The X Files (1998)

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

Director:

Rob Bowman

Writers:

Chris Carter (story), Frank Spotnitz (story)

Stars:

David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, John Neville

7 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Duchovny	...	Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Agent Dana Scully
John Neville	...	The Well-Manicured Man
William B. Davis	...	The Cigarette-Smoking Man
Martin Landau	...	Kurtzweil
Mitch Pileggi	...	Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Jeffrey DeMunn	...	Bronschweig (as Jeffrey De Munn)
Blythe Danner	...	Cassidy
Terry O'Quinn	...	Michaud
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Strughold
Lucas Black	...	Stevie
Christopher Fennell	...	2nd Boy (as Chris Fennell)
Cody Newton	...	3rd Boy
Blake Stokes	...	4th Boy
Dean Haglund	...	Langly

Storyline

With problems appearing between FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, a dangerous conspiracy is starting to appear. A deadly virus, which appears to be of extraterrestrial origin has appeared, which could destroy all life on Earth. With the help of a paranoid doctor, Alvin Kurtzweil, Mulder and Scully must act fast in order to save everyone on the planet.

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Plot Keywords:

agent | bomb | government | alien | conspiracy | 

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Taglines:

Discover the past, live the present, fight the future.

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some intense violence and gore

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Arabic

Release Date:

19 June 1998 (USA)

Also Known As:

Blackwood

Filming Locations:

Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$66,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$30,138,758, 21 June 1998, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$83,898,313

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$105,300,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, Ten Thirteen Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Chris Carter originally wanted to end the television series after the fifth season, and continue the show mythology with a series of films, beginning with this one. The Fox Network, however, saw the series as too profitable, and forced Carter to write this film as a tie-in between two seasons of the show, a task which he found very daunting.

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Goofs

As the train carrying the tanker trucks passes by Mulder and Scully, the entire train is past the railroad crossing before they even move, yet when they start to get into the car the train is passing over the crossing again.

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Quotes

[on the phone]
Ben Bronschweig, M.D.: It's Bronschweig. Sir, the impossible scenario we never planned for? Well, we better come up with a plan.

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Alternate Versions

The video release has additional footage not shown in the theatrical release:

• In the opening scene you now see more of the alien. In the theatrical release we see it fight off one of the cavemen, killing it, and the other caveman gets up to see it lying on the ground draining out the black blood (or what fans know as black oil). In the video release, we see it run off after it kills one of the cavemen, and when the other caveman gets up, he tracks it down and then kills it using the broken end of his torch.
• In the scene with Mulder talking to the Well Manicured Man in the car, he reveals to Mulder that Samantha, Mulder's sister, was abducted by aliens at the request of her father, William Mulder, so she could be part of the colonization project, thus ensuring her survival in the colonization of Earth by the visitors. Also revealed is that when plans went awry, Mulder was intended, by his father, to seek the truth and reveal what had been done.
• There is also an added scene in the video release with Mulder running down the street after the hospital scene.

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Connections

Referenced in Trapped in a Purple Haze (2000)

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Soundtracks

Flower Man
Written by Emerson Hart Jeff Russo Dan Lavery and Kevin Shepard
Performed and Produced by Tonic
Courtesy of Polydor Records, A PolyGram Company

User Reviews

Surprisingly good -- even for someone who hasn't seen the show before...

There are two types of people in this world: Those that watch "X-Files," and those that do not. I, like many other critics who walked into "The X-Files" movie, fall into the latter category. But it doesn't matter, because I don't believe that there are any real twists in the plot or "revelations" like the extended title implies there may be. In fact, I think that even the strict fans of the television show may be a bit in the dark by the time the credits start to roll. I got lost about 2/3 of the way through, but I still had a fun time.

Scully and Mulder, the two FBI Agents (I think) from the famous television show of the same name, make their big-screen debut in a feature-length, theatrical film release that plays much more like a clever science fiction film than a stupid one. I do not claim to be a huge fan of the science-fiction genre -- I like softer sci-fi such as "The Terminator" -- but I admire the hard sci-fi films that make an effort to reach those of us who many not be the most enthusastic sci-fi geeks. "The X-Files" has a harder task -- it has to reach those who not only have never seen the show, but also those who may not love sci-fi too much, and it does a good job. I admire it above all else for being able to do this.

It strikes a chord that good sci-fi films have struck in the past. It gets down to the meaty bits, although sometimes the plot left me in the dark and the ending started to get a bit crazy, which lowered my overall pleasure regarding the film. It's like a mystery set in the world of UFOs and alien encounters. It is, at times, quite chilling in a subtle way, and at other times quite humorous and fun and thrilling.

It starts off with a boy falling into a pit and being attacked by hundreds of small, slug-like creatures that crawl into his eye sockets and over his eyes (don't bring the kids to this one). More people enter into the pit in an ill-fated attempt to rescue the boy, and they wind up being knocked unconscious (or put into a deep sleep) like the boy. The bodies are all transported to a hospital, and that same hospital later blows up after Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Mulder (David Duchovny) are unable to stop an implanted terrorist bomb from detonating inside a coke maching.

But then Mulder is told by a mysterious man outside a bar (Martin Landau) that the bomb was never attempted to be defused. It was all an elaborate cover-up to hide the bodies of the pit victims. Mulder shrugs off the old man at first before he realizes that the man used to be a friend of his father's, and that he has some interesting true stories to tell.

"The X-Files" intrigued me, kept me interested for the most part, and gave me a few good chill sequences, and yet I haven't seen a single full-length episode of the FOX TV show (only little tidbits here and there). From what I can tell from my short experiences with the television show, this film carries a much more "mainstream" feel to it. I don't really take an interest in TV shows because I find them pretty corny. But "The X-Files" movie wasn't that corny.

The sight of the aliens themselves is only touched lightly, and the secret promised to be revealed by the trailers and ads isn't. (I assume most people thought it would be in regards to Mulder's alien-abducted sister from his childhood.) But Duchovny is very interesting and often humorous in his role, and I would like to see him in more films than he is in. Gillian Anderson is a bit weak in her role -- in fact, my mother saw her on stage in London and reported back to me that she was so bored by her dull, lifeless performance that she nearly left the theater. But Duchovny carries along the film by himself, and the film has some good sequences. Overall, even people who have never laid eyes on the TV show will be able to appreciate this.

3.5/5 stars.

• John Ulmer