Stargate: The Ark of Truth
Written and directed by Robert C. Cooper
Original release date: March 11, 2008
Mission briefing. A prelude shows the Ancients—or, rather, the Alterans—deciding to leave their home galaxy and head to the Milky Way rather than deal directly with the Ori. They consider and reject the notion of using the Ark of Truth to expose the Ori as frauds. The Ark convinces all who are exposed to it of the absolute truth, but the Alterans consider it too extreme. They depart for the Milky Way, leaving the Ark behind and destroying the mountain city it was in.
In the present day, SG-1 is digging through the ruins of Dakara in an attempt to find the Ark. Shortly after Jackson finds what he thinks is it, an Ori ship shows up and the troops—led by Tomin—call for SG-1’s surrender, promising to spare them if they do. The box they found turns out not to be the Ark. The Prior in command of these troops orders SG-1 killed, but Tomin balks, as he promised to spare them. The Prior insists, and SG-1 points out that the Prior is powerless to do it himself. SG-1 manages to kill the Prior, only then revealing to Tomin that they have their Prior disruptor working. Seeing that the Priors are not all-knowing or invulnerable, Tomin dismisses his troops and surrenders himself to SG-1.
Jackson has been seeing visions of the Ark that he believes are remnants of him sharing Merlin’s consciousness. He describes one such vision to Tomin, who recognizes it as the Ortus Mallum from the Book of Origin. The Ark may well be located in the Ori’s home galaxy.
With Woolsey spending more time focusing on the Altantis expedition, the IOA has sent a new liaison: James Marrick, who acts like an SG-1 fangoober, but nobody buys the act. He conducts a rather unnecessarily mean interrogation of Tomin.
The original plan to destroy the supergate is put off so they can take the Odyssey to the Ori galaxy to try to find the Ark. The IOA will only approve the plan if Marrick goes with. And so they pop onto the Odyssey with Mitchell in charge of both ship and mission and head through the supergate. Eventually, they find the location of Ortus Mallum and start searching for the Ark.
Back on Earth, a Prior contacts SG-3 with the hopes of talking to Landry. He steps through the gate with Reynolds and SG-3 and tries to convince Landry to give in to Origin. Landry tells him to go screw himself.
Marrick activates the Asgard computer core, which the Ori can detect, and uses it to create a replicator. The IOA was never keen on the whole Ark thing, and so ordered Marrick to send a replicator to the first Ori ship that shows up after he turns on the Asgard core and they’ll take care of the Ori once and for all. Marrick neglects to mention that ARGs don’t work on this replicator, and it gets loose on the ship.
On Ortus Mallum, Jackson, Teal’c, Vala, and Tomin finally locate the Ark, but they are unable to return to the Odyssey thanks to their newly acquired replicator problem—not to mention the three Ori ships that the Asgard core attracts. They have to escape to hyperspace—leaving the four on the planet to be attacked by Ori troops. Teal’c is gravely injured, while the other three are taken to Celestis, the city of the Ori.
The replicator has replicated, and now there’s a queen and tons of little replicators taking over the ship. They also take control of Marrick and use him to beat the crap out of Mitchell, who has planted C-4 to take out the queen. Carter and Marks, meanwhile, are searching for the shutdown code in the Asgard computer. Eventually, Mitchell is able to get through to Marrick long enough for the IOA agent to reveal the location of the shutdown code. Carter is able to activate it, and the replicators all fall apart.
Teal’c awakens and stumbles toward Celestis, eventually collapsing partway there. Meanwhile, Tomin, Vala, and Jackson are tortured by the Doci. Vala is then brought to a room that contains the Ark—and also Adria, who ascended and is now the only Ori left. Turns out the Sangraal did its job and all the Ori are dead. So Adria singlehandedly has the power of all the Ori. She and Vala have a mother-daughter talk that is less productive than Vala would have liked—but Adria just disappears in the middle of it.
Jackson figures out that his visions are not from Merlin—they’re from Morgan Le Fay. In addition to helping Jackson as she has been, she also heals Teal’c, allowing him to reach Celestis and free Jackson and Tomin. She can’t take on Adria directly because she’s too powerful. So Jackson, Vala, Teal’c, and Tomin go to the Ark, get the crap beaten out of them by the Doci and Adria, but then Jackson manages to open the Ark and Teal’c fires on the leg of the table it’s on, which causes it to fall open and reveal the truth to the Doci. Since all the Priors are linked to the Doci via their staffs, the Doci learning the truth about the Ori is instantly transmitted to all Priors in the galaxy. Adria’s power is suddenly reduced considerably, and Morgan is able to take her on directly. The two disappear in a flash of brilliance.
With the replicators taken care of and the Ori no longer belligerent, the Odyssey is able to pick up the gang and return home. Jackson opens the Ark in front of the Prior who is still a prisoner of the SGC. Through him, the truth is revealed to all Priors in the Milky Way. The Ori threat is now officially over.
Tomin returns to the Ori galaxy to become the new ruler of his people. He still follows Origin, but only the parts about bettering yourself. He asks Vala to return with him, but she thinks her place is with SG-1.
Once Mitchell has recovered, SG-1 suits up for their next mission…
Can’t we just reverse the polarity? Before leaving the Ark behind, an Ancient grabs a notebook, which includes his notes on this really cool idea for a system of rings that would open stable wormholes and send people to different planets instantly…
It might work, sir. While Mitchell is recovering in the SGC infirmary, Carter brings him a bag of macaroons, a nice call back to when Mitchell brought her macaroons in “Line in the Sand.”
Indeed. Teal’c’s speech to Tomin about how he will never forget the innocents he killed and how he will never ever forgive himself, and that the only thing he can do is try to save as many lives as he can going forward, is quite possibly the character’s finest moment—a magnificent summary of Teal’c’s own life and brutally necessary advice to a repentant Tomin. I’ve said that Teal’c was utterly useless in the ninth and tenth seasons, and I stand by that, but honestly? That speech completely makes up for his fifth-wheel status on the last two seasons of the show. Just brilliant.
I speak 23 different languages—pick one. Jackson is not happy about the Ark being locked away at Area 51, as it’s incredibly dangerous. Landry says there’s nothing he can do.
The man doesn’t even have a decent pie crust. Mitchell gets seriously walloped by the Marrick replicator. He also really hates being in charge of the Odyssey, and tries to fob it off on Carter at one point.
You can go ahead and burst into flames now. Landry and the Prior have a great conversation, in which the general makes it clear that humanity is not going to just give in, and the Ori are in for a fight. He does so while wearing his leather jacket of badassness, too.
Let’s make babies! Vala’s latest attempt to convince her daughter not to be an evil goddess falls on deaf ears, but this particular conversation has the biggest regret and tragedy about it.
Trivial matters. When the Odyssey goes through the supergate, the effect is done in the same style as the first time Jackson stepped through the gate in Stargate, going so far as to put Jackson in the foreground so the shot is as similar as possible.
The Prior disruptor was introduced in “The Fourth Horseman.” That the Ori can detect Earth ships using their Asgard cores was established in “Unending.” This film reveals that the Sangraal did what it was supposed to do when our heroes sent it through the supergate in “The Shroud.” Morgan previously aided Jackson in “The Pegasus Project.”
This movie has the first use of profanity in the Stargate franchise since O’Neill cried, “Bullshit!” in “Within the Serpent’s Grasp.” Stargate could have used all the profanity and nudity they wanted for its first five seasons, given that they were on Showtime, but aside from Vaitare Bandera’s nude scene in “Children of the Gods” and that use of “Bullshit!”, they kept the show safe for commercial television (which made the transition to the Sci-Fi Channel pretty seamless).
Woolsey was seen to be spending more time dealing with Atlantis in that show’s third season, so having a new IOA representative deal with the SGC makes sense. Too bad he’s a dick. That will continue in the fourth season, with Woolsey taking over command of the expedition in the fifth season.
Though this film was released after Michael Beach’s first appearance as Ellis in “First Strike,” it is Ellis’s first appearance chronologically, since “First Strike,” “Adrift,” and “Lifeline” all take place after this film.
Carter’s hair has grown, and she ties it back in a ponytail or braid. She will maintain this look henceforth, in Atlantis seasons 4 and 5, in Continuum, and in her appearances on Universe.
In addition to all the main cast of season 10 returning for the film, The Ark of Truth features the return of Doug Abraham and Greg Anderson (Priors), Morena Baccarin (Adria), Eric Breker (Reynolds), Martin Christopher (Marks), Tim Guinee (Tomin), Gary Jones (Harriman), Julian Sands (Doci), Sarah Strange (Morgan), and Matthew Walker (the image of Merlin). Christopher and Jones will each appear again on both Atlantis and Universe.
The DVD contains an optional prelude called “The Road Taken,” which sums up the events of seasons 9 and 10.
Chevron seven locked. On the one hand, this is a rollicking fun adventure, a big ending to the Ori storyline that is much more impressive looking on the seven-million-dollar budget the DVD had than the two-million-dollar budget an episode of the series would have had. And it’s very enjoyable as you watch.
But once you think about it, there are some serious problems. Some are obvious, and at the very least the storyline cops to it from the very first second. Yes, the Ark of Truth is quite the deus ex machina, but it’s right there in the title, for crying out loud. It’s not like they pulled it out of their asses, they said from jump it was the only chance.
At least the only sane one. The notion of reviving the replicators is actually one that works on several levels, but fails on others. In terms of something the IOA thinks is a better idea than relying on a magic box that will make everybody see the truth—well, yeah, I can see the logic. But the replicators are so incredibly dangerous that it’s spectacularly irresponsible even for the IOA with their bureaucratic hideboundedness to actually agree to it. Plus, Marrick is such a straw-bad-guy. Most of the IOA officers we’ve met have been permitted at least some nuance, from Woolsey to Shen to Universe‘s Strom, but Marrick is just a clichéd sleazy bad guy. Snore. Plus, the actual battle against the replicators on the Odyssey just feels like a repeat of every other shoot-the-replicators-constantly sequence we got, from “Nemesis” to “Reckoning.” And while nobody gets beat up more entertainingly than Ben Browder, his fight with Marrick really feels like the worst kind of padding.
Speaking of padding, we have Teal’c’s manly, manly wounded walk across Ortus Mallum to Celestis, which just goes on and on. I mean, it looks pretty, watching him walk over mountains and through deserts and such, but it doesn’t really serve any plot purpose. Morgan could have cured him sooner, for one thing…
Having said that, Teal’c also has the crowning moment of awesome when he lectures Tomin on the agonies of realizing you’ve done great evil and must repent. Honestly, even if Robert C. Cooper had never written anything else decent in his life he could take heart in the fact that he wrote that scene. The whole DVD is worth it for that scene, just a brilliant, brutally honest explanation of the horror of realizing you’ve served a bad cause.
Screencaps from GateWorld and LiveJournal/Roeskva
Keith R.A. DeCandido is involved with two nifty Kickstarters, one for a superhero anthology called The Side of Good/The Side of Evil (in which Keith will have a story), the other for a web series that combines ’50s and ’60s pulp sci-fi with a modern sensibility (think Buckeroo Banzai meets Emma Peel) starring Singularity & Co.’s Cici James called Atomic Annie (for which Keith will be putting together a short-story anthology).
Keith, isn’t there usually a “Welcome Aboard” section or something for new guest stars, as opposed to returning ones? I note you don’t mention the name of the guy who played Marrick, whose name is on the tip of my mind and whom I’ve seen in various other things.
I figure it’s easiest just to repost (most of) my review from the ExIsle BBS back when it came out (since I’d never remember all my reactions otherwise):
Well, I liked it. Sure, it had a lot of familiar story elements, but even the formulaic stuff was ramped up to a new level with the movie budget and production values. For instance, although we’ve seen plenty of Replicator battles before, we’ve never seen them directed quite this way (with all those close-ups and inserts of the soldiers’ preparations), never seen the Reps use some of the tactics and forms seen here, etc. The whole RepliMarrick thing was contrived and hard to believe, but still, it was something different. And seeing Adria being fully aflame and Morgan fully glowing the whole time, rather than just being the actresses standing there in costume, was a nice step up.
This is definitely not a film that can work as a standalone — even the “prelude,” an extended recap sequence, doesn’t even identify any of the characters by name except for Mitchell and Vala, so it’s assumed that the viewers are familiar with the basics of the series. And as a climax to the series arc, it works reasonably well, allowing for the plot compression and the use of a deus ex machina. Or is that deicide ex machina?
Definitely the best part is Tomin’s arc. He is a very rich character and he goes through a lot of growth here. I like the irony that the Ori created this belief system as a deception, a front for their own selfish purposes, but one of their followers was able to find some genuine truth in it and be inspired by it to stand up for something better. It just goes to show that sometimes what really matters is not the origin or literal truth of a belief system, but the conviction it inspires in its believers.
And the scene where Teal’c and Tomin talked about dealing with their common guilt was the high point of the film, definitely. In ten years we haven’t gotten as much insight into Teal’c as we got in those two and a half minutes.
And I was a bit bothered by the time differential, Teal’c making what should’ve been a days-long journey while merely hours passed on the Odyssey, but the scenery and music were gorgeous, really expansive and cinematic stuff, so I’m willing to forgive it.
Oh, the music. Finally, after years of having to settle for reedy synthesizers, Joel Goldsmith finally gets a full-sized orchestra to play with. Well, it’s not the first time; SG1 and SGA both had orchestral scores for their pilot episodes, and that music was tracked into various later episodes. But even so, this score is more expansive, more cinematic, less inhibited. I enjoyed even the sillier parts because they had this great, rich underscore. It’s rare that Goldsmith really gets a chance like this to cut loose and show what he’s really capable of. It’s a shame he doesn’t do more feature film scores, because he could do almost as well in that field as his father did.
Deus ex machina aside, I like the idea of the Ark of Truth. I’ve felt for a long time that the ultimate weapon of an arbitrarily advanced civilization would be something that changed people’s minds rather than simply destroying them. Destruction is easy, primitive. And wasteful, compared to winning your opponents over to your side. Of course, the ability to convert people to your side can be very dangerous indeed, and it worries me that the government is keeping it in Area 51 for “study.” At least it has the limitation that it can only convert people who look into it — but I wonder if it would work over TV.
Of course, it does reputedly have the limitation that it can only convince people of things that are true, but true by whose definitions? Some truths are unambiguous, but others are more a matter of interpretation, and that’s usually where ideological wars arise. There’s a lot of potential to this idea, and it’s a shame they only get 100-odd minutes to develop it.
Christopher: I haven’t been doing “Welcome aboard” for Stargate — doesn’t really fit the seasonal/movie format. I have been doing the “Wayward home for out-of-work genre actors,” but that really only applied to Morena Baccarin and Sarah Strange and wasn’t worth a whole category in this case.
Oh, and Marrick was played by Currie Graham, one of those guys who shows up on every show filmed in Canada at least once. He also had a recurring role as an ADA on Boston Legal, and also appeared alongside Sarah Strange in Men in Trees.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@1, I remember grinning from ear to ear as the credits rolled and the original Stargate overture began playing in full orchestral glory for the first time in over a decade.
Loved that Goldsmith chose to open the score like that and how he segued into the Ori theme (in place of Ra’s theme).
I found a DVD triple feature of Ark of Truth, Continuum, and the newer Children of the Gods Final Cut for about $6.98 at a used bookstore. I think that’s about all I’d pay for the three of those (although, the Children of the Gods one was actually pretty good).
I found this film to be incredibly boring. It didn’t help that I had been so put off by seasons 9 and 10, and this movie was more of that. I found the premise and the history of the Ancients on the planet to be somewhat interesting, and I liked seeing the return of Adria and the confirmation that the Sangraal worked. But as a whole, it just seemed like a lot of padding. I got really bored during the Teal’c walking stuff, and started to feel like this wasn’t a movie, but just an episode that was extremely padded. And by that I partly mean that if they had somehow been able to get a larger budget and do a proper movie, the right director and editor (and maybe even writer) could’ve made a side plot of Teal’c walking seem interesting. But the way they did it for this straight-to-DVD release, it just didn’t work.
And the replicators. Why, why, why did they need to find some excuse to drag the replicators back into this? It was just to create false tension (and padding), and maybe just to show how much someone really liked the replicators. And then they just completely shut them down. So they brought back this incredibly dangerous adversary that had a really big build up and demise in the show, but then they just brushed them away again when they were no longer plot convenient.
And as much as I liked some of the idea of the Ark of Truth, I still find myself left with more questions than answers with regards to how it works and what exactly it is doing. The looking into the Ark thing just seemed a little anti-climactic. “OOOOOhhh…the ORI are the bad guys! Ok, carry on then, sorry for fighting you.”
I guess I would’ve liked a more treasure-hunt style thing than them just going to get it and having to run away from the replicators, which don’t belong in the Ori story, and then having the dude look into it. But that might have been too much of a recap of the Sangraal arc for some people. Which, speaking of, after that whole big multi-episode plotline, we find out the Sangraal DID work and there are no more Ori. There’s Adria, but as I recall, she wasn’t ascended when we saw her last. There are the Ori armies, of course, but if they could be taken down by the Priors learning the truth of the Ori, then they could’ve just as easily been defeated by the loss of the Ori meaning the loss of the Priors’ power. I guess what I’m saying is, this movie didn’t really need to happen, and it all seems like an extremely padded contrivance. They could’ve had the last episode of season 10 just wrap up the loose ends and explain that the device worked, and it wouldn’t have taken that long.
I think your problem with the Ark coming out of nowhere and Merrick not really having any character are because they basically had to cram the Ori side of their Season 11 plans into a single movie.
@5/APNelson: It was established in an earlier installment that the producers knew season 10 would be their last, and chose to save the Ori resolution for the first of the planned DVD movies because that way they’d have the budget to do it right. So I don’t think they ever planned on a season 11.
It seems incredibly stupid to send the Asgard core to another galaxy, especially one that is controlled by enemies. Unless they’ve already managed to have it copy itself?
Holy Smokes that was bad. At this point writers and producers of Stargate tv franchise were basically declaring non verbally “we have run out of story ideas , airtime to conclude main plot arc and running on fumes of fan ratings and network pressure” I am sorry but most of the Ark of Truth straight to DVD movie basically sucks…Best thing yeah Teal’c little speech to Tomin about how he did bad things also and trying to make up for them now etc. Rest meh…First of all this is at its basic Star Trek First Contact (1996) movie remade with low tv budget…Most of the seven million dollar budget must have gone to wages of production crew. Storyline structure is remarkably similar (though whole Stargate SG-1 became a Star Trek rip off after Season 3 in my opinion. MGM just trying to pull Star Trek tv audience with its morality / presudo science tales added with US militarism) While an unstoppable foe is assimilating/consuming the ship on orbit (of course there are no Ori vessels on orbit no early warning system and despite existence of Replicators no vital system damage occured aboard Odyssey ) and half of the characters desperately trying to stop it (Borg/Replicators) other half is on the planet dealing with whatever the secondary story to achieve main goal..Seriously with half of airtime spared for Replicator struggle this whole final story could be fitted to a two parter episode , even a single episode if you take out pointless Replicator element….While Jonathan Frakes created a really cramped dark creepy atmosphare aboard USS Enterprise during Star Trek First Contact , Robert Cooper fails when he tries to display a Terminator looking Replicator man and endless fistfights and gunfire aboard Odyssey (whose bright idea was to shoot constantly on a cramped vessel where a breach would have catastrophic consequences aboard ?). So in essence this is an extended episode , the final episode ( real one ) and a really bad one in writing meanwhile ripping money from fans to watch it. No amount of orchestral soundtrack or a few insults from Mitchell can change that.
And Barf…no sorry Ark of Truth….Basically a gigantic Deux ex Machina….During previous five seasons producers used this “buried Ancient mumbo jumbo tech device that would work cleanly (despite they had no idea about how it works or what it does) and without any hitch and make their problems go away” plot formula so many times it went beyond predictable this time. They use Deux ex machina plot of this version at least six or seven times in show itself. But since fan audience is not the most picking one in quality writing as long as fan favorite actors like Shanks and Tapping were on screen it does not matter I suppose. And formulatic enough that I predicted the main phases of script about Ori after 20 minutes. Of course Ori fleet arrived on Earth did not attack and vaporised a few cities (as Anubis fleet did not in Season 7. Cooper , Wright and Malozzi are incapable of such a leap of change in writing and world building besides there have no budget of course. They have to play safe and predictable and boring) Of course Ark is perfect enough that would convert all Ori religious society in both galaxies into peaceful all accomodating and tolarent communities. Apart from grandoise silliness of whole Ark concerpt (brainwashing everyone in galaxy perfectly once it was opened. Really ?) no after effect of losing the most important principle of their way of living , after effects of trauma of losing most important aspect of their religious based culture was mentioned. Even Star Trek was not that naive when dealing interfering with other cultures. Everyone will live happily ever after in Pegasus Galaxy. No turmoil , no chaos in these ex Ori worshipping cultures. That’s why Star Gate is destined to be a carbon copy of Star Trek.
Worst performance was from Adria and her “I am so invincible and evil” speech to Vala. It went beyond ridiculous with walking in circles. Morenica Baccarin is a fine actress but her character reduced to a mustache twirling villain if she had a mustache.
Hey folks — yesterday was one of those days when every time I sat down to work on the Atlantis season 4 rewatch, something went horribly horribly wrong. And I’ve got yet another quick-ass deadline that I need to focus on, so we’re postponing our look at Carter’s one season running things until next week. And the TOS Rewatch will hit Tuesday with “The Alternative Factor.”
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
So which group of aliens have it out for the rewatch?
@9/krad: “And the TOS Rewatch will hit Tuesday with “The Alternative Factor.””
As if you didn’t have enough disasters to contend with…
Isn’t “The Alternative Factor” the one where George Jetson’s car is the gateway to another universe? Argh…
@8/merdiolu I know that this was written a while ago, but I still felt the need to comment. I don’t understand why you ever watched Stargate SG-1, as you seem to hate everything about it. Also, as far as the Ark of Truth went, it wasn’t perfect, but complaining about things like Teal’c’s walk? Did you happen to notice the stirring orchestral score playing during his walk? LOTS of movies, especially big-budget movies, have similar scenes in them, be it a road trip or search for clues, etc. And since this movie was going for a big-screen feel, I felt that such a scene was perfectly appropriate. Besides, it was more than worth it just to get to hear the Joel Goldsmith music that he scored just for that scene. It was majestic, stirring and chilling, all at the same time. Goldsmith was an incredible composer/conductor/producer when he was given the tools to make a full, orchestral recording. And the fact that so many great songs were seamlessly woven into the story was a treat for anyone who enjoys music as powerful as this.
As for the Ark itself, of course it was a Deus ex Machina, but it was also a great idea, even if the telling of its story was somewhat misguided. All-in-all, if I got this or nothing at all, I choose this. I enjoyed having the “band back together” for another tour, even if it was a short one. See, the thing is, if you love a show, it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect or not. It simply has to BE for people who long for another episode to be happy. If you want $100 million dollar budgets with grand, overpaid actors and directors, then go to the movies. I am content with this, for now. And I rewatch these shows/movies all the time. It’s called “being a fan.”
Oh yes, and as you are OBVIOUSLY a massive Star Trek fan–so that NOTHING ELSE will EVER fill that void; such that everything you see is just a rip off of Star Trek–you should stop commenting on other sci-fi shows. We get it: you think that nothing could EVER measure up to your “Trekkie” perfection, but the rest of us heartily disagree. So you watch Star Trek and we’ll watch Stargate (if any more is coming)…or RERUNS if we have to. After all, as with Star Trek, I’m sure that you would agree that reruns are better than nothing. Am I right? Have a nice day.
I didn’t mind Teal’c’s “manly wounded walk”; not at all. Of course, I’m a huge Teal’c fan; and I’d enjoy seeing the character go to the grocery store or do laundry, so those few minutes of seeing him cross all those miles of varied terrain while injured to show just how tough and determined he is pleased me quite a bit. Yes, Morgan should have cured him sooner; but maybe she was betting with the other Ascended on how long it would take Teal’c to collapse, whatever…