A Stargate Movie Has An Impressive Guinness World Record That Will Be Hard To Beat

This post contains spoilers for the "Stargate" franchise.

In 2006, "Stargate SG-1" was abruptly canceled after an eventful 10-season run, but this didn't spell the end of the beloved "Stargate" franchise. In fact, there was still hope for promising new stories about the strangest corners of the galaxy, as evidenced by the then-ongoing "Stargate Atlantis," which was on its third season when "SG-1" came to an end. Moreover, several franchise projects were brewing at the time, including the distinct and ambitious "Stargate Universe," along with two direct-to-video movies that would serve as sequels to "SG-1." While franchise producers Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper were preoccupied with fresh and varied ideas, anything related to "SG-1" automatically took precedence, as this particular offshoot has always been the beating heart of "Stargate."

"SG-1" revolves around the titular exploration team, who use the Stargate devices to travel across the galaxy (while ensuring that the folks back on Earth are protected against intergalactic attacks). This format helped introduce hordes of alien threats, including the Goa'uld, the Replicators, and the Ori, who clash repeatedly with the SG-1 crew across the seasons. After the Syfy series came to an end, we got the direct-to-video sequel "The Ark of Truth," whose moderate success led to "Stargate: Continuum" being greenlit. Both "The Ark of Truth" and "Stargate: Continuum" were released in 2008, as the idea was to give fans a sincere conclusion to a character-driven story about human perseverance in the face of a vast, often cruel universe.

While "Stargate: Continuum" was a hit on release (it garnered enthusiastic critical reviews due to its understated, yet fun nature), this direct-to-video conclusion to "SG-1" also gained an unexpected spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Let's talk about it.

We have to keep in mind that "Stargate: Continuum" wasn't some big-budget franchise tentpole, as the film had a production budget of $7 million (a standard 40-minute "Stargate" episode roughly cost $2 million at the time). There was also the question of the returning cast, where some were unavailable for certain scenes due to scheduling conflicts. For instance, Michael Shanks, who played Daniel Jackson in "SG-1," couldn't shoot the Arctic scenes due to unavailability, so his momentary absence was worked around by having the character develop frostbite and having his leg amputated. If you're worried about Jackson, fret not: "Stargate: Continuum" takes place in an alternate timeline with a plot armor that's the equivalent of a "reset button," which keeps the integrity of the original timeline intact. Yep, don't question it.

Anyway, due to the intervention of the Big Bad, Ba'al (Cliff Simon), an alternate timeline where the Stargate Program never existed is formed, prompting the SG-1 crew to time travel to this particular timeline to prevent catastrophe. This doesn't happen immediately, of course, as the SG-1 from the canonical timeline are initially prohibited from interacting with this new reality, but things change when the Antarctic Stargate is excavated in the alternate timeline. This leads to an Arctic mission to the Ancient outpost of Proclarush Taonas, where the goal is to retrieve a Zero Point Module (a power source created by the Ancients) to help power the inactive Stargate that has been freshly excavated.

The Arctic sequences were filmed at the U.S. Navy's Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station, which is situated 230 miles from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. This turned out to be the "Most Northerly Film Shoot" to date, securing a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the only movie (to date) to shoot so far north on location. Amanda Tapping, who played Samantha Carter in "SG-1," told GateWorld the following about her experience of filming in the Arctic:

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You're going to live on a moving ice flow, in a camp in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. You're going to see a nuclear submarine crash through the ice, and you're going to get to go on the nuclear submarine, and the whole time you're filming a movie. Ben [Browder] and I were walking along, doing that huge helicopter shot and we were like, 'Oh my god!' Nobody has ever walked here before — this is frozen ocean and nobody will ever walk here again."

This sounds pretty cool, and it is! These Arctic sequences are reason enough to check out "Stargate: Continuum" and everything else it has to offer as a solid conclusion to "SG-1."