The X-Files: Fight the Future

The funny thing about a strip tease is that in order for it to pay off, the dancer must know her psychology. She must know that exact moment when the audience cannot endure another moment of titillation and mystery, when the last of the clothes must be flung into the audience with one bold, satisfying, catharsis-inducing gesture...and then she must act on that intuition. If she disrobes too soon, there's no buildup, no excitement. In the other hand, if she disrobes too late, or worse yet, leaves the stage still partially clothed, titillation becomes frustration, or even boredom. THE X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE is (sadly), a prime example of what happens when the tease is still going long after the audience had a right to expect the payoff.THE X-FILES TV series is the story of FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who investigate mysterious, inexplicable phenomenon. Mulder is the credulous "believer," who goes into every situation assuming the wildest possible conclusion is the correct one. Scully is the "skeptic," who labors to pin scientific explanations to things like spontaneous human combustion, demonic possession, and astral projection. Together, they rub along as effectively as did Kirk, Spock and McCoy, forming a sort of single personality which balances Mulder's mantra of "I want to believe" with Scully's scientific "prove it to me" approach. Though many episodes deal with such things as monsters, vampires, psychic phenomena, telekinesis, ghosts, mutations, etc., the over-arching story of THE X-FILES involves a nebulous conspiracy carried out by a nameless but seemingly all-powerful cabal of nameless men from all over the world, who seem to be preparing Earth for some kind of alien invasion. The way this central plot was approached was so piecemeal, and so full of deliberate misdirection and obfuscation, that even after five years and over 100 episodes, it wasn't clear exactly how this conspiracy was going to be carried out nor who the men of the cabal were nor what they really hoped to accomplish by facilitating it. Moreover, neither Mulder -- whose obsession with the paranormal, supernatural and extraterrestrial was triggered by the long-ago kidnapping of his sister Samantha, ostensibly by aliens -- nor Scully had yet been "paid off" by the sensational revelations they had been waiting for as characters and we as an audience. On top of this, the e'er-present sexual tension between the two was getting out of hand and needed some kind of resolution. So the movie was viewed, in my estimation correctly, as the moment when the show's creator, Chris Carter, finally took off THE X-FILES clothes and let us see what was underneath.The film is set between the fifth and sixth seasons of the series. Mulder and Scully, no longer working The X-Files, are nevertheless drawn back into the alien conspiracy after a bombing in Dallas turns out to be more than the mere terrorist attack it seemed to be. Before long Mulder is contacted by a seemingly paranoid doctor (Martin Landau) who warns Mulder that the alien invasion he's suspected is in the works will be actively facilitated by the U.S. government, specifically FEMA. But Mulder, embittered by his pariah status in the Bureau and the futility of his "hollow personal quest," doesn't want to hear any more conspiracy theories. However, Scully discovers the bodies of those supposedly killed in the bombing are infected with an alien virus, which may eventually be disseminated to the population via a very unusual method (hint: the carriers are very common, but not human). Their poking and prodding, conducted against the express wishes of their superiors, including the morally ambiguous Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), soon arouses the ire of the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis), who kidnaps Scully, already infected by the virus. Mulder must track down Scully, administer an antidote, and rescue her, which will be difficult in the extreme, given that her location is pretty much the end of the earth.As you may have gathered from that rather brisk summary, THE X-FILES movie is not easy to quantify even as a story. Roger Ebert, who liked the film, infamously remarked that it required "a sequel, a prequel, and Cliff notes" to understand just what the hell is going on. Put another way, this is not a film for those who hadn't watched the show, though creator-writer Chris Carter works mightily to make it newbie-friendly. But that is by no means the problem. The real problem is that after two hours of gorgeously shot footage, during which we see Mulder & Scully chased by helicopters, bees, and armed men, several characters get blown to smithereens (including one recurring character on the show), and a flashback 35,000 years old, not to mention some aliens and a spaceship, the movie fails to pay off on any of the points I mentioned above. The conspiracy remains nebulous in its character and somewhat even in its ultimate goals. Mulder's quest for proof has lead in an enormous circle, and Scully's skepticism remains more or less intact. What's more, the resolution, or at least mollification, of the sexual-romantic tension between the two is unrelieved. It's not that the movie is bad per se -- it has its moments of humor, tension and pathos, as well as some of the chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson that makes the series sing -- so much as underwhelming and almost meanly conservative. One critic claimed it was not even a movie at all, but a "two hour episode released in theaters," and this is fairly accurate. I remember -- even after all these years -- leaving the theater with my girlfriend in 1998 feeling cheated, disappointed and unsatisfied, and rewatching the film recently did little to improve my overall opinion of it. It's as if Carter's intention were to hit a single and nothing more. But with all the talent and money on hand, including his own, this film could have been a double or a triple. Or even a home run.Please don't misunderstand this review. I love THE X-FILES, and have a special place in my heart for it and for the time in which it was on the air. Indeed, when the credits of FIGHT THE FUTURE were rolling, and I heard The Foo Fighters "Walking After You," I almost died from sheer nostalgia alone. But my memory of this film is also bound up with my gradual divorce from the series -- I stopped watching sometime deep in the sixth season -- out of exasperation with the refusal of the series to pay off its audience with some full frontal reveal. Now, of course, I'm slowly burning through the entire original series once again, and the new mini-series as well. So I don't want to come off as a basher or a hater. I just want to make it clear that if you watch THE X-FILES in order from beginning to now, you must steel yourself for the fact that "the truth" is STILL out there, waiting to be revealed...25 years later.

Theres like a catholic priest that keeps molesting little boys and theres these Russians cutting of peoples heads.

Rented this movie to help complete my X-Files binging. One more movie to go!

At the time, THE X-FILES: FACE THE FUTURE was widely regarded as a disappointment. For one thing, it was not a film that had the potential to appeal strongly to nonfans of the series. It absolutely did not stand alone or provide a narrative that was unconnected with the series as a whole. In fact, it was essentially a transition piece from Season Five to Season Six of the series. As a film, it was limited in what it was able to achieve. But today if we view it primarily as a pivot from Season Five to Season Six (which is probably the only way that it can be seen today), it is a very satisfying expanded episode.Season Five memorably ended with the demise of the X-Files, not merely with their being closed, but with the actual physical files being demolished in an office fire set by the Cigarette Smoking Man. Mulder and Scully had also failed to protect Gibson, a young boy who had the capacity to read minds (and who had more or less told Mulder and Scully, ever repressed in matters of the heart, that they were in love with one another). The movie picks up the narrative at precisely this point, with Mulder and Scully working in Texas as part of a large team working on a bomb case. Likewise, Season Six of the series would pick up immediately following the end of the action of the movie, with Mulder and Scully being debriefed at a meeting, basically recounting the major events covered in the film. In other words, the film is completely embedded in Seasons Five and Six of the television show.Obviously, everyone who was part of the series had to be fitted into the film somehow. So we get brief appearances by everyone from Skinner to the Lone Gunmen to The Well-Manicured Man (who memorably departs the series in the film) to the Cigarette Smoking Man. But luckily despite the need and/or urge to put as much in the film as possible, the film features a lot of time with classic Mulder/Scully interaction. They come within centimeters of logging their first kiss ever (a long, slow, deliberate almost-kiss--though their joint ability to forget such a moment becomes more than a little trying afterwards). There are hordes of aliens that Mulder has to save Scully from, but which she conveniently misses when she passes out at key moments. There is even a huge spaceship that rises from the Artic icebed that Scully again manages to miss at key moments (and which provides a nice comic moment in Season Eight, when a worshipping FBI agent asks them how Mulder was able to get Scully back to civilization after he had run out of gas).After the end of THE X-FILES series, it is rumored that Chris Carter declined to make additional films so near the end of the show. Today, however, there have been multiple rumors that all of the key figures are more amenable to reprising THE X-FILES on the silver screen. Because the series is no longer running, and there is no story line to tie into, I actually have higher hopes for additional films than I did for the original. David Duchovny says that the screenplay Chris Carter is working on focuses less on aliens and more on the supernatural. It is fascinating to speculate on how a new film would go, since Mulder and Scully were not actually on the X-Files any longer at the end of the show. On the other hand, they apparently poised to finally have that full blown romance that seemed to be percolating for seasons. Will Mulder be back in the FBI? Will Mulder and Scully be a couple? Will the Cigarette Smoking Man appear (yeah, he got killed--again--but don't tell me that that is any impediment to his return)? Have the X-Files been reopened? Have Mulder and Scully become paranormal free agent investigators? The series ended in such a way that the virtually anything is possible. Regardless, I think it will be crucial for people to ignore the first film in assessing where the next one will go. This one, while satisfying now as part of a larger story arc, was too embedded in the series to be judged apart from its role in promoting the story of the series.

I just love everything X-files. This version played on Prime had a different ending version. I remember seeing it back originally airing as a movie and finishing up as a finale on tv series. The ending I remember was a laughing alien in spacecraft firing and destroying cave where Smoking Man was hiding out. The Prime version had the secret military agenda firing upon the cave, which looking back at that time now makes more sense than the alien version. I could watch this again. Great movie

I thought that the security measures around opening the DVD were unncessary and caused me to damage the plastic protective cover.

The X-Files first big screen outing was met with joy and some disappointment, some finding it confusing where as other just were happy to see Mulder and Scully on the silver screen. Set between series 5 and 6, Mulder and Scully have been removed from the X-Files (since the cigarette smoking man (CSM) burning down the office at the end of series 5) and have been assigned to investigate a terrorist incident that ends up with the destruction of a government building. The investigations naturally evolves to aliens and the governments conspiracy to aid (or fight) colonisation of the planet. Most of the key players from the series make an appearance such as Skinner, CSM, The Lone Gunmen and the syndicate.On the whole the film is very good and extends the groundwork laid in the series for a new direction of conspiracy and colonisation, as you can only fight so many mutants of nature, yet it doesn't fully alienate (had to) those new to the show framework. The Blu-Ray video and audio quality is as you would expect for a recent release on excellent form. You also have the theatre and directors cuts of the film and some behind the scenes features regarding the music, effects and transition to the big screen from TV.

Carefully! This movie has been designed to connect two consecutive seasons of the X-Files series and in fact it is just another episode. In order to enjoy it the viewer should have at least some basic knowledge of the series; unfortunately, the film makers didn't care much about explaining what is going on. Fans should find the plot interesting and this is the only reason why the movie deserves 3 stars. It reveals significant information about the government conspiracy (you'll need that information in the following seasons of the series).Surprisingly, the movie lacks the depth and engrossing atmosphere of the series. The cigarette man's character is totally wasted - in the series he's so interesting and important, while in the movie he is no more than a shadow. And something is definitely wrong with the pace of the movie. Sometimes everything just happens too fast. The dialogs are not particularly interesting. Picture and sound quality are not particularly good. Some films made before the II World War look better on DVD than this one.

Really enjoyed this film. It did make me wonder, though, how the killing of a key character (I won't tell you which one so as not to spoil it for others!) will be reflected back in the series proper. I guess I will find out when I start watching series 6 soon!

Thank you Amazon for the excellent delivery !Not as good as the series but for 1998 and first try to bring the x-files on the big screen .. they did a descent job.

I like this movie because it is thrilling and it has a local subtitles included and it's region free so it plays well in my country.