The X-Files: I Want to Believe
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Frank Spotnitz
Chris Carter
Gillian Anderson
Amanda Peet
Billy Connolly
Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner
Mitch Pileggi
Callum Keith Rennie
United States
The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a 2008 science fiction film directed by Chris Carter, and written by Carter and Frank Spotnitz. It is the second feature film based on Carter's TV series The X-Files, following the 1998 film. The stars of the TV series, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, reprise their respective roles as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
The film was first anticipated in November 2001 to follow the conclusion of the ninth season of the TV series, but it remained in development hell for six years before entering production in December 2007 in Vancouver. The film was released on July 24, 2008 in Australia and Germany, July 25, 2008 in North America, July 31, 2008 in Israel and Kuwait, and August 1, 2008 in the United Kingdom. The world premiere took place July 23, 2008, at Graumans Chinese Theatre in Hollywood; the UK premiere took place July 30, 2008, in London's Empire, Leicester Square.
Unlike the first film, the plot does not focus on the series' ongoing extraterrestrial-based "mytharc" and instead works as a standalone thriller/horror story, similar to many of the "Monster-of-The-Week" episodes that were frequently seen in the TV series.
Contents
[edit] Plot
Six years after the events of The X-Files series finale, former FBI agent Doctor Dana Scully is now a staff physician at Our Lady of Sorrows, a Catholic hospital, and treating a boy named Christian who has Sandhoff disease, a terminal brain condition. FBI agent Drummy arrives to ask Scully's help in locating Fox Mulder, the fugitive former head of the X-Files division, and says they will call off its manhunt for him if he will help investigate the disappearances of several women, including young FBI agent Monica Banan. Scully agrees and convinces Mulder — who is living in a nearby small home, bearded and clipping newspaper articles about the paranormal — to help, despite Mulder's initial misgivings that this is an FBI trick to capture him.
The duo is taken to Washington, D.C., where Agent Dakota Whitney wants Mulder's expertise with the paranormal as they have been led to a clue by Father Joseph (Joe) Fitzgerald Crissman (Billy Connolly), a priest defrocked for pedophilia who claims God is sending him visions of the crimes. Mulder wants to believe the man, but Scully is disgusted by Father Joe's past and disregards his "visions".
Whitney and Drummy take Father Joe and Mulder to the kidnapped Banan's home, where the former priest overcomes the others' skepticism when, in anguish and on his knees in pain, he begins bleeding from the eyes. A second woman, driving home after swimming in a natatorium, is run off the road by Janke Dacyshyn (Callum Keith Rennie), a snowplow driver who then smashes the window of her wrecked car and abducts her.
The following morning, Scully and Mulder, in bed together and briefly mentioning "our son" (the otherwise unmentioned William, birthed by Scully in the television series), discuss both the FBI case and that of Scully's patient. Scully mentions that the severed arm found by the FBI contains traces of an animal tranquilizer called Acepromazine. This new clue energizes Mulder into pursuing the FBI case further. He shaves his beard and leaves to visit Whitney. Father Joe is recruited for help with the second abducted woman. After a grueling nighttime search in the snow, he leads the FBI to what turns out to be a frozen burial ground of people and body parts. Scully is frustrated by Mulder's seeming obsession with finding these women, telling him that his sister is dead no matter what he does. Mulder pushes on, trying to ignore her. Father Joe then tells Scully, "don't give up."
Analysis of the remains eventually leads them to Dacyshyn, an organ transporter in Richmond, Virginia, and his husband, Franz Tomczeszyn — who was among the youths Father Joe sexually abused. During an FBI raid on the organ-donor facility where Dacyshyn works, Dacyshyn escapes, leaving behind Banan's severed head. Mulder, who accompanied Whitney on the raid, chases Dacyshyn to a building construction site. Whitney follows, and is killed when Dacyshyn pushes her down a shaft several stories high. He then escapes again.
Scully, at the hospital, wants permission from Christian's parents to do a radical and painful experimental stem-cell procedure that may be their boy's last hope. Father Ybarra, head of the hospital, wants Christian removed to a palliative-care facility to live his remaining days, but Scully angrily insists she is the boy's physician and the choice is up to the parents. Torn between her faith in God and the unfairness of a young boy dying, Scully goes to Father Joe's apartment to confront him about his religious visions. She asks him what he meant by "don't give up." He tells her that he doesn't know what he meant. To her despair, he says he knows nothing more about these visions than what he has told the FBI, and collapses (Father Joe suffers a seizure, and we are shown that Tomczeszyn is suffering a seizure at the same moment). Scully calls for an ambulance, and later learns that Father Joe, who is admitted to Our Lady of Sorrows, suffers from advanced lung cancer. Scully, seeking resolution, asks him if Banan is still alive. Father Joe says yes.
With Mulder's handling of Father Joe having helped break the case, Scully says Mulder — with whom she says she fell in love at some unspecified time — should end his involvement, and that she cannot be with him if he continues exploring "the darkness." Mulder, regardless, takes Scully's car to go investigate further. At Nutter's Feed Store in a small town near the abductions, he learns Dacyshyn has purchased animal tranquilizer. When Dacyshyn coincidentally arrives moments later, Mulder slips out and then follows Dacyshyn's snowplow. On an isolated road, Dacyshyn crashes the car and pushes it off an embankment. Dacyshyn soon afterward abandons his snowplow when it stops running. Mulder crawls from the wreckage, starts down the road, and stops at a small compound where many dogs are barking — a major detail of Father Joe's visions. Mulder enters, and the commotion caused by a two-headed guard dog's attack brings Dacyshyn out from one of the building's — where a makeshift Eastern European medical team is attempting whole-head transplants in order to place Tomczeszyn's head on the body of the second abducted woman. Mulder tries to save her, but a doctor comes from behind and injects him with Acepromazine. Mulder is now helpless, and is taken outside to be murdered by Dacyshyn.
When Scully cannot reach Mulder on his cell phone, she calls her old FBI superior, Walter Skinner, for help. They triangulate the phone's location and find Scully's wrecked car. Scully and Skinner find a rural mailbox whose address corresponds to a Biblical chapter and verse Father Joe had told Scully. They race to the address, where Skinner breaks up the medical procedure before the young woman is beheaded, and Scully rescues Mulder from being axed to death by Dacyshyn. Later, Mulder is back at home, where Scully tells him that Father Joe has died. Mulder points out that Father Joe died at the same moment that Tomczeszyn's severed head died due to lack of blood flow to the brain. Somehow, he surmises, the two men's fates were linked by more than just visions. Scully is still troubled by Father Joe's advice to her, "don't give up." Mulder comforts her by telling her to ask herself what Father Joe could have meant by such a statement. Scully says that she is having doubts about Christian's surgery, saying that she is "putting that boy through hell" due to the words of a pedophile priest. Mulder tells Scully that if she goes into that surgery with any doubts, then she should call it off. Scully walks to the operating room, past Father Ybarra and Christian's parents. With everyone looking over her shoulder, a nurse asks Scully if she is ready to begin. Scully thinks for a moment, looks at Christian, and simply replies "yes."
In a post-credits scene, Mulder and Scully are seen together in swimsuits on a boat in a tropical ocean, casually rowing towards an island. The scene is shot from a helicopter whose shadow is visible to the audience.
[edit] Cast
[edit] Production
[edit] Development
In November 2001, the creators of the TV series, The X-Files, decided to pursue a second feature film adaptation of the series, following the 1998 film. Carter was expected to collaborate with Spotnitz, who had co-written the first film, on a script for the follow-up. Production of the film was slated to begin after the completion of the ninth season of the TV series, with a projected release in December 2003.[4] In April 2002, Carter reiterated his desire and the studio's desire to do a sequel film. He planned to write the script over the summer and begin production in Spring or Summer 2003 for a 2004 release.[5] Carter described the film as being stand-alone, "We're looking at the movies as stand-alones. They're not necessarily going to have to deal with the mythology."[6] Director Rob Bowman, who had directed episodes of The X-Files in the past as well as the 1998 film, expressed an interest in filming the sequel in July 2002.[7]
In April 2004, Duchovny said he was waiting for the film's production to begin, explaining that Carter had signed off on the premise. Duchovny said of the delay, "So now it's just a matter of making sure everybody can get together at the same time and do it."[8] The following November, Carter revealed that the project was in the negotiation stage, explaining, "Because it's a sequel, there are peculiar and specific kinds of negotiations that are holding us up."[9] Duchovny spoke of the premise for the yet-produced film in 2005, "Mulder and Scully investigate one particular case that has nothing to do with alien life. It has to do with supernatural stuff."[10] He also explained, "I think we're going back to the 'monster of the week' type feel, where if you're not an avid fan and don't understand the mythology, you can still come to it and get the movie." Duchovny and Carter planned to begin production in Winter 2005 to be released in Summer 2006.[11] The following April, Duchovny admitted to a lack of a script, adding that Carter would have it ready by early next year.[12]
In May 2006, Spotnitz ascribed the continued delay to legal matters between Carter and 20th Century Fox. The screenwriter anticipated, "Once the legal issues are over with, we will go on with it. I'm hoping it will get resolved soon."[13] By April 2007, Spotnitz confirmed that a script was finally in development.[14] The following October, the studio officially announced the production of the sequel film, whose premise would be kept under wraps.[15]
[edit] Filming
The film was shot in Vancouver and Pemberton, in British Columbia, Canada. According to Spotnitz, the script was written specifically for these locations.[16] Filming began in December 2007 in Vancouver under the direction of Carter,[17] and shooting finished on March 11, 2008.[16][18] In a teaser trailer shown at Wondercon on February 23, 2008, the date "July 25, 2008" appeared at the end, and was the only text in the trailer.[19] On March 27, 2008, the horror film site, "Bloody Disgusting," reported a bootleg video of the official trailer was uploaded by a user on YouTube.[20] The first public trailer was released after midnight on May 12, 2008, after a period of downtime on the official website.
[edit] Title
The code name Done One was used as the film's working title during filming, with location signs labeled as "Done One Productions."[16] The name meant the producers had already done one film.[21] The Directors Guild production list for British Columbia listed a project named Done One, with the director listed as Rich Tracers, an anagram of the sequel's actual director, Chris Carter.[22] "The Crying Box Productions" was listed as the production company, instead of Carter's usual "Ten Thirteen Productions."[23][24]The Hollywood Reporter posted a series of information sheets regarding upcoming studio films, and the 20th Century Fox fact sheet referred to the film as The X-Files: Done One.[citation needed]
On April 16, 2008, the official title of the film was announced: The X-Files: I Want to Believe.[25] Carter referred to the title as a "natural title", saying that it pertained to "a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. 'I Want to Believe.' It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith." Carter also said that he and Spotnitz settled upon the title as soon as they started writing the screenplay. This title is a popular phrase among X-Files fans. It is featured on the UFO poster above Mulder's desk.[25]
[edit] Music
The score to the film was composed by series veteran Mark Snow. He recorded the score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony in May 2008 at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox in Century City, California.[26] British performers UNKLE recorded a new version of the theme music for the end credits to the movie.[27] UNKLE also contributed the song "Broken", which is played during the final portion of the end credits.
[edit] Reception
As of August 12, 2008 the film had a 32 percent rating, from 152 reviews, on the film critic aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes,[29] and a 47 percent "mixed or average" score on the aggregate site Metacritic based on 33 reviews.[30]Manohla Dargis of The New York Times found the film "[b]aggy, draggy, oddly timed and strangely off the mark", and that, "Mr. Carter knows how to grab your attention visually, but the amalgam of trashy thriller clichés that he has compiled with Frank Spotnitz, another series regular, creates its own deadening effect".[31]Frank Lovece of Film Journal International, likewise, said, "[W]hat plot there is plays like a PG-13 Se7en: body parts, gruesomeness, gloom and doom, but hey, not too much, and don't worry, there's nothing deeply upsetting", and while praising the cinematography, music and Gillian Anderson's performance, believes, "[I]t seems unlikely that this franchise will reach The X-Files X".[32] Jason Anderson of Canada's CBC News called the film "muddled", with a "hurried and half-baked" climax, and said, "Beyond the pleasure of seeing Duchovny and Anderson back in action and back on form," the film "offers little to either the longtime fans or newcomers".[33]
Conversely, Roger Ebert gave a positive review of the film with three-and-a-half stars, saying, "[I]t involved actual questions of morality, just as The Dark Knight does. It's not simply about good and evil but about choices". He also felt "the movie works like thrillers used to work, before they were required to contain villains the size of buildings".[34] Sandra Hall of the Sydney Morning Herald was more equivocal, saying, "...it just about works, thanks to Carter's sense of timing and the script's allegorical enhancements".[35]Empire gave the film three stars ("good"), but expressed a desire for Chris Carter to return to the more comedic and "post-modern" elements of the series upon the next revisit.[36]
The film has drawn claims of homophobic overtones due to the relationship between Billy Connolly's character and the homosexual couple involved in the kidnappings.[37][38][39] Co-writer/producer Frank Spotnitz stated on his weblog that this was not his intention.[40]
The film grossed $4 million on its opening day in the United States.[1] It opened fourth on the U.S. weekend box office chart, with a gross of $10.2 million.[41] As of September 15, 2008, it had grossed $20,909,448 domestically[42] and an additional $42,600,000 internationally.[43]
The film's stars both claimed that the timing of the movie's release opposite the highly popular Batman film The Dark Knight negatively affected its box-office return. Duchovny referred to "mitigating circumstances. We happened to open on the worst day in the history of cinema — the second week of Batman. The only thing worse would be to open with Batman and nobody would've done that."[44] Anderson believed that "people in the States are so used to lots of CGI, action and sex, and we don't really offer a lot of that in this film."[45]
[edit] DVD/Blu-ray Disc Release
Producer Frank Spotnitz said the film's DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases would be accompanied by new special-edition DVD & Blu-ray Disc releases of the first X-Files movie.[46]
[edit] Sequel
In several interviews, Chris Carter has said that if I Want to Believe proved successful, a third installment would be made, this time going back to the TV-series' mythology, focusing specifically on the alien invasion and colonization of Earth foretold within the series, due to occur on December 22, 2012.[47][48]
