Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (17 Nov. 1996)
"The X Files" Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (original title)

While the Cigarette Smoking Man listens in on a conversation Scully and Mulder are having with Froehike, he recalls his own past and how he got to be where he is today. As a young army ... See full summary »

Director:

James Wong

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator), Glen Morgan,

Stars:

David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Dean Aylesworth

Cast

Episode credited cast:
David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder (voice)
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dean Aylesworth	...	Young Bill Mulder
Fred Beale	...	Newstand Operator
Tim Bissett	...	Agent Cook
Tom Braidwood	...	Melvin Frohike
William B. Davis	...	Cigarette Smoking Man / CGB Spender
David Fredericks	...	J. Edgar Hoover
Peter Hanlon	...	The Aide
Jerry Hardin	...	Deep Throat
Bruce Harwood	...	John Fitzgerald Byers (voice)
Paul Jarrett	...	James Earl Ray
Laurie Murdoch	...	Lydon
Chris Owens	...	Young Cigarette Smoking Man
Donnelly Rhodes	...	General Francis

Storyline

While the Cigarette Smoking Man listens in on a conversation Scully and Mulder are having with Froehike, he recalls his own past and how he got to be where he is today. As a young army officer, working alongside Mulder's father, he was recruited by a General and an intelligence operative. His past was effectively erased and from that point working only in the shadow world. He was implicated in the assassination of presidents and civil rights leaders. He was also a frustrated mystery writer but his bizarre tales of assassinations and alien conspiracies are seen as too outlandish by the publishers he's approached.

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Plot Keywords:

assassination | conspiracy | begins with quotation | archival recording | year 1968 | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 November 1996 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Stage 2, North Shore Studios, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

20th Century Fox Television, Ten Thirteen Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The young CSM is played by Chris Owens, who goes on to play the recurring role of Agent Spender later in the series. Agent Spender is the CSM's son.

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Goofs

CSM has some letter head with an address in Pasadena California. La Cienega is not a street in Pasadena and the zip code is not a Pasadena zip code. Rather, the Zip Code is in nearby South Pasadena and La Cienega is in Los Angeles.

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Quotes

The Cigarette Smoking Man: Life is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable because all you get back is another box of chocolates. So you're stuck with this undefinable whipped mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while there's a peanut butter cup or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast and the taste is... fleeting. So, you end up with nothing but broken bits filled with hardened jelly and ...

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Connections

References Apocalypse Now (1979)

User Reviews

One of the best X-Files episodes ever made!

Mainly because it tells us the background story of the cancer man and his story.

It tells us all of what he did in the past and where he came from and even some of his emotions surface in this episode.

We see that he wants out of the agency and wants to stop smoking but can't somehow.

And it even had a reference to my favorite writer! Tom Clancy! Apparently me and the cancer man share love for the same books!

The part about the Kennedy assassination was perfect and done very well by the director!

Great episode! It's worth it for the Forest Gump reference alone!