The X Files (1998)

Director:

Rob Bowman

Writers (WGA):

Chris Carter (story) and
Frank Spotnitz (story) ...

Release Date:

19 June 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Fight the Future

Plot:

Mulder and Scully must fight the government in a conspiracy and find the truth about an alien colonization of Earth.

Plot Keywords:

Agent | FBI | Texas | Bomb | Government

Awards:

3 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Special Agent Dana Scully
John Neville	...	The Well-Manicured Man
William B. Davis	...	Cigarette Smoking Man / CGB Spender
Martin Landau	...	Alvin Kurtzweil, MD
Mitch Pileggi	...	Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Jeffrey DeMunn	...	Ben Bronschweig, M.D. (as Jeffrey De Munn)
Blythe Danner	...	Jana Cassidy
Terry O'Quinn	...	Darius Michaud
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Conrad Strughold
Lucas Black	...	Stevie
Christopher Fennell	...	Boy #2 (as Chris Fennell)
Cody Newton	...	Boy #3
Blake Stokes	...	Boy #4
Dean Haglund	...	Richard 'Ringo' Langly

Also Known As:

Aux frontières du réel (Canada: French title)
Blackwood (USA) (working title)
Fight the Future (USA) (working title)
The X Files Movie (Australia)
The X Files: Fight the Future (USA) (working title)
The X-Files (USA) (closing credits title)
X-Files: Blackwood (USA) (working title)
X-Files: The Movie (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some intense violence and gore.

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:12 (original rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | South Korea:12 | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Alberta) | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Poland:15 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Bakersfield, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Watch the scene where the agent's car (chasing the white trucks) is tracked by a helicopter shot driving bottom right to top left diagonally across the screen. This scene cross-fades into the end of the drive at night, with the car driving top right to bottom left diagonally. The cross fade between the two shots creates a huge "X" on screen for a moment or two.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The movie takes place in July but during the sequence in Antarctica the Sun is up (fairly high). During July, the Sun never rises in Antartica (at least not at the coordinates given by the Well Manicured Man).

Quotes:

Mulder: How many times have we been here before, Scully? Right here. So close to the truth and now with what we've seen and what we know to be right back at the beginning with nothing.
Scully: This is different, Mulder.
Mulder: No it isn't! You were right to want to quit! You were right to want to leave me! You should get as far away from me as you can! I'm not gonna watch you die, Scully, because of some hallow personal cause of mine. Go be a doctor. Go be a doctor while you still can.
Scully: I can't. I won't. Mulder, I'll be a doctor, but my work is here with you now. That virus that I was exposed to, it has a cure. You held it in your hand. How many other lives can we save?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Man yan (2004)

Soundtrack:

Hunter

Good Jump to the Big Screen.

Well-paced and well-crafted, "The X-Files" is a surprisingly good movie that does not try to get cute and go away from the things that made the series such a national phenomenon. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson seem out of place working with bomb squads and doing other mundane duties after their department is shut down by the government. However the two feel that something really major is up which involves alien colonization on Earth and a vast government cover-up that goes through the highest places in the U.S. political realm. A good screenplay and solid direction make "The X-Files" a first-rate film from a very good cinematic year. 4 stars out of 5.