Stargate (film)

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Template:Infobox Film

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.

Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were sued by an Egyptology student for allegedly stealing the storyline as the student had submitted the story to them about ten years before the movie was made (they "rejected" the story at the time). The plaintiff had a respected Egyptologist from Johns Hopkins University vouch for him, since he had put his own theories into the story. The only differences between the story and the movie are slight name variations. The issue was finally settled out of court.

A gaming-industry veteran claims there is strong evidence that Stargate also directly plagiarized from the science-fiction role-playing game Fringeworthy. However, this will probably never be tested in court.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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Cast

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Storyline

In 1928, an expedition searching for ancient Egyptian relics discovers a large metal ring near the city of Giza, which is confiscated by the U.S. military for study. In the present (of the movie viewer), the brilliant but quirky Egyptologist Daniel Jackson is hired to decipher the symbols on the mysterious ring. It turns out to be a Stargate, an alien device that enables almost instantaneous teleportation to a complementary device on another planet, and the symbols are encoded dialing numbers.

Jackson is sent with a military team led by Colonel Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill through the Stargate to a desert planet called Abydos. There, they find a small human civilization enslaved by an alien named Ra who the locals worship as Ra, the ancient Egyptian sun god. Ra possesses a human body that is continuously regenerated in a high-tech sarcophagus. Ra's guards and soldiers wear animal-head helmets reminiscent of other ancient Egyptian gods, notably Anubis and Horus, but it's not clear whether Ra inspired the legends or is merely playing on them. (The film's novelization indicates that Ra created Egyptian mythology to help keep the human population subjugated.) It turns out that Ra had humans enslaved on both planets, but on Earth humans rebelled and closed the Stargate.

Ra plans to destroy Earth by sending a bomb through the re-opened Stargate. Jack, Daniel and the other Earth explorers fight to stop Ra, as well as find a way back home to Earth. To do this they assist in a rebellion with the Abydos population, resulting in the death of Ra and the destruction of his starship. The movie ends with Daniel deciding to remain on Abydos with his "wife", Sha'uri, while Jack returns with the rest of the team back to Earth through the Stargate.

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Critique

Stargate was generally derided by the critics for its action-oriented climax, as derivative of other films (notably Indiana Jones, Star Trek and Star Wars series) and the emphasis on special effects. Many of Roland Emmerich's other films were similarly criticized, and some consider Stargate his best work to date. Fans of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis have mixed feelings about the film.

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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.

<hiero>D21:N35:Q3-M4-X1:Z2-I8:V20-D21:N29-D58-V28-G43-W15-N1:N25-Q3-G36-D21:D40-A9-G5-M17-M35:N35-N7</hiero>
time year million sky Ra sun god <hiero>G17-Aa1-G17-X1-D32:Q3:M35-O32-N35:I9-X7:D21-S29-T19-A25-X1:S22-I9:N35-I10-Z8:M33:D21-G21-V28-V28-N5:N23</hiero>
sealed + buried coffin for eternity for all time <hiero>O26-O6-O32-N35:Z2-S29-S43-G5-N14:N5-Z2:I9</hiero> door to heaven stargate

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Novel sequels

Some fans of the film dispute whether the Stargate SG-1 television series is a proper sequel to the film. 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, Abydonians, and the successors of Ra. See Stargate film novels.

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Trivia

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External links

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