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Old 09-17-2009, 04:34 PM
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Stargate (1994) Appreciation #1: "I'll be seeing you around, Doctor Jackson...,"


Stargate is an American military science fiction film released through Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer (MGM) and Carolco in 1994. Created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the film is the first release in the Stargate franchise. Directed by Roland Emmerich, the film stars Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, John Diehl, Rae Allen and Alexis Cruz. The plot centers around the premise of a "Stargate", a ring-shaped device that creates a wormhole enabling travel to a similar device a galaxy away.

The film had a mixed to negative initial critical reception, earning both praise and criticism for its atmosphere, story, characters, and graphic content. Nevertheless, Stargate gained a cult following and became a commercial success worldwide. Devlin and Emmerich gave the rights to the franchise to MGM when they were working on their 1996 film Independence Day (the rights to the Stargate film are currently owned by StudioCanal, with Lionsgate handling most distribution in terms of international theatrical and worldwide home video releases), however MGM retains the domestic television rights.

Plot
The theatrical version of the film begins in 1928, where Professor Langford discovers a massive stone ring in the sands of Giza, Egypt. In the present day, Langford's daughter Catherine offers Egyptologist Daniel Jackson the chance to translate Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that may prove his controversial theory regarding the Pyramid of Khufu. Jackson accepts and is taken to a US military installation inside Creek Mountain, Colorado. Jackson translates the hieroglyphs on the stone ring's coverstones, which read: "A million years into the sky is Ra, Sun God. Sealed and buried for all time, his Stargate." Formerly retired Air Force Colonel Jack O'Neil arrives to take command of the project and declares all information regarding it classified.

Jackson notices that the symbols are star constellations that are coordinates for a location within space, the sequence is entered into the Stargate, creating a wormhole to a location in another galaxy. After O'Neil leads a team through the Stargate, they find themselves inside a pyramid in the middle of vast sand dunes. Jackson reveals they cannot dial home because the Stargate coordinates to go back to Earth are missing. Some team members stay at the pyramid while Jackson, O'Neil, and others go out and discover a mining village inhabited by humans who assume them to be gods sent by Ra.

Jackson realizes that the people speak a dialect of Ancient Egyptian and begins communicating with them. Jackson learns from hieroglyphs in the catacombs how the Egyptian god Ra was actually an alien life form who enslaved humans with his advanced technology. While these humans eventually rebelled and buried the Stargate, some had been taken to the other planet through the Stargate and used to mine the quartzite-like mineral on which all of Ra's technology is based. Fearing another rebellion on this planet, Ra outlawed reading and writing. At this point, the team from Earth discovers the coverstone to get back to Earth, but the seventh symbol is eroded away.

O'Neil orders the team to return to the pyramid. A short time after a huge craft lands on top of the pyramid. All team members in the pyramid are either killed or taken into the pyramidal craft. O'Neil and Jackson are escorted to the throne room, where they meet Ra. Despite wearing fearsome armor, Ra's guards and servants are human. Ra reveals his intention to send the bomb brought by O'Neil, which was to be used to destroy the Stargate to prevent invasion by any threat, back to Earth. Now enhanced with his quartzite-like material to produce cataclysmic results. O'Neil attempts to disarm the guards and kill Ra, but relents when Ra uses his children courtiers as human shields. Jackson is killed during the altercation. O'Neil is thrown into a dungeon with the captured team members, while Jackson is regenerated in a sarcophagus-like device. Ra states that he will kill Jackson and everyone who has seen him unless Jackson kills the rest of the team to show the villagers that Ra is their one true god.

However, once Ra has the local people gathered before the pyramid craft, several young villagers signal to Jackson that they have recovered the team's weapons. Jackson then shoots at Ra while the kids create a distraction. O'Neil, Jackson, and the rest of the team flee Ra's ship and take shelter in a cave with the boys. The next morning, when a villager draws a picture of the people's victory against Ra, Jackson realizes that part of this drawing depicts the seventh symbol needed to reactivate the Stargate: three moons over a pyramid.

Jackson convinces the locals that their "gods" are mere mortals and, with their help, make it back to the Stargate hoping to deactivate the bomb. When the locals begin an open rebellion against Ra's troops, Ra decides to retreat and prepares his ship for takeoff. O'Neil transports the bomb to Ra's ship in orbit where it explodes, killing Ra. The team is able to return to Earth, though Jackson decides to remain on the planet.

Director's Cut
The Director's Cut had several scenes which were cut from the theatrical film version. The first such scene took place immediately after the excavation of the Stargate in 1928 and showed petrified Horus guards near the cover stones; the producers had tried to introduce the idea that beings had attempted to come through the Stargate after its burial, but they cut the scene for time concerns.


Cast
  • Kurt Russell as Colonel Jack O'Neil, an Airman who suffers a period of suicidal depression after his son accidentally shot himself with his pistol. It was an important story for Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich that O'Neil had become suicidal and had left the military after his son's death. When he gets the mission from which he may never return, it's okay with him since it solves his problem with suicide, which in return makes him a dangerous person for the mission.
  • James Spader as Dr. Daniel Jackson, a professor who finds little acceptance of his theory that the Pyramids of Giza were much older than they were thought to be. James Spader was intrigued by the script because he found it "awful", however, due to his manual-labourist view of acting, he accepted the role as a regular job that earned him some money.
  • Jaye Davidson as Ra, who voyaged across the galaxy searching for a new host that could sustain his dying form.
  • Erick Avari as Kasuf, the local leader of the people living in a city near the Stargate, and the father of Sha'uri and Skaara.
  • Alexis Cruz as Skaara, the son of Kasuf and brother to Sha'uri. Skaara and his friends aid O'Neil and his airmen fight Ra.
  • Mili Avital as Sha'uri, the daughter of Kasuf. Kasuf offers Sha'uri to Daniel Jackson as a gift.
  • John Diehl as Lieutenant Colonel Charles Kawalsky, O'Neil's second-in-command on the mission through the Stargate.
  • French Stewart as Technical Sergeant Louis Feretti, a member of O'Neil's team.
  • Viveca Lindfors as Dr. Catherine Langford, who acquired the amulet depicting the Eye of Ra during the excavation of the Stargate in Giza in 1928 as a young girl. Stargate was Viveca Lindfors' last film before she died.
  • Leon Rippy as Major General W.O. West, the commanding officer of the facility housing the Stargate device.
  • Richard Kind as Dr. Gary Meyers, a doctor researching the Stargate.
  • Rae Allen as Dr. Barbara Shore, a doctor researching the Stargate.
  • Derek Webster as Senior Airman Brown, a member of O'Neil's team.
  • Christopher John Fields as Staff Sergeant Freeman, a member of O'Neil's team.
  • Jack Moore as Senior Airman Reilly, a member of O'Neil's team.
  • Steve Giannelli as Senior Airman Porro, a member of O'Neil's team.

Production
Stargate had a budget of $55 million. Jeff Kleiser and a special effects team of 40 people created the look of the Stargate. They used self-written image-creation and compositing software, as well as commercial digital packages to create the Stargate, the morphing helmets worn by Ra and the Horus guards, and the cityscape of Nagada. Footprints in the sand were often digitally removed. The creation of the wormhole, which was fully digitized, was one of the biggest challenges in the making of the film. The ripples had to be digitized to seem accurate. Scanning lasers were lined up parallel to the gate to illustrate the amount of body that passed the surface of the Stargate plane. Afterwards, the parts of the body that that had or had not yet gone through the gate (depending of the side of filming) were obliterated with a digital matte program. The use of computers generating a big 3D storyboard allowed director Roland Emmerich to try out different shooting angles before settling on one angle.

The pharaoh mask in the opening credits was made out of fiber glass and was modeled in the workshop. The sequence was filmed with a motion-control camera to give a better depth of field. The score of Stargate was composer David Arnold's first work on an American feature film. When Devlin and Emmerich first flew to London to meet with Arnold, they had not yet had the opportunity to listen to the score and were initially concerned. Upon hearing the score, they were convinced "he had elevated the film to a whole other level". David Arnold later came to the set and interviewed the actors about secrets of their characters, and used the information for more depth in his score.

The film was originally planned to play out in a chronological order, but when Devlin and Emmerich edited the film to tighten to narrative, they decided to change the first scene of the film into a flashback to show who the human host of Ra was before the aliens took him. Only Jaye Davidson's upper torso was filmed because Davidson had refused to take out his nipple rings. The first scene was a combination of model shots and a set in Yuma, Arizona where Rambo II had been filmed. The scene of the excavation of the Stargate was also filmed in three days in Arizona. A golden look was achieved by filming near the time of sunset. To keep within the limit of the budget, the producers put stick figures with cloth in the distant desert to appear as humans. The original Stargate was painted black, but it looked like a giant tire so it was repainted silver at the last moment.

Daniel Jackson's lecture on his theories were filmed in a hotel in Los Angeles. The scene was originally much longer and delved more into the theories that aliens had build the Egyptian pyramids, but the scene was trimmed for time concerns for the release. The scenes with O'Neil at his house were the first scenes filmed with Kurt Russell; his hair was cut short afterwards. Russell requested his hair color to be brightened a little for the film. The fictional facility housing the Stargate was the largest set for the film, located in Long Beach, California. Egyptologist Stuart Tyson Smith joined production to make all Ancient Egyptian hieroglypics and spoken language as accurate as possible.

Release
The film was met with mixed to negative reviews upon its release in 1994, though in recent years it has become a cult classic and developed a reputation as one of the best media releases from the Stargate series. The film was released in October, 1994 in the United States and released internationally in December the same year. Later in 1995 the film was released on VHS format, in 1997 the film was released on DVD format and on August 29, 2006 the film was released on Blu-ray format.

The film received a warmer reception from the public, grossing $71.5 million at the US box office and $125 million in the rest of the world. At the time, the film set a record for the highest-grossing opening weekend for a film released in the month of October. It became more commercially successful than most film industry insiders had anticipated. This film is seen by many as Emmerich's breakthrough film. Stargate garnered over $16,651,018 in its opening week in the United States, in its opening week in October, 1994. It was the 29 highest opening film in the US in October. From 4-6, November, the film grossed around $12,368,778 dollars, meaning a decline around 25%. The film would continue this decline until the end of November, when the film garnered $4,777,198 dollars, a 8.2% rise. The week before that the film garnered around $4,413,420 dollars, which was a 45.6% decline. At its last week on cinema, the film garnered around $1,170,559 in the US.

Soundtrack
Main article: Stargate (soundtrack)
The soundtrack was composed by David Arnold, played by the Sinfonia of London and conducted by Nicholas Dodd.[28] It was the second motion picture Arnold had composed and the first major motion picture. At the time of Stargate's production, David Arnold had recently started to work in a local video store in London. Once Arnold got 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 film. According to Arnold "when I first read the script for StarGate, I knew what approach to take, which was to be as big and bold as possible," he says: “Every time there was an amazing sight, the characters would stand back and say, 'Oh my God!' But James would just smile and walk towards it. That was the basis for the Stargate score, moving forward with a sense of majesty instead of being frightened by what's around the corner."


Sequel(s):
Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich always envisoned Stargate as the first part of a trilogy of films, but parts two and three were never developed. At Comic-Con 2006, 12 years after the original film was released, writer/producer Dean Devlin stated that he was in early discussions with rightsholders MGM about finally bringing the final two parts to the screen.

According to Devlin, the second film is intended to be set around 12 years after the original, with Daniel Jackson making a discovery that leads him back to Earth and to the uncovering of a new Stargate. The second movie would supposedly use a different mythology from the Egyptian one which formed the background to the original movie, with the third movie tying these together to reveal that "all mythologies are actually tied together with a common thread that we haven't recognized before." Devlin stated that he hoped to enlist original stars Kurt Russell (Col. Jack O'Neil) and James Spader (Dr. Daniel Jackson) for the sequels. The actors have reportedly expressed an interest in participating in the project

The movie trilogy would not directly tie in to the Stargate series. According to Devlin, the relationship between the movie and the series is "we would just continue the mythology of the movie and finish that out. I think the series could still live on at the end of the third sequel. So we're going to try to not tread on their stories." Plans for sequels to the original film are unrelated to the development of two straight-to-DVD movies being made as sequels to the Stargate SG-1 TV series. 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, the locals and the successors of Ra. See Stargate literature. According to Devlin, he and Emmerich had always planned to do three films with the potential for more, but MGM preferred to play out the television series first.

VIDEOS

Promo Reel + Theatrical Trailer (Embeding Disabled)



HQ Promotional Images



NEWS:
Quote:
Originally Posted by highdefdigest.com
'Stargate' Gets Double Dip Blu-ray

Lionsgate has announced 'Stargate: 15th Anniversary Edition' for a Blu-ray bow this October. The classic science fiction film starring Kurt Russell and James Spader will be re-released in both its theatrical and unrated extended cuts to high-definition this October 27.

The release will have a new 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode, an English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack, and there will be over four hours of supplements including three brand new featurettes, a trivia track, and a gag reel. Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is undetermined at this time. You can find the latest specs for 'Stargate: 15th Anniversary Edition' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under October 27.

SOURCE


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Old 09-26-2009, 03:27 PM
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I didn't know it was a movie! Just a television show.
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Old 09-26-2009, 03:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by varjak-golightly (View Post)
I didn't know it was a movie! Just a television show.
Whaaaat?!

You seriously need to go and watch this movie; See what got TV Series started, man, its great!
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Old 10-25-2015, 03:24 AM
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i would say Sg-1 has really stood the test of time it really was a good show and i really enjoyed this movie. i loved seeing James spader in a more serious role at the time
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Old 12-18-2015, 07:16 PM
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Tftnt
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Old 12-19-2015, 09:05 AM
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I was going to ask if this is sci fi but the OP answered that question. I've heard of the tv series but not a movie.
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Old 12-20-2015, 09:51 PM
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My favorite show, till this day its never far from my mind. I wish it was back on TV.
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Old 06-17-2016, 12:07 PM
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‘Stargate’ Reboot Trilogy Coming from Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin | Variety
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Old 06-17-2016, 09:56 PM
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Thanks for sharing. I never seen the original.
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Old 06-19-2016, 07:23 PM
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i havent either, i actually have it on my dvr from a while back cuz i love spader and ive been meaning to check it out. i hear its a good movie. hopefully i will get to it before the reboot gets released
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Old 10-29-2019, 11:10 PM
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Old 11-29-2019, 07:23 AM
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Old 11-30-2019, 03:31 PM
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one of my big obsessions
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