MovieChat Forums > Stargate (1994) Discussion > Why so many kids dying?

Why so many kids dying?

posted 11 years ago by ryan601
8 replies | jump to latest

I just re-watched this movie after having not seen it in awhile, and something occurred to me that I hadn't thought of before. When Ra and his ship get blown up by the nuke in the end of the movie, wouldn't all of the little kids that were serving him as his attendants have been killed as well? And of course there were all the kids who helped the soldiers in their rebellion that got killed (the most obvious example being Nabeh getting killed by the gliders). If you start actually doing the body count on this film, I think you pretty much have to conclude that Stargate probably ranks high up on the list of movies with the largest number of child deaths.

Which is kind of messed up, really. . .

And if you've watched the TV series, they actually bring up the issue of child deaths a lot in the first couple of seasons, as the Goa'uld are shown repeatedly as being willing to use children as weapons of war.

So what is it about the Stargate mythology that lends itself to depicting children dying so often?

"If I wanted to watch a movie with no plot, acting, or character development, I'd just watch porn."

[–] o-lO-o-Ol-o 11 years ago

Why so many kids dying?
ryan601
Sat Aug 3 2013 00:35:26

I just re-watched this movie after having not seen it in awhile, and something occurred to me that I hadn't thought of before. When Ra and his ship get blown up by the nuke in the end of the movie, wouldn't all of the little kids that were serving him as his attendants have been killed as well? And of course there were all the kids who helped the soldiers in their rebellion that got killed (the most obvious example being Nabeh getting killed by the gliders). If you start actually doing the body count on this film, I think you pretty much have to conclude that Stargate probably ranks high up on the list of movies with the largest number of child deaths.

Which is kind of messed up, really. . .

And if you've watched the TV series, they actually bring up the issue of child deaths a lot in the first couple of seasons, as the Goa'uld are shown repeatedly as being willing to use children as weapons of war.

So what is it about the Stargate mythology that lends itself to depicting children dying so often?

It happened, then it didn't happen. If you look at the sequence of events from Stargate to the spin-off series, children died in the movie and that was no longer an issue in the series. Sure, children in the series were used but it wasn't until they were of adult age that they met their demise.

Getting back to discussing only the movie, the movie does end on a rather dark note with regard to Ra's children and some of the children of Abydos. Why did the children die? Why not? It's a dramatic plot point in Stargate, one that people usually overlook, and it actually gives the story more depth despite it generally being treated as just an action and/or adventure flick.

If you take a look at Stargate from multiple perspectives and observe all of the story elements, it's a great movie. On the surface, it's a fun adventure to another planet but it's not without character development and momentum in the plot. It's unfortunate the movie wasn't turned into a trilogy, which was the intention of Emmerich and Devlin. Actually, it still is.

[–] virgiltx 11 years ago

Other threads on this subject:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111282/board/nest/180652498
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111282/board/nest/178804971

I personally think that the movie was not making a statement about innocent casualties but simply had no way to fit in an escape clause for the kids, so the movie just conveniently forgets about them.

It's an example of the kind of tough choices that need to be made in putting a story together. Sometimes innocent things are killed in the editing room by exclusion. In this case the killing was done by not writing (AFAIK) and filming an escape scene, which probably would not have fit the action of that climactic scene.

____________________
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[–] actionmanrandell 11 years ago

the children only appeared to be children. they were by no means children they were Ra's children but they were likely hundreds of thousands of years old.

There is no reason to believe that Ra would have actual normal humans as his attendees they were likely his actual children(parasitic life forms that possess a human)

[–] virgiltx 11 years ago

They are discussed in the Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich commentary, at 1:22:27 (Ultimate Edition Extended Cut DVD), during the first Ra encounter. While they are on-screen, Devlin says:
"The idea is that Ra takes the most beautiful of the children and makes them his personal guards, and he raises them around him".

____________________
The story is king.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] CinnaBuff 9 years ago

Okay, so what you are saying is, Ra, a thousands of year old monstrous alien being who has been TAKING captives, men, women, and children, for THOUSANDS of years from possibly HUNDREDS of planets. Making his total numbers of abuses to the galaxy incomprehensible in scope and breadth. The sheer horror of it has civilizations crippled with fear.

The idea that he would be permitted one more inhalation of breath would be such a priority that blowing up an entire world would not be out of question to stop this kind of aggressive danger.

How many children have been killed in our real time world? How many sold into slavery in just the last ten years? How many young boys and girls get molested, caged, and/or killed by their own parents/step-parents/relatives?

So the directors put a little 'reality' in a movie and people FREAK!!!

CHILDREN DIED!!! Oh my God how COULD they show me that!!!

And as far as the TV show many times they mention what has or will happen to the men, women, and children, of whatever world, civ. or village. What happened "the last time someone defied the GODS". It's actually a common occurrence going by the formula. Just like S3 Ep7 "Deadmans Switch" they killed most of the people of Aris Bock's Planet. S2 Ep2 "In the Line of Duty" They wiped out villages trying to find Jolinar. S1 Ep14 "Singularity" they wipe out a colony of over a 1,000 people (men, women, and children) PLUS turned the little girl Cassandra into a BOMB!!. Talk about innocent collateral damage!

I don't know what your real problem is with the movies connection with reality, or your perspective, but, I thought it was quite harsh without being too Hollywood, such as showing the children in some life threatening situation, and then our 'heroes' show up in the nick of time. I mean they let the children die along with everybody else.

They also show the children as capable, courageous and intelligent. Hooauh!

[–] Henrietta_S 8 years ago

The idea that he would be permitted one more inhalation of breath would be such a priority that blowing up an entire world would not be out of question to stop this kind of aggressive danger.

Which is so funny, since we never actually see him do anything that is irrational or out of the way cruel.
He punishes when his soldiers fail him. Rational behaviour. He kills them as punishment, but hey, his mindset is that of the ancient times.
He punishes the Abydonians when he discovers that armed soldiers had invaded his territory, and that the people of Abydos seemed to have welcomed them among themselves. That is also well within his ancient mindset.

As for taking people captive, he was never shown to do so in a cruel way. The Abydonians had lived on Abydos for thousands of years, it had become their home. And they lived there without much interference from him, they didn't even have his soldiers among them.

So the directors put a little 'reality' in a movie and people FREAK!!!

I think the issue is more that the soldiers were always portrayed as the good guys, and that many people can't face their good guys doing something bad. (When, in fact, they do it on a daily basis)

And as far as the TV show many times they mention what has or will happen to the men, women, and children, of whatever world, civ. or village. What happened "the last time someone defied the GODS". It's actually a common occurrence going by the formula. Just like S3 Ep7 "Deadmans Switch" they killed most of the people of Aris Bock's Planet. S2 Ep2 "In the Line of Duty" They wiped out villages trying to find Jolinar. S1 Ep14 "Singularity" they wipe out a colony of over a 1,000 people (men, women, and children) PLUS turned the little girl Cassandra into a BOMB!!. Talk about innocent collateral damage!

A. The TV show is an _entirely different_ story.

B. Most of the bad things the Goa'Uld did in the TV show was just tales, not seen.

C. That which was seen was done by a handful of different Goa'Uld. It is ridiculous to assume that they must all be the same. Humans are also not all the same.

[–] shadowsearcher 8 years ago

I'm surprised someone else actually noticed it too. After recently watching it I started to see if anyone else caught that. After over 20 years and searching all over the internet, this is the only mention I found of it.