Stargate - La porte des étoiles (1994)

An interstellar teleportation device, found in Egypt, leads to a planet with humans resembling ancient Egyptians who worship the god Ra.

Director:

Roland Emmerich

Writers:

Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich

Stars:

Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson

6 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kurt Russell	...	Colonel Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neil
James Spader	...	Dr. Daniel Jackson
Jaye Davidson	...	Ra
Viveca Lindfors	...	Catherine Langford
Alexis Cruz	...	Skaara
Mili Avital	...	Sha'uri
Leon Rippy	...	General W.O. West
John Diehl	...	Lieutenant Kawalsky
Carlos Lauchu	...	Anubis
Djimon Hounsou	...	Horus (as Djimon)
Erick Avari	...	Kasuf
French Stewart	...	Lieutenant Ferretti
Gianin Loffler	...	Nabeh
Christopher John Fields	...	Freeman
Derek Webster	...	Brown

Storyline

In 1928, in Egypt, a strange device is found by an expedition. In the present days, the outcast linguist Dr. Daniel Jackson is invited by a mysterious woman to decipher an ancient hieroglyph in a military facility. Soon he finds that the device was developed by an advanced civilization and opens a portal to teletransport to another planet. Dr. Jackson is invited to join a military team under the command of Colonel Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neil that will explore the new world. They find a land that recalls Egypt and humans in a primitive culture that worship and are slaves to Ra, the God of the Sun. But soon they discover the secret of the mysterious "stargate".

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Plot Keywords:

portal | hieroglyph | archeology | stargate | military | 

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Taglines:

It Will Take You A Million Light Years From Home

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

France USA

Language:

English Norwegian Swedish Egyptian (Ancient) Arabic

Release Date:

28 October 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

Stargate - La porte des étoiles

Filming Locations:

Ballroom, Park Plaza Hotel - 607 S. Park View Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$55,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£3,020,239 (UK) (20 January 1995)

Gross:

$71,565,669 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canal+, Centropolis Film Productions, Carolco Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min 128 min (special edition) 130 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital (Europe) Dolby SR (USA)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although the planet visited through the Stargate is never referred to by name throughout the length of the movie, its spin-off TV series Stargate SG-1 (1997) would later reveal the planet's name to be Abydos. While it says in the movie that the planet is located in the Kaliam Galaxy, in the TV series, its location is retroactively changed to be within the Milky Way, while travel to another galaxy necessitates a combination of eight instead of seven glyphs.

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Goofs

Ra plans to send back the bomb with its power boosted 100 times, and expects this to end civilization on Earth. It's not said what the normal yield of the bomb is, but there is no reason for it to be enormous. A two megaton bomb boosted to two hundred would be no bigger than the biggest bombs already tested. The highest yield nuclear weapon tested was 50Mt "Tsar."

It would also explode underground and probably do little damage. But there is nothing to indicate that Ra knows where the Earth-based Stargate is, so that much is reasonable. Ra obviously added power to the bomb in order to overload the Stargate at earth causing an explosion bigger than the bomb. Although these point were only giving in SG1, the audience would have no idea about what the gate was made of or how it would react to a nuclear blast.

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Quotes

Arabic Interpreter: [first lines]
Arabic Interpreter: [at the dig site in Giza, 1928] Professor!
[chatters in Arabic]
Arabic Interpreter: Professor! We found something beautiful!
Prof. Langford: Ja?
Arabic Interpreter: Oh, yes! Big, big, big surprise!

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Connections

Referenced in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

User Reviews

Solid, Original Adventure Flick

Stargate's plot, acting, and score all contribute beautifully to the mysterious ambiance that is the essence of this enthralling and suspenseful film. While your disbelief definitely needs to be suspended to cover some inconsistencies, the atmosphere and action of the movie make it worth your while. Not only does Stargate combine science fiction with history, but it weaves them together in a way that remains exciting the entire film, despite major changes of environment. Upon hearing some major elements of the film, one might think that aliens, ancient Egypt, and atomic bombs could only come together in some kind of bizarre montage. However, this film is strongly plot-driven, and while this does make it typical in some respects, the plot itself is remarkable. Hardly artsy, the score is in many places Hollywood-ish, presenting emotion in a straightforward manner, yet it too is enjoyable. None of the acting is spectacular, but this is made up for by the characters' wholesome qualities and ability to change (however slightly) over the course of the movie. To summarize, while nothing in the film is a complete divergence from the standard, it follows the Hollywood style in a manner that is original enough to make a solid and enjoyable adventure. This is the actualization of the potential within the Hollywood film "template": a good story told well in all respects. [9/10]