How Much Would It Cost To Build The Atlantis Gate From Stargate?

There are some pretty incredible technological devices in science fiction, from the various ships that help characters traverse wide distances across the universe to slightly more out-of-this-world devices like the teleporters on "Star Trek" or the stargates from the "Stargate" franchise. It's a lot of fun to try and imagine what it might cost to build some of these science fiction wonders, from the $20 billion or so it would cost to build and launch the U.S.S. Enterprise from the original "Star Trek" to the trillions of dollars it would take to build a Star Destroyer from "Star Wars," but what about slightly less bulky travel — say, a stargate? 

The massive rings that allow for interspace travel in the "Stargate" franchise are usually just called gates (or "Einstein–Rosen bridge portal devices" if you want to be fancy), and while we can't figure out exactly what it would cost to build a functioning one because we just don't have anything close to that kind of science yet, we do have an idea of what it takes to build a replica of one, thanks to some pretty creative and hard-working fans. 

In 2019, a group of fans around the globe called Les Enfants de MacGyver finished building a life-size replica of the Pegasus gate from "Stargate Atlantis," the "Stargate" franchise entry where the gate is used to connect with the titular lost city. Incidentally, the group's name translates to "The Children of MacGyver," referencing the hit TV franchise starring "Stargate" actor Richard Dean Anderson as a guy who can fashion tools and weapons out of just about anything.

The 19-foot-tall replica gate took them over a decade to build, with superfan Quentin Brichet leading the project, and they used around $60,000 USD in materials to make the gate as close to the "real thing" as possible. It has all of the same features as the gate in the series except for interspace travel, including glowing runes and a spinning central light, and while that's impressive, it was only the test for the team's dream project: Building the Milky Way Gate from the "Stargate" film and the first spin-off series, "Stargate SG-1." 

While the Milky Way Gate project isn't finished just yet because they are trying to build all of the mechanical elements to actually move, a feat of engineering well beyond just getting the massive structure standing safely upright, it is almost done and is pretty impressive, though the team hasn't revealed the exact costs. They're probably greater than the $60,000 price tag for the Pegasus gate given the more complex mechanics, but hey, it's all insanely cool.

Perhaps the best part of the whole story isn't that a group of fans built two gates from the "Stargate" franchise, but that they developed friendships and built this together despite being scattered around the world, a testament to technology all on its own. In an interview with Vice, Brichet shared that though the team were relative strangers when it all began, some members eventually became very good friends. "Throughout the year, I'm speaking with them more than I'm speaking with my close friends," he said. Now that's the power of fandom, baby.