Roland Emmerich’s Stargate stars Kurt Russell and James Spader, two of the most prominent actors of the 1990s. With a substantial $55 million budget in 1994, the film excels in costume design, though its sets and plot could benefit from more detail, especially given its alien invasion premise.
The story centers on Dr. Daniel Jackson, a struggling translator and linguist, who is recruited by the authorities to decode mysterious alien symbols. His work leads to activating a stargate, transporting a team of humans to a distant planet with an Earth-like environment. There, they must confront a powerful alien seeking immortality and save the planet’s inhabitants. Will Jackson and his team succeed? The adventure unfolds to reveal the answer.
Spoilers Ahead
Stargate (1994) Plot Summary and Movie Synopsis:
“Stargate” opens in 1928 in Giza, Egypt, where a team of Swedish archeologists came across a huge spherical object. Many years have passed. The daughter of that archeologist, Catherine, is studying the same object as his father. She is looking for people who will understand where the archaeological work has been done. She meets Dr. Daniel Jackson, who had been written off for his idea concerning the existence of aliens. Scholars like him remain ostracized mainly by their peers and the science community as a whole. Just as Daniel is about to lose all hope and feels he has nowhere left to turn, he receives an unexpected opportunity. Catherine, the first person who doesn’t mock his ideas, offers him a chance to conduct research alongside her.
We are soon acquainted with Colonel Jonathan ‘Jack’ O’Neil, who regrets having lost a child who is now completely shut off from the world. He instead prefers to keep to himself, even from his wife, as he does not trust himself with the gun. A gun accident involving his son is what made Jack go out of reach for so long. Nonetheless, because of the recent advances in developing a round-shaped device, which Catherine’s father has identified as Stargate, Jack is ordered to return and assume his position to manage the project. As soon as Jack appears and takes control of the project, all the information, including that possessed by Catherine, is divulged despite her being provisioned against this high-level clearance.
What do Jackson and O’Neil find on the Other side of the Stargate?
Dr. Daniel Jackson reads the inscriptions carved in stone. He learns that the wall contains the blueprints of an astounding device known as a stargate. It’s a device that uses mechanisms, including star charts, to reach other worlds. Once he successfully aligns the Stargate’s rotating inner track with the correct symbols or chevrons, a wormhole is opened, linking Earth to a distant world. It is at this point Kenneth Jackson and Colonel Jack O’Neil, together with soldiers, are sent through the wormhole to the other side, where they are inside a pyramid located on Abydos.
As soon as they reach the destination, Jackson is eager to understand the sequence of symbols required for them to return through the Stargate. Nevertheless, the effort fails at the first instance, and the rest of the group is cut off from the strand. Realizing that the rest of the team is in a dangerous position and that they should consolidate their defensive perimeter, Colonel O’Neil orders his men to establish a field headquarters in the giant pyramid. While wandering around, Jackson encounters a massive mastage, a beast standing mid-chest height.
This being pulls him away from it, which makes him want to reach out to O’Neil, Kawalsky, and Brown and allows them to pursue. As they look for their quarry, they find humans who are mining some weird stone. This stone is later explained as a part of the material of the Stargate. This further hints at the importance of Abydos and its development because of the Stargate technology. Following the tribe’s escort back to the city, Jackson learns that the natives speak in a dialect of ancient Egyptian.
Jackson can also understand the tribes due to his knowledge of their language and manages to gain some insight into the tribes, their cultures, and their worship. The Abydonians, on the other hand, believe that he and his friends are spirits sent by their god Ra. Among the first natives met, the young man’s head, Kasuf, received the strangers and gave them, as the prize, the young lady Sha’uri. Although it’s an unconventional path, Jackson accepts Catherine’s advances, and eventually, they begin courting. Meanwhile, O’Neil forms a bond with Kasuf’s son, Skaara, and his friends, who are both respectful and curious about the soldiers. O’Neil sees a reflection of his own deceased son in Skaara, especially when Skaara touches a gun, which deeply unsettles O’Neil.
Why does Ra Fail to Rule the People on Earth?
Nevertheless, their visit to Abydon takes a dark turn with the arrival of the lord of the Abydonians, Ra. As before, his enormous ship hovers over the pyramid. Some of his soldiers manage to take Ferretti and Freeman hostage and kill two others, Porro and Reilly. The return of Ra brings another danger. Jackson, O’Neil, and the others understand why their travels through the Stargate have gotten them to another planet. They are in a battle against an evil and powerful force.
Ra, an alien, wants human bodies to be immortal and control them over the centuries. During the reign of the Ancient Egyptians, Ra discovered Earth and realized that he could achieve immortality by taking control of humans. This quest for immortality drives him to use humans as just tools for his survival. Ra turns on the inhabitants he has conquered to feed the need to continue living.
To meet his desires, Ra captures the humans and makes them his slaves. With the use of Stargate, a remarkable piece of technology, he brings a group of Earth people to the faraway planet of Abydos. On Abydos, these abducted people are given the jobs of extracting a vital mineral for Ra’s sophisticated weapons. The mineral gives strength to Ra. By providing such a mineral, Ra can have technological dominance and simultaneously rule over the people.
In the end, the people of Earth rise against Ra’s tyrannical rule, overthrowing his forces and burying the Stargate to prevent any future abuse of its power. But that is not the conclusion of the story either. Unlike the active one, this one is somewhat passive: it is the story of an entombed Stargate with a broken cartouche with only six out of seven symbols. The way Jackson discovered the ancient artifact suggests that the fight against Ra is far from over—or, more accurately, raises the question of whose fight it truly is. It implies that people will continue to struggle against submission, rule, and exploitation.
How does Jackson Plan to go back to Earth?
Desperate situations often demand extreme measures, like Jackson’s intention to return to Earth. After Harper and the team return to the pyramid, they meet Ra’s soldiers, and a gunfight breaks out. Brown gets it and Kawalsky is wounded quite severely. Finally, Jackson and O’Neil are taken to see Ra and his guards, who, to their surprise, turn out to be human. Jackson dies in the fight, while O’Neil gets captured and locked up along with the rest. Even so, Jackson gets a second chance when Ra revives him using a device with a strap very much akin to a coffin.
When Ra observes that O’Neil is up to something, he brings out the nuclear bomb, which is the very weapon that O’Neil has in his possession. He hopes to send it to Earth through the Stargate together with another shipment of a potent mineral that will enhance the bomb’s destruction capacity by a hundred times. Ra tries to assert his authority by ordering Jackson to kill his own kind. However, Skaara and his friends make a ruckus, enabling Jackson and the rest of O’Neil’s men to escape to caves. Freeman gets killed in the process.
While hiding in the caves, Skaara and the others begin marking the rocks, trying to replicate the things they’ve seen. One of these symbols escapes from the active range of the portal: the seventh symbol, without which Jackson cannot return to the earth. This is very important as it helps him finish the Stargate transition sequence, which is essential in reopening. Now, with the last symbol discovered, there is a possibility of using the stargate to halt Ra’s plan of transporting the improved nuclear bomb back to Earth. This also means that O’Neil and his men can finally return to Earth.
Stargate (1994) Movie Ending Explained:
Is Jackson able to send the Soldiers back to the Earth?
With the seventh symbol already in hand, Jackson and the rest of the team are eager to go back to the pyramid and apply the Stargate. However, their mission has not only a physical aspect of going back to Earth. They also have to overcome Ra’s deadly plan. Jackson, O’Neil, and the rest of the team must find a way to disarm the bomb or stop Ra from sending this explosive device through the Stargate. In the order of Orion Constellation, Jackson’s team found the last item, which gave them a glimmer of hope. The opulent warrior allows them to set up the desire to leave Ra and return home.
There comes a time when such goals as reaching the Stargate and bomb sending to the Earth must be achieved. O’Neil and his teammates, together with Skaara, make a final stand against the minions of Ra. Even when the villagers run low on bullets, the tribe revolts, realizing that the so-called divinities are but men. This is the pivotal moment when the oppressed, now who have turned into the liberators, drive out RA’s guards. This victory is, however, bittersweet as Sha’uri dies in the process. Since Lord Jackson resolves to rescue her, he uses a teleportation device to stealthily board Ra’s vessel, believing that O’Neil will tackle Ra’s captain, Anubis.
A turning point comes when Jackson takes Sha’uri’s corpse to Ra’s ship. He places her into a regeneration device and revives her successfully. However, their presence on the ship is known to Ra, who attempts to kill Jackson. In turn, O’Neil is able to activate the teleportation device. It causes Anubis’s death and allows Jackson and Sha’uri to escape. O’Neil and Jackson teleport a bomb on Ra’s ship, weakening his troops and leading to Ra’s demise. The last of the tyrant, Ra, has been overthrown. All enslaved mass of humanity has been freed. After the self-destruct was initiated, O’Neil got the remaining team members Kawalsky and Ferretti and headed to Earth, accomplishing their mission.
Why does Jackson Choose to Stay in Abydos?
Jackson takes an unusual route and decides to stay with Sha’uri and the other kidnapped people he has managed to rescue instead of going back with the help of the ones he has rescued. This symbolizes a new phase of his life. At the same time, O’Neil and the others have returned to Earth successfully after accomplishing their timely and honorable mission.
Thanks to their bravery, selflessness, and originality in battle, Jackson and his team won the war, which was a very long war, and restored peace to the country they defended. Jackson sees the urge to ask O’Neil to extend his gratitude to Catherine for the pendant. It brought back Jackson’s luck since he had finally gotten home where he was cherished and respected, maybe for the first time in his lifetime. He showers Catherine with praise, acknowledging that none of these pivotal moments in his life would have happened without her.
