Stargate Prewatch: Stargate the Movie!

[SoundWaveV]

SG1 (as well as SGA and SGU for that matter) is kind of unique because, in my view at least, it represents an adaptation that has absolutely eclipsed the source material.

Using the Stargate film as the basis and inspiration, they created SG1 and from Children of the Gods on they took it in a bit of a different direction. Not changing huge things (The Stargate as a method of exploration and establishing ties with the rest of the Universe) but adjusting things here and there to better fit what they wanted to do (the Goa'uld as parasites, Jaffa servants, 'O'Neil' vs. 'O'Neill', etc.)

As much as I love the movie and as important as it is for being the foundation and inspiration for 17 seasons of SG television, I really think that the shows have eclipsed the film.

Yes, the shows are definitely better... but, for me, I just wished SG1 cleaned up some of the glaring plot holes more... torment of tantalus did a good job, though

[juggernaut975]

What I'm saying is that Jackson tells everyone at the breifing about the symbols being star constellations, then they show him the gate room where the Galaxy map is... - there is not cut to another scene, no time passes..

"that symbol is nowhere on the device."

"What device?" Jackson asks.

"Show him," General West says.


So as someone mentioned before on this thread, one has to assume that they had some idea that star constellations played a role.. Well, unless, Galaxy Maps are typical parts of military installations..

There was no way to tell what the device did though before Daniel made his discovery. To them, it was just a big ass ring that they had found in the desert.

The thing is, we're coming at this from the perspective of folks who are already completely familiar with the Stargate, what it is and what it does. And even if you had someone who wasn't a fan of the show, had never seen a single episode and had never even seen the movie, if you sat them down and had them watch the trailer they would instantly know what the Stargate is and what it does.

But what if you had someone who had never seen the trailer either? If you had someone who has never seen a single episode, the movie or even the trailer for the film, they would have no idea of what the Stargate was or what it did if you showed them a picture of it.

That's the perspective of everyone at Creek Mountain, they simply don't know what it is or what it does. It is big ass ring that they found in the desert with strange symbols on it that they had never seen before. So they contact Daniel to figure them out and he discovers that they're not words to be translated but rather symbols of constellations. At THAT point they would have enough information to figure out that it's a way to get to other galaxies.

While Daniel is preparing his presentation to the military, the rest of the team, who have seen the Stargate and now know what it does, works behind the scenes and prepares the galaxy map and the rest of the equipment necessary for the undertaking. They don't involve Daniel because at that point he doesn't have the clearance yet that they do.


There's a dozen ways to explain it really, but what it boils down to is how in the world would they know what the Stargate did before Daniel came on board?

[SoundWaveV]

There was no way to tell what the device did though before Daniel made his discovery. To them, it was just a big ass ring that they had found in the desert.

The thing is, we're coming at this from the perspective of folks who are already completely familiar with the Stargate, what it is and what it does. And even if you had someone who wasn't a fan of the show, had never seen a single episode and had never even seen the movie, if you sat them down and had them watch the trailer they would instantly know what the Stargate is and what it does.

But what if you had someone who had never seen the trailer either? If you had someone who has never seen a single episode, the movie or even the trailer for the film, they would have no idea of what the Stargate was or what it did if you showed them a picture of it.

That's the perspective of everyone at Creek Mountain, they simply don't know what it is or what it does. It is big ass ring that they found in the desert with strange symbols on it that they had never seen before. So they contact Daniel to figure them out and he discovers that they're not words to be translated but rather symbols of constellations. At THAT point they would have enough information to figure out that it's a way to get to other galaxies.

While Daniel is preparing his presentation to the military, the rest of the team, who have seen the Stargate and now know what it does, works behind the scenes and prepares the galaxy map and the rest of the equipment necessary for the undertaking. They don't involve Daniel because at that point he doesn't have the clearance yet that they do.


There's a dozen ways to explain it really, but what it boils down to is how in the world would they know what the Stargate did before Daniel came on board?

I totally get what you're saying... it's what the film makers what us to believe: Everyone at Creek Mountain had no idea until Jackson came on board.

However, if you look at the story a little deeper.. problems with the plot are there. You either choose to ignore them and enjoy it for what it is... or get all nit picky at the plot. I try to ignore it, but when you look at Stagate as a whole, it's hard not to get nit picky.

I just don't buy that they built the map and programed all the computers ... etc behind the scenes without telling the the military who is funding the project to begin with.

Even if that were the case... then why does Catherine and the guy who did the original translation look surprised when Jackson says the symbols star consolations... Surly Catherine would have to know her team was building a galaxy map based on Jackson's new theory.

[juggernaut975]

I totally get what you're saying... it's what the film makers what us to believe: Everyone at Creek Mountain had no idea until Jackson came on board.

However, if you look at the story a little deeper.. problems with the plot are there. You either choose to ignore them and enjoy it for what it is... or get all nit picky at the plot. I try to ignore it, but when you look at Stagate as a whole, it's hard not to get nit picky.

It depends for me really, for the most part I can overlook quite a bit as long as I'm enjoying myself. I try to look at it as 'what do I have a bigger problem with,the fact that, oh, O'Neill's son has a name change between the film and the series or the fact that an alien civilization built a series of Stargates to travel between galaxies and, having re-discovered it, we now use the Stargate to travel to other worlds and thwart evil-doers?'

It's science-fiction, it's made up and it's awesome

I just don't buy that they built the map and programed all the computers ... etc behind the scenes without telling the the military who is funding the project to begin with.

They did, the point of the briefing was to present their findings to the big dogs as it were, the three and four star generals who, after being presented with the data, would determine whether or not a manned recon was viable.

Consider Gen. Hammond. He was in charge of SGC but he wasn't briefed about every single thing that went on there nor did he take part in every decision making process. For instance, Sam might have a side project dealing with alternate energy sources they discovered on an expedition. Doing research, requesting equipment and resources, running tests.....Hammond runs the whole show but Sam wouldn't have to go to him for step-by-step approval for everything she's up to.

Even if that were the case... then why does Catherine and the guy who did the original translation look surprised when Jackson says the symbols star consolations... Surly Catherine would have to know her team was building a galaxy map based on Jackson's new theory.

They don't look surprised, if anything Catherine looks like she's smiling a bit. This could be because she's pleased of how well Daniel's done or she could be amused at how goofy he was with the maps, but she doesn't look surprised at all really.

Gary mentions something about the cartouche not having a seventh symbol but it's already been established that Daniel embarrassed him pointing out the mistakes he made in the translations, he might be piping up in an attempt to be a dick.

At any rate, Daniel discovery still holds, the question then is which markings mean what which may be what Gary was quibbling about in his comment.

[SoundWaveV]

We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one… But yes, Sci Fi is awesome!

I forgot to mention this one regarding the map:
How is it possible that the map showed points "on the other side of the known universe"?
I don’t think accurate “other side of the known Universe” maps exist.

So how were they able to point that out without ever using the gate?

It would have made better sense if the probe indicator didn’t show anything after the prob went through the gate…

I think SG1 cleared this up some by saying Abydos was actually in our universe etc..

[jsonitsac]

I get the feeling that the Air Force knew exactly what it was, just not the specifics on how to use it or what was on the other side of the wormhole. Why they didn't tell Daniel this information, well perhaps they felt he didn't "need to know" even if it would have been immensely helpful for him to know. They may have known that a powerful threat was on the other side, hence the recalled O'Neil for a suicide mission. Keep in mind they already had a team of archaeologists and scientists working on the project -- all smart people who would be able to figure something out about the Stargate. Kind of like a team of Bill Lees or Zelenkas but with no Carter or McKay to make the big breakthrough.

But they didn't know that on the other side was somebody claiming to be the ancient Egyptian god Ra, nor did they know that there was a community of humans living there.

I also liken it to what the SGC knew about the ninth chevron. I believe that at least Rush, Telford, and probably Young and O'Neill knew that it lead somewhere important; maybe not a spaceship but something significant. In a cut scene from Air, Rush tells Eli that the Lucian Alliance also knew that the 9th Chevron went somewhere important. Nobody knew that it was an ancient spaceship out to find out a message in the cosmos. They probably didn't tell Eli, Scott, or Wray about it because they believe that they didn't need to know.

[muziqaz]

We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one… But yes, Sci Fi is awesome!

I forgot to mention this one regarding the map:
How is it possible that the map showed points "on the other side of the known universe"?
I don’t think accurate “other side of the known Universe” maps exist.

So how were they able to point that out without ever using the gate?

It would have made better sense if the probe indicator didn’t show anything after the prob went through the gate…

I think SG1 cleared this up some by saying Abydos was actually in our universe etc..

regarding bold: There is a thing in a movie creation: make your viewer interested and pleasantly shocked. You know if they made Stargate take us to say Moon, or other part of this planet, it would meh to viewer. No sensationalism there. Even if you say that it takes to alpha centauri system, it still would be not as sensational as going to the edge of known universe. With such idea you can keep a viewer interested, and most of them(sci fi fans) would say: Wooow, cool, they are going to other side of the universe.
That is why you have computers make those cheesy noises in action/sci fi movies, or that fancy software interface on those computers, even though they are just repainted Dell XPS laptops. I think it is waist of time to nit pick such things, especially when Stargate movie was created when noone had any thoughts to make a TV series out of it.

[Krisz]

I think the military knew about the Stargate having an extraterrestrial connection. However, I always wondered how they looked to be a bit wary about what might be found out about it. This only became clear to me when I saw the director's cut with the extra part about O'Neil and General West discussing the 'alien' remains that were found buried beneath the gate.

The military were evidently prepared for the fact that it was some sort of transportation device to another galaxy; given that the Egyptologists working on the translations for the previous two years had translated the cartouche as 'stairway to heaven.' Well, that's why I think they had the galaxies map all set up, just in case!

There was evidently some trial and error going on too, Catherine Langford saying 'This is as far as we've ever been able to get....' when they were dialling up the sixth symbol. It was only Daniel turning up and saying the symbols were related to points in space and constellation addresses along with identifying Earth's point of origin that brought the trial and error to an end.

Putting plot holes and any other oddities aside, this movie is certainly fun to watch if you let the story just take you along with it!!!

[hermantheowl]

I will be watching the movie this weekend. I remember reading uninspiring reviews for the Stargate movie which made me not want to watch it and hesitate to watch SG 1, which I only watched occasionally. Then I saw Camelot (season 9 finale) and was hooked and had to see the series from the beginning. When I finally got around to watching the "dreadful" Stargate movie it was not a bad movie. Why do you think the critics were so hard on the Stargate movie?

[hermantheowl]

not "thing", "think", How do I edit a post?

[Bagpuss]

You'll be able to edit your posts soon ,when you get off "Probie Status" ,but in the meantime I fixed it for you.

( Says the Queen of typos...welcome to the Forum !)

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Were critics really that hard back then? I never paid much attention to them. I have noticed that these days the film is generally quite well received. I loved it from the start.

What always surprises me is when I realise there was only a 3 year gap between the film and the TV show (1994-1997). It feels much longer than that to me. I remember when SG-1 started I considered Stargate quite an old film. Weird.

[muziqaz]

I never paid any attention to any critics. For me it looked that they always look at movies from some weird perspective. Never seemed to look at it from different angles.
Like saying that say, sci fi movie does not have a good story or plot(not talking about Stargate here, just in general as an example), even though that movie might have fantastic sound/visual effects and idea, for which a movie might be great. Some movies are not meant to have great stories and stuff like that, sometimes they are created for us to enjoy it from different perspective.

[chaddergate]

Watched the movie again finally. It's been a while, and I've read most of what's been said in this thread, and agree with alot. But, I actually prefer the MS version of Jackson. But, the original portrayal is great.

Some picky knocks, like having 6 of the 7 chevrons, and not just trying each of them for a trial and error. I started to write this off, then I realized that they did have the 7 boxes on the computer models, so somehow they knew that there were exactly 7 chevrons to dial.?

But, overall, great movie! Love it, great start to the franchise.

[juggernaut975]

We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one… But yes, Sci Fi is awesome!

That last part we can definitely agree on though, so it's all good