Review - Stargate (1994)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. Now, normally the month of May is mostly reserved for Marvel May. But, I decided to give Marvel a break for this year. But, so that there's at least some kind of Marvel review this month, I'll be taking a look at X-Men '97 later in the month. But, for now, let's dive into a movie I've put off reviewing for long enough: Stargate. 

        Released in 1994, Stargate came about when co-writers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the film's director, had two spec scripts that they decided to combine. Emmerich had a spec script for a film called Necropol, which would have involved a mystery behind people disappearing, and would have involved an alien craft buried beneath the Great Pyramid of Giza. Devlin, meanwhile, had a spec script for what he referred to as "Lawrence of Arabia in space." Using a common plot device in science fiction literature, the teleportation device, Emmerich and Devlin were able to combine the two ideas into a single film, and thus how we got Stargate. But, enough backstory, let's talk about the movie. 

        The movie starts off in Giza, Egypt in 1928, as Professor Langford and his daughter, Catherine, arrive at a dig site, where archaeologists and diggers uncover a set of cover stones and a massive metal ring of unknown origin. Cut to many years later, and an older Catherine finds Dr. Daniel Jackson being laughed out of academia for his theories that the Egyptians of the Fourth Dynasty didn't build the Great Pyramids, and there are no hieroglyphics within the pyramids. Catherine, however, offers Daniel a translation job, and seeing as he has no other choice, he accepts. 

        Around the same time, two United States Air Force officers arrive at the home of Col. Jack O'Neil, where they find him extremely distraught. And, with very little dialogue, and a few visual context clues, the viewer is able to put together why O'Neil is in this state. You see, O'Neil's son, Tyler, managed to find O'Neil's gun, and accidentally shot himself, and the boy tragically died. Now, while the viewer is able to put this together, the two Air Force officers do speak of this as well. Subtlety goes a long way, guys. 

        Anyway, so Daniel arrives at a military installation at Creek Mountain, Colorado, where he meets Air Force Lt. Col Charles Kawalsky, as well as researchers Gary Meyers and Barbara Shore. And, it's here where Daniel is shown the cover stones found in Egypt back in 1928, and Daniel corrects the translation of the hieroglyphics on the inner track, with the proper translation reading as follows: "A million years into the sky is Ra, Sun God. Sealed and buried for all time: his Stargate." O'Neil then arrives, and reveals he's been brought into the project in case Daniel is successful. Two weeks later, and after much struggle to translate both the outer track of the cover stones, as well as the cartouche in the center, but figures out that the symbols are not, in fact, hieroglyphics, but are actually star constellations. 

        It's here where Daniel has a meeting with everyone involved with project, and he is introduced to Major General West, where Daniel reveals that the symbols in the cartouche, representing constellations, are ordered in a specific alignment, kind of like an address, and the six already discovered symbols will pinpoint the destination, but the elusive seventh symbol, located just beneath the cartouche, represents the point of origin, this allowing a course to be set. However, Meyers points out that the symbol Daniel depicts isn't on "the device," at which point Daniel is shown the metal ring that was found in Egypt along with the cover stones. The ring is, as Daniel identified it in his translation, the Stargate. 

       In a control room with Catherine, Meyers, and Shore, Daniel is able to identify the seventh symbol, and the symbol is programmed into the sequence. The dialing sequence is activated, and the gate room is cleared of personnel. Once the seven chevrons, which correlate to one of the symbols in the sequence, are all activated, the gate opens an artificially created wormhole, and a probe is sent to analyze the gate, and is sent to another world, which is on the other side of the known universe. Upon investigating the images sent back by the probe, Daniel notes the symbols in the other gate don't match the ones on the Earth gate. And while General West is uncertain if a reconnaissance team can translate the other gate and dial back to return the team to Earth, Daniel points out that he can do that, and is put on the team. 

       Aside from Daniel, the recon team consists of O'Neil, Kawalsky, Lt. Louis Ferretti, and Airmen Freeman, Brown, Reilly, and Porro. And, while the seven Airmen all go straight through, Daniel really takes his time, getting a feel for the puddle that is the event horizon of the wormhole, and finally stepping through. And, I will say, the visual effects used for both the Stargate itself, as well as the transportation sequence, is really amazing. The water effects for the Stargate were achieved practically, with water being stirred or blasted with an air cannon, with the latter being used for the activation moment. The shot of Daniel's face after he steps through was done with James Spader lifting his face out of a water tank, and the shot being reversed in post production. 

      Anyway, the team arrives on the other side, and find themselves on a desert planet called Abydos. And, the structure they arrived in was an identical recreation of the Great Pyramid of Giza, and thus there won't be any markings to get them back to Earth. Daniel knew this, and made this clear to O'Neil and the others. After setting up a base camp,. O'Neil heads inside, and sets up a bomb, but we'll get to that later. Anyway, O'Neil, along with Kawalsky and Brown, follows Daniel through the desert, where Daniel finds a local animal called a Mastidge, which drags Daniel through the desert and towards a nearby mine, where the local people of Abydos work to mine the metal ore that happens to be the same material the Stargate is made of. 

        Greeted by the chief of Abydos, Kasuf, Daniel, O'Neil, Kawalsky, and Brown are invited to the nearby village, where they're shown a massive seal, which has the Eye of Ra emblazoned upon it. Evidently, because Daniel is wearing the same symbol around his neck (the necklace was given to him by Catherine before the team left Earth), the people of Abydos believe that Daniel, O'Neil, and the others were sent by Ra. Unfortunately, a sandstorm approaches, which forces Ferretti, Freeman, Reilly, and Porro to flee.back into the pyramid. Meanwhile, O'Neil, Kawalsky, Brown, and Daniel get to know the people of Abydos just a little bit better. Daniel grows close to a young woman named Sha'uri, while O'Neil befriends her brother Skaara, both of whom are the children of Kasuf. 

        Sha'uri shows Daniel some caverns, where the story of Ra and the people of Abydos is drawn on the walls. O'Neil and Kawalsky are then guided to the location, as Skaara has a Mastidge follow Daniel's scent. Clever. Anyway, it's here where we get some backstory involving Ra, who was the last of a dying alien race, and he arrived on Earth in 8000 B.C., where a teenage boy from a village in the North African desert approached Ra's ship, and Ra chose the boy as a host. Now, with this new host, Ra appointed himself as ruler, and send thousands from Earth to Abydos though the Stargate to work in the mines. However, on Earth, an uprising happened, and the men Ra left in charge were killed, while Earth's Stargate was sealed and buried with the massive cover stones. Fearing another uprising on Abydos, Ra forbade reading and writing so the people wouldn't remember the truth. Kawalsky points out a cartouche similar to the one on Earth, and while the order of alignment is there, the seventh symbol is missing, this there is no way back. 

         Ra, however, did return to Abydos, with his massive pyramid-shaped spaceship landing atop the pyramid that Ferretti and the others were in, with all four taken prisoner by Ra's men. Daniel, O'Neil, Kawalsky, and Brown head back to the pyramid themselves, and see Ra's ship. Heading inside, Brown is killed, and Daniel, O'Neil, and Kawalsky are taken prisoner. And, it's here where we see Ra's guards are merely humans with advanced technology, and we meet Ra, who has used said technology to appear as a god to the people of Abydos. And, his men retrieved the bomb that O'Neil brought along for the mission. Daniel is severely wounded, and O'Neil is tossed into a pit of water, where the surviving members of his team are held prisoner. 

        Healed by Ra's sarcophagus, Daniel has a conversation with Ra, where we learn of Ra's plan to send the bomb back to Earth with a shipment of mined mineral from Abydos, making the bomb ten times more destructive than it was before, and thus ensuring Earth's destruction. However, Ra instructs Daniel to execute the ones he came to Abydos with, as a show of Ra's absolute authority. The next morning, Daniel turns on Ra, and he rejoins O'Neil, and the two are able to escape with Kawalsky, Ferretti, Skaara, and a few others who wish to stand against Ra and free the people of Abydos. And, it's here we learn of O'Neil's orders regarding the bomb: detonate it if he found a threat to Earth, this destroying the gate on Abydos. We also learn that, somehow, Daniel and Sha'uri are married to each other. How did that happen? Ah, who cares.

         The next morning, Skaara draws an image, depicting the previous day's events, and Daniel is able to identify the point of origin for Abydos. The seventh symbol has been found, and thus the Stargate can be reopened and get the team back to Earth. However, one last stand is to be made, and Daniel shows Kasuf and his people the truth about Ra's men. O'Neil, Daniel, and Sha'uri end up back in the pyramid, where they're cut off from Kawalsky, Ferretti, Skaara, and the others. Two of Ra's gliders are launched to fend off the rebels outside, and O'Neil ends up killing another of Ra's men. Daniel takes Sha'uri up into Ra's ship, as the transport rings are being activated by Ra's guard captain, who ends up in a one-on-one fight with O'Neil. Daniel saves Sha'uri with the sarcophagus, and returns to the transport rings with her, but Ra tries to kill Daniel. Back down below, O'Neil overpowers the guard captain, and just before activating the transporter rings, he says my personal favorite line in the movie: "Give my regards to King Tut, asshole." The transporter is activated, and Daniel and Sha'uri are transported to safety, while the captain's head is sent up to Ra. 

         Outside, the rebels run out of ammo, and Kawalsky and Ferretti surrender, much to Skaara's frustration. And, as the two glider pilots prepare to blast the rebels to death, Kasuf arrives with thousands of people, and they finally rise up against Ra, defeating his men. Ra, no longer in power, flees the planet. Unfortunately, O'Neil can't disarm the bomb, and he and Daniel come up with the same idea: use the transport rings one last time, and send the bomb up to Ra's ship, which is already high above the planet. The bomb goes off, Ra is destroyed, and the people of Abydos are free. Daniel elects to stay, having found a new life on Abydos, and O'Neil, Kawalsky, and Ferretti return to Earth, ending the movie. 

        So, when it comes to doing something new and unique in the world of sci-fi, Stargate is easily one of the best examples of this. Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin created a world that plays on what's familiar, while also creating new kinds of techniques and designs that are unique to this particular universe. The design of the Stargate itself, a massive metal ring with nine chevrons, is very universal and also something we haven't really seen before. And, while the movie only used seven of the chevrons, there were intentions to utilize the other two chevrons in future films that never happened. Also, the pyramid design of Ra's ship, the design of the gliders, the helmet designs of Ra and his guards, all are evocative of Ancient Egypt, which plays into the in-universe notion that Ra, who was an alien being, influenced the culture of Ancient Egypt. And, I really gotta give massive props to  Patrick Tatopoulos for his work on the designs for the ships, weapons, and helmets, two of which were inspired by the Egyptian gods Anubis and Horus. 

         Now, much of the production of this movie took place in the deserts of Yuma, and it was extremely hot and harsh. Exterior sets were built for the pyramid and the settlement on Abydos. However, the interior sets, such as the interior of Ra's ship and the Stargate rooms on Earth and Abydos, were so massively designed in scale that no soundstage in existence could house the sets. Instead, the filmmakers made use of the old Spruce Goose dome, which is one of the largest aircraft hangars in existence, to house the sets. Honestly, the fact that the filmmakers envisioned such massive scale sets that needed a space as large as the old Spruce Goose dome is pretty awesome. Also, noted Egyptologist Stuart Tyson Smith was brought onto the production team to make sure that the hieroglyphics and the Egyptian language was as accurate as possible. 

        The casting of this movie was also pretty awesome for, what at the time, was very much an indie production. Kurt Russell and James Spader as Col. O'Neil and Daniel Jackson were both absolutely fantastic as the lead stars, both approaching the movie from very different angles: one military and one archaeological. John Diehl and French Stewart as Kawalsky and Ferretti were also fantastic, as were the likes of Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, and Erick Avari as Skaara, Sha'uri, and Kasuf. As the villain, Jaye Davidson portrayed Ra with an equally graceful and threatening performance. Like, Ra is pure evil, and is a serious threat, but is also poised and graceful at the same time. Now, something really neat is that one of Ra's Horus guards is played by Djimon Honsou in one of his earliest film roles. And, I will say that while their roles were only significant for the first half of the movie, both Viveca Lindfors and Leon Rippy did a really good job as Catherine and General West. 

         Now, while the storytelling element of the movie is certainly not one of its strongest points, where Stargate really stands tall is in its world building. The idea of an otherworldly device that can open an artificial wormhole to almost anywhere in the cosmos is such a fascinating concept, and just the sweeping nature of how Roland Emmerich filmed the sequences on Abydos is genuinely fantastic. And, a lot of this is accentuated by the music score composed by David Arnold. Arnold took cues from both John Williams' Star Wars themes, as well as the epic music score of Lawrence of Arabia, and crafted a score and theme that evokes the feeling of wonder and excitement for an otherworldly adventure. 

        Honestly, I absolutely love this movie. Because, let's face it, franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek are good, but they definitely feel transcended from the overall genre of sci-fi. Stargate, however, is something that can genuinely reinvigorate the imagination in both new viewers and longtime fans of the franchise. So, I'm giving Stargate a rating of 5/5. Now, what's fascinating to me is something I learned in the years since I first watched the movie. And that is this: Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich did intend to make more movies, and the first of their planned sequels would have ties to Mayan culture, and would have utilized an eight-chevron Stargate address. 

         Unfortunately, the rights to the Stargate franchise would be acquired by MGM, who were uninterested in continuing the franchise on the big screen with Emmerich and Devlin. However, MGM would bring audiences on new adventures through the Stargate on television with Stargate SG-1. But, I think I'll save my review of that series for September, as it's ten seasons of television, which is a lot. I would really need to do a deep dive, which will take quite a while to do. 

         But, luckily, you guys won't have to wait long for my next review, as I will next be getting into the Disney+ streaming series Obi-Wan Kenobi, and that review will be up on Saturday.