The X-Files: Season 4, Episode 7

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

TV Episode  -   -  Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi
8.5
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 8.5/10 from 1,202 users  
Reviews: 14 user | 1 critic

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:

Writers:

(creator), , 1 more credit »
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 51 titles created 05 Feb 2011
 
a list of 878 titles created 16 May 2012
 
a list of 39 titles created 2 weeks ago
 
a list of 50 titles created 05 Jun 2011
 
a list of 1897 titles created 25 Aug 2011
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (17 Nov 1996)

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man (17 Nov 1996) on IMDb 8.5/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of The X-Files.
« Previous Episode | 80 of  201 Episodes | Next Episode »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

The Lone Gunmen (TV Series 2001)
Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

Spin-off of The X-Files featuring the trio of computer-hacking conspiracy geeks popularly known as The Lone Gunmen. Never ones to stray far from the center of corporate and government ... See full summary »

Stars: Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood, Dean Haglund
Surface (2005–2006)
Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

A marine biologist, an insurance salesman and a teen-aged boy find their lives fundamentally changed by the emergence of a new, and often dangerous, species of sea life, while government agents work to keep the affair under wraps.

Stars: Lake Bell, Jay R. Ferguson, Carter Jenkins
The 4400 (2004–2007)
Sci-Fi | Drama | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

As the reappearance of 4,400 missing persons on a single day confounds the global community, federal agents on the case slowly discover the ways in which the victims have been changed.

Stars: Jacqueline McKenzie, Joel Gretsch, Patrick John Flueger
The Pretender (1996–2000)
Drama | Sci-Fi | Mystery
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

A specially gifted man, with the ability to instantly master any skill, escapes from a secret agency and travels the country taking on a different jobs and helping strangers.

Stars: Michael T. Weiss, Andrea Parker, Patrick Bauchau
Dollhouse (2009–2010)
Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

A futuristic laboratory assigns different tasks to its various residents, who then have their memories erased upon the completion of their assignments.

Stars: Eliza Dushku, Harry Lennix, Fran Kranz
FlashForward (2009–2010)
Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A special task force in the FBI investigates after every person on Earth simultaneously blackouts and awakens with a short vision of their future.

Stars: Courtney B. Vance, Joseph Fiennes, John Cho
Fringe (TV Series 2008)
Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.5/10 X  

A television drama centered around a female FBI agent who is forced to work with an institutionalized scientist in order to rationalize a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena.

Stars: Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Jasika Nicole
Lost (2004–2010)
Adventure | Drama | Fantasy
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.3/10 X  

The survivors of a plane crash are forced to live with each other on a remote island, a dangerous new world that poses unique threats of its own.

Stars: Jorge Garcia, Naveen Andrews, Matthew Fox
Contact (1997)
Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

Dr. Ellie Arroway, after years of searching, finds conclusive radio proof of intelligent aliens, who send plans for a mysterious machine.

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Stars: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Skerritt
Roswell (1999–2002)
Drama | Mystery | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

Living among the citizens of the infamous New Mexico city of Roswell are some who are not there by choice. They are there to follow a destiny given to them by the members of their dying ... See full summary »

Stars: Shiri Appleby, Jason Behr, Katherine Heigl
Sci-Fi | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

A young man blocks out harmful memories of significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life.

Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber
Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Melora Walters, Amy Smart
Signs (2002)
Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

A family living on a farm finds mysterious crop circles in their fields which suggests something more frightening to come.

Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Stars: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin
Edit

Cast

Episode credited cast:
...
Fox Mulder (voice)
...
Dana Scully (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
...
Fred Beale ...
Newstand Operator
Tim Bissett ...
Agent Cook
...
...
David Fredericks ...
Peter Hanlon ...
The Aide
...
...
...
James Earl Ray
...
Lydon
...
...
General Francis
Edit

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. Written by garykmcd

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis


Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

17 November 1996 (USA)  »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1
See  »
Edit

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. See more »

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. See more »

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 ...
See more »

Connections

References Apocalypse Now (1979) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
One of the best X-Files episodes ever made!
27 May 2006 | by (Norway) – See all my reviews

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!


23 of 31 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Season 10 Issue 1 Cover Variants AgentMulder123
Who else would have been able to pull off the Mulder and Scully duo? payback122
Favorite character Krycek9
Episode(s) you love but everyone hates XMiguelX
Describe The X-Files In One Word! XMiguelX
Favorite Scully-centric Episode? XMiguelX

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?