Stargate is a 1994 science fiction adventure film directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich. The film is the first entry in the Stargate media franchise and stars Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, and Viveca Lindfors. The plot centers on the premise of a "Stargate", an ancient ring-shaped device that creates a wormhole, enabling travel to a similar device elsewhere in the universe. The film's central plot explores the theory of extraterrestrial beings having an influence upon human civilization. Originally theatrically released on October 28, 1994, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), the film received mixed reviews, with its atmosphere, story, characters, and graphic content both praised and criticized. The film grossed $196.6 million worldwide against a production budget of $55 million. Plot In 1928 in Giza, Egypt, Catherine Langford's father unearthed cover stones (also called cap stones) engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1994, she invites Egyptologist and linguist Daniel Jackson, Ph.D. to translate the hieroglyphs. The stones are now part of a U.S. Air Force classified project overseen by Special Operations Colonel Jack O'Neil. Jackson determines that the hieroglyphs refer to a "stargate" which uses constellations as spatial coordinates. He is then shown the Stargate, which was also discovered by Langford's father, and they use his coordinates to align the Stargate's metal ring with markings along its outside. When all seven are locked in, a wormhole opens, connecting the Stargate with a distant planet. Jackson joins O'Neil and his team (Reilly, Porro, Freeman, Brown, Ferretti, and Kawalsky) as they pass through the wormhole. They arrive in a pyramid on the arid desert planet of Abydos. Jackson locates the Stargate's controls, but does not find the final symbol for the return coordinates. O'Neil orders Reilly, Porro, Freeman, and Ferretti to stay behind to guard the Stargate. Jackson sees a large animal with a harness, which drags him off when he approaches it to investigate. O'Neil's group follows and they discover a tribe of humans working to mine a strange mineral. Jackson realizes that they speak a variant of Ancient Egyptian and is able to communicate with them. He learns that the tribe sees him and his comrades as emissaries of their god Ra. The tribe's chieftain Kasuf presents Jackson with his daughter Sha'uri as a gift, and although Jackson initially refuses her, he later becomes romantically attached to her. O'Neil befriends Kasuf's teenaged son Skaara and his friends. Through