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So, I was flipping through broadcast last night, and I caught just a couple of brief glimpses of a B action flick on a lesser channel.

I would guess it to be 80s/90s in time period. The protagonist seemed to be a hard-bitten, modern soldier-of-fortune in a beret --he looked like Dolph Lundgren, but I'm not sure it was him. In one scene he shares a cigarette with a young man of indeterminate "exotic" origin.

In another scene, he and a character who looked like John Denver, and whom I'm just going to guess was an archaeologist, were held prisoner by some vaguely Egyptian-looking guards with spears that shot out energy bolts, in front of an androgynous young ruler/cult-leader, and a retinue of boy priests. There was some kind of tussle, and everyone got zapped with the energy spears. Then the ruler's eyes started glowing.

That's all I saw of it --can anyone identify it?

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  • You're fine to leave incorrect information in the question, in fact it's preferable in case others have made the same mistake.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 11:55
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    @TheLethalCarrot - OK, but you've got to protect me from being beaten up by irate Stargate fans...
    – Chris Sunami
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 11:56
  • I missed any related comments that may have precipitated the deletion of ones that I made. For my part, if you mistook my (intended) good-natured kidding as that of an irate fan being rude, I sincerely apologize! That was not my intention at all
    – NKCampbell
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 16:15
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    @NKCampbell I was just joking as well! :) I had tried to edit out my reference to "Stargate" as a B-movie, but TLC convinced me to keep it as is. // Anyway, apparently what I need to worry about is not being beaten up, but being exiled to a distant, Egyptian-themed planet.
    – Chris Sunami
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 20:23
  • "he looked like Dolph Lundgren" lolz
    – Mark Rogers
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 1:11

1 Answer 1

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47

Since we don't seem to have a high-quality answer for this, I'm going to post that this is almost certainly the 1994 movie Stargate. After an alien ring is discovered in the desert, it is activated to reach a distant alien (also desert) world, where conflict arises when the alien rulers return.

The movie has a strong Egyptian aesthetic; the gate is discovered in Egypt, the alien and its retinue favour Egyptian themes (and may be the originators of them on Earth) and even the pyramids are explained as the landing pads for the alien spaceships.

As for the scenes you remember, here are Kurt Russell (in a beret) and James Spader:

enter image description here

Here is Ra (centre, in helmet), some of his retinue, and his guards (wearing their helmets, armed with energy staves):

enter image description here

The young man of "indeterminate origin" is named Skaara and took to the Earth soldiers and was partly accepted by them:

enter image description here

The alien Ra does have an androgynous appearance:

enter image description here

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    Thanks for the quick answer! This was definite. What's funny is I was going to say the ruler looked like the actor who plays the transgender character in "The Crying Game." But I had no idea it actually was that actor.
    – Chris Sunami
    Commented Sep 10, 2020 at 17:01
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    Stargate was certainly not a B movie when released - it was box office premier. It's still considered a good movie today
    – slebetman
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 5:22
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    Not to mention spawning 16 seasons of live-action TV, and a bunch of animation (I think)
    – Jozef Woods
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 9:03
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    @JozefWoods Not to mention further... 3-4 successful spin-offs and defining numerous tropes to be imitated by mainstream sci-fi later and through that garner quite the cult following.
    – Stian
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 12:16
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    Honestly, I think the spin-offs gained far more cultural relevancy than the original movie, but it looks like it did at one time hold the record for box-office in an October release, which isn't nothing.
    – T.E.D.
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 17:12

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