Trivia for
Stargate (1994) More at IMDbPro »

• Conceived by director Roland Emmerich during film school in 1979.
  
  
• Many of the crowd scenes feature mannequins, as they were cheaper than extras.
  
  
• The language spoken by the older archeologists at the Egyptian dig site when the Stargate is found is poorly-pronounced Norwegian: "Herregud, vad är det?" (Oh my God, what is that?), while the younger archeologist replies in Swedish, "Jag önskar jag visste det" (I wish I knew).
  
  
• Dr. Jackson (James Spader) says disdainfully that the translators have obviously been using Budge, and wonders why "they keep reprinting him". He is referring to noted Egyptologist Sir E.A. Wallis Budge (1857 - 1934).
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Roland Emmerich] [44] The probe is a model "44"
  
  
• Wardrobe and cinematography had to work around Jaye Davidson's nipple rings - he refused to remove them.
  
  
• Costume designer Joseph A. Porro was jokingly referred to as "The evil Joseph Porro" after the film was scored because the music turns ominous at the same time his name appears in the opening credits.
  
  
• Jaye Davidson despised the costumes he wore so much, on the last day of shooting his scenes, after hearing the final "cut", he stripped naked on the set without going to his trailer. Moreover, Davidson retired from acting after completion of this film. He has only appeared in one thing since, and that was five years later.
  
  
• Theatrical trailer and promo reel found on the European DVD (distributed by Kinowelt/Momentum) include extensions or snippets of additional scenes which are neither included in the theatrical cut nor in the special edition version of the film: - one of the guards appears behind Sha'uri and Daniel. This is presumably from the scene where Sha'uri gets shot - when Sha'uri is in the sarcophagus, Ra holds his hand above her - a different take of the scene where Ra punishes his guard. Here Ra is seen from the side - village scene at the beginning is longer - longer entrance of Ra at the assembly. O'Neill and his men are pushed down by the guards - extended entry to the control room. Daniel gets an explanation of how things work. You see that the conference room is directly above the control room - extended activation of the Stargate. You see more of the two technicians operating the Stargate. General West orders final evacuation. The two technicians leave the control room. O'Neill looks back at West. West leaves the conference room and the shutters close
  
  
• Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were sued for stealing the storyline from a student of Egyptology named Omar Zuhdi who submitted the story to them about ten years before the movie was made (they "rejected" the story at the time). Zuhdi even had a well-respected Egyptologist from Johns Hopkins University vouch for him, since he put his own theories into the story. The only differences between the story and the movie are slight name variations. The issue was finally settled out of court.
  
  
• This was the first movie to ever have an official website. It was set up by Dean Devlin in 1994 and featured images, trailers and behind the scenes clips and actor information.
  
  
• Special effects footage for the explosion of Ra's ship is a re-use of the visual effect seen in the opening scene of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). This effect is often referred as the "Praxis Effect" or "Praxis Explosion Effect". Controversially, a similar effect was added to the detonation of both Death Stars in the 1997 Special Edition releases of the Star Wars trilogy.
  
  
• Jaye Davidson's dislike of the attention that he received after The Crying Game (1992) made him reluctant to take the role of Ra in Stargate (1994). He didn't want to just turn the offer down so made what he expected to be an unacceptable demand of $1 million. This was accepted and he appeared.
  
  
• According to the DVD commentary, the group of scantily-clad youths which surround Ra were intentionally included to create unease in the audience.
  
  
• The mountain entrance to the place where the giant ring is kept on Earth is the same entrance that was used to enter NORAD in the movie WarGames (1983).
  
  
• Vaitiare Bandera auditioned for the role of Sha'uri but lost it to Mili Avital. Bandera would later play the character (renamed Sha're) in three episodes of "Stargate SG-1" (1997).
  
  
• Richard Kind (Dr. Gary Meyers) is the only actor to appear in both Stargate (1994) and "Stargate: Atlantis" (2004).
  
  
• Alexis Cruz (Skaara) and Erick Avari (Kasuf) are the only actors to appear in both Stargate (1994) and "Stargate SG-1" (1997).
  
  
• French Stewart's film debut.
  
  
• As it happens in Mexico with most movie titles translated from English, the title for this movie was "La puerta del tiempo" which translates to "The Gate of Time". Some moviegoers mistakenly thought the far away planet the squad goes to was just a very early time in Egypt, and were seriously confused with the storyline.
  
  

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