Where to watch Stargate (1994)

Trivia & production notes

• The original Stargate prop was painted black but resembled a giant tire, so it was hastily repainted silver before filming.
• The excavation scene of the Stargate was shot in just three days in Arizona, with a golden appearance achieved by filming near sunset.
• The largest set for the film was the former Spruce Goose Dome in Long Beach, California, which housed the fictional Stargate facility.
• Egyptologist Stuart Tyson Smith was brought onto the production specifically to ensure all Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and spoken language were historically accurate.
• David Arnold composed the Stargate score as his first work on an American feature film, and directors Devlin and Emmerich felt it elevated the entire project when they first heard it.
• The water funnel effect that precedes the Stargate opening was created by firing an air cannon into a tank, but the first test at 100 pounds of pressure evacuated all the water onto the camera and crew instead of the intended 1 pound.
• The morphing helmets worn by Ra and the Horus guards were created as 2D digital elements rather than true 3D, requiring careful frame-by-frame compositing to match shots of actors with and without the headdress.
• Jeff Kleiser's visual effects team of 40 people used self-written software alongside commercial digital packages to create the Stargate, including custom tools for image creation and compositing.
• Kurt Russell's scenes at O'Neil's house were the first ones filmed with the actor, and his hair was cut short immediately afterwards during production.
• Daniel Jackson's opening lecture scene was originally much longer and explored theories about aliens building the Egyptian pyramids but was trimmed for the theatrical release.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Stargate (film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.