The X-Files Movie
The 1990’s were blessed with a TV show that still stands a classic toady, and is in my opinion, one of the best shows ever made for television. The perfect premise, the unforgettable characters, and the stories and scenes that kept you up all night long. It was, “The X-Files”. First starting in 1993, the two actors cast in the lead roles of Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) weren’t well known to most audiences, but that would change once this show catapulted them to cult status. And the show would go on to become a global phenomenon, capturing the imaginations of audiences young and old alike, from every corner of the world and of every belief, and that’s because The X-Files appealed to everyone’s interests, got past their reservations, spoke to their fears and challenged their beliefs. The show left people quoting the line “I Want to Believe”, taken from the poster of the UFO in Mulder's office, and our infatuation with aliens, the supernatural and the unexplained was taken up a level thanks to the pursuits of these two relentless FBI Agents.
You know The X-Files, who doesn’t right? So I don’t have to go into great detail about the show. I was instantly hooked and tuned in every Wednesday night on Channel 10 to watch either the “Monster of the Week” styled episode or the continuing "Government Conspiracy" episodes focusing on the cover up of extra terrestrials and Mulder’s endless search for his abducted sister. The X-Files was really the only TV show I watched every week, year after year without fail. My rules were simple; if you were in the living room during the time my show was on, sit down, be quiet and watch it – or Get Out! No one could talk or sit there and criticise how bad they thought the show was (sisters, I’m thinking of you). Even though I would bag the shit out of “Melrose Place” which was usually on after, but that was crap ;-)
The show’s many diverse episodes, focusing on ghosts, monsters, viruses, freaks, geeks, miracles, disasters, and every unexplained phenomena under the sun, were what made the show so good, but what made it so great was the perfect casting of it’s actors in the lead roles. So strong was the acting of Duchovny and Anderson, you couldn’t help but believe Mulder’s convictions about the existence of little green men. But then when Scully would try to disprove or debunk his wild theories, she would have you convinced as well, and so we the audience were caught in a beautiful battle of beliefs between the sceptic and the dreamer. Some episodes were resolved with valid scientific explanations by Scully, where as others were left open to constant speculation by Mulder’s witnessing of the truth being revealed, which Scully would conveniently not see on many occasions.
For its first five out of nine seasons, The X-Files went from good to great to outstanding. Then they decided to make a movie. Naturally, I was as excited as any true X-Files fan, and waited in high anticipation to see it. I went to the movies on opening weekend with my dad and younger sister, as the three of us were the biggest fans in the family. The movie opens like an episode but on a much larger scale, as we watch two cave men running through the white, cold snow. They arrive in a cave, where we find they’ve been tracking something. That something is tall, green, ugly and not of this world. It picks off one of the cave dudes, but the other puts up a fight and kicks it ass. But even he won’t escape unscathed, as the aliens thick, black blood oozes out of its lifeless body, and enters the caveman’s. Appearing as slugs or parasites, they crawl under his skin, and up his legs, and all we hear is his final scream of agony in the dark cave.
Fast forward 10,000 years to present day Texas, where a young boy falls through a hole in the ground. He’s okay, but it’s not long before that same black substance finds its way under his skin, and his eyes turn dead black and frozen. The “authorities” soon arrive on the scene, with one man making a phone call “Sir, that scenario we never came up with a plan for… you better come up with one” Boom! The movie was on.
We finally catch up with Mulder and Scully on a city rooftop in downtown Dallas. They’re looking for a bomb and find it, but it’s only got minutes to detonation. Realising they can’t stop it, the agents escape but upon investigating the reason behind the terrorist attack, they discover the bodies of a boy and a fireman, who were pulled from the hole in ground the day before. Scully performs one of her signature autopsies and discovers they were killed by some foreign substance. Mulder, with a tip off by a reclusive novelist, is convinced that the aliens are up to their old tricks, and persuades Scully to join him on a wild search.
The X Files Movie is not just a two hour-long episode. Although it stays true to the roots of the show, it has a big enough premise and large enough action set pieces to firmly make it a movie. And it’s a bloody entertaining one. It did not disappoint any X Files fan, as the fans got what they wanted and expected, as well as some new surprises and reveals along the way. It takes on more of a movie story arc midway when Scully is taken away, and Mulder goes after her like the Hero Rescuing the Damsel in Distress plot. But this doesn’t elevate Mulder to Blockbuster status; he’s still the curious agent fumbling in the dark with a flashlight, finding whatever he comes across and seeing more than he should. He has help along the way from some other familiar faces from the show, and tracks Scully down to a remote base in the Arctic. This is where the focus of the film kicks into high gear, blowing us all away with big twists, new truths and the answers we all longed for after five faithful years of watching the show.
The film cleverly ends in a way that sets up season six, which went to air shortly after the movies release. Sad to say, that’s where the show kind of went down hill, and I slowly started to tune out from there on, and missed most of the last few seasons. It was only when the reboot of the show was announced this time last year that I started watching the whole series from the beginning, including the movie, then discovered season’s six to nine. There were some good episodes in the later years, even if Mulder wasn’t around for most of it, and the final episode of the original series ended in a good way. Hinting there would be more.
In 2008, we were treated to another move “The F Files: I Want to Believe” but it was a poor effort, and instead of being a movie was purely just a two hour long episode. It seemed pointless in my opinion, but all that was forgotten when the six episode reboot of the show aired earlier this year. I, like most other X-Files fans, had mixed responses to the latest episodes, which ended on such a ridiculous cliff-hanger, we got no closure whatsoever. The way I predict it going down, is there will be another X-Files movie in 2018 (to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the show starting) where the Truth that’s Been Out There for so long will remind us to still Trust No One and changes us from I Want to Believer’s to I am Convinced. Then, the X-Files can close and Mulder and Scully will live happily ever after. They deserve to, after all the years of chasing monsters in the dark and dodging dodgy government agents. As a true X-Files fan, that would be the perfect ending to this amazing show (and first movie), and the perfect tribute to a whole generation of Believers who are still, like Mulder, Searching for the Truth!
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