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An Ancient Egyptian artefact turns out to be alien technology which can open a doorway to another world.
The story opens at the Pyramids of Giza during 1928. An archaeologist, Dr Langford and his young daughter Catherine, are inspecting a dig, where Catherine takes and keeps a small locket-shaped pendant. While there, one of the workers show Dr Langford their latest find; a large ring-shaped object which no-one can identify.
Cut to 1994, where at a seminar Egyptologist Daniel Jackson is giving his theories of how the Pyramids were not created by the Egyptians, but his audience leaves mere minutes into his lecture. Later, as Jackson leaves the theater, he is instructed by an Air Force officer that someone wishes to see him; it is an older Catherine Langford, who is reading through Jackson's dossier. Catherine offers him a job of translating Egyptian hieroglyphs, which Catherine says will give Daniel not just a handsome pay but evidence of his theories about Ancient Egypt.
We then cut to the Air Force officers going to the residence of Colonel Jack O'Neil, asking his wife Sarah if they can speak to the Colonel. "You can try," Sarah says. Jack O'Neil is in his son's bedroom with a gun in his hand, grossly withdrawn. The officers tell O'Neil that he is "reactivated" and is required immediately. While leaving, one officer explains to the other why O'Neil is so withdrawn; O'Neil's son accidentally shot himself with his father's weapon.
Daniel Jackson is taken to a converted missile silo in Creek Mountain, Colorado. There, Catherine, another Egyptologist and a physics professor show Jackson a large circular artefact with two main sets of writing; one on an outer track around the artefact's circumference, and another on an inner track which has symbols which also appear on a cartouche in the centre. Jackson says only the inner track contains hieroglyphs, which when translated describe how Re, the Egyptian God of the sun, was banished for all time when an object called a Stargate was buried.
Colonel O'Neil interrupts (revealing the artefact is 10 000 years old - 5 000 years older than Egyptian culture), telling Catherine the project is now classified and non-military personnel are not to receive any information concerning it. When Catherine confronts him, saying that she is upset her control over the project has been relinquished, O'Neil explains he is there in case the team succeeds.
Jackson researches ancient languages to try and find the meaning of the outer track, but his extensive search is in vain. However, looking at the astrology section of a newspaper he realises that one of the symbols on the outer track matches the constellation Orion. The symbols on the outer track, he realises, are not a written language but star constellations.
Jackson presents his discovery to General West and the team of Air Force officers, explaining the seven symbols on the cartouche denote a course. Six symbols show a destination; to specify a particular point within a three-dimensional object, one requires six different points on the surface of that object. Two points on both sides of the object's length draw a straight line, which intersects with similar lines along the width and depth provide one particular point. The seventh symbol, Jackson says, is a point of origin.
The cartouche contains six specific constellations, but one which is seperate from the others is a picture of two priests praying before a Pyramid with the sun over them, which Jackson says is most likely the point of origin. One scientist rejects Jackson's claims, saying the point of origin isn't on 'the device'. Asking what the device is, the military personnel show Jackson the large ring which was found in the film openings. Catherine explains "It's your Stargate."
The group go into the control centre of the Stargate, where Catherine explains the object which her father found is made of a material not found anywhere else on Earth. The Stargate contains all the symbols which were present on the outer circle of the artefact, and Jackson identifies the point of origin; previously undetected as it does not contain as much detail as the symbol on the cartouche.
Entering the now complete sequence of seven symbols, the Stargate opens in a blaze of energy, creating a portal. A probe is sent through, which records the other side of the portal is on the other side of the known universe and is capable of sustaining human life. The Stargate closes a short time after the probe is sent through.
Examining the information the probe sent back, the group see another Stargate and General West proposes that both gates once served as a doorway between Earth and the other planet, Abydos. West decides to send a reconnaissance team through the Stargate but the team will have to decipher the seven symbols to travel back to Earth, a responsibility Jackson volunteers for. As Daniel packs his books, Catherine hands him the pendant she recovered at the Stargate site in 1928; "It has brought me luck," she explains, telling him to wear it until he returns through the Stargate.
The team of eight arrive on a desert planet, the Stargate being stationed within an exact replica of the Giza Pyramids. When O'Neil orders Jackson to ready the Stargate for the return trip, Jackson explains he is unable to; he requires the specific co-ordinates for Earth's Stargate and the point of origin, which were not near the Stargate as Daniel expected. They will have to search the area for the co-ordinates. While the group set up a base camp, O'Neil prepares a device near the Stargate.
Following a native animal - which Jackson says is domisticated as it is wearing a harness - O'Neil, Jackson, Kawalsky and Brown are led to an outpost which is mining the same mineral the Stargate is made of, naquida. The natives, primitive humans, at first approach them with fear but when they see the pendant Catherine gave Jackson, they bow before the team. The Abydon chief, Kasuf, takes them from the mine to their village. While there, the village look-outs spot a sandstorm; the remainder of O'Neil's team will be unable to sustain contact until it passes.
Jackson sees the Eye of Re and decides the villagers believe Re sent them as Catherine's pendant bears the same symbol. Jackson cannot understand the native language, but decides to attempt to communicate by drawing hieroglyphs in the sand. Kasuf, however, wipes the drawings away almost as soon as Daniel draws them. Writing, Jackson determines, is taboo to the Abydons.
Later that night, the villagers offer Jackson a woman, Sha'uri. Though Daniel makes the villagers believe he has sex with her, he in fact tries to communicate by drawing the Pyramid in the sand. At first Sha'uri ignores the drawing but then edits it to draw Earth's point of origin. Sha'uri has seen the symbol before, and takes Jackson to the place where she saw it.
Meanwhile at the Pyramid where the remainder of the team is stationed, a much larger pyramid decends from the sky. After the pyramid lands, a hatch in the roof of the smaller Pyramid opens and someone enters the temple using transporter rings; an elevator which works by teleporting passengers. One by one, the intruder knocks out each of the team. As the last of the team fall, the intruder is shown as having the body of a human but the head of a jackal; it is the Egyptian god Anubis.
O'Neil, after showing Kasuf's son Skaara his cigarette lighter, finds Jackson and Sha'uri in a hidden cave. Jackson has identified the native language as Egyptian; he was unable to speak to them before because the pronunciation had been lost on Earth. Along the walls of the cave are, aside from Earth's point of origin symbol, hieroglyphics which describe much information about the Stargate.
During the time of Neanderthal man, Re's race was becoming extinct and he was fleeing his home planet when he landed on Earth and abducted a young boy, possessing him "like some kind of a parasite looking for a host." Re used the Stargate as a way to transport humans to Abydos for slave labour, mining naquida which allows Re to sustain eternal life. However, on Earth the people rebelled and buried the Stargate so that Re was unable to take any more slaves. To prevent the Abydons revolting, Re outlawed reading and writing so the natives wouldn't know of Re's defeat.
Kawalsky finds the tablets which contain the co-ordinates for Earth, but the tablets are missing the point of origin and thus the group will be unable to return home. O'Neil nonetheless orders the group to return to the Stargate. Skaara and his friends meet with Sha'uri, who tells them Daniel's tale of Re and the Stargate.
When O'Neil and the others return to the Pyramid the Egyptian gods Horus and Anubis are waiting for them. O'Neil and Jackson manage to fight there way to the Stargate, where O'Neil examines the device he assembled earlier, only to find a portion of the device is missing just before Anubis and Horus capture them, using staffs which fire powerful bolts of energy. They are taken aboard the larger pyramid using the transporter rings.
O'Neil and Jackson are escorted before Re himself, who says in Egyptian that the soldiers are here to destroy him, revealing the component O'Neil was looking for earlier. "That's a bomb, isn't it?" Jackson realises. Re, his voice unnaturally deep, barks orders to his underlings; Horus, Anubis and Re are actually humans wearing complex masks. O'Neil attempts to escape, using Horus's and Anubis's weapons, but fails and is taken prisoner.
Jackson is killed in the shoot-out, but Re resurrects him using his sarcophagus. The human race was selected, Re explains, because Re's technology can very easily heal wounds in a human body. Re explains that he will send O'Neil's bomb back through the Stargate, along with some of the alien mineral which will give the bomb 100 times its usual destructive power, to prevent humans returning again.
Re has plans for Daniel too; Jackson will execute O'Neil and the others before the natives. By wearing Catherine's pendant, which is sacred to Re, Jackson is considered a god and could be seen as a contender for Re's power. If Jackson refuses, Re will kill not only Jackson and O'Neil's team, but also all the natives who have seen them. "There can only be one Re!" the Sun-God explains, his eyes flashing.
As Re reveals his plans, Skaara and his friends are seen at the team's base camp, salvaging their weapons, when flying craft emerge from Re's pyramid. The group take cover, and the craft fly to the native village, blindly firing energy weapons at the villagers. When Skaara and the others return to the village, Sha'uri and Kasuf explain it is punishment from Re for helping O'Neil and his team.
The next day, the villagers are assembled to the execution of O'Neil and his team by Jackson. As Jackson gets ready to fire, however, Skaara shines light into Jackson's eyes and reveals he has the team's weapons. Jackson instead fires on Re, and Skaara and his friends act as back-up. Shau'ri, Skaara and some other young villagers help the group to some caves far from the village. Re, outraged at losing his prisoners, executes one of the Horus guards using a hand-ray (called a ribbon in the TV series) over the guard's brain.
Kawalsky proposes the team use the natives as back-up to reach the Stargate but O'Neil refuses. Jackson confronts O'Neil about the bomb, who explains that if hostile life was on the other side of the Stargate, O'Neil was ordered destroy the Stargate with a nuclear weapon after the remainder of the team were back on Earth. O'Neil accepted the fact of never returning home as he is still suicidal over his own son's death. When Skaara draws their victory onto slate, Jackson realises the point of origin is the planet's three moons joined together in a triangle. The team can return to Earth.
The next day, the rebels join a caravan taking naquida ore to Re in order to get to the Stargate. When a Horus guard discovers O'Neil, the rebels kill the Horus guard. Kasuf then yells at his son for being hostile towards their gods and leads the villagers into a prayer of forgiveness. Jackson, however, removes Horus's mask and reveals his true identity. "Take a look at your gods. Take a good look," Jackson tell Kasuf.
When the shipment caravan, which now consists only of the rebels, arrives at the pyramid the group are searched by more Horus guards, and a fight erupts when the team are discovered. Inside the temple the Horus guards are all killed, but not before Shau'ri is shot and O'Neil begins the countdown on the nuclear warhead. When Anubis goes down to the Stargate to send the bomb to Earth, he uses the transporter rings; Jackson also uses them to get Shau'ri to Re's sarcophagus and heal her. Meanwhile, Re's gliders fire upon Kawalsky and the others outside Re's ship.
When Re's sarcophagus heals Shau'ri Jackson is caught by Re, who uses his ribbon on Jackson, just as they reach the transporter rings. Meanwhile, O'Neil is engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with Anubis when he realises how to activate the transporter rings; with a quick "Give my regards to King Tut!" he activates them, and when the rings activate they sever Anubis's head and Re's hand, while getting Jackson back to the Stargate. The nuclear weapon's countdown has been started and is unable to be stopped, and so the group use the transporter rings to send it aboard Re's ship as it leaves the planet just before it detonates.
Jackson activates the Stargate and the team is sent home, but Jackson has decided to stay and live among the natives. As Jackson gives O'Neil Catherine's pendant to return to its owner, he says "Tell Catherine this brought me luck!"