Stargate (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:

Sealed and buried for all time is the key to mankind's future.

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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:

USA France

Language:

English Norwegian Swedish Egyptian (Ancient) Arabic

Release Date:

28 October 1994 (USA)

Also Known As:

Stargate

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Budget:

$55,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$71,565,669

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$196,600,000

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 SR SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

James Spader admitted that he did the film for the money, as he found the script to be awful. He said, "Acting, for me, is a passion, but it's also a job, and I've always approached it as such. I have a certain manual-laborist view of acting. There's no shame in taking a film, because you need some fucking money."

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Goofs

The candy bar that Daniel gives to the village leader isn't melted but still crunchy even after hours spent in the desert in his shirt pocket and being dragged through the sand by the yak-like creature. Even though there is "military grade chocolate" bars, known as "The Desert Bar", created to withstand heat of up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit Daniels bar was clearly not that variety but was a common 5th Avenue chocolate bar.

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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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Alternate Versions

An issue of "SCI-FI Universe" June 1995, Talks about the original rough cut of Stargate that was over 3 hours long. Scenes that were discussed were: A sequence in Colonel Jack O'Neill (Kurt Russell) and Egyptologist Daniel Jackson (James Spader) are trapped in a Sandstorm. A huge battle fought outside a city called "Nagada". A Big Subplot involving the Military and scientists, Fighting over the threat of the aliens on the otherside of the Stargate. A much longer fight between Jackson and Ra. Lots of scene extensions. And a lot of character driven plots.

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Connections

Referenced in The Dig (1995)

User Reviews

Greatly made movie!

This is the sort of movie that shouldn't had really worked out but yet it did. Everything about this movie screams B-movie. Just look at the title, read the script, see the characters, the cast, etcetera. Yet "Stargate" works out tremendously fine as great and above all fine entertainment. It's for most part due to the fine directing skills of Roland Emmerich, show really knows to uplifts this movie and its story.

This movie also really marked the big breakthrough for Roland Emmerich. Yes, it's true that his real breakthrough movie was "Moon 44" and even though that movie was by no means a great one, it still showed that the director had lots of potential and took the maximum out of the movie. So, "Moon 44" got him Hollywood's attention but with "Stargate" he for the first time really proofs that he can handle a multi-million dollar production as well and successfully, since "Universal Soldier" was only a successful movie in certain circles. If it weren't for "Stargate", then now way we would had had movies such as "Independence Day", "The Patriot" and "The Day After Tomorrow". Some people wouldn't had minded that by the way.

Even though the story itself is not that much special, it still has a great and original as well as an intriguing concept, that somehow knows to connect an alien world to ancient Egypt and their Gods. It's a great science-fiction story without ever really getting too 'science-fiction' like. It's uses lots of great and imaginative elements.

Once you start really thinking about it, there isn't an awful lot happening in this movie, mostly action wise. Yet it's a very entertaining movie to watch, which is due to the fact that it's made with lots of pace and because of it's greatly and perfectly adventurous concept of traveling to a far off planet. It's a movie that never bores and is a perfectly fun one to watch actually. The movie gets also really uplifted by its David Arnold musical score.

The movie is fair enough looking. For 1994 standards the special effects are good, especially for the masks worn by the 'Gods'. But because the movie is for most part set in a dessert like environment it's not really one that jumps out in its looks and actually also really doesn't looks and feels like a multi-million dollar production, even though it is. The movie actually looks and feels more cheap, which is also one of the reasons why this movie has already become a sort of a cult-classic.

The movie is greatly cast with James Spader and Kurt Russell in the lead roles. But man, did James Spader look still so much different and younger back then. He's just not the kind of person that aged well. He went from a boyish look in 1994 to an old dirty wrinkly man look now days, even though he'll turn only just 48 next month. Also greatly cast was Jaye Davidson as Ra. He's a true memorable villain and it makes you realize what a great shame it is that Jaye Davidson has never acted in many movies, simply just because he never really enjoyed acting much, despite having also received an Oscar nomination for his debut role in "The Crying Game".

Truly a recommendable science-fiction classic from the '90's.

8/10

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