Kurt Russell (“Escape From New York”), James Spader (“Supernova) and Academy Award® nominee Jaye Davidson (“The Crying Game”) head the cast in this sweeping science fiction adventure that started it all. Set against the wondrous backdrop of the Great Pyramids of Giza, “Stargate” tells the story of two very different men — tough-minded military man Colonel Jack O’Neil and brilliant Egyptologist Daniel Jackson — who join forces to unravel the mystery of a curious artifact, a StarGate, which could reveal the origin of civilization. O’Neil leads Jackson and a reconnaissance team through the StarGate, which transports them millions of light years from Earth where they are stranded on a strange and alien planet. When the enigmatic ruler of this extraordinary world, Ra, discovers that the doorway to Earth can be reopened, he devises a deadly plot. Racing against time, O’Neil and Jackson must overcome Ra if they are to save Earth and find a way back home.
Source: Stargate
About the Movie
Eccentric Egyptologist Daniel Jackson (James Spader) has a theory nobody believes: the pyramids were not built by Egyptians. Then the Air Force shows him why they are interested — a massive metal ring excavated at Giza in 1928, covered in hieroglyphs. Jackson cracks the symbols, the ring activates, and it opens a wormhole to another world.
Jackson travels through with Colonel Jack O’Neil (Kurt Russell) and his team to Abydos, a desert planet where a primitive people mine ore for a god they call Ra. Jackson, welcomed as a messenger of that god, slowly realizes the truth: Ra is an alien who came to Earth thousands of years ago, enslaved humanity, and built the mythology of Egypt around himself. To free Abydos — and to get home — the team must turn slaves into rebels and face a god with starship technology.
Why This Movie Matters to Sci-Fi
Stargate took a gloriously pulp idea — ancient aliens built the pyramids — and built one of the most durable franchises in science fiction on it. Roland Emmerich’s film launched Stargate SG-1, which ran ten seasons and became one of the longest-running sci-fi series in television history, plus two sister series and a universe of novels and games. Its core ingredients — a portal network, military teams exploring weekly worlds, mythology treated as garbled history — rewired how TV sci-fi was structured. Few single films have generated so many hours of genre storytelling.
