by Chris Carter
(Original Story by Chris Carter
and Frank Spotnitz)
|
'Fight the Future' by Chris Carter (Original Story by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz) |
|
SCENE 1 - NORTH TEXAS, 35000 B.C.
(A snow storm. Two humans follow some tracks along the snow and enter a cave. They make fire from some rocks and split up. One of them hears a scream but continues where he finds a wall of ice. A human being is frozen inside it. As he moves closer to investigate, a creature grabs the man and attacks him. He is killed and the other man suddenly appears, stabbing the creature. It moves on and the man begins to search for whatever it was. As they fight, he finally overpowers the beast and a black oil seeps from it's body and enters the man. It crawls into his skin and comes out his eyes. He cries out in pain as we pan out)
SCENE 2 - SAME LOCATION, 1998
(Stevie, a small boy, falls through the top of the cave and lands on the ground. Three other kids peer in)
KID 1:
Hey, Stevie, you ok?
STEVIE:
(Coughs) I got the wind knocked out of me.
KID 2:
Looks like a cave or something.
(Stevie looks around and then wanders deeper into the cavern)
KID 1:
Stevie? What's going on?
(Stevie reappears with a human skull, which he shows the others)
STEVIE:
It's a human skull!
KID 2:
Toss it up here, dude!
STEVIE:
No way butt-wipe, this is mine. Anyway, there's bones all over the place, man.
(Stevie admires the skull then looks down and sees black oil)
STEVIE:
What the...?
(He grabs his stomach in pain, the skull rolls away. The oil seeps into his body)
KID 1:
Stevie?
KID 2:
Hey, Stevie, you okay?
(As he looks up, we see his eyes cloud over with the oil)
KID 2:
Hey man, let's get out of here.
(The boys run away from the hole, which is situated outside a suburban area. Later that day, fire trucks pull up and men jump out)
FIRE CHIEF:
(Looking down hole) Give me a fourteen footer!
(A ladder slams down onto the bottom of the hole)
FIRE CHIEF:
(On his radio) Captain Miles Cooledge, got a rescue situation in progress. I'll be the whole town HC. Rope's in the hole, (To his men) let's go, two down.
(Two men climb down into the hole and crouch by Stevie, who is lying down in the dirt in the cavern)
FIRE CHIEF:
(Talking to radio) What ya got, TC? Talk to me. (Static on radio) Do ya see the boy? Talk to me. (Static) Come back, TC, do ya see the kid?
(static) Jerry, check TC's radio. (He whacks the radio) TC? (Static) Glen, South, in the hole.
(A black helicopter flies in and lands at the scene as some of the firemen watch and wonder. Four men in biohazard suits exit and carry a person-sized container towards the hole. The fire chief starts to walk towards the helicopter as a man, Bronschweig, exits the chopper)
BRONSCHWEIG:
(To the fire chief, indicating the crowd that has gathered to watch the proceedings) Get those people out of here!
(The chief begin to get people away from the scene and then he and Bronschweig walk to the hole)
FIRE CHIEF:
I sent four men down there for the boy. Report is, his eyes have turned black. Now we've lost communication with my men.
(The men in suits carry the container, which now has the boy in it, to the helicopter, Bronschweig looks at the boy then follows the men to the helicopter, standing and watching them load him on)
FIRE CHIEF:
What about my men?
(Bronschweig turns and looks at him as the copter starts to take off)
FIRE CHIEF:
What about my men??
(Several tanker trucks and semi-trucks pull up to the scene)
FIRE CHIEF:
What the hell is this?
(Bronschweig watches, and then walks behind one of the trucks where no one else can hear. He dials a number on his cell phone)
BRONSCHWEIG:
It's Bronschweig. Sir, the impossible scenario that we never planned for? Well, we better come up with a plan.
SCENE 3 - FEDERAL BUILDING, DALLAS, TEXAS, ONE WEEK LATER
(The scene opens with FBI agents on the federal building's roof. A helicopter lands and out comes Darius Michaud)
FBI GUY:
We've evacuated the building and been through it bottom to top. There's no trace of an explosive device or anything resembling one.
MICHAUD:
Have you sent the dogs through yet?
FBI GUY:
Yes, sir.
MICHAUD:
Well, send 'em through again.
(He begins to walk away, towards the edge of the roof, facing another building across the street)
FBI GUY:
(To other FBI agents) All right guys, let's do it again.
(Michaud looks at a building across the street where a lone person is walking on the roof. Look familiar?)
SCENE 4 - OPPOSITE BUILDING, DALLAS, TEXAS
(Agent Dana Scully stands on the building talking on her cell-phone)
SCULLY:
Mulder, it's me.
MULDER:
Where are you, Scully?
SCULLY:
I'm on the roof.
MULDER:
Did you find anything?
SCULLY:
MULDER:
What's wrong?
SCULLY:
Well, I just climbed up twelve floors, I'm hot, I'm thirsty and to be honest, I'm wondering what I'm doing up here.
MULDER:
You're looking for a bomb.
SCULLY:
Yes, I know that, but the threat was called in to the federal building across the street.
MULDER:
I think they have that covered.
SCULLY:
Mulder, when a terrorist bomb threat is called in, the rational purpose of providing that information is to allow us to find the bomb. The rational object of terrorism is to promote terror. If you'd study the statistics, you'd find the model behavioural pattern for virtually every case where a threat has turned up an explosive device; and if we don't act in accordance with that data, if you ignore it as we have done, the chances are great that if there actually is a bomb, we might not find it. Lives could be lost.... Mulder. Mulder?
(he appears behind her)
MULDER:
Boom.
SCULLY:
Jesus, Mulder!
MULDER:
Whatever happened to playing a hunch, Scully? The element of surprise, random acts of unpredictability? If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorised or easily referenced. (He pops a sunflower seed into his mouth) What are we doing up here, Scully? It's hotter than hell.
SCULLY:
I know you're bored in this assignment, Mulder, but unconventional thinking is only gonna get you in trouble now.
MULDER:
What makes you think I'm bored?
SCULLY:
You've gotta quit looking for what isn't there. They've closed the X Files. There's procedure to be followed now... protocol.
MULDER:
Maybe we should call in a bomb threat to Houston. I think it's free beer night at the Astrodome.
(Scully attempts to open the door)
SCULLY:
Aww, now what?
MULDER:
It's locked?
SCULLY:
So much for anticipating the unforeseen.
(Mulder is frustrated and believes her, he tries the lock frantically and sees it open. Scully smiles)
SCULLY:
I had you.
MULDER:
No, you didn't.
SCULLY:
Oh, yeah. I had you big time.
MULDER:
You had nothing. Come on, I saw you jiggle the handle.
(They exit the stairwell, next to the elevator at the bottom floor, a group of children is being led into the elevator)
SCULLY:
I saw your face, Mulder. There was a definite moment of panic.
MULDER:
You've never seen me panic. When I panic, I make this face.
(Mulder's face registers no emotion)
SCULLY:
That was the face.
MULDER:
You didn't see that face.
SCULLY:
I saw that face. (She smiles) You're buyin'.
MULDER:
What? Coke, Pepsi, saline IV?
SCULLY:
Something sweet.
SCENE 5 - VENDING MACHINE ROOM
(Mulder enters and puts money in the machine. It doesn’t work. He keeps putting money in but it won't work. He whacks the side of it, then shakes the machine, angry at losing his money. He happens to look beside it and notices that the machine is unplugged. He tries to open the door, it's locked. He calls Scully on her cell phone, she is in the lobby)
SCULLY:
(Answering her phone) Scully.
MULDER:
Scully, I found the bomb.
SCULLY:
You're funny. Where are you, Mulder?
MULDER:
I'm in the vending room.
(Mulder pounds on the door)
SCULLY:
Is that you pounding?
MULDER:
Yeah, you gotta get somebody to open that door.
(Scully tries the doorknob, but it doesn't turn)
SCULLY:
Nice try, Mulder.
MULDER:
Look, Scully, it's in the soda machine, you've got about fourteen minutes to evacuate this building.
(Cut back to Scully outside of the vending room, she looks down at her watch)
SCULLY:
Come on, Mulder... (Slight laugh)
(The camera pans to show that the machine is now open and filled with explosives. A timer is ticking down)
MULDER:
Thirteen fifty-six, thirteen fifty-four, thirteen fifty-two, thirteen fifty. You see a pattern emerging here, Scully?
(Scully looks down and realises that the key hole has been welded shut)
SCULLY:
Hold on, Mulder, I'm gonna get you out of there.
(Mulder waits anxiously in front of the vending machine as Scully rushes back to the lobby and gives orders to the security guard)
SCULLY:
I need this building evacuated and cleared out in ten minutes! I want you to call the fire department and have them block off the city centre in a one mile radius around the building!
GUARD:
Ten minutes?
SCULLY:
(She points at him with her phone) Don't think! Just pick up that phone and make it happen! (On her cell phone) This is Special Agent Dana Scully, I need to speak to SAC Michaud, he's got the wrong building!
(Numerous police cars and fire trucks pull up to the building. Michaud exits a car and begins to hastily walk towards the building. Scully comes out to meet him)
MICHAUD:
Where is it?
SCULLY:
He found it in the vending room. He's locked in with it.
(Cut to Mulder sitting in a chair in front of the vending machine, staring at the bomb, when his phone rings)
MULDER:
Scully, you know that face I just showed you? I'm making it again.
SCULLY:
Mulder, move away from the door, we're coming through it.
(Scully and the bomb team cut through the door with a torch. The door is kicked open and everyone piles into the room)
MULDER:
(To Michaud, as he points at the bomb) Tell me that's just soda pop in those canisters.
MICHAUD:
(Looking at bomb) It's just what it looks like. A big I.E.D. (Pauses) Ten gallons of astrolight. Okay, get everybody out of here, clear the area.
FBI GUY:
Come on, let's go.
(Everyone leaves except Michaud, Mulder and Scully)
MULDER:
Somebody's got to stay with you.
MICHAUD:
(Irritated) I just gave you a direct order. Now get the hell out of here and evacuate the building!
SCULLY:
Can you defuse it?
MICHAUD:
Yes I can.
MULDER:
We got less than four minutes to find out if you're right.
MICHAUD:
Did you hear what I said? (Mulder nods) Get out.
SCULLY:
Come on, Mulder.
(Scully convinces Mulder to leave, Michaud just sits there. As Mulder and Scully run out of the building, we see Michaud just sitting in front of the bomb. Mulder turns back)
SCULLY:
Mulder, what are you doing?
MULDER:
Something's wrong.
SCULLY:
Mulder...
(Scully grabs Mulder by his arm)
MULDER:
Something's not right.
SCULLY:
Mulder, get in the car, there's no time!
POLICEMAN BY CAR:
Go on, get in the car!
(They climb into the car and it drives off. Michaud sits, waiting for the bomb to go off. The bomb explodes and cars go flying. Mulder and Scully's car windows explode and they get out of the car and survey the building)
MULDER:
Next time, you're buying.
SCENE 6 - FBI HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON, DC, OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL REVIEW
(Scully is sitting in the office before a review board. Assistant Director Jana Cassidy is speaking to her. Assistant Director Walter Skinner is seated on the panel as well)
CASSIDY:
In light of Waco and Ruby Ridge, there is a heightened need at the Attorney General's office to place responsibility as early as possible for the catastrophic destruction of public property and loss of life due to terrorist activities. Many details are still unclear, but we're under some pressure from the Attorney General to give an accurate picture of what happened so that she can issue a public statement. We know now that five people died, in the explosion. Special...
(Mulder enters the room, late, and Cassidy pauses, looking up at him, as do Scully and Skinner)
CASSIDY:
.. Special Agent In Charge Darius Michaud, who was trying to defuse the bomb, three firemen from Dallas and a young boy. I'd like to begin this interview...
MULDER:
Excuse me, excuse me, the firemen and the young boy, they were found in the building?
CASSIDY:
Agent Mulder, since you weren't able to be on time for this hearing, I'd like you to step outside so that we can hear Agent Scully's version of the facts so that she will not be paid the same disrespect.
MULDER:
We'd been told the building was clear.
CASSIDY:
You'll get your turn, Agent Mulder, please step outside.
(Mulder looks at Scully, then leaves the room. Mulder sits outside eating sunflower seeds when Skinner comes out)
SKINNER:
Sit down, they're still talking to Agent Scully.
MULDER:
About what? (He sits back down)
SKINNER:
They're asking her for a narrative, they want to know why she was in the wrong building.
MULDER:
She was with me.
SKINNER:
You don't see what's going on here, do you? There's forty-five million dollars worth of damage to the city of Dallas. Lives have been lost. No suspects have been named. So the story that's being shaped... is that this could have been prevented.
MULDER:
They want to blame us?
(Skinner sits down next to him)
SKINNER:
Agent Mulder, you and I both know that if it looks bad, it's bad for the FBI. Blame has to be assigned somewhere
(Mulder looks down at the ground, then looks up at Skinner)
MULDER:
If they want somebody to blame, they can blame me, Agent Scully doesn't deserve this.
SKINNER:
She's in there right now saying the same thing about you.
MULDER:
I breached protocol. I broke contact with the SAC. I ignored a primary tactical rule and left him alone with the device.
SKINNER:
Agent Scully says it was she who ordered you out of the building, that you wanted to go back in.
MULDER:
No.
(Both men stand as Scully leaves the hearing room and walks over to them)
SCULLY:
(To Skinner) They're asking for you, sir.
SKINNER:
Thank you. (He leaves)
MULDER:
Whatever you told them in there, Scully, you don't have to protect me.
SCULLY:
All I told them was the truth.
MULDER:
They're trying to divide us on this and we can't let them.
SCULLY:
Mulder, they have divided us. They're splitting us up.
MULDER:
What? What are you talking about?
SCULLY:
I have a meeting with OPR day after tomorrow for reimidiation and reassignment.
MULDER:
But they're the ones who put us together.
SCULLY:
Because they wanted me to invalidate your investigations into the paranormal. But I think this goes deeper than that now.
MULDER:
This is not about you, Scully. They're doing this to me.
SCULLY:
They're not doing this. Mulder, I left behind a career in medicine because I thought that I could make a difference at the FBI. But it hasn't turned out that way. And now if they were to transfer me to Omaha or Cleveland, or some field office, it just doesn't hold the interest for me that it once did. Not after what I've seen and done.
MULDER:
Realising what she's saying) You're quitting.
SCULLY:
Maybe you should ask yourself if your heart's still in it, too.
(Skinner comes back out for Mulder)
SKINNER:
Agent Mulder, you're up.
SCULLY:
(To Mulder) I'm sorry.
(Mulder begins to walk back to the boardroom)
SCULLY:
Mulder. (She hands Mulder his jacket, which he left on the bench)Good luck.
(Mulder enters the hearing room. Scully pauses for a moment, then turns and leaves the building)
SCENE 7 - CASEY'S BAR, SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON, DC
BARTENDER:
(Filling a glass) I'd say this just about exceeds your minimum daily requirement.
(Mulder empties the glass and as he sets it down he knocks over some of the numerous other glasses on the bar)
BARTENDER:
Whoa, you've gotta train for that kind of heavy lifting. Poopy day?
(Mulder points his two index fingers at her, then points one finger on the bar as a sign that he wants another. She clears away all the empty glasses and places one on the bar to be filled. While he waits, Mulder looks over his shoulder and notices a man at the bar watching him)
BARTENDER:
So, whaddya do?
MULDER:
What do I do?
BARTENDER:
Mmm hmm.
(Mulder takes a sip from his new drink, puts it down and begins his tale)
MULDER:
I'm the key figure in an on-going government charade, the plot to conceal the truth about the existence of extraterrestrials. It's a global conspiracy, actually, with key players in the highest levels of power, that reaches down into the lives of every man, woman, and child on this planet. So, of course, no one believes me. I'm an annoyance to my superiors, a joke to my peers. They call me Spooky. Spooky Mulder, whose sister was abducted by aliens when he was just a kid and who now chases after little green men with a badge and a gun, shouting to the heavens or to anyone who will listen that the fix is in, that the sky is falling and when it hits it's gonna be the shit-storm of all time.
BARTENDER:
Well. I would say that about does it, Spooky.
(takes the drink away from Mulder)
MULDER:
Does what?
BARTENDER:
Well, looks like eighty-six is your lucky number.
(Mulder takes some money out of his wallet)
MULDER:
You know, one is the loneliest number.
(Mulder looks over his shoulder again and sees the man is no longer at the bar. He then gets up, wavers a bit, walks to the men's room and finds it out of order. He knocks on the women's door and it's occupied. He goes out the exit into the alley and relieves himself. The man from inside the bar, Doctor Kurtzweil, comes and stands next to him)
KURTZWEIL:
That official FBI business?
MULDER:
What?
KURTZWEIL:
Bet the Bureau's accusing you of the same thing in Dallas. Standing around holding your yank while bombs are exploding.
MULDER:
(Annoyed) Do I know you?
KURTZWEIL:
No, but I've been watching your career for a good while, back when you were just a promising young agent. Before that.
(Mulder continues his business, then turns his head towards Kurtzweil, annoyed that he's still standing there)
MULDER:
You come out here for a reason?
KURTZWEIL:
Yeah, I did.
(Kurtzweil unzips his pants, steps up to the wall and begins to relieve himself. Mulder starts to walk inside)
KURTZWEIL:
My name is Kurtzweil, Doctor Alvin Kurtzweil.
MULDER:
Am I supposed to know that name?
KURTZWEIL:
An old friend of your father's.
(Mulder turns back around to look at Kurtzweil)
KURTZWEIL:
Back at the Department of State we were what you might call fellow travellers, but his disenchantment outlasted mine.
MULDER:
All right.
(Mulder goes back into the bar, Kurtzweil quickly zips up and follows him inside. Mulder walks to the coat rack where his jacket is hanging and starts to put it on)
MULDER:
How'd ya find me?
KURTZWEIL:
I heard you come in here now and again, figured you'd be needing a little drinkie tonight.
MULDER:
You a reporter?
KURTZWEIL:
I'm a doctor, but I think I mentioned that. OB-GYN.
MULDER:
You've got something to tell me, you've got as much time as it takes for me to hail a cab.
(Mulder and Kurtzweil are outside now, Mulder is raising his hand to hail a cab)
KURTZWEIL:
There's something you don't know about the bombing in Dallas.
MULDER:
What's that?
KURTZWEIL:
SAC Darius Michaud never tired, or intended, to defuse that bomb.
MULDER:
He just let it explode in his face, huh?
KURTZWEIL:
What's the question no one's asking? Why that building? Why not the federal building?
MULDER:
The federal building was too well guarded.
KURTZWEIL:
No. They put the bomb in the building across the street because it did have federal offices. The Federal Emergency Management Agency had a provisional medical quarantine office there, which is where the bodies where found. But that's the thing... the thing you didn't know. The thing you'd never think to check. (Pause) Those people were already dead.
MULDER:
Before the bomb went off?
KURTZWEIL:
That's what I'm saying.
MULDER:
Darius Michaud was a twenty-two-year veteran of the Bureau.
KURTZWEIL:
Michaud was a patriot. The people he was loyal to know their way around Dallas. They blew that building to hide something, maybe even something they couldn't predict.
(A cab pulls up)
MULDER:
You're telling me they blew up that entire building just to hide the bodies of those firemen.
KURTZWEIL:
(Nods) And one little boy.
MULDER:
I think you're full of shit.
KURTZWEIL:
(Laughs) Do you?
(Mulder climbs in. Kurtzweil stands next to the cab, resigned)
MULDER:
Arlington, please.
(Kurtzweil stands behind the cab watching it leave. Mulder considers the conversation)
MULDER:
Actually, you know, let's go to Georgetown. Let's go to Georgetown...
SCENE 8 - SCULLY'S APARTMENT
(Scully is lying in bed awake when there is a knock on the door. She answers it. It is Mulder)
MULDER:
Awww, I woke you... (He walks in) Did I wake you?
SCULLY:
No.
MULDER:
Why not? It's three in the morning...
SCULLY:
Are you drunk, Mulder?
MULDER:
I... I... I was until about twenty minutes ago, yeah.
SCULLY:
Was that before or after you decided to come here?
MULDER:
What exactly are you implying?
SCULLY:
Go home, Mulder.
MULDER:
No, get dressed, Scully.
SCULLY:
It's late.
MULDER:
Get dressed.
SCULLY:
What are you doing?
MULDER:
Just get dressed, I'll explain on the way.
SCENE 9 - NORTH TEXAS
(The CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN and Bronschweig are inside the hole)
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
You've got something to show me?
BRONSCHWEIG:
We brought the atmosphere back down to freezing in order to control the development, which is like nothing we've ever seen.
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Brought on by what?
BRONSCHWEIG:
Heat, I think.
(they begin to walk down a staircase towards another area in the hole)
BRONSCHWEIG:
The coincident invasion of a host, the fireman, in an environment that raised his body temperature above ninety-eight point six.
(They open the door of the other area where more men in biohazard suits are working, the air inside giving off a steam associated with extreme cold. Bronschweig pulls back a curtain, showing a man covered in goo, barely breathing. CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN looks shocked)
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
This man is still alive.
BRONSCHWEIG:
Technically and biologically. But he'll never recover.
(Something inside the man's chest is moving)
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
How can this be?
BRONSCHWEIG:
The developing organism is using his life energy... digesting bone and tissue... we've just slowed the process. Do you want us to destroy this one, too? Before it gestates?
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
No, no. We need to try our vaccine on it.
BRONSCHWEIG:
And if it's unsuccessful?
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Burn it, like the others.
SCENE 10 - BETHSEDA NAVAL HOSPITAL, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND
(Mulder and Scully are walking down a hallway and reach a security desk. Scully looks rather worried at this)
CLERK:
ID and floor you're visiting, please.
MULDER:
We're going down to the morgue.
CLERK:
That area is currently off limits to anyone other than authorised medical personnel.
MULDER:
On whose orders?
CLERK:
General McAddie.
(Mulder signs the book, Scully seems unsure if they will make it)
MULDER:
General McAddie is who requested our coming down here. We were awakened at three AM and told to get down here immediately.
CLERK:
I don't know anything about that.
MULDER:
Well, call General McAddie.
CLERK:
I don't have the number
MULDER:
Well, then call the switchboard, they'll patch you through.
(The Clerk begins looking through some papers)
MULDER:
Jesus, you don't know the switchboard number?
CLERK:
I'm calling my C.O.
(He picks up the phone on his desk, Mulder puts his hand on the receiver's button, cutting him off)
MULDER:
Listen, son, we don't have time to dick around while you demonstrate your ignorance of the chain of command. The order came directly from General McAddie, you call him. We'll conduct our business while you confirm authorisation.
(Mulder and Scully walks off, the Clerk seems to realise Mulder has him beat)
CLERK:
Why don't you head on down and I'll confirm authorisation.
MULDER:
Thank you. (Quietly to Scully) Why is a morgue suddenly off limits on the orders of a general?
(They arrive in a room full of bodies on gurneys, wrapped up with sheets and tied with ropes. Mulder stops at one of them and looks at its toe tag)
SCULLY:
This is one of the firemen who died in Dallas?
MULDER:
According to the toe tag.
SCULLY:
And you're looking for...?
MULDER:
Cause of death.
SCULLY:
I can tell you that without even looking at him. (She picks up a paper near the body's head and reads aloud) ‘Concussive organ failure due to proximal exposure to source and flying debris’. Mulder, this man's already been autopsied, you can tell by the way he's been wrapped and dressed.
(Mulder pulls back the sheet and we see the goo on the man's body)
MULDER:
Does this fit the description you just read me?
(Scully walks around to join Mulder on the other side of the gurney, looks down and is shocked at the sight)
SCULLY:
Oh my God. This man's tissue, Mulder...
MULDER:
It's like jelly.
SCULLY:
There's been some kind of cellular breakdown. (Scully feels along the body with gloves) It's completely oedematous. There's been no autopsy performed here, no Y-incision, no internal exam.
MULDER:
You’re telling me the cause of death on that report is false? That this man didn’t die from an explosion or from flying debris?
SCULLY:
Mulder, I can’t tell you what killed this man. I’m not sure anybody else could claim to either.
(Mulder and Scully wheel the body into the lab)
SCULLY:
Mulder, you knew before we got here this man didn't die at the bomb site.
MULDER:
I've been told as much.
SCULLY:
You're saying this is a cover-up? Of what?
MULDER:
I don’t know, but I have a hunch that what you're gonna find won't be categorised or easily referenced.
(Mulder walks over by the door)
SCULLY:
Mulder, this is gonna take some time. Somebody's going to figure out sooner or later, that we're not even supposed to be here.
MULDER:
We are being blamed for this man’s death, I'd like to know what he died of, wouldn't you?
(Mulder leaves, Scully, resigned, looks down at the body)
SCENE 11 - DUPONT CIRCLE, WASHINGTON D.C 4:50 AM
(Mulder is in a cab)
MULDER:
(To cab driver) Think that's it up here.
(He's pointing to an apartment building swarming with cops. Mulder enters Dr Kurtzweil's apartment, he looks through some magazines and a detective, walking by, stops to see who he is)
DETECTIVE:
Excuse me. Can I help you?
MULDER:
Is this Doctor Kurtzweil's residence?
DETECTIVE:
You have some kind of business with him?
MULDER:
Yeah, I'm looking for him.
DETECTIVE:
You're looking for him for what?
(Mulder pulls out his FBI badge and shows it to him)
DETECTIVE:
(Over his shoulder to another detective) The feds are looking for him too. (To Mulder) Real nice business he's got, huh?
(Mulder is looking through a bookshelf)
MULDER:
What’s that?
DETECTIVE:
Selling naked pictures of little kids on his computer.
(Mulder stops, intrigued at this)
DETECTIVE:
You looking for him for some other reason?
(The first book in Mulder's hand is called, ‘The Four Horsemen Of The Global Domination Conspiracy’, the other, ‘Countdown to the Apocalypse’, both written by Doctor Kurtzweil)
MULDER:
Yeah .. (Pause) I had an appointment for a pelvic examination.
(He looks up at the detective, gives him a goofy grin and the detective laughs)
DETECTIVE:
You want a call if we turn up this Kurtzweil?
MULDER:
No, don't bother.
(Mulder leaves the apartment, then exits the building. He stands outside looking around, sees Kurtzweil standing at the entrance to the alley. Mulder enters the alley after him)
KURTZWEIL:
See this crap? Someone knows I'm talking to you.
MULDER:
Not according to the men in blue.
KURTZWEIL:
Well, what is it this time? Kiddy porn again? Sexual battery of a patient?
MULDER:
They want to discredit you, for what?
KURTZWEIL:
Because I'm a dangerous man. Because I know too much about the truth.
MULDER:
Oh, that end-of-the-world apocalyptic garbage you write?
KURTZWEIL:
You know my work? (He smiles hopefully, but Mulder gives him a slight snort and smile, then turns and starts to walk away) I was right about Dallas, wasn't I?
MULDER:
(He stops and turns around) How? How were you right?
KURTZWEIL:
Are you familiar with the Hanta virus, Agent Mulder?
MULDER:
Yeah, it was a deadly virus spread by field mice in the south-western United States several years ago.
KURTZWEIL:
According to the newspaper, FEMA was called out to manage an outbreak of the Hanta virus. Are you familiar with what the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s real power is? FEMA allows the White House to suspend constitutional government upon declaration of a national emergency. Think about that! What is an agency with such broad-sweeping power doing managing a small viral outbreak in suburban Texas?
MULDER:
You’re saying it wasn’t such a small outbreak.
KURTZWEIL:
No, I’m saying it wasn’t the Hanta virus.
MULDER:
Well, what was it?
(Another police car pulls up to the front of the building. Mulder and Kurtzweil walk farther into the alleyway)
MULDER:
What was it?
KURTZWEIL:
When we were young men in the military, your father and I were recruited for a project. They told us it was biological warfare, a virus.
MULDER:
What killed those men?
KURTZWEIL:
What killed them I won't even write about! We have no context for what killed those men, or any appreciation of the scale at which it will be unleashed in the future.
MULDER:
A plague?
KURTZWEIL:
The plague to end all plagues, Agent Mulder. A silent weapon for a quiet war. The sytematic release of an indiscriminate organism for which the men who will bring it on still have no cure! They've been working on this for fifty years! While the rest of the world have been fighting gooks and commies, these men have been secretly negotiating a planned armageddon!
MULDER:
Negotiating with whom?
KURTZWEIL:
I think you know. The timetable has been set. It will happen on a holiday, when people are away from their homes. The president will declare a state of emergency, at which time all government, all federal agencies, will come under the power of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA, the secret government.
MULDER:
And they call me paranoid.
KURTZWEIL:
Go back to Dallas, Agent Mulder, and dig. Or we're gonna find out along with the rest of the country, when it's too late.
SCENE 12 - NAVAL HOSPITAL MORGUE
(Scully, conducting the autopsy, hears footsteps. A policeman is outside. A soldier opens the door, but Scully isn't there. She is in fact closing the door in the refrigerating room and she is inside. She breathes a sigh of relief and her phone rings. She quickly answers it, to stop the ringing, nervously looking round)
MULDER:
Hey, Scully, it's me...
SCULLY:
(Whispering) Yeah?
MULDER:
Why are you whispering?
SCULLY:
Mulder, I can't really talk right now.
MULDER:
What did you find?
SCULLY:
Evidence of a massive infection.
MULDER:
What kind of infection?
SCULLY:
I don't know.
MULDER:
All right, listen to me. I'm going home and then I'm booking myself on a flight to Dallas. I'm going to get you a ticket too.
SCULLY:
Mulder....
MULDER:
I need you there with me. I need your expertise.
SCULLY:
Mulder, I have a hearing tomorrow...
MULDER:
I can get you back in time for that hearing, maybe with evidence that will blow it away.
SCULLY:
Mulder, I can't! I'm way past the point of common sense here.
MULDER:
This has nothing to do with common sense. Scully? Are you there? Scully?
(Scully has hung up. A soldier has entered the refrigeration room, he enters and looks around. She is hiding under a gurney. A goo drips down from above her)
SCENE 13 - FBI FIELD OFFICE, DALLAS, TEXAS
(Mulder is entering the lab area in the field office with an agent)
FIELD AGENT:
I'm afraid what you're looking for amounts to a needle in a haystack. This explosion was so devastating there hasn't been much that we've been able to put together just yet.
MULDER:
Well, I'm looking for anything out of the ordinary really. Maybe something from the FEMA offices where those bodies where found?
FIELD AGENT:
Well, we weren't expecting to find those remains, of course, and we sent 'em off to Washington.
MULDER:
Well, anything from those offices that you haven't send off to D.C. yet?
FIELD AGENT:
Some bone fragments turned up in the sift this morning. We thought we had another fatality but we found out FEMA recovered them from an archaeological site out of town.
MULDER:
Have you examined them?
FIELD AGENT:
No, they're just fossils, as far as we know.
(Scully enters by the doorway, Mulder points her out to the agent)
MULDER:
I'd like you to let this person take a look at them, if you don't mind.
(The field agent turns around, sees Scully and turns back to Mulder)
FIELD AGENT:
Just let me see if I can lay my hands on what you're looking for.
(The agent walks away and Scully comes up to Mulder)
MULDER:
I thought you said you weren't coming.
SCULLY:
I wasn't planning on it. Particularly not after spending a half an hour in cold storage this morning. But I got a better look at the blood and tissue samples I took from the fireman.
MULDER:
And what did you find?
SCULLY:
Something I couldn't show to anybody else. Not without causing the kind of attention I'd just as soon avoid right now.
(Scully looks back to check the agent is gone before continuing)
SCULLY:
But, what those men were infected with contains a protein code that I've never seen before. What it did to them, it did extremely fast.
MULDER:
How was it contracted?
SCULLY:
That I don't know. But, unless it can respond to conventional treatment, it could be a serious health threat.
(The agent comes back with fossils)
FIELD AGENT:
Like I said, these are just fossils, but they weren't near the blast centre so they're not going to tell you much.
MULDER:
(Handing Scully a vial containing some bone fragments) Right, right, why don't you check this out.
(Scully looks through the microscope and looks up shocked at Mulder. He turns to the agent)
MULDER:
You said you knew the location where these were found?
FIELD AGENT:
Show you right on the map.
(He heads off and Scully looks questioningly at Mulder, he kinda smiles back)
SCENE 14 - NORTH TEXAS
(A little child on a slide, looks over a fence where he can see three white domes. Some kind of construction is going on and Bronschweig is there in a protective suit. He is looking at some gauges)
BRONSCHWEIG:
I want all of these settings checked and recalibrated. I want a steady, negative two degrees Celsius throughout the transfer of the body after I've administered the vaccine.
(Bronschweig fixes his suit and enters the hole and picks up the vaccine. He turns to see the fireman's body but the chest is empty. The alien that should be there...isn't! He looks around for it but can't see it, he runs to the ladder and cries out)
BRONSCHWEIG:
It's gone!
MAN:
What?!
(Bronschweig begins climbing the ladder)
BRONSCHWEIG:
It's left the body, I think it's gestated!
(He stops climbing as he hears a noise and looks off to the side)
MAN:
What's the matter?
BRONSCHWEIG:
Wait... I can see it.
(He climbs back down and stands at the bottom. We can see a figure glistening in the darkness)
BRONSCHWEIG:
Oh... Jesus.... Lord....
MAN:
Ya, ya see it?!
BRONSCHWEIG:
So much for little green men.
(He begins to fumble with a pouch on his hip, taking out the needle and a small bottle with the green liquid vaccine)
BRONSCHWEIG:
I need you down here!
(Bronschweig fills the needle and looks for the alien. He can't tell where the noise is coming from until it appears behind him. Bronschweig notices it as it retracts it's...er...claws, and it slices his face with them. He manages to get the needle in it and he clutches the ladder. There are several men gathered round the top of the hole)
BRONSCHWEIG:
Help! I need help!
(The top part of the ladder is suddenly gone and the hole is covered up)
BRONSCHWEIG:
What are you doing?!
(They start to cover the hole with dirt)
BRONSCHWEIG:
What are you doing?! Ohhh....
(From the darkness, the alien grabs him and pulls him down)
SCENE 15 - SOMERSET, ENGLAND
(Some British children run around playing and a woman claps her hands. They run away playfully. The Well Manicured Man is sipping his tea and smiling at the children. A servant walks out to him)
SERVANT:
Sir, you have a call.
(He walks inside dejectedly to pick up the phone)
WELL MANICURED MAN:
Yes?
(It is the CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN)
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
We have a situation. The members are assembling.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
Is it an emergency?
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Yes. A meeting has been set, tonight in London to determine a course.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
Who called this meeting?
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Strughold. He just got on a plane in Tunis.
(We hear a child screaming in pain. The WELL MANICURED MAN hangs up and runs to the window. The child is holding his leg in pain and WELL MANICURED MAN runs out to see what is going on)
SCENE 16 - LONDON, ENGLAND
(A car pulls up and a servant holds the door open for the WELL MANICURED MAN)
WELL MANICURED MAN:
Has Strughold arrived?
SERVANT:
Yes, they're waiting in the library, sir.
(They enter the building and find the Syndicate gathered inside. A monitor shows an image of Mulder and Scully at the naval morgue. Strughold stands)
STRUGHOLD:
We began to worry. Some of us have travelled so far and yet you are the last to arrive.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
I'm sorry. My grandson fell and broke his leg.
(There is a pause. No one seems concerned)
STRUGHOLD:
While we have been made to wait, we watched surveillance tapes which have raised more concerns.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
More concerns on what?
STRUGHOLD:
We have been forced to reassess our role in Colonisation by new effects in biology which have.... presented themselves.
FIRST ELDER:
The virus has mutated.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
Into what?
STRUGHOLD:
A new extraterrestrial biological entity.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
My God!
STRUGHOLD:
The geometry of mass infection presents certain conceptual re-evaluations for us about our place in the Colonisation.
(WELL MANICURED MAN begins to walk towards Strughold)
WELL MANICURED MAN:
This isn't Colonisation, this is spontaneous repopulation! All our work!.... If it's true, they've been using us all along! We've been labouring under a lie!
BARNEY MILLER GUY:
It could be an isolated case.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
How can we know?!
STRUGHOLD:
We're going to tell them what we've found, what we've learned by turning over a body infected with the gestating organism.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
In hope of what? Learning that it's true? That we are nothing but digestives for the creation of a new race of alien life-forms?! By cooperating now, we are but beggars to our own demise.
STRUGHOLD:
Cooperation is the only chance of saving ourselves.
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
They still need us to carry out their preparations.
STRUGHOLD:
We'll continue to use them as they do us. If only to play for more time, to continue work on our vaccine.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
(Shakes his head) My lateness might just as well have been absence. A course has already been taken!
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
There are complications. Mulder saw one of the infected bodies that we destroyed in Dallas. He's gone back there again. Someone has tipped him.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
Who?
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Kurtzweil we think.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
No one believes Kurztweil or his books. He's a toiler, a crank.
FIRST ELDER:
Mulder believes.
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Then Kurtzweil must be removed.
STRUGHOLD:
As must Mulder.
WELL MANICURED MAN:
Kill Mulder, we take the risk of turning one man's quest into a crusade.
STRUGHOLD:
Then you must take away what he holds most valuable. That with which he can't live without.
(And without further ado we see that with which he can't live without: Scully)
SCENE 17 - NORTH TEXAS
(SCULLY. She is standing in the desert with Mulder. There are houses behind them)
SCULLY:
I don't know, Mulder. I don't see any evidence of an archaeological or any other kind of a dig site.
MULDER:
This is where he marked on the map. Where he said those fossils were unearthed. You're sure those fossils were infected with the same virus you saw at the morgue?
SCULLY:
Both sets of bones were porous, as if the virus or the causative microbe were decomposing it.
MULDER:
And you've never seen that virus before.
SCULLY:
No.
(He looks down, dejected, then his gaze wanders to the side)
MULDER:
Look at that.
(They walk over to an oasis in the surrounding desert, a brand new playground)
MULDER:
That look like new grass to you?
SCULLY:
Looks pretty green for this climate.
MULDER:
Uh huh.
(They reach the playground, Mulder bends down and picks up a piece of the ground)
MULDER:
Ground's dry about an inch down. This was laid recently.
SCULLY:
The equipment looks brand new too.
MULDER:
No irrigation system. Somebody's covering their tracks.
(Three kids on bikes ride towards them)
MULDER:
Hey! Hey!
(Mulder and Scully walk towards the kids and they stop their bikes)
SCULLY:
Do you boys live around here?
KID:
Yeah.
MULDER:
You see anybody diggin' over there?
KID:
We're not supposed to talk about it.
SCULLY:
You're not supposed to talk about it? Who told you that?
KID 2:
Nobody.
MULDER:
Nobody? The same nobody that built that playground? Nobody buy you those new bikes, too?
SCULLY:
I think you better tell us.
KID:
We don't even know you.
SCULLY:
Well, we're FBI Agents.
KID:
You're not FBI Agents.
MULDER:
How do you know?
KID:
Cause ya'll look like door-to-door salesmen. (Laughs)
MULDER:
(He pulls out his badge) Hey, you wanna buy a badge?
(The kids all look at his badge)
KID:
They left about an hour ago, going that way.
(He points, then the other two kids point in the same direction)
SCENE 18 - CAR
(Mulder and Scully are travelling along, talking)
MULDER:
Unmarked tanker trucks. What are archaeologists hauling out in tanker trucks?
SCULLY:
I don't know, Mulder.
MULDER:
And where are they going with it?
SCULLY:
That's the first question to answer if we're going to find them.
(Scully is looking at her map when the car pulls to a halt at a stop sign)
MULDER:
What are my choices?
SCULLY:
About a hundred miles of nothing in both directions.
MULDER:
Well, which way do you think they went?
(Scully chucks down the map, which does nothing for her)
SCULLY:
We've got two choices. One of them's wrong.
(Mulder looks left down the long highway)
MULDER:
I think they went left.
(Scully looks to her right)
SCULLY:
I don't know why, I think they went right.
(They look at each other, Mulder looks both ways and then decides to go straight ahead on a dirt road)
MULDER:
Five years together, Scully. How many times I been wrong? Never.
(Scully smiles at this)
MULDER:
Not driving anyway.
(The car continues. Later, at night, the car pulls to a close at a dead end. Scully looks at Mulder and gets out of the car, slamming the door behind her. Mulder climbs out as well. Scully is standing in the light of the headlights)
MULDER:
I was right about the bomb, wasn't I?
SCULLY:
This is great, this is fitting.
MULDER:
What?
(He pulls out the map)
SCULLY:
I have to be in Washington, D.C. in eleven hours for a hearing, the outcome of which might possibly effect one of the biggest decisions of my life, and here I am in the middle of Nowhere, Texas chasing phantom tanker trucks!
MULDER:
We're not chasing tanker trucks, Scully, we're chasing evidence.
SCULLY:
Evidence of what exactly?
MULDER:
That bomb in Dallas was allowed to go off, to hide something. Bodies infected with a virus you yourself detected!
SCULLY:
Mulder, they haul oil in tanker trucks, they haul gas in tanker trucks, they do not haul viruses in tanker trucks!
MULDER:
Well, they may be hauling a virus in these tanker trucks.
SCULLY:
What do you mean? .... Mulder? .... What are you not telling me?
(Mulder tries to avoid the answer)
SCULLY:
Mulder?
MULDER:
(Hesitant) The virus may be extraterrestrial.
(She stares at him with her mouth open)
SCULLY:
I don't b ... Mulder, I don't ...
(A train warning bell rings and the train approaches, Mulder walks towards the tracks)
SCULLY:
What? Mulder, what?!
(They watch the train go by and then their eyes meet and they scramble into the car. They follow along with the train until it stops. They step out and look at what they, but not us, can see)
SCULLY:
What do you think they are?
MULDER:
I have no idea.
(The white domes are in the desert, with cornfields all around them. Mulder and Scully enter the cornfield and begin to walk through it)
SCULLY:
This is weird, Mulder.
MULDER:
Very weird.
SCULLY:
Any thoughts as to why anybody would be growing corn in the middle of the desert?
MULDER:
Well, those could be giant Jiffy-Pop Poppers.
(Mulder opens one of the dome's doors and a blast of air shoots out, they enter, a bit dishevelled from the wind. They enter and as they close the door, fans on the ceiling turn on. They walk further into the dome and we can see some kind of grids on the sides)
SCULLY:
It's cool in here. The temperature's being regulated.
MULDER:
For the purpose of what?
SCULLY:
Mulder, I think we're on top of a larger structure here. This is some kind of a venting system.
(Mulder stops and turns to Scully)
MULDER:
You hear something? You hear that?
(He steps down off the raised walkway, towards the grids and she follows behind him)
SCULLY:
I hear a humming...
(Mulder makes a noise as if to say "yes")
SCULLY:
Like electricity, high voltage maybe...
(Mulder puts his fingertips on one of the grids, then bends down and places his ear on it, listening)
MULDER:
Maybe...
(As he listens, Scully looks up towards the roof)
MULDER:
Maybe not.
(He lifts his head and follows her gaze to the roof. Suddenly, flaps in the roof open up)
MULDER:
Scully?
SCULLY:
Yeah?
MULDER:
Run!!
(The vents blast open and bees pour into the air. Mulder and Scully put their jackets over the head and look for the door. Mulder turns around, realizing he has left Scully behind)
MULDER:
Scully!
SCULLY:
I can't see!
(Mulder turns back and runs towards Scully)
MULDER:
Grab my hand!
(He grabs her arm and they run toward the door, stopping before they exit to stamp their feet under the doorway's fans to remove the bees from their clothing. They finally run out the door and escape)
MULDER:
Did you get stung?
SCULLY:
I don't think so.
(They both walk away into the corn when they hear a noise and a light appears. It is two helicopters scanning the ground. Mulder and Scully run through the corn and the helicopters search for them. They both crouch down but Mulder can't find Scully)
MULDER:
Talk to me, Scully! Scully! Dammit! Scully! Scully! Scully! Scully!
(He runs from crouching spot to crouching spot, calling her name in desperation)
SCULLY:
Mulder! (She tries to follow the sound of his voice)
MULDER:
Sculllllllyyyyy!
(Scully and Mulder continue screaming out for each other until finally they meet at the end of the corn. They race to their car and then they notice that everything is silent)
(Scully pops out of the corn, not far from him, they run towards each other, then as a team they begin racing towards their car. Suddenly, Scully turns around, noticing the silence)
SCULLY:
Where'd they go?
(The helicopters have disappeared. Mulder grabs her shoulder, pushing her onwards)
MULDER:
Come on.
(They climb back up the hill. The domes and corn are silent again)
SCENE 19 - OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL REVIEW, WASHINGTON, D.C./ BAR, WASHINGTON, DC
(Assistant Director Jana Cassidy checks her watch in the hearing room. Skinner, outside, does the same. Scully rushes in the door and straightens herself in the mirror. Skinner enters the hearing room, holding the door open for Scully)
SKINNER:
She's coming in.
(Scully walks quickly to her seat)
A.D. CASSIDY:
Special Agent Scully?
SCULLY:
Yes, I apologize for making you wait. I have new evidence.
A.D. CASSIDY:
Evidence of what?
(Scully pulls out the evidence bag)
SCULLY:
These ... are fossilized bone fragments that I've been able to study ... that were gathered at the bomb site in Dallas.
A.D. CASSIDY:
You've been back to Dallas?
SCULLY:
Yes…
(Meanwhile in the bar, Mulder sits down next to Kurtzweil)
KURTZWEIL:
You found something?
MULDER:
Yeah. On the Texas border, some kind of experiment, something they excavated and was brought there in tanker trucks.
KURTZWEIL:
What?
MULDER:
I'm not sure ... a virus, I think.
(Kurtzweil appears stunned. The scene cuts back to the hearing)
SCULLY:
.... and I also have reason to believe that ... there may have been some involvement by Special Agent In Charge Michaud.
A.D. CASSIDY:
Those are very serious allegations, Agent Scully.
SCULLY:
Yes, I know.
(And in the bar)
KURTZWEIL:
You saw this experiment?
MULDER:
Yeah, but we were chased off.
KURTZWEIL:
What did it look like?
MULDER:
There were bees ... corn crops ...
(At the hearing)
A.D. CASSIDY:
…and you have conclusive evidence of this? Something to tie this claim of yours to the crime?
SCULLY:
Nnn ... not completely conclusive … I hope to but we are ... in the process of ... we're working towards gathering that evidence.
(We see one bee on Scully's jacket, moves up toward her neck)
A.D. CASSIDY:
Working with ...?
SCULLY:
(Hesitating) …with Agent Mulder.
(At the bar)
MULDER:
What are they?
KURTZWEIL:
What do you think?
MULDER:
A transportation system. Transgeneric crops that are polygenically altered to carry a virus.
KURTZWEIL:
That would be my guess.
(He dabs his mouth on a napkin, looks around, gets up and starts to walk away. Mulder is stunned and gets up to follow him)
MULDER:
Guess? What do you mean "your guess"?! Hey!
(Mulder grabs Kurtweil's shoulder and turns him around to face him)
MULDER:
You told me you had answers!
KURTZWEIL:
Yeah, well… I don’t have 'em all…
MULDER:
(Disgusted) You didn’t know my father…
KURTZWEIL:
Like I told you, he and I were old friends…
MULDER:
(Angrily) You’ve been using me! You’ve been using me to gather information for your god-damned books!
(Kurtweil is looking left and right to see if anyone is paying attention as Mulder's voice has risen)
KURTZWEIL:
Lower your voice!
(Kurtzweil leaves through the back exit. Mulder follows him into the alley)
MULDER:
Kurtzweil? Kurtzweil!
(Kurtweil stops and turns to Mulder)
KURTZWEIL:
Yeah, well, you’d be shit out of luck if it wasn’t for me! You saw what you saw 'cause I led you to it!
(he stabs Mulder in the chest with his finger for emphasis) I’m putting my ass on the line for you ...
MULDER:
Your ass?! I just got chased through Texas by two black helicopters!
KURTZWEIL:
And why do you think it is you’re standing here talking to me? These people don’t make mistakes!
(Kurtweil walks off leaving Mulder to ponder it all. Mulder hears footsteps above him on the fire escape. He looks up and we see it's The First Elder)
SCENE 20 - MULDER'S APARTMENT
(Mulder pulls open a drawer and goes through a photo album. He finds a picture of a picnic. Kurtzweil is there with his father. Mulder stares for a moment and then Scully enters. She looks at him depressed)
MULDER:
What's wrong?
SCULLY:
Salt Lake City, Utah. Transfer effective immediately.
(Mulder turns his body away from her not wanting this to happen)
SCULLY:
I already gave Skinner my letter of resignation.
MULDER:
You can't quit now, Scully.
SCULLY:
I can, Mulder. I debated whether or not even to tell you in person, but ...
MULDER:
We are close to something here! (He finally turns in his chair to look at her) We're on the verge!
SCULLY:
You're on the verge, Mulder. Please don't do this to me.
(Mulder leaps out of his chair and walks over to Scully)
MULDER:
After what you saw last night, after all you've seen, you can just walk away?
SCULLY:
I have, I did, it's done.
MULDER:
I need you on this, Scully.
SCULLY:
You don't need me, Mulder. You never have. I've just held you back.
(Mulder looks at her despairingly and their eyes meet for a moment)
SCULLY:
I gotta go.
(He waits for a moment, then Mulder follows her out into the hallway)
MULDER:
You wanna tell yourself that so you can quit with a clear conscience, you can, but you're wrong!
(She stops and turns to face him)
SCULLY:
Why did they assign me to you in the first place, Mulder? To debunk your work, to rein you in, to shut you down …
MULDER:
But you saved me! As difficult and as frustrating as it's been sometimes, your goddamned strict rationalism and science have saved me a thousand times over! You've kept me honest ... you've made me a whole person. I owe you everything ... Scully, and you owe me nothing.
(Scully is almost crying)
MULDER:
I don't know if I wanna do this alone... I don't even know if I can ... and if I quit now, they win.
(Now Scully is crying. She hugs him and kisses him on the forehead. She looks into his eyes and they lean in to kiss, just as they reach. She grabs her neck, crying out)
SCULLY:
Ow!
MULDER:
(Thinking he's done something wrong) I'm sorry.
SCULLY:
Something stung me.
(Mulder reaches down and plucks out the bee, holding it in his fingers, its little legs squirming in the air)
MULDER:
Must've gotten in your shirt.
SCULLY:
Mulder ... something's wrong.
MULDER:
What?
SCULLY:
I'm having lacerating pain in ...
MULDER:
What?
SCULLY:
... my chest.
MULDER:
Scully ...
SCULLY:
My motor functions are being affected.
(She begins to fall into Mulder and he grabs her)
MULDER:
Scully ...
(Mulder gently but quickly lays her down upon the hallway floor)
SCULLY:
My pulse is thready ... a funny taste in the back of my throat.
MULDER:
I think you're going into anaphylactic shock.
SCULLY:
No ... I have no allergy.
(Mulder runs into his apartment and grabs the phone. He dials 911 with the emergency button)
MULDER:
(on phone): This is Special Agent Fox Mulder, I have an emergency! I have an agent down!
SCENE 21 - OUTSIDE MULDER'S APARTMENT BUILDING
(Scully is being loaded onto a gurney by some ambulance members. Mulder stands near by)
PARAMEDIC 1:
Can you hear me? Can you say your name?
PARAMEDIC 2:
She's got constriction in the throat and larynx.
PARAMEDIC 1:
Passages are open. OK. Let's get her in the van right away. Look out. Coming through. Watch your back.
(Scully is loaded into the ambulance)
MULDER:
She said she had a funny taste in the back of her throat. But there was no pre-existing allergy to bee sting. Now the bee that stung her might have been carrying a virus.
PARAMEDIC 1:
Virus?
MULDER:
Will you tell that to the doctor?
VARIOUS PARAMEDICS VOICES:
"... virus ... advise ... reaction ... stat!
MULDER:
What hos ... what hospital are ...
(The ambulance door closes, Mulder goes to the driver)
MULDER:
What hospital are you taking her to?
(The ambulance driver just looks back at him. He pulls a gun and fires at Mulder's head. Mulder falls. The fake ambulance drives off, just missing another)
SCENE 22 - AIRPORT RUNWAY
(A plane lands and the ambulance pulls up, moving Scully out of it and towards the plane. The CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN stands watching, lighting another cigarette)
SCENE 23 - HOSPITAL
(The Lone Gunmen are hovering over Mulder's hospital bed. He has bandages wrapped around his head)
FROHIKE:
What are you doing?
LANGLY:
Reading his chart.
FROHIKE:
Put it down.
LANGLY:
I'll put it down when I'm ready.
BYERS:
I think he's coming out of it.
LANGLY:
He's coming to.
FROHIKE:
Hey, Mulder? Mulder?
MULDER:
Oh my God. Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow … Toto!
(Frohike doesn't think the joke is funny. Mulder winces in pain)
MULDER:
What am I doing here?
BYERS:
The bullet grazed your brow and your temporal plate.
LANGLY:
A few centimetres to the left and we’d all be playing harps right now.
FROHIKE:
You've been unconscious since they brought you in.
MULDER:
Where's Scully?!
BYERS:
We put together you called 911. That call must have been intercepted.
FROHIKE:
Scully had a reaction to an Africanised honeybee we found in your hall.
(Frohike holds up a vial containing the bee)
MULDER:
I’ve got to get to her.
(Mulder attempts to stand up, is woozy and staggers a bit before sitting right back down. His door opens and Skinner walks in, going quickly to the staggering Mulder and helping to hold him up before he falls on his butt)
SKINNER:
Mulder, easy, easy… look, you're staying right here.
MULDER:
You don't understand, this goes all the way back to Dallas.
SKINNER:
Tell me where she is, I'll find her.
MULDER:
I don't know where she is! But I can think of someone who might.
SKINNER:
You leave here unprotected, how far will you get? How far will they let you get? Because they’ll know the minute you walk out of here!
LANGLY:
What can we do?
(Mulder half-looks around at Langly, thinks a minute then formulates a plan)
MULDER:
You can strip Byers naked…
BYERS:
What?!
MULDER:
I need your clothes.
(Mulder begins to tenderly remove his head bandage, wincing again. Now, Langly, Frohike and a new Byers leave the room, the guard checks inside to see what appears to be Mulder and Skinner. They walk out of the hospital and Mulder enters his phone)
MULDER:
(Into phone) It’s Mulder…
(Langly closes the exit door behind Mulder. Mulder runs down the street ditching his jacket, meanwhile Kurtzweil enters the bar and sees The WELL-MANICURED MAN inside)
SCENE 24 - CASEY'S BAR
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
Dr. Kurtzweil, isn't it? Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil?
(Dr. Kurtzweil backs away and walks the other way but a car stops him. The driver gets out, just as Mulder bursts into the bar. He looks around and then leaves, entering the alley. The WELL-MANICURED MAN and the driver are closing the trunk of the car. )
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
Mr. Mulder.
MULDER:
What happened to Kurtzweil?
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
He's come and gone.
MULDER:
I want to know where Scully is.
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
(Holds up a small pouch) The location of Agent Scully and the means to save her life. (Gesturing to the car) Please....
(Mulder walks into the car, never taking his eyes of WELL-MANICURED MAN. They enter the car and it takes off, going past the White House)
SCENE 25 - WELL MANICURED MAN'S CAR
(WELL-MANICURED MAN hands Mulder the pouch)
MULDER:
What is it?
(As WELL-MANICURED MAN speaks, Mulder opens the pouch and pulls out a small bottle of green liquid and a piece of paper with this written on it):
South 83º Lat ,East 63º Long
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
A weak vaccine against the virus Agent Scully has been infected with. It must be administered within ninety-six hours. That leaves you little time to reach those coordinates.
MULDER:
You're lying.
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
No. Though I have no means to prove otherwise. The virus is extra-terrestrial. We know very little about it except that it was the original inhabitant of this planet.
MULDER:
(Unbelieving) A virus...
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
What is a virus, but a colonizing force that cannot be defeated? Living in a cave, underground, until it mutates ... and attacks.
MULDER:
This is what you've been conspiring to conceal? A disease?
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
No. For God's sake, you've got it all backwards! AIDS, the Ebola virus, on an evolutionary scale they are newborns. This virus walked the planet long before the dinosaurs.
MULDER:
What do you mean walked?
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
Your aliens, Agent Mulder. Your little green men arrived here millions of years ago. Those that didn't leave have been lying dormant underground since the last ice age in the form of an evolved pathogen, waiting to be reconstituted by the alien race when it comes to colonize the planet -- using us as hosts. Against this we have no defence, nothing but a weak vaccine. Do you see why it was kept secret? Why even the best men, men like your father, could not let the truth be known. Until Dallas we believed the virus would simply control us, that mass infection would make us a slave race. Imagine our surprise when they began to gestate.
MULDER:
Why are you telling me this?
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
For the sake of my own children. Once it's learned what I have told you, my life will be over.
(They both look at the driver)
MULDER:
Where's Dr. Kurtzweil?
(No response)
MULDER:
I'd like to get out of the car now. (To the driver) Stop the car!
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
Driver.
(The car pulls to a stop in yet another alleyway)
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
The men I work with will stop at nothing to clear the way for what they believe is their stake in the inevitable future. I was ordered to kill Dr. Kurtzweil, as I was ordered to kill you.
(WELL-MANICURED MAN pulls out a gun and shoots the driver)
MULDER:
Ow!
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
Trust no one, Mr. Mulder.
(WELL-MANICURED MAN opens his own door and exits, holding the door open)
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
Get out of the car.
MULDER:
Why? The upholstery is already ruined.
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
Get out of the car!
(Mulder scoots over to WELL-MANICURED MAN's door and exits the car)
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
You have precious little time.
(Mulder slams the door shut angrily)
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
What I've given you the alien colonists don't yet know exists. The vaccine you hold is the only defines against the virus. Its introduction into an alien environment may have the power to destroy the delicate plans we have so assiduously protected for the last fifty years!
MULDER:
What do you mean, "may" have?
WELL-MANICURED MAN:
Find Agent Scully. Only then will you realize the scope and grandeur of the project. Go. Go now!
(WELL-MANICURED MAN points his gun at Mulder, who walks away. WELL-MANICURED MAN enters the limo and closes the door. It explodes and Mulder is thrown off his feet. He looks at it for a moment, checks the bottle in the pouch and runs like hell)
SCENE 26 - WILKESLAND, ANTARCTICA, 48 HOURS LATER
(There is nothing but white. Oh, no, wait there is Mulder driving a Sno-Cat. He squints but can't see where he is going and the gas doesn't appear to be full. He looks at his compass and then struggles up a hill. He can see some buildings in the distance. There are other Sno-Cats, the CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN is in one. Mulder begins to walk down to this "HQ" and starts to jog. He falls as the ice collapses and goes down a long tunnel ending in a little crevice. He stands and sees steam rising. He crawls through a hole into a room where he can see containers, covered in snow. He wipes away the snow off one and discovers a prehistoric man in ice.. Meanwhile, the CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN pulls up in a Sno-Cat and sees Mulder's abandoned one. Mulder discovers rows of these cases and discovers an open area where there are thousands more. He looks around and sees something moving. Some of the cases are moving and he climbs quickly down towards them. He falls)
MULDER:
Oh, shit!
(He lands right near the edge of a ledge and almost falls up. We can see nothing below except a bottomless pit of metal. He climbs up onto the ledge to catch his breath. He moves along and finds a case with Scully's clothes and her cross. He grabs the necklace and keeps going, desperate to find her. He finds Scully and begins to hammer at the ice. Up above, soldiers run around as CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN yells at everyone)
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Secure the station! I want everyone else down below! If you're not armed, arm yourselves! We have a breach!
(Cut back to Mulder who has now hauled off a piece of a nearby cryopod and is pounding on the ice as he desperately tries to save her from her ice-coffin. CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN leads some men down a ladder)
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Let's go, let's go!
(Mulder breaks through and the good floats away. He stares into Scully's face and injects the vaccine. The tube connected to her shrivels up)
MULDER:
Scully?
(As he goes to touch the now dead tube and pull it from Scully's mouth, a violent shaking takes over the ship, a reaction to the vaccine's unwanted intrusion. CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN turns as a man shows him a graph)
MAN LOOKING AT GRAPH:
There's a contaminate in the system!
(Cancer Man looks at the graph in shock)
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Mulder has the vaccine!
(Steam shoots out everywhere as Mulder sees Scully move. He drags the tube out of her throat and he stares at her, trying to see if she is alive)
MULDER:
Breathe! Scully, can you breathe?!
(Scully begins to cough, spitting out the goo and then opens her mouth to talk)
SCULLY:
Cold ... I'm cold.
MULDER:
I'm going to get you out of there.
(He starts to whack away at the ice with a metallic cylinder next to him, probably shaken loose by the rocking and rolling the ship is still experiencing. The men in the control room are going flying)
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Abandon your posts! Evacuate!
(Men are evacuating and CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN heads towards the ladders)
MAN:
What's happened?!
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
It's all gone to hell!
MAN:
But, what about Mulder?!
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
He'll never make it!
(Mulder lifts Scully out and carries her out, she is wearing some of his clothing and they reach the bottom of a shaft. Sunlight is above them. An alarm sounds as men race away in Sno-Cats. CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN drives off. Mulder and Scully climb up a ladder, water is dripping down the walls below them. The Sno-Cats continue to drive away, one moves directly above Mulder and Scully. They stop for a moment. Scully can't go on)
MULDER:
We gotta keep moving. Come on!
SCULLY:
I can't.
MULDER:
Yeah, you can.
(Mulder picks her up and carries her in a fireman's lift, over his shoulders. He finds a vent)
MULDER:
Scully, reach up and grab that vent!
(Suddenly, he spots movement in one of the pods. The creatures within have begun to stir. The vaccine has affected the whole structure, as the bodies were all obviously attached to the one creature)
MULDER:
Scully, grab the vent!
(No response)
MULDER:
Scully?
(He looks at her face on his shoulder, she's passed out. Mulder slides her off his shoulders, placing her on the floor and checks for a pulse. The creatures nearby, still encased in the swiftly melting ice are now violently thrashing about and emitting their high-pitched screams. With one eye on the creatures and one eye on Scully, Mulder begins performing a mean version of CPR)
MULDER:
Please, breathe. Breathe ... breathe .... BREATHE!
(Scully begins to cough and splutter as she regains consciousness)
MULDER:
Breathe in, breathe in, breathe!
(She begins to try and speak, he has to place his ear almost on her mouth to hear)
SCULLY:
I had you big time.
(She smiles at him. As Mulder pulls her to her feet, the ice-encased cryopods around them start to crack open as the creatures within begin to break free. He holds her up to the vent above her)
MULDER:
Grab the vent. Pull! PULL!
(Scully grabs the vent and pulls herself up. Mulder starts to climb up. One of the aliens breaks the pod and reaches out with its hand for Mulder. It grabs Mulder's leg. Scully stops and turns his head)
SCULLY:
Mulder!
MULDER:
Keep moving, Scully!
(Mulder kicks it away and pulls himself up. They both climb through the tunnel, Mulder yelling encouragement from behind)
MULDER:
Go! Go! Come on!
(He keeps checking behind him as the alien screams continue, looking for any which may be chasing them)
MULDER:
Almost there, keep going!
(They pull themselves up to where Mulder first stopped after he fell through the ice, a slight turn in the vent. Just as Mulder clears the turn, an alien lashes out from behind but is cut off by the twist in the tunnel. They step over the part where Mulder first fell all the way down and make their way out the hole he originally made. Scully falls onto the snow, exhausted and Mulder perches next to her on one knee. He hears a sound and looks around for the origin. It's the ice ... it's cracking under their feet! He grabs Scully and throws one of her arms over his shoulder as they begin to run away. He stops for some ungodly reason and looks back seeing vents of steam starting to shoot out of the ice. They begin to run again as the ice begins cracking and falling away causing a huge crater to form. Suddenly the crater overtakes them and they disappear into the hole, but next we see them shoot into the air and slide off of the surface of the rising ship. They land on the edge of the crater. Mulder watches the spaceship as it flies overhead, his face glows with a heart-melting grin of childlike wonder and awe. Scully's face is turned towards the snow, too tired to move)
MULDER:
Scully, ya gotta see this! Scully!
(It's quiet, it's barely a mutter above a whisper, but we hear ..)
SCULLY:
I see it.
(Mulder and Scully lay in the snow, two lonely figures left all alone)
SCENE 27 - OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL REVIEW, WASHINGTON DC
(Scully is seated before the review board)
CASSIDY:
In light report on the report I've got before me and in light of the narrative I am now hearing, my official report is incomplete -- pending these new facts I'm being asked to reconcile.
(While she speaks, we see a man entering the field office where the fossilized samples were kept. In the darkness of the closed office his flashlight lands on the tray containing the samples and he takes it away)
CASSIDY:
Agent Scully, though there is now direct evidence that a federal agent may have been involved in the bombing, the other events you've laid down here are too incredible on their own, and quite frankly implausible in their connections.
SCULLY:
What is it you find incredible?
CASSIDY:
Well, where would you like me to start?
(As we hear them speak, over the next couple of passages, we cut to somewhere in America's heartland as a freshly-painted tanker truck is prepared. The new sign painted on the side reads "Nature's Best Corn Oil". Next we see soldiers with flame torches setting a corn field ablaze)
CASSIDY:
So many of the events described in your report defy belief. Antarctica is a long way from Dallas, Agent Scully. I-- I can't very well submit a report to the Attorney General that alleges the links you've made here. Bees and corn crops do not quite fall under the rubric of domestic terrorism.
SCULLY:
No, they don't.
CASSIDY:
Most of what I find in here is lacking a coherent picture of any organization with an attributable motive. I realize the ordeal you've endured has clearly affected you. But the holes in your account leave this panel with little choice but to delete these references to our final report to the Justice Department--until which time hard evidence becomes available that would give us cause to pursue such an investigation.
(Scully stands up and walks over to the board, positioning herself directly in front of A.D. Cassidy. She places the vial containing the bee found in Mulder's hallway on the table, Cassidy picks it up and looks closely at it)
SCULLY:
I don't believe the FBI currently has an investigative unit qualified to pursue the evidence in hand.
(Scully then turns and leaves the room. Skinner looks defiantly at Cassidy, but the whole board looks back at him)
SCENE 28 - CAPITAL MALL
(Mulder is sitting on a bench by the reflecting pool reading a newspaper. He stares at a headline: "Local Hanta Virus Outbreak In Northern Texas Contained", looks up and sees Scully walking toward him. When she arrives, he hands her the paper)
MULDER:
There's an interesting work of fiction on page twenty-four. Mysteriously, our names have been omitted. They're burying this thing, Scully. They're just going to dig a new hole and cover it up.
SCULLY:
I told OPR everything I know. What I experienced, the virus, how it's spread by the bees from pollen in transgenic crops.
(He gets up and starts to walk away. She joins him)
MULDER:
You're wasting your time, Scully. They'll never believe you, not unless your story can be programmed, categorized, or easily referenced.
SCULLY:
Well, then we'll go over their heads.
(He stops and turns to her)
MULDER:
No. No. 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 going to watch you die, Scully, because of some hollow 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, whatever it is, it has a cure. You held it in your hand. How many other lives can we save? Look ...
(she clasps his hand) ... If I quit now, they win.
(They walk off together)
SCENE 29 - FOUM TATAOUINE, TUNISIA
(A helicopter flies over the vast desert. We then see CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN walking next to a cornfield, a native man yelling something in Tunisian into the crop. From out of the corn comes Strughold. He walks over to CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN)
STRUGHOLD:
You look hot and miserable. Why have you travelled all this way?
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
We have business to discuss.
STRUGHOLD:
We have regular channels.
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
This involves Mulder.
STRUGHOLD:
Ah. That name, again and again.
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
He's seen more than he should have.
STRUGHOLD:
What has he seen? Of the whole he has seen but pieces.
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
He's determined now. Reinvested.
STRUGHOLD:
He is but one man. One man alone cannot fight the future.
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN:
Yesterday, I received this.
(From out of his pocket, he pulls a telegram and hands it to Strughold. He reads it then drops it to the ground and walks away. CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN looks down at the telegram. It reads:
"X-FILES RE-OPENED. STOP. PLEASE ADVISE. STOP."
CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN looks up, then walks away. The camera pans above the scene to show the huge cornfield in the middle of the desert ..)
[THE END]
David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully),
Mitch Pileggi (Assistant Director Walter Skinner), John Neville (Well Manicured Man), Bruce Harwood (John Byers), Dean Haglund (Ringo Langly), Tom Braidwood (Melvin Frohike) and William B. Davis (Cigarette Smoking Man), Blythe Danner (Assistant Director Jana Cassidy), Jeffrey DeMunn (Doctor Ben Bronschweig), Martin Landau (Doctor Alvin Kurtzweil), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Conrad Strughold), Terry O'Quinn (Special Agent Darius Michaud), TC Badalato (Fireman), Gregory B Ballora (Second Creature),
Luis Beckford (Stevie), Craig Davis (First Primitive), Chris Fennell (Second Boy), Steven M Gagnon (Last Agent Out), Gary Grubbs (Fire Captain Miles Cooles), Randy Hall (Windbreakered Agent), Glenne Headly (Barmaid), Gunther Jenson (Security Guard), Milton Johns (British Valet), Lawrence Joshua (First DC Officer), TW King (FBI Agent on Roff), Michael A Krawic (Second Paramedic), Josh McLaglen (Buzz Mihoe), Hrothgar Matthews (Paramedic), Vanessa ‘Morley’ (Young Samantha Mulder), George Murdock (Second Elder),
Cody Newton (Third Boy), Carrick O'Quinn (Second Primitive), Steve Rankin (Field Agent), Glendon Rich (Second DC Officer), Larry Rippenkroeger (Towncar Driver), Ian Ruskin (Well Manicured Man's Valet), Scott Smith (Technician), Blake Stokes (Fourth Boy), Joel Traywick (Young Naval Guard), Paul Tuerpe (First Paramedic), Marcus Turner (Young Fox Mulder), Stanley Walsh (Third Elder), Paul Welterlen (Control Room Operator), Michael Shamus Wiles (Black Haired Man), Don S Williams (First Elder), Tom Woodruff Jr (First Creature), Amine Zary (Tunisian)
Directed by Rob Bowman
produced by Chris Carter and Daniel Sackheim
Executive Producer Lata Ryan
Release Date:
1998
Notes:
*Featuring Special Agent Fox 'Spooky' Mulder, Special Agent Dana Scully and A.D. Walter Skinner
*Due to creator Chris Carter's desire for secrecy, the ‘X-Files’ movie was filmed under a code-name, ‘Blackwood’; ‘Blackwood’ is the name of the Texas town where the mutated alien life-form first appears; it was also a magazine published in the 1800's called ‘Blackwood's Magazine’, or ‘Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine’, which featured horror and other shocking stories, most of which written as if they were true. Edgar Allen Poe wrote several short stories mentioning the magazine: ‘How to Write a Blackwood Article’ and ‘Loss of Breath - A Tale Neither In Nor Out of 'Blackwood‘, and listed the fictitious author of this story as Mister Blackwood Blackwood. ‘Blackwood’ is also a term used in the game of ‘Bridge’, and is a method used to find out how many aces or kings your opponent has
*The agent outside Mulder's hospital room is the assistant director
*Former L.A.P.D. bomb squad officer Herb Williams and former FBI agent Will Heaton acted as advisors for the bomb sequence; they also appear as F.B.I. agents in a scene with Scully
*When Scully collapses in Mulder's hallway due to the bee sting, she lies down on honey-comb-patterned linoleum
*Scully quits because she is going to be transferred to Salt Lake City, Utah - Utah is also known as the ‘Bee-Hive’ State, the bee-hive being the symbol for industry on their state flag
*Conrad Strughold - named after the real Strughold, a Nazi scientist who conducted experiments on prisoners during World War II; he was secretly brought over after the war by the U.S. government to work on the space program
*Stevie - named after one of Chris Carter's childhood friends; Carter says that they used to dig holes a lot, just like in the movie
*Doctor Alvin Kurtzweil is also based on a real doctor who supposedly died under suspicious circumstances
*When all of the bathrooms are occupied, Mulder finds relief outside in the alley - under a poster for 1996's hit movie ‘Independence Day’ - not only an obvious alien tie-in, but also because ‘The X-Files’ is mentioned in the movie
*The Cigarette Smoking Man and Strughold continue their colonisation plans in Foum Tataouine, Tunsia - Fouh Tataouine is a real place in Tunsia; ‘Newsweek’ reported that Fouh Tataouine was a reference to ‘Star Wars’, as Tatooine is Luke Skywalker's home
*The newspaper article Mulder reads at the end of the film has the title ‘Fatal Hanta Virus Outbreak in Northern
*619 is the number on the door to the ‘Office of Professional Review’ - 06/19 is the date that the movie opened; one of the domes in Antarctica is also number 0619
*Mulder goes to the Dallas Field Office at 11:21, and is joined by Scully - 11/21 is the birthdate of Chris Carter's wife; one of the domes in Antarctica is also number 1121
*When Mulder is trying to convince Scully that he is locked in with a bomb, the first countdown-time number he recites to her is 13:56 - a reference to Chris Carter's birthdate day and year - 10/13/1956
*The last 4 digits of Scully's cell phone number are 0113 - many people, including the reporter from ‘Newsweek’, claim that her number is actually 1013 - Chris Carter's birthdate
*The ‘hidden’ track on the soundtrack to the movie, ‘The X-Files: The Album’, occurs ten minutes and thirteen seconds into the last track, and is a spoken word piece by creator Chris Carter, who explains some of the Syndicate's history and motivation