Take Two: THE X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE

August 18, 2023 by Marisa Roffman

On Friday, September 10, 1993, Fox debuted THE X-FILES. Now, ahead of the show’s 30th anniversary, Give Me My Remote is looking back at all 11 seasons (and the two feature films) in a new daily series Take Two.

If you’ve read About Last Night, this will be formatted in a similar way: Each episode will get its own subsection/reaction, though in this case there may be slight spoilers or alluding to what comes ahead in the series. In the event a major spoiler is discussed, there will be a warning to be extra safe. Each Take Two will cover approximately 5 episodes and will wrap up the Friday before the show’s 30th birthday.

(I’ll also note how I’m watching the episodes, because some of the streaming platforms have utilized syndicated cuts of this show.)

Today, we’re talking about the first film, THE X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE!

(This was viewed via the “Enhanced Widescreen” DVD. The film is also streaming for free on Tubi.)

I love this film. Honestly, I should probably be embarrassed by how much I do, but we’ll just ignore that for now. I truly don’t know how they pulled it off, because it both feels like it could be a plausible X-FILES arc, but also feels bigger, in a way you can only achieve as a movie. It’s gorgeously shot—the best the franchise ever looks, I’d argue—but not distractingly so.

I obviously came into this film knowing this world, but it feels simultaneously quasi-accessible to new viewers (the Samantha of it all probably is the least accessible element) and also very tied into what was going on in the show’s world.

Like I said, I love it. I kind of want to scream about it. (In an entirely dignified way, clearly.)

The film is coming on the heels of arguably Mulder and Scully’s toughest personal season. (A similar argument could be made for season 2, but 5 was a loooot and in a shorter amount of time.) So while they’re back in the regular FBI grind—post-XF being shut down—they’re also arguably the lightest we’ve seen them in years. Yeah, there’s a bomb threat going on, but these dummies* are on a roof trying to pull one over on the other.

*I SAY WITH LOVE.

Of course, they can’t even have a silly bet without it turning into a “whoops, I accidentally triggered a bomb and now the entire building might blow?!” moment. And then everything goes to hell. But they had that initial lightness.

For as big as the conspiracy is this go-round (and it is), this is also a show that regularly is set on other continents for its multi-ep parts. Yeah, we don’t normally go back thousands of years or to Antarctica, but it works.

We’ve gotten glimpses of aliens and UFOs in the previous five seasons, but nothing like this. It’s not like the aliens ever seemed entirely warm and cuddly (“Jose Chung” aside), but FTF is the first time they feel absolutely freaking terrifying. Bronschweig’s death is chilling, both because of the destruction the alien causes, but also the coldness of his human counterparts. LET THE MAN UP? You basically buried him alive, dooming him to death.

And then the spacecraft is just bonkers. Mulder has been close to them before, but nothing like this. (Boy, would he have loved for Scully to have been awake and aware enough to see it, huh?)

Look, I could absolutely write 5000 words on the non-platonic Mulder/Scully dynamic in this film, but I will contain myself and focus just on the hallway scene, because, well, it’s the most important and it plays into the rest, frankly.

I addressed this the other day, but Mulder and Scully’s relationship is deceptively intimate. They’re clearly not romantically involved, but they’re also so hyperfocused on work and each other that it’s not like they regularly have lives outside of their dynamic. I can understand why they would be scared to change the status quo…but that’s also the exact right reason for Mulder to make the grand gesture he does.

Mulder has never been shy about telling Scully her importance in his life—like, again, he can absolutely be a dummy, but this man also jokingly mentions marriage multiple times and also recently told her, in all seriousness, she was his one in five billion. His speech in the hallway is perfect: Honest, romantic, true, them. It’s him saying his piece as much as taking his shot. But the fact that they are so emotionally vulnerable, once again on the cusp of losing their partnership, makes it so both are vulnerable to allow this leap. (It also means that if they had successfully kissed

I couldn’t watch the film in theaters during its first go-round—I had to wait until the VHS was released on 10/13; please know it killed me—but I cannot fathom what the reaction was like in the theater when that stupid freakin’ bee stung Scully. (I’ve seen the film in a theater years later, and the reaction was appropriately loud.) It’s the closest actual Mulder and Scully got to a kiss for YEARS, but, man, what a scene.

(And eff bees forever. Yes, I’m an adult.)

Obviously part of the big cliffhanger of season 5 was the X-Files being shut down. The film undoes that, but, quasi-spoiler alert, season 6 at least doesn’t make it business as normal. The X-Files may be back, but no one said Mulder and Scully would be on them.

Structurally, it’s fascinating how much of the big moments are based on Mulder and Scully being in the wrong place at the right time. In the wrong building? Discover a bomb. Go off the beaten path? Find corn in the middle of nowhere and domes filled with bees. Maybe if they followed the rules they’d be safer?!
Hello to Terry O’Quinn in the second of his three XF guest spots.
Arguably Scully’s most badass moment of the entire franchise is her “pick up the phone and make it happen” spiel when she’s trying to clear the building with the bomb ticking down.
Mulder’s panic face is perfect.
This is probably going deeper than they intended, but Scully thinking about quitting and saying Mulder should ask himself if his heart is really still in it, too…it’s an interesting—but I assume accidental—parallel to Skinner questioning Mulder about his ideal end game.
Something I didn’t fully appreciate as a kid: The lack of network censors means Mulder gets to say bad words!
Mulder peeing on the INDEPENDENCE DAY poster…LOL. You just know Drunk!Mulder thought that was hilarious.
“So much for little green men” is a GREAT line.
The show frequently uses darkness to add to the mystery—and, likely, a way to hide some of their inability to properly render some creatures—and the film does an incredible job of doing the same. The shots of the alien? Chef’s kiss.
Mark Snow’s score is just gorgeous.
“Five years together, Scully, how many times have I been wrong? Never. Not driving, anyway.” (Oh, buddy.)
It’d be easy to call Martin Landau’s Kurtzweil stunt casting, but the show has a history of bringing a mysterious person into the mix for a couple of episodes and then having them vanish and/or die, so it works and doesn’t feel as cheap as it could.
Mulder and Scully in the bee dome remains an insane scene to watch, because in 2023 that would absolutely be effects. (Have I mentioned I hate the stupid bees?)
I have seen this movie [a number I will not reveal unless we’re at “I’m willing to pick you up from the airport”-levels of close to you] times and this was the first time I wondered what Mulder’s neighbors must have thought about his speech to Scully. And then the drama with her collapsing and the EMTs. Certainly one or two were wondering WTF was going on…?
(Scully DIAGNOSING HERSELF as she’s falling to the ground. Never change, Scully.)
Alas, we do lose someone: Well-Manicured Man. He was always the second-most interesting member of the Syndicate, and it’s a shame he had to go. But he went out in a badass way, at least.
It will always be funny to me how Mulder seems frustrated when Scully stops breathing, mid-rescue, as if it’s something she chose to do. Of course he’s panicking, but also, sir, maybe be a little more worried?
(The fact their first time being lip-to-lip is because of CPR? OF COURSE. Sigh. These humans.)
“I had you big time” is such a great callback.
My whole stupid heart grows like three sizes at Mulder saving Scully, passing out, and her stepping into caretaker mode. These two are cursed, but will do whatever to save the other.
Absolutely had Mulder’s old Nokia phone. (By chance.) I, uh, also had a FTF phone case. (That was not by chance. And, okay, I had dozens of FTF merchandise items. Yes, I still own them all. Even the brick of a cellphone.)
This is where Baby!Marisa learned about FEMA. See? The show is #educational.
(Of course I wrote this piece while listening to the FIGHT THE FUTURE soundtrack. “Walking After You” forever.)

What did you think of these THE X-FILES episodes?

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