The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

Mulder and Scully are called back to duty by the FBI when a former priest claims to be receiving psychic visions pertaining to a kidnapped agent.

Director:

Chris Carter

Writers:

Frank Spotnitz, Chris Carter

Stars:

David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Billy Connolly

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Amanda Peet	...	ASAC Dakota Whitney
Billy Connolly	...	Father Joseph Crissman
Xzibit	...	Agent Mosley Drummy (as Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner)
Mitch Pileggi	...	Walter Skinner
Callum Keith Rennie	...	2nd Abductor - Janke Dacyshyn
Adam Godley	...	Father Ybarra
Alex Diakun	...	Gaunt Man
Nicki Aycox	...	2nd Victim - Cheryl Cunningham
Fagin Woodcock	...	1st Abductor - Franz Tomczeszyn
Marco Niccoli	...	Christian Fearon
Carrie Ruscheinsky	...	Margaret Fearon
Spencer Maybee	...	Blair Fearon
Veronika Hadrava	...	Female Assistant

Storyline

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully both worked at the FBI as partners, a bond between them that led to their becoming lovers. But now they're out of the FBI and have begun new careers. Scully works as a staff physician at a Catholic hospital. Her focus these days is on a young boy with an incurable brain disease. Administration wants to give up on him. Scully, who feels a special bond with the boy, does not. Meanwhile, Mulder's focus is on clipping newspaper articles, throwing pencils into his ceiling and writing about the paranormal. Scully and Mulder are brought together as partners again when a special case requires Mulder's expertise and Scully is prevailed upon to convince him to help. The case involves a pedophile priest who claims he is having psychic visions regarding the whereabouts of a missing FBI agent.

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Plot Keywords:

fbi | psychic vision | psychic | priest | staff physician | 

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Taglines:

To find the truth, you must believe.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violent and disturbing content and thematic material

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English Russian Czech

Release Date:

25 July 2008 (USA)

Also Known As:

The X Files 2

Filming Locations:

10112 208 St, Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$10,021,753, 27 July 2008, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$20,981,633, 5 October 2008

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$68,369,434, 29 March 2010

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox,Ten Thirteen Productions,Dune Entertainment III

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min 108 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS (uncredited) SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Chris Carter: sits on a bench outside Scully's office. He is holding an urn containing the ashes of his dog, Frankie, who died during filming.

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Goofs

In the film, they refer to the Richmond "DA" who appears later. Virginia has no District Attorneys; prosecutors are Commonwealth's Attorneys.

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Quotes

Dana Scully: This stubbornness of yours, it's why I fell in love with you.
Fox Mulder: It's like you said. That's why we can't be together.

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Crazy Credits

The end credits contain a dedication to Randy Stone who died from heart disease at age 48 in February 2007. He was head of casting at 20th Century Fox Television, was responsible for casting David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson on The X-Files (1993), and worked in casting throughout the run of the series.

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Alternate Versions

The DVD release includes a "Director's Cut" of the film, which runs about 4 minutes longer. According to David Duchovny, this version includes some more graphic / disturbing scenes that Chris Carter did not use in order to avoid an R-Rating.

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Connections

Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The X-Files: I Want to Believe/American Teen/Brideshead Revisited/Step Brothers/Boy A (2008)

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Soundtracks

Ooh La La
Written by Deborah Poppink and Amy Roegler
Performed by Deborah Poppink
Courtesy of Deborah Poppink, by arrangement with Bug
(can be heard in Monica Bannan's car)

User Reviews

No Country for Old X-Files

The world is a greatly changed place since the heyday of "The X-files." Back in the late 1990's the TV show was at its height and tapping into the shared fears of the day: fear of the unknown, fear of the impending millennium, and fear that something larger than us (the government or alien invaders) was up to no good. Flash forward to the year 2008 and we know all that hubbub about the millennium was for nothing, our government has been up to no good for years, and it's not space invaders we need to worry about but other people terrorizing us. The murky, gloomy, grim style of "The X-Files" is now the norm with feverish and dark films like "There Will Be Blood" and "The Dark Knight" tapping into the mindset of culture today from opposite ends of the film spectrum.

Apparently creator Chris Carter didn't realize his baby was irrelevant now. His only mission should've been to please the faithful. If he wanted to revive his series on film, he had best stick to the labyrinthine alien mythology that still has some die-hard fans buzzing, or at the very least deliver a fun stand-alone monster-of-the-week style flick that would make fans jump in their seats. With "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" he does neither of those things. Instead, he gives us a story where Mulder and Scully come out of hiding to work on a case where the FBI are using a psychic criminal priest to help locate a missing agent and track down a potential serial killer. The plot fits more into the mold of his far less popular companion series "Millennium" than it does to "The X-Files." Apparently Carter wanted to please no one except perhaps himself.

The weirdest thing about the film is that it isn't all that bad. Carter as a director lays on some decent atmosphere (with all the global-warming defying snow and some eerie nighttime shots) and creates some palpable tension as the horrors of the case grow grimmer. The chemistry between Mulder (a lazy but effective David Duchovny) and Scully (an amazingly fully ranged and emotional Gillian Anderson) is still there, and Anderson's performance is especially gripping. Billy Connolly, cast against type, gives an interesting turn as the corrupted priest searching for redemption through his visions that probably would've garnered an Emmy nod had this been a very special two-part TV episode. Also good is Amanda Peet, looking smashing in her smart FBI pantsuits.

Most interesting is the story arc given Dana Scully. I honestly had stopped watching the show after the sixth season, and aside from the mythology storyline that built up to the first film released ten years ago, I recall some of my favorite episodes being the ones where Scully questioned her faith and struggled with reconciling her Catholicism with her scientific approach to the paranormal investigations. This is again explored here, as Scully, always the skeptic, so desperately wants to believe in something. However, it's an odd choice for Carter to focus on this internal human drama when he should be focusing on how to bring fans back into the fold. It would've been an interesting and compelling layer had Carter not been so inept with the rest of the plot.

In the end some fine performances and a moody atmosphere do not add up to a good time. Eventually it becomes an uncomfortable and anachronistic creep-fest that plays like the type of suspense thriller that ruled the roost in the mid-1990's after films like "Silence of the Lambs" and "Seven" made police detection and serial killing popular entertainment. Well, it's 2008, Mr. Carter, and it's time to wake up from your prolonged nightmare that was rendered uninteresting in 2001.