20 July 2007

Fight the Future - The Movie

Writters: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Director: Rob Bowman

The X-files movie ''Fight the Future'' continues from the time frame of the cliffhanger final episode of the 5th series. With the X-files out of action after the fire in the basement office.The movie opens back in pre-historic Texas, with two cave men hunting down an alien being in an ice cavern.

In the present, a young boy Stevie falls through the ground while playing with his friends and lands in the same cavern. As his friends peer down from above, Stevie is attacked by the black cancer, which also infects two firemen who attempt to rescue him and a further two firemen who go in after the first two.
Mulder and Scully, un-assigned from the X-files, are inspecting a building opposite the Federal building in Dallas after a bomb threat warning. Scully clears the building when Mulder discovers a bomb which shortly afterwards detonates, destroying the building.

The powers that be in the FBI try to pin the blame on Mulder and Scully for the explosion, and endeavour to spilt the partners up. Scully tells Mulder she is going to quit the FBI. Back in Washington, Mulder is contacted by Dr Kurtzweil who explains that the bomb blast in Dallas was part of a cover up by members of the government.
Mulder later learns that the body of a young boy and three firemen were found in the bombed building, which they thought had been cleared. Adding substance to Dr Kurtzweil claims, given further credence when Scully's autopsy of one of the firemen can not produce a cause of death.
Mulder manages to convince Scully to help him investigate the case as he needs her. They uncover a sinister conspiracy by the shadowy syndicate to aid aliens in there colonization plans. And their part in a planned Armageddon that will affect every man, woman and child on the planet.

But even the syndicate are caught out, as the black cancer has mutated into a virus that affects humans using them to create a new alien life form. A virus for which there is no cure, save for a weak antidote developed by the Russians.
After Mulder and Scully discover the syndicate's secret bee farm in the desert, bees that will be used as carriers of the deadly virus. The syndicate members take steps against them, kidnapping Scully and shooting Mulder. The syndicate infects Scully with the virus and takes her to a secret installation in Antarctica.
Mulder leaves hospital with the help of the Lone Gunman and Assistant Director Skinner and attempts to find Dr Kurtzweil for more information but instead meets the Well Manicured Man, who gives him Scully's location and a small amount of the Russian's antidote shortly before he is killed by a car bomb.

Mulder tracks Scully to the installation in Antarctica, gaining entry via a tunnel in the ice. He stumbles across thousands of cryo-tubes containing people infected with the virus, gestating the new alien life form. He locates Scully and injects the antidote, some of which gets in to the system. Mulder and Scully flee the installation just in time as it turns out to be an alien craft. As they collapse at a safe distance, Mulder watches in awe as the craft flies over head and disappears in to the clouds, moments later Scully regains consciousness.

A helicopter lands at the syndicate's new bee farm in the desert in North Africa, the Cigarette Smoking Man steps out and walks towards Strughold. They discuss the new bee farm and the progress of their plans. The Cigarette Smoking Man informs Strughold that Mulder has become reinvested and poses a threat to them. Strughold retorts, 'He is but one man. One man alone can not fight the future.'. The Cigarette Smoking Man hands a telegram to Strughold, it reads;"X-FILES RE-OPENED. STOP. PLEASE ADVISE. STOP."

Notes:
The movie was shot during the hiatus between the the fourth and fifth season of "The X-Files".

In the special features on the The X-Files: Fight The Future DVD, Gillian Anderson says that when she and David Duchovny were doing the scene where Mulder and Scully are attacked by bees, and Mulder grabs Scully by the wrist, she had bees all over her palm, and was stung severely once David grabbed her hand.

Several actors who have appeared in previous and/or future episodes of the show guest starred in the feature movie: Terry O'Quinn (Aubery, Trust No1) Steve Rankin (Orison), Gary Grubbs (Our Town) and Jason Beghe (Darkness Falls).

When Mulder is in the alleyway by the bar, there's a poster of the film "Independence Day" nearby. Chris Carter hated the film and deliberately wanted Mulder to relieve himself by it.

Exterior shots of the Well-Manicured Man's residence in London were shot at a house in Pasadena that was used as the exterior location of the Wayne Manor in the "Batman" television series.

Allthough there were nearly 300,000 bees used during the shooting of the dome scene, only a handful of crew members were stung.

When the crew was shooting the cornfield scenes, a teenager had managed to get past security and was hiding inside the cornfield. He was able to videotape the actors in the field and the huge white domes. He sold the footage to a local news station and thus revealed some of the key locations for the X-Files movie nearly a year before the movie was due to hit the big screen.

When Gillian Anderson was filming the rooftop scene, she had an allergic reaction to the suncreen used by the make-up department to simulate sweat.

During the first week of principal photography, the second-unit crew was stranded for 2 days on a glacier near Vancouver as bad weather conditions prevented the helicopter, which had taken them up there, to come and pick them up. They spent the night in the ice station set while the temparature outside dropped down to the low twenties.

In order to prevent the crew from making copies of the script and posting it on the Internet, the script was printed on red paper with the name of the owner placed diagonally over each page.

To protect the secrecy surrounding the movie, the project was given the 'code' title "Blackwood" during its production. However, the online X-Philes community quickly found out about the code title and started speculating about its possible meaning. Some ideas were even more out there than others as theories alluding to Edgar Allen Poe and MTV VJ Nina Blackwood were posted on the Internet. They were all wrong however, as "Blackwood" only refers to a fictional town in Dallas where some of the story is set.

Scully's exact address is: 107 E. Cordova St. Apt. 35Georgetown, VA 24026

Quotes:
Scully: Any thoughts as to why anybody would be growing corn in the middle of the desert?

Mulder: Five years together Scully, how many times I been wrong? Never. Not driving, anyway.

Scully: I need this building evacuated and cleared out in ten minutes. I need you to get on the phone and tell the fire department to block off the city center in a one mile radius around the building. Don't think! Just pick up the phone and make it happen!

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, categorized or easily referenced.

Mulder: Awww, I woke you... Did I wake you?
Scully: No.
Mulder: Why not? It's three in the morning...

Well-Manicured Man: Trust no one, Mr. Mulder.

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. 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.

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.

Mulder: A plague?
Kurtzweil: The plague to end all plagues, Agent Mulder. A silent weapon for a quiet war. The sytematic release of an indiscriminant 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?
Kutzweil: 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.

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.

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.

''Fight the Future'' trailer

Episode Number: 0
Season Number: 6
First Aired: Friday, June 19, 1998 only in theaters
Prod Code: FTF

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