Trivia / Stargate

• Breakthrough Hit: For David Arnold, who got the gig after the producers heard his music from The Young Americans. (Not this one.)
• Completely Different Title: In Mexico, the film became "La puerta del tiempo" which translates to "The Portal 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.
• Fake Nationality: The inhabitants, who presumably should be ethnically Egyptian, are played by actors of various nationalities. Most of them are Hispanic. In fairness though, ancient Egyptians probably had varied looks.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The 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.
  • The village scene at the beginning is longer.
  • A longer entrance of Ra at the assembly. O'Neill and his men are pushed down by the guards.
  • An 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.
  • An 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.
• Money, Dear Boy:
  • Jaye Davidson wasn't very fond of acting and originally intended that The Crying Game would be the only film he ever made. However, the producers of this film were desperate to sign him on, and he agreed to do it for a million dollars; enough, he figured, to either make them give up or give him some financial security for the rest of his life. Davidson was surprised when they they actually ponied up.
  • Same for James Spader, who said in an Entertainment Weekly interview that he found the script "awful". Roland Emmerich did say that Spader enjoyed himself enough to be up for a sequel if it ever happened.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Stargate SG-1 recast all characters who originated in the movie except for Skaara and his and Sha'uri/Sha're's father Kasuf.
  • The Pete Best: And as a result of SG-1's Adaptation Expansion/Adaptation Displacement, the actors who are usually remembered as Daniel and O'Neil(l) are Michael Shanks and Richard Dean Anderson rather than Spader and Russell.
• Playing Against Type:
  • James Spader, going from his usual creepy, sex-obsessed dramatic roles to playing a dorky scientist to the nth degree. Kurt Russell, meanwhile, goes from being a slapstick action hero to a broody Death Seeker Anti-Hero (at least until the film's climax).
  • French Stewart, of all people, plays a badass soldier! Of course, this was made before 3rd Rock from the Sun got him typecast as playing silly idiots.
• Prop Recycling: The Hasbro toyline recycled the A.W.E. Striker from G.I. Joe as the All-Terrain Cruiser, though the figures themselves weren't (unlike Hasbro's concurrent Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat: The Movie toylines, the Stargate figures were of a different scale and lacked as much articulation).
• Recycled: The Series: Stargate SG-1.
• Similarly Named Works (up until 1994, when the film was released):
  • Totally unrelated to the 1958 novel Star Gate by Andre Norton, the 1978 novel Stargate by Stephen Robinette, and the 1982 novel Stargate, by Pauline Gedge.
  • Completely unrelated to the final episode of the 1977-78 TV series Logan's Run.
  • Has nothing to do with the 1980 Tabletop Wargame Stargate.
  • No relation to the 1981 arcade game Stargate, which is in fact a sequel to Defender.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes were offered the role of Col. Jack O'Neil.
  • Matthew Broderick was offered the role of Daniel Jackson, but was unavailable.
  • John Gielgud was considered for the role of Ra.
  • Devlin revealed that the film was intended to be the first of a trilogy with the second involving a planet based on Mayan culture (complete with pyramids) and the third leaning heavily into All Myths Are True.
    “And then the third was going to tie in almost every mystery that we’ve ever had on Earth! Whether it was Bigfoot, or the Yeti — we were going to tie everything together into a larger mythology. And it was going to be so much fun. It was going to be so wild. But we never got to go there. We never got to explore it.”

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