Thoughts on The X-Files

 

via Gifer

"Why did they assign me to you in the first place, Mulder? To debunk your work. To rein you in, to shut you down ..."
"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 kept me honest. You made me a whole person. I owe you everything. Scully, you owe me nothing. ... I don't know if I want to do this alone. I don't even know if I can. And if I quit now, they win."

Omigod, omigod, omigod, you guys, Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are totally gonna kiss! I've been waiting for this for nearly five whole years, and, and ... I'm feeling a bit lightheaded ... okay, okay, breathe, Franko. Let the kiss happen. It's totally gonna happen! ... Wait, she got stung by a bee?! ... One of those bees from earlier in the movie? Are you kidding me? How the hell did it stay hidden in her collar all the way from Texas to Washington, D.C.? Didn't they take an airplane back? ... Why did this bee stay on Scully's body for all that time? ... They just cheated us! This isn't fair! They should have had their COCK-A-DOODY KISS!

Sorry, I couldn't resist. 

While I've only seen maybe three full episodes of The X-Files, thanks to my TV Guide subscription, I knew what a big deal it was. In 1998, David, Gillian and X-Files creator/movie screenwriter Chris Carter were the latest to test show business' favorite question, "Can I be successful in more than one medium?" Things were more complicated for the X-Files trio, since they were bringing to the big screen some IP with considerably more weight and complications than, say, The Brady Bunch. Not to mention, their show was currently on the air. Here in 2022, amid the era of tentpole movies rarely being allowed to stand on their own, it's quaint to read the accounts of people worrying about Carter having to rehash information and/or dumb things down so a mass audience wouldn't be lost, lamenting when that happened or shrugging that it still didn't help them anyway. Ready when you are, David ...

"I'm the key figure in an ongoing 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 shitstorm of all time."

The X-Files, a.k.a. The X-Files: Fight the Future, has a storyline that's just complicated enough. Mulder and Scully are set up to take the fall for the bombing of a government building that supposedly resulted in four deaths. As Kurtzweil (Martin Landau) reveals to Mulder, the deceased were already dead. They were a boy and three firefighters from North Texas, victims of the Colonist aliens' "black oil" virus. Members of The Syndicate, including the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) and Strughold (Armin Mueller-Stahl), seek to vaccinate themselves against the virus. Only the Well-Manicured Man (John Neville) appears to have decided that sacrificing most of humanity to aliens would be wrong. Black oil is transmissible through corn and bees. Mulder and Scully are obligated to clear their names, save the world and give each other pep talks.

I didn't miss anything, did I?

Chris Carter, "an ego in search of a human being," according to an (of course) unnamed Fox executive in Peter Bart's The Gross, wanted The X-Files to conclude its TV run in 1998 and continue as a film series. Who could blame Chris? It worked for Star Trek. Also, remember, this was the 1990s, when the segregation of TV and movie properties was stronger. Nowadays, you could have a movie like Fight the Future exist as a bridge between TV seasons, as it did in 1998, but also launch its own continuations and spinoffs. A closer look at that Texas suburb feels like a no-brainer. I'd also accept prequels featuring Kurtzweil or Strughold. I wonder if Janet Maslin would have approved. She felt the released movie had "a vague omnibus format for futue movie spinoffs" and that "a lot of the show's otherworldly intensity has been lost in the process." 

Fox wanted to keep its profitable X-Files TV show, so Fight the Future was demoted to a bridge, albeit a intended blockbuster of a bridge. It was written by Carter from his story with Frank Spotnitz and directed by Rob Bowman. If you're feeling uncharitable, call the movie filler, the product of a rushed production. A few cool things happen, like Mulder and Scully actually seeing a spaceship (escaping Antarctica, no less), their almost kissing and a fun appearance from The Lone Gunmen (Dean Haglund, Bruce Harwood and Tom Braidwood). But, c'mon, did anyone doubt that our heroes would get their old jobs back?

"There were theoretically two audiences for this movie and we needed two campaigns, one for the loyalists and another for the I-don't-cares."

-- unnamed Fox ad man, The Gross

On the whole, I'm a member of the I-don't-cares. That being said, I found things to enjoy with The X-Files. The mystery held my interest, I liked David and Gillian's performances and there was at least some feeling that something major was going on, that this wasn't just two episodes repurposed as a movie. Still, though, I can't imagine how frustrated certain audience members must have felt over the close to but not quite a kiss.

"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 gonna watch you die, Scully, because of some hallow personal cause of mine. Go be a doctor. Go be a doctor while you still can."

"Mulder, I'll be a doctor, but my work is here with you now. That virus that I was exposed to, whatever it is, has a cure. You held it in your hand. How many other lives can we save? Look, if I quit now, they win."

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:

-- "I need this building evacuated and cleared out in 10 minutes! I want you to call the fire department and have them block off the city center in a 1-mile radius around the building." "Ten minutes?" "Don't think! Just pick up that phone and make it happen!"

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $83.9 million on a $66 million budget, this opened at No. 1 and came in at No. 23 for 1998.

-- Awards Watch: To my surprise, Fight the Future went zero for five at the Saturn Awards. It lost to a tie between Armageddon and Dark City in the Best Science Fiction Film category, while Duchovny lost to James Woods in Vampires, Anderson lost to Drew Barrymore in Ever After, Bowman lost to Michael Bay for directing Armageddon and the makeup lost to Vampires. On the other hand, Gillian won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award in the Sci Fi category over Liv Tyler (Armageddon) and Téa Leoni (Deep Impact). As it turns out, I shouldn't have been so surprised: the parent show didn't do that great with the Saturn Awards.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "One more summertime sci-fi fizzle," Maslin declared. Todd McCarthy: "(It) lacks the excitement, scope and style expected from event movies." "A properly spooky, always professional diversion that is happiest when it's throwing continual plot complexities into the mix," wrote Kenneth Turan, who felt "the intense interest devotees have in whether (Mulder & Scully will) ever kiss is not one that beginning viewers should expect to share in." Owen Gleiberman: "Ironically, when you turn the show that feels like a movie into a movie, you lose the atmospheric novelty that gave it prestige on the small screen." "Sews up only as much as it unravels," Michael O'Sullivan wrote. "(Its teases seem) as much calculated to appeal to the already hopeless junkies as (they are) aimed at creating new addicts. Whether this creepy but confusing tale is the vehilce to accomplish that crossover is doubtful."

-- Critic's Corner, the actors: "Mr. Duchovny sustains enough cool, deadpan intellect and suppressed passion to give the story a center," Maslin wrote. "Ms. Armstrong has the harsher, more restrictive role, but she plays it with familiar hardboiled glamour." McCarthy: "Duchovny and Anderson's appeal carries over intact from small to big screen." "David Duchovny, with his male model inexpressiveness, and Gillian Anderson, with her harlequin face and unvarying gravity, match up nicely; they're like the two most serious kids in English class," Gleiberman wrote.

-- Hey, It's ...!: Blythe Danner, sorta carrying on The Year of Gwyneth! Also, Mitch Pileggi, Jason Beghe, Jeffrey DeMunn, Glenne Headly, Terry O'Quinn and Lucas Black.

-- Hey, It's the Late '90s!: As petty as it might have been, I laughed at Mulder peeing on or near the poster to Independence Day. If the scene was shot a little later, he could have did that to or by Men in Black's ad. On a much more serious note, Roger Ebert did not approve of the movie including the image of what the bombed federal building looked like. "(It) evokes disturbing memories of the Oklahoma City tragedy; that shot could have been removed from the film with absolutely no loss." Maslin: "That allusion to Oklahoma City could have been the film's most shameless or daring aspect, but proves to be neither." Au contraire, according to Lisa Schwarzbaum: "(It) is one of the movie's most powerful moments." Gleiberman: "I'm not surprised that the television show that looks and feels like a movie has become, along with Seinfeld, the most beloved series of the '90s. The X-Files is a mystery about everything -- and nothing."

-- Once more from The Gross: George Lucas' announcement in early July 1998 that "he had completed work on his Star Wars prequel ... seemed to cast a shadow over Godzilla and The X-Files, two projects that aspired to the Star Wars aura," Peter Bart wrote. "(Star Wars) carved out a degree of immortality. And by midsummer 1998, Godzilla and The X-Files had already receded from memory."

-- "One man alone cannot fight the future."

-- Next: Mulan. On deck: Dr. Dolittle.