--- title: "Stargate" year: 1994 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/stargate" fi1m_id: "stargate" imdb_id: "tt0111282" tmdb_id: 2164 wikidata_id: "Q105801" fi1m_score: 62 critics_score: 52 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-10-04T23:38:28.196342+00:00" updated: "2026-10-04T23:38:28.770278+00:00" region: "SI" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Stargate (1994) Directed by Roland Emmerich · 2h 01m · Action, Adventure, Science Fiction ## Identity Stargate - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/stargate - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** stargate - **IMDb ID:** tt0111282 - **TMDB ID:** 2164 - **Wikidata ID:** Q105801 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111282/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/2164, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105801 **Fi1m score: 62** · Critics 52 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* Ancient Egyptians built the pyramids with help from a glam-rock alien, and the US Air Force is sent to complain > Roland Emmerich’s desert adventure borrows from everywhere and for an hour it hardly matters: the gate opens, David Arnold’s brass swells, and we went through gladly. Then the guns come out and it becomes a chase anyone could have staged. ## Synopsis Giza, 1928: a dig uncovers a ring of stone and cover stones nobody can read. Today Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader), an Egyptologist whose lecture on the age of the pyramids has just emptied a room, is hired by Catherine (Viveca Lindfors) to translate them inside a military installation in Colorado. He does it in a fortnight, and the ring turns out to be a gateway to a desert world. Colonel Jonathan ‘Jack’ O’Neil (Kurt Russell), pulled out of retirement, leads a team through it with Jackson along to read the way back. There they find a people who work a mine, led by Kasuf (Erick Avari) with his daughter Sha’uri (Mili Avital) and son Skaara (Alexis Cruz), and a god called Ra (Jaye Davidson) who does not welcome visitors. ## Review Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s script rests on one idea, and it is a pub idea: the pyramids were not built by Egyptians but by a visitor from somewhere else, who posed as a sun god and left a door behind. *Stargate* takes that idea seriously for exactly as long as it needs to, which is until the door opens. It is a decent adventure, better made than it had to be and thinner than it wanted to be, and if sand, hieroglyphs and men in boiler suits with rifles sound like an evening to you, it is worth yours. The gate is the best thing in it and the film knows it. Holger Gross builds the ring as a slab of grey stone with chevrons that lock in turn, and when the last one seats the centre fills with a surface like water pushed from behind. Karl Walter Lindenlaub shoots the Colorado silo in cold steel blues, so that when the team steps out of the pyramid on the other side into hot yellow sand the cut is a slap. David Arnold’s score, all brass and a choir doing its best impression of a procession, carries the whole sequence. We sat up when the gate opened and stayed up for the walk out onto the dunes; it is a plain piece of showmanship and it worked on us completely. James Spader is the other reason the first hour holds. He plays Daniel Jackson as a man with a permanent cold and no social instinct, sneezing through briefings, delighted by every carving, holding up the whole expedition because a wall is interesting. Kurt Russell plays Colonel O’Neil as a man who has decided not to talk, and the film gives him a grief in its first act that explains why and then has the sense to leave it alone. Russell does almost nothing and it is enough. The two of them standing in the desert, one talking and one not, is the film’s one real relationship. Jaye Davidson’s Ra is a stranger piece of casting and it pays. Joseph A. Porro dresses him in gold with a headdress that folds back mechanically, and Davidson moves through his ship as if the gravity were lower where he stands, his voice pitched down and spread wide. The guards, Horus (Djimon Hounsou) and Anubis (Carlos Lauchu), wear falcon and jackal helmets that open the same way, and the first time one does is the sort of image a children’s matinee is supposed to produce and so rarely does. Then the film runs out of new things to show. Once the team has found the people who work the mine, Kasuf (Erick Avari) and his children Sha’uri (Mili Avital) and Skaara (Alexis Cruz), the story settles into the oldest shape going: the strangers teach the locals to fight, the locals are grateful, the god is cross. Michael J. Duthie and Derek Brechin cut the gunfights cleanly, but there is nothing in them beyond men running across sand while things explode, and we were bored, and then faintly irritated, because the first hour had promised something odder. Viveca Lindfors’s Catherine, who sets all this in motion, stays behind on Earth. John Diehl and French Stewart, as the soldiers Kawalsky and Ferretti, are given names and little else. Emmerich went on to blow up the White House in [*Independence Day*](https://film.one/film/independence-day) two years later, and you can see that film forming here: the clean set-up, the big machine in the sky, the second half as a shooting gallery. This is the smaller of the two and, we think, the better one, because its first act is about a man reading a wall. The reviews ran from warm to scornful when it opened, and the scorn is understandable; nothing in the plot would surprise anyone who has read a comic. We would answer that it is honest about being a comic, and that the parts it cares about, the door and the man who reads the wall, it gets right. It runs 121 minutes and carries a PG, and both are correct. See it with a child of about ten if you have one, on a wet afternoon, and do not get drawn into a conversation about who built the pyramids afterwards. It is a serial with a strong first chapter, and most serials would settle for that. *Fi1m score 62, published 4 October 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews split down the middle on Stargate, and even the critics who enjoy it do not pretend it is original. Most call the plot derivative and the adventure far-fetched, then admit they had a good time anyway. The praise clusters around the scale of Roland Emmerich’s spectacle and the special effects, with several reviews warming to James Spader and the amiable pairing of Spader and Kurt Russell. One or two single out Jaye Davidson’s Ra as the film’s most unusual pleasure. The spread is wide. The reservations gather around length, predictable plotting and a thinness of feeling: the harshest notices find it juvenile and emotionally unabsorbing, and argue that handsome effects and locations cannot cover for a story that borrows everything. Variety is the sharpest dissenter, while the Los Angeles Times sits in an odd middle, calling it a lousy film that is more fun than most lousy films. ## Straight answers **Is Stargate worth watching?** *Stargate* is worth watching if sand, hieroglyphs and men in boiler suits with rifles sound like an evening to you, and we scored it 62. The first hour, built around the gate itself and James Spader's sneezing Egyptologist, is a plain piece of showmanship that works completely. The second half settles into a chase anyone could have staged. **How long is Stargate, and what is it rated?** *Stargate* runs 2h 01m. It is an action and adventure film. **Where can I watch Stargate in Slovenia?** *Stargate* is not on any streaming or rental service in Slovenia at the moment. It is available in 48 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does Stargate compare to Raiders of the Lost Ark?** *Stargate* is the lesser of the two films, and [*Raiders of the Lost Ark*](https://film.one/film/raiders-of-the-lost-ark) is the one we would recommend to almost anyone. Both are desert digs with a god at the end, but Spielberg keeps his in the box and stages action that stays clear and exciting throughout, where Emmerich's film runs out of new things to show once the guns come out. Emmerich's film is gentler and better suited to a child of about ten. **What should I watch after Stargate?** After *Stargate*, try [*Raiders of the Lost Ark*](https://film.one/film/raiders-of-the-lost-ark) (1981, Fi1m 93): Spielberg’s desert dig, with the god kept firmly in the box until the end. Then [*Forbidden Planet*](https://film.one/film/forbidden-planet) (1956, Fi1m 81): The grandfather of the lost-expedition picture, with a robot and a Shakespeare plot; and [*Flash Gordon*](https://film.one/film/flash-gordon) (1980, Fi1m 70): Max von Sydow’s Ming is the camp tyrant Ra is reaching for, set to Queen. ### Reviews we read (6) - **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (4/5): The review calls the adventure derivative but hugely enjoyable. It praises Roland Emmerich’s flair for epic action and James Spader’s performance. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-zvjrkw/stargate/) - **Time Out**, NF (75/100, inferred): The review finds the film hugely enjoyable when approached with a generous spirit and a vacant mind. It singles out the bombastic sci-fi spectacle for praise. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/stargate) - **Empire**, William Thomas (65/100, inferred): Thomas finds the film overlong and derivative, but ultimately enjoyable for its committed gusto. He praises the amiable pairing of Russell and Spader and the effective special effects. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/stargate-review/) - **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (50/100, inferred): The review treats the film as an entertaining but rather far-fetched adventure. It singles out the movie’s blend of science fiction and adventure for its appeal. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/28/movies/film-review-romancing-a-stone-to-get-to-outer-space.html) - **Los Angeles Times**, Peter Rainer (30/100, inferred): Rainer calls the film clunky and lousy, though more enjoyable than most lousy movies. He singles out Jaye Davidson’s flamboyant performance as Ra as giving it an entertaining, unusual charge. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-28-ca-55620-story.html) - **Variety**, Leonard Klady (10/100, inferred): Klady finds the film juvenile, emotionally unabsorbing, and weighed down by predictable plotting. He credits its special effects and picturesque locations, but says visual craft cannot make up for its lack of originality or emotional connection. [Read](https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/stargate-1200438844/) ## Details - **Director:** Roland Emmerich - **Director:** Roland Emmerich - **Screenplay:** Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin - **Cinematography:** Karl Walter Lindenlaub - **Editor:** Michael J. Duthie, Derek Brechin - **Music:** David Arnold - **Production design:** Holger Gross - **Costume design:** Joseph A. Porro - **Producer:** Joel B. Michaels, Dean Devlin, Oliver Eberle - **Cast:** James Spader as Dr. Daniel Jackson; Kurt Russell as Colonel Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neil; Jaye Davidson as Ra; Viveca Lindfors as Catherine; Alexis Cruz as Skaara; Mili Avital as Sha'uri; Erick Avari as Kasuf; John Diehl as Lieutenant Kawalsky - **Runtime:** 2h 01m - **First release (Norway):** 28 October 1994 - **Genres:** Action, Adventure, Science Fiction - **Budget:** $55 million - **Box office:** $197 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3sgzrgpn8s ## Where to watch in Slovenia Not streaming, renting or buying in Slovenia at the last check. Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Hugo Awards 1995: Best Dramatic Presentation (nominated) - Saturn Awards 1995: Best Science Fiction Film (won) ## If you liked this - *Raiders of the Lost Ark* (1981), Fi1m 93: Spielberg’s desert dig, with the god kept firmly in the box until the end. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/raiders-of-the-lost-ark.md) - *Forbidden Planet* (1956), Fi1m 81: The grandfather of the lost-expedition picture, with a robot and a Shakespeare plot. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/forbidden-planet.md) - *Flash Gordon* (1980), Fi1m 70: Max von Sydow’s Ming is the camp tyrant Ra is reaching for, set to Queen. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/flash-gordon.md) - *Enemy Mine* (1985): Two soldiers stranded on a hostile planet learn to talk; the film this one skips. - *The Fifth Element* (1997), Fi1m 73: Besson’s gaudy space pulp, with the same disregard for sense and better jokes. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-fifth-element.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/stargate