any threats, destroy the stargate. Daniel wonders why O'Neil was so willing to throw his life away, but O'Neil explains that no parent should have to outlive their own child. Daniel then tells O'Neil of Ra's plan to send the bomb to destroy Earth, and O'Neil declares that he's going to stop that bomb from going through. Later, Daniel notices Skarra drawing a picture of their victory against Ra. The planet's three moons are depicted rising over the pyramid. Daniel recognizes this as resembling a glyph on this planet's stargate, and realizes that this must be the seventh chevron. Their ticket home. He reports this to O'Neil and the trip back to the pyramid begins. The next morning, Ra's guards are searching for the escapees by sorting out the locals coming in and out of the city. One guard finds Daniel, only to be shot dead by Jack with a staff weapon. As the people pray for the fallen 'deity', Daniel declares "These are your gods!" and opens up the guard's mask to reveal the human face behind it. Those who doubted Sha'uri's word initially are now shocked to learn the truth. Later that day, O'Neil and his team approach the mineral shipment caravan that the locals are bringing Ra. They join the mineral caravan, disguised as locals, as a way to infiltrate Ra's pyramid and intercept the bomb. As the caravan approaches the pyramid, Ra orders that the bomb be sent down to the stargate, so that it can then be sent through with the mineral when it arrives. Upon reaching the pyramid, O'Neil, Daniel, Sha'uri, and other locals rush the pyramid, battling the guards. O'Neil, Daniel, and Sha'uri make it down to the stargate, but not before Sha'uri is shot and killed. O'Neil still intends to set off the bomb on this planet, and sets the timer for seven minutes, giving Daniel that much time to dial the stargate and get home. However, the transporter ring hatch in the ceiling activates, and Daniel grabs Sha'uri's body to stand under it. He is transported to Ra's ship, but in his place is the Anubis guard, who fights O'Neil. In Ra's craft, Daniel uses the rejuvenating sarcophagus to revive Sha'uri. When Daniel returns to the rings with the live Sha'uri, Ra attempts to stop them. However, below in the pyramid, O'Neil manages to defeat Anubis by activating the transporter rings on top of Anubis' head. Daniel is transported down, and Ra is left on the ship with the head of Anubis. Outside, Kasuf has summoned the entire population of the city, and overpowered Ra's guards. Seeing the rebellion on Earth happen all over again, Ra decides to retreat, and prepares his ship for takeoff. Inside the pyramid, O'Neil discovers that the already ticking bomb has been modified by Ra's guards and cannot be turned off. However, both O'Neil and Daniel realize that they can transport the bomb to Ra's ship, which has by now left the atmosphere. They do so. Ra watches in resigned horror as the bomb's cherry red counter ticks inexorably to zero. His mammoth ship explodes in a tremendous blast, destroying Ra in the process. Now the people are free, and the Earth team is able to return home. Daniel decides to remain, with his wife, Sha'uri, having pledged to help the locals build a new society, while O'Neil returns to Earth with the rest of the team, a changed man re-charged with a purpose and a reason to live. Daniel gives Jack Catherine Langford's necklace and instructs him to tell her it did bring him luck. We follow O'Neil into the stargate's mesmerizing wormhole until it delivers to the phrase: THE END. Reception Stargate received mostly poor reviews gaining a 43% rating on review collection website Rottentomatoes.com. Most of the negative reviews focused on the overuse of special effects and thinness of plot, with Roger Ebert going so far as to say, "the movie Ed Wood, about the worst director of all time, was made to prepare us for Stargate." However the positive reviews stated that it was an "instant camp classic", and praised the film for its special effects and entertainment value•, with Chris Hicks of Desert News calling it "Star Wars meets Ben Hur".• The film seemed to get a much warmer reception from the public, grossing $71.5 million at the US box office and $196 million worldwide.• Quotes Coverstone hieroglyphs These are the hieroglyphs that were on the inner track of the coverstone found on top of the stargate. Daniel Jackson deprecated the original translation, saying it was wrong because it relied on the work of E. A. Wallis Budge. sealed + buried Novel sequels Using some of Roland Emmerich's notes, Bill McCay wrote a series of five novels, continuing the story the original creators had envisioned, which involved the Earth-humans, locals, and the successors of Ra. See Stargate film novels. Original Soundtrack The Original Soundtrack, composed by David Arnold and played by the The Sinfonia of London* and conducted by Nicholas Dodd. The soundtrack was the second motion picture he had composed and the first major motion picture. At the time of Stargate, David Arnold had recently started to work in a local video store in London. After being contacted as asked to visit Los Angeles to meet Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin. Once he had gotten the job, he spent several months in a hotel room working on the soundtrack, spending more time rewriting the music and improving it as delays were being created due to film companies trying to get the rights to release the movie. * The Soundtrack listings are; Running Time: 65 minutes. Stargate: Deluxe Edition Soundtrack In October 2006 a Deluxe edition was released, which included seven new tracks which added an additional 8 minutes of audio bringing the running time up to 73 minutes. The new tracks added are; Trivia Differences between Stargate and SG-1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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