The film is the first entry in the Stargate media franchise and stars Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, and Viveca Lindfors.

In 1928 at Giza, Egypt, archaeologist Professor Paul Langford, accompanied by his daughter Catherine, unearths cover stones (also called pyramidion or capstone) engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs and other markings.

The stones, located underground at a military installation in Colorado, are now part of a U.S. Air Force classified project overseen by Special Operations Colonel Jack O'Neil.

Jackson joins O'Neil and his team (Reilly, Porro, Freeman, Brown, Ferretti, and Kawalsky) as they pass through the wormhole.

That night, Ra's ship lands atop the pyramid structure, and his soldiers capture Ferretti and Freeman while killing Porro and Reilly.

Through hidden markings and discussions with the tribe, Jackson learns that Ra is an alien being who came to Earth during the Ancient Egyptian period to possess human bodies to extend his own life.

During this investigation, Jackson comes across a cartouche containing six of the seven symbols needed to configure the Stargate for the return to Earth, but the seventh has been broken off and has worn away.

Jackson and O'Neil are captured and brought before Ra and his guards, who are revealed to be humanoids when they retract their armored head-pieces.

Perceiving their arrival as an act of war, Ra declares his intentions to send the bomb back through the Stargate to Earth, along with a shipment of the mineral, which will increase its explosive power a hundred fold—essentially creating a world-ending event.

The humans outside run out of ammunition and are forced to surrender to the fighter ships' pilots, but the rest of the tribe, seeing that their false gods are really humanoid, rebel against the guards and overthrow them.

(including original translation and later modification by Daniel Jackson) time year million sky Ra sun god sealed + buried coffin forever to eternity for all time his door to heaven stargate years million in sky this Ra as Aten (=sun disk)sealed buried enduringly and repeatedlydoor his to stars million years into the sky is Ra Sun Godsealed and buried for all timehis Stargate The film in its original cut and in the director's cut plays out in chronological order.

[12] The scene was originally much longer and delved more into the theories that aliens had built the Egyptian pyramids, but it was trimmed for time concerns for the release.

[12] The fictional facility housing the Stargate was the largest set for the film, the former Spruce Goose Dome located in Long Beach, California.

[13][12] Egyptologist Stuart Tyson Smith joined the production to make all Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and spoken language as accurate as possible.

When Devlin and Emmerich first flew to London to meet with Arnold, they had not yet heard the score; hearing it, they felt "he had elevated the film to a whole other level".

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.

Scanning lasers were lined up parallel to the gate to illustrate the amount of body that passed the surface of the Stargate plane.

Once hired, he spent several months in a hotel room working on the soundtrack, spending more time rewriting the music and improving it, during delays due to film companies trying to get the rights to distribution.

[17] 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," saying: "Every time there was an amazing sight, the characters would stand back and say, 'Oh my God!'

The second added scene took place immediately after the excavation of the Stargate in 1928 and showed a petrified Anubis guard underneath a broken cover stone.

[8] The film received a warm reception from the public, grossing $71,567,262 at the United States box office and $125 million internationally for a worldwide total of $196,567,262.

The site's critics consensus states: "Stargate has splashy visuals and James Spader to recommend it, but corny characterization and a clunky script makes this a portal to ho-hum.

[42] The positive reviews stated that it was an "instant camp classic" and praised the film for its special effects and entertainment value,[43] with Chris Hicks of the Deseret News calling it "Star Wars meets Ben Hur".

[49] According to Devlin, the second film is intended to be set around twelve years after the original, with Jackson making a discovery that leads him back to Earth and to the uncovering of a new Stargate.

"[50] Devlin stated that he hoped to enlist original stars Kurt Russell (Col. Jack O'Neil) and James Spader (Dr. Daniel Jackson) for the sequels.

[52] Using some of 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.

[15] Dean Devlin eventually gave Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) the rights over the film,[47] and author Bill McCay wrote a series of five novels based on Emmerich's notes, continuing the story the original creators had envisioned.

SG-1 creators and executive producers Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner altered the canon by introducing several new concepts during production of the SG-1 and Atlantis series.

[54] Ra was the last of an unnamed race in the film, being of a humanoid species with large black eyes and a lack of facial features.

[61] On May 29, 2014, it was announced that MGM and Warner Bros. are partnering together for a reboot as a trilogy with Emmerich directing, Devlin producing, and Nicolas Wright and James A.