Daniel Jackson, an oddball civilian scientist is recruited by the U.S. government to decipher some symbols from a stone that was found at an archeological dig in Giza, Egypt back in 1928.
Enter Colonel Jack O'Neil who has just lost his son in a shooting accident, but sympathy for him begins to wane quicky when we discover that he's a real prick. By the way, check out his hair-do, classic geek or what?
When Jackson figures out the symbols he is shown that if used in the proper order they activate an ancient machine called a Stargate. The Stargate was also found at the Giza site in 1928 and is a portal to planets in distant galaxies.
Jackson, O'Neil and a bunch of commando dudes are sent through the Stargate and end up at a planet ruled by Ra, the Sun God of ancient Egypt. Ra uses the entire population of the planet as slave labor in his mines. Well now, we can't have that, can we?
Ra lives in a pyramid that is actually a huge spaceship. He used to obtain his slaves from Earth thousands of years ago through the portal. Ra is really pissed off that us Earthlings burried the Stargate depriving him of his supply of workers.
Unbeknownst to everybody, O'Neil has brought along an atomic bomb to blow the hell out of the planet if it turns out to be a nasty place. Ra puts the grabs on the device and plans to send it back to Earth to blast us right out of the solar system.
Jackson thwarts Ra's plans by beaming the bomb up to his ship just seconds before it explodes. The ship with Ra aboard disintegrates high in the sky thus freeing the planets inhabitants.
O'Neil, who is by now a nice guy, and what remains of his commandos
return to Earth. Jackson stays behind with his newly found
sweet young thang.
