Can’t wait for X-Files but a bit cloudy on those vital details? Movies.ie brings you a catch-up guide before the release of the movie this Friday.
It’s been six years since Mulder and Scully left our television screens but this week they’re back in their second cinematic adventure. Unlike 1998’s Fight the Future, the new ‘X Files movie I Want to Believe’ promises to be a stand-alone effort, not focusing on the vast mythology of the television series. Still, if your memory of the series is a little cloudy or if you missed it all the first time around, you may want a little refresher in the key points and characters. The truth is out there…but it’s a little confusing. Fair warning – Spoilers from the Television series after the jump!
Well? Did they or didn’t they?
Ah Mulder and Scully, why can’t those crazy kids just get it together eh? Hang on a second… did they? If there is anything more confusing than the alien mythology it’s the relationship between Mulder and Scully, especially given Mulder’s tendency to have other men inhabit his body as in Small Potatoes (Series 4) and Dreamland II (Series 6) – both of which see Mulder attempting to seduce his partner. It’s just a pity that in both cases it wasn’t actually him… (I told you it was complicated!). To their credit, the series kept up the “will they won’t they” aspect right to the very end. The first time the pair actually kiss (after many near misses, like the convenient arrival of a bee in the Fight the Future movie) is not until Millennium in Series 7 and even then, that was a New Year’s kiss.
But didn’t they have a baby together?!
In series 7 we see Scully dressing in her apartment as an apparently naked Mulder sleeps on. As usual though it’s all a little ambiguous and when Scully reveals to Skinner that she is pregnant at the end of series you could be forgiven for thinking it was the work of the little green men rather than a strapping FBI agent. After all, Scully’s first child Emily was hardly what you’d call a natural birth (she didn’t even know she HAD a child) and as a result of her cancer, Scully was diagnosed as sterile. Nonetheless baby William appeared and Scully and Mulder finally seemed to be forming a relationship. But then there’s no such thing as happy endings here! Scully gave William up for adoption fearing for his safety. The television series ended with Mulder and Scully in bed together contemplating the future as a couple and it is six years later after an on/off relationship that the I Want to Believe picks up the story.
The Mulder’s – bit of a weird family eh?
His sister abducted, his mother kills herself, the man he thinks is his father assassinated then his worst enemy claiming to be his real father – is it any wonder Mulder ended up a bit paranoid? The big story of course was always Samantha, as Mulder made it his life work to find what happened to her. Was she abducted by aliens or was it much more human that that? It was always suggested that Mulder’s parents had somehow been responsible for her disappearance – that they made a shadowy deal with Cancer Man to have her taken. After many false turns, as we saw Samantha the clone, dream Samantha, the story was finally resolved in Closure (Series 7) by a frankly lacklustre explanation. She was taken onto another physical plain by “Walk Ins” (don’t ask!). So it wasn’t the aliens afterall….just a group of ghostly children and spiritual intervention. Oh well, Mulder seemed to understand even if the audience didn’t!
Cancer Man?
From start to finish he was our international man of mystery. Mulder’s long time nemesis – Cancer Man aka C.G.B Soebder – a shadowy figure pulling the strings and orchestrating the project to colonise earth. If you didn’t watch the entire show from start to finish, you’d be forgiven for missing some vital Cancer Man plot developments. It’s during the sixth season we finally get the “Luke I am your father” moment between Mulder and C.G.B. Spender (yes father to Agent Jeffrey Spender). While those who watched up to season seven may have thought him dead, this shadowy figure would once again pop up for the shows finale as a ‘wise man’ hiding out down in Mexico. There, he finally reveals to Mulder and Scully all he has left to tell (including the fact that the aliens are scheduled to invade in 2012) and shortly after is finally killed.
2012???
As alluded to by both Cancer Man in the series and again in the original X-Files film, 2012 will be the year those little green men finally invade earth. Rumour has it that Chris Carter will return to the franchise if the new movie makes its budget back; rumours also suggest the third X-Files film will continue on from this point in the X-files saga as earth grapples with the possible invasion. At this point, all that’s certain is that the TRUTH to these rumours IS OUT THERE.
X-Files is at Irish cinemas from August 1st
We have interviews with Chris Carter and David Duchovny coming later this week – stay tuned to Movies.ie