"The X Files", production draft, by Chris Carter
X-FILES
FIGHT THE FUTURE
CHRIS CARTER
6/30/97
NOTE: THE HARD COPY OF THIS SCRIPT CONTAINED SCENE
NUMBERS, AND SOME "SCENE OMITTED" SLUGS. THEY HAVE
BEEN REMOVED FOR THIS SOFT COPY.
FADE IN:
EXT. SNOWSCAPE
A BLINDING WHITE SCREEN, under which we hear an ominous
low end Dolby THX Big Screen rumble. We're not in 19"
television land anymore, Toto. As the rumble builds, TWO
BLACK FIGURES appear on what now has resolved into a
distant horizon. From their movements we can shortly see
that the figures are men. Moving along a windswept ice
sheet in an otherwise featureless land.
A LEGEND appears: NORTH TEXAS, 35,000 B.C.
CLOSER ON THE TWO MEN
Continuing toward us, we can now see that they are
dressed in crude garments made of animal skins. If we
squint we can see their hair is long, their jutting
foreheads significant of primitive Homo Sapiens. They
continue toward us, the wind beating against them,
CAMERA IS CRANING DOWN to the snow that lies before
them. To LARGE THREE-TOED TRACKS.
FOLLOWING THE PRIMITIVES
As they track the three-toed prints to a rocky crevice in
the hard-pack ice. The prints stop here, and so do the
men. Dropping down into the crevice in pursuit of their
quarry.
CUT TO:
INT. ICE CAVE
Dark in here, except where the sunlight penetrates the
thick, glassy ice walls. The silhouettes of the
Primitives stark against the glistening cavern. The
sound of flint being struck, then A TORCH CATCHES FIRE,
illuminating their faces. And:
A CREATURE
Deeper in the cave. Fleeing the light and the men. We
get only a brief glimpse of it in the torch light,
seeing that it moves upright on two legs and has gray,
dinosaur-like skin. And large black eyes. But it moves
quickly enough away that any other identifying feature
is lost in the deeper shadows.
THE PRIMITIVES
Removing crude weapons made of sharpened bone from under
their thick fur garments, and scrabbling into the
constricting cavern, giving chase.
Following them as they moves with animal-like agility
through the tightening space. Predatory hunters. Their
torchlight catching:
THE CREATURE
As it disappears into a tight opening in a smaller
crevice leading off the main one. The Primitives
entering frame after a moment, only a few steps behind.
The LEAD PRIMITIVE dropping to the cave floor,
pulling himself into this same tight fissure in pursuit.
Splitting off from his partner who exits frame still on
the run.
INT. SMALLER ICE CAVE - HIGH ANGLE DOWN
The fiery torch comes through first, held by the lead
man. Throwing dancing shadows on the walls of what
appears to be a box cavern.
CLOSE ON LEAD PRIMITIVE
Rising quickly to his feet. Not seeing what the torch
illuminates just behind him: The face of a dead
Primitive Man, his body frozen into the ice. He does
finally notice this, turning to see it, when he's
ATTACKED VICIOUSLY FROM BEHIND.
The torch falls to the floor so that the fight is
difficult to see, but it is loud and cruel. The creature
squealing wildly as the grunts of the Primitive now turn
to the sounds of painful struggle. Until:
THE SECOND PRIMITIVE MAN
Suddenly appears, driving his bone weapon into the body
of the Creature. Again and again, until the Creature is
driven away into the shadows.
The Second Man grabs the torch now, not to see if his
hunting mate has survived, but in pursuit of the
Creature. In the light we see that he and his weapon are
covered with spatters of OILY BLACK BLOOD. As is the
First Primitive whose body lies heaving on the floor.
The Second Primitive stepping over his hunting mate,
stalking the Creature into the shadows, where it has
collapsed. The torch finally landing, for the first
time, on its face.
When the torchlight hits its face, the Creature attacks.
But the Primitive prevails. He drops his torch and
dispatches the already wounded Creature with strong
hard stabs of his weapon, one of which penetrates the
Creature's eye.
LOW ANGLE ON THE DEAD CREATURE
The torch, which lies on the ground, illuminates the
dead creature's face. Its wounds are flowing with the
oily black blood, which, oddly now, BEGINS TO POOL. As
if it has intelligence, sentience. Pooling and traveling
into a fissure in the cave floor. And disappearing.
ANGLE ON THE SECOND PRIMITIVE
Watching this, unknowing. His chest heaving from the
fight, as the spots of Oily Black Blood which have
spattered onto him begin to crawl. Crawling toward his
eyes and mouth. Causing him to let out grunts of fear.
Which are the sounds we hear as the CAMERA SLOWLY CRANES
UP past the struggling Primitive to the roof of the
cave, where the dancing shadows of the torch FADE AWAY
with the sounds of struggle. Moving into darkness and
silence. But only for a moment. Until:
SUNSHINE BREAKS THROUGH THE ROOF OF THE CAVE - PRESENT
DAY
Along with the spade of a shovel. And then -- the
earthen cave ceiling gives way and A BOY wearing Nikes
and an old t-shirt falls through it. Falling PAST
CAMERA. We hear a YELL, then a THUD, and a CLATTERING of
the shovel that's fallen in with him. Then a pained
GASPING.
Then SEVERAL HEADS appear in the opening. These are BOYS
of ten to eleven, staring down into the cave. Hot
sunlight blazing in. We have traveled far, far forward
in time.
2ND BOY
Hey, Stevie. You okay?
INT. CAVE - PRESENT DAY
THEIR POV OF STEVIE
On the floor below covered with dirt, in his nose and
mouth. Spitting out. (All these boys have Texas in their
voices.)
STEVIE
I got...I got....I got....
(straining)
....the wind knocked out of me.
This draws no sympathy from above, only LAUGHTER.
THE BOYS UP ABOVE
Staring excitedly.
3RD BOY
Looks like a cave or something.
2ND BOY
What's down there, Stevie? Anything?
OVER THE BOYS ABOVE
Stevie has gotten up, moving out of the patch of
sunlight. Disappearing from view for a moment. Then
reappearing, still spitting out dirt. But holding:
STEVIE
Human skull.
One side partially missing from the cranium. But it
brings WHOOPS of delight from the boys above.
3RD BOY
Toss it up here, dude.
STEVIE
No way, buttwipe. I found it. It's
mine.
ANGLE UP ON STEVIE
The other boys looking down at him. Stevie looking at
the skull. Strangely, the light shines through it. It is
milky, opaque, as if it's bone that's turned somehow
glassy in places. Then:
STEVIE
Anyways, there's bones all over the
place down here.
Stevie looks down at his feet. CAMERA FOLLOWING HIS LOOK
DOWN to where there are indeed more human bones. And
something else. He takes a couple of steps in place,
standing in a familiar BLACK, OILY substance -- which is
climbing up his tennis shoe from the rock floor, over
the edge of the shoe and down into the shoe itself. Then
the SKULL drops in the frame, clattering on the hard
floor of the cave.
CAMERA SLOWLY RISING UP FROM STEVIE'S SHOES
Following SUBCUTANEOUS WORMS which have begun locomoting
aggressively up his legs. As his whole body is WRACKED
by a shivering seizure of some kind.
CAMERA RISES, following the path of the worms as they
move up the legs of his shorts. Some appearing on his
bare arms, but the great majority continuing up to
Stevie's neck, toward his face. Stevie stands paralyzed.
Letting out guttural sounds not dissimilar to when the
wind was knocked out of him.
3RD BOY (O.S.)
Hey, Stevie....
But Stevie cannot answer him. CAMERA CONTINUING UP to
the boys above. Looking down at their friend. Their eyes
go wide.
2ND BOY
You okay?
But what they see next answers that question for them.
THEIR POV OF STEVIE
His face suddenly alive with the subcutaneous worms.
Moving toward his eyes which begin filling with BLACK
OIL. Looking much now like ALIEN EYES.
CLOSE ON THE BOYS ABOVE
Freaked by what they see. And doing what any kid would
do now.
3RD BOY
Hey, man. Let's get outta here.
And they do. Bolting from the hole in the top of the
cave. CAMERA PUSHING UP THROUGH THIS HOLE to REVEAL we
are:
EXT. SMALL DIRT FIELD - NORTHERN TEXAS - DAY
In a dirt hole that was being dug by the three kids.
RISING UP out of the hole to REVEAL the parched dirt
patch where THREE KIDS are running away from us, as fast
as their feet will take them. Toward A NEW HOUSING TRACT
(five floorplans to choose from, including the model
home.) Disappearing into the neighborhood. A LEGEND
appears: NORTH TEXAS, 1998.
CAMERA CONTINUES RISING ABOVE THE ROOFTOPS to see the
surrounding expanse of empty Texas flatland. And in the
distance, the DALLAS SKYLINE.
As CAMERA SETTLES, there are a few moments of nothing
but the sound of the wind gently whistling across the
landscape. In which we bury a short TIME CUT.
EXT. NEIGHBORHOOD - NORTHERN TEXAS - DAY
Then we HEAR it, before we see it: FIRE ENGINES pulling
into the neighborhood, sirens WAILING. CAMERA DROPPING
AGAIN as the lead engine pulls up. FIREMEN are hopping
off, moving to the hole the boys dug.
LOW ANGLE UP FROM BELOW GROUND LEVEL, IN THE DUGOUT
HOLE
TWO firemen carrying a ladder clamber down PAST CAMERA,
THREE OTHERS appearing on their heels. The other two
firemen clamber down, too. THE CAPTAIN at the edge of
the hole watching them. Holding a radio.
FIRE CAPTAIN
This is Captain Miles Cooles...we've
got a rescue situation in progress...
INT. CAVE - CONTINUOUS
As the LEAD FIREMAN steps down the ladder into the cave.
He scans the darkness, illuminated only by the shaft of
light permitted by the hole above. As the 2ND FIREMAN
drops down next to him. The both stand motionless now,
as if sensing something.
THEIR POV
Stevie's feet are just visible on the floor of the cave,
a short distance away.
RESUME FIREMEN - LOW ANGLE
They start cautiously toward Stevie. CAMERA FINDING
their feet. Tracking through the same OILY, BLACK
SUBSTANCE we saw bleeding from the creature thirty five
thousand years ago. As they move into the shadows, we
HOLD ON THE SUBSTANCE....and see it MOVE. It's alive.
TIME CUT TO:
EXT. DIRT FIELD - SHORT TIME LATER
CAMERA RISES out of the dirt hole, finds A GROUP OF
NEIGHBORS:
Concerned PARENTS, KIDS, including Stevie's friends.
They're held at a distance by the remaining firemen.
Everyone turning their concerned gazes skyward. Looking
at:
A MED-EVAC CHOPPER
Coming off the sun-setting horizon. Moving toward us at
high speed. The WHOP, WHOP of its blade soon shaking the
neighborhood as it banks in and around and hovers just
over the dirt field. Landing gently on the parched hard
scrabble.
The side door flies open and FIVE HAZ-MAT RESCUE
PARAMEDICS jump out carrying a bubble litter. CAMERA
PANS THEM to the dirt hole past THE FIRE CAPTAIN. The
Haz-Mat Paramedics moving down into the hole. The Fire
Captain watches this, then stares toward --
DR. BEN BRONSCHWEIG (in shirtsleeves, tie), exiting the
chopper, following up the rear. The Captain meeting him
in route.
BRONSCHWEIG
(over the chopper)
Keep those people back. Get them out
of here.
FIRE CAPTAIN
(to his men)
Move them all back.
(dogging Bronschweig)
I sent four men down after the boy.
They're not responding.
Dr. Bronschweig's focus is elsewhere, though. He's
making a bee line to the earthen hole where young Stevie
is being pulled out and lifted into an enclosed
QUARANTINE BUBBLE LITTER by the rescue squad.
Bronschweig watches with great concern. Getting a good
look now at Stevie's paralyzed body as it passes him.
ANGLE ON CHOPPER
As Stevie's body is loaded aboard, the side door is slid
shut. The engine throttles up and the chopper takes
flight again, almost as quickly as it arrived. The prop
wash blowing:
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
And the gathering crowd. Bronschweig watches the chopper
bank away, then turns his look to:
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Where A SERIES OF UNMARKED CARGO VANS, TRUCKS are
rolling in. A fleet of vehicles, driven by what looks
like MILITARY PERSONNEL. Most conspicuously TWO WHITE
UNMARKED TANKER TRUCKS. (There are NO MARKINGS on these
vehicles.)
RESUME BRONSCHWEIG
As the Fire Captain moves around to face him off.
FIRE CAPTAIN
What about my men?
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
(brusquely)
We're doing all we can.
And he moves off toward the approaching trucks where the
MILITARY PERSONNEL are pulling out tents, tent poles,
scientific equipment. Leaving the Captain to wonder what
the hell's going on. Watching the first of many
REFRIGERATION UNITS being unloaded. The personnel
carrying it paying him no mind as they blow past him.
Moving RIGHT TO CAMERA and plunging us into BLACK.
HOLD. Then OVER BLACK, a familiar sound again. The
sound of a chopper auguring in. As we FADE UP, revealing
we are:
EXT. TOP OF A SKYSCRAPER - DAY
The chopper is banking over the side of the building,
preparing to touch down on the rooftop where FIFTEEN FBI
AGENTS in dark ID windbreakers are standing. A LEGEND
appears: FEDERAL BUILDING, DALLAS, TEXAS. ONE WEEK
LATER.
The chopper touches down and, again, the side door is
thrown open. But now only one man exits: SPECIAL AGENT
IN CHARGE (S.A.C.) DARIUS MICHAUD.
Michaud moves with the measured pace of authority,
approaching the waiting FBI Agents. One of whom steps
up.
FBI AGENT
We've evacuated the building and been
through it bottom to top. No trace of
an explosive device or anything
resembling one.
S.A.C. MICHAUD
Have you taken the dogs through?
FBI AGENT
Yes, sir.
S.A.C. MICHAUD
Well, take them through again.
This is given as a non-negotiable order, to the somewhat
weary FBI man. Who turns back to his charges, Michaud
does not register this attitude, though. Something else
has caught his attention. Causing him to walk to the
edge of the building. CAMERA FOLLOWING HIM, seeing what
he sees now.
On an adjacent skyscraper is what appears to be AN FBI
AGENT in an ID windbreaker exiting onto the roof. CAMERA
CONTINUING AROUND into A CLOSE UP PROFILE of S.A.C
Michaud. Staring at this, his jaw set. He doesn't like
what he sees. And what he sees is:
EXT. ROOFTOP OPPOSING SKYSCRAPER - DAY - CONTINUOUS
Special Agent Dana Scully is coming out the door leading
onto the roof. The door slams shut behind her. She, too,
is dressed in an FBI windbreaker. She's dialing her
cell phone as she moves around the rooftop looking for
something. Dialing the number of:
SCULLY
Mulder -- it's me --
MULDER (FILTER)
Where are you, Scully?
SCULLY
I'm on the roof.
MULDER (FILTER)
Did you find something?
SCULLY
(impatiently)
No. I haven't.
MULDER (FILTER)
What's wrong, Scully?
SCULLY
I've just climbed twelve floors. I'm
hot and thirsty and I'm wondering, to
be honest, what I'm doing here.
MULDER (FILTER)
You're looking for a bomb.
SCULLY
I know that. But the threat was called
in for the Federal Building across the
street.
MULDER (FILTER)
I think they have that covered.
WE ARE TRACKING WITH SCULLY.
SCULLY
(impatience)
Mulder... when a terrorist bomb threat
is called in, the logical purpose of
providing this information is to allow
us to find the bomb. The rational
object of terrorism is to promote
terror. If you'd study model
behavioral pattern in virtually every
case where a threat has turned up an
explosive device. If we don't act in
accordance with that data -- if you
ignore it as we have done -- the
chances are great that if here
actually is a bomb we might not find
it. Lives could be lost --
Scully, engrossed in her own argument, realizes she's
been the only one speaking for the last short while. She
stops walking.
SCULLY
Mulder...?
MULDER
What happened to playing a hunch?
Scully almost JUMPS out of her own skin. The voice has
come not over the phone, but from two feet away where:
ANGLE TO INCLUDE AGENT MULDER
Standing in the shadow of a large air conditioning unit.
Cracking a trademark sunflower seed between his teeth.
Clicking his cell phone off. Moving out.
SCULLY
Jesus, Mulder...
MULDER
The element of surprise, Scully.
Random acts of unpredictability. If we
fail to anticipate the unforeseen or
expect the unexpected in a universe of
infinite possibilities, we find
ourselves at the mercy of anyone or
anything that cannot be programmed,
categorized or easily referenced...
Mulder has moved to the edge of the building where he
sails his sunflower seeds into the air. Dusting his
hands off as if lost in a wistful through for just a
moment.
MULDER
What are we doing up here? It's hotter
than hell.
And he's on the move. Scully moving to catch up.
NEW ANGLE
Mulder is moving toward the stairs, Scully catching him.
Mulder allowing her to lead him up the steps.
SCULLY
I know you're bored in this
assignment, but unconventional
thinking is only going to get you into
trouble now.
MULDER
How's that?
SCULLY
You've got to quit looking for what
isn't there. They've closed the
X-Files. There's procedure to be
followed here. Protocol.
MULDER
What do you say we call in a bomb
threat for Houston. I think it's free
beer night at the Astrodome.
Scully gives him a look. It's no use. She reaches the
door first, grabs the knob but... it won't open. Turning
to Mulder.
SCULLY
Now what?
MULDER
(suddenly nervous)
It's locked?
She wiggles the knob again.
SCULLY
So much for anticipating the
unforeseen...
Scully squints into the sun, staring at Mulder. But he's
quick on the draw, and realizes what she's up to. He
grabs for the door and... it opens. Looking to Scully
whose hard look of mock-scolding has become a smirking
smile.
SCULLY
Had you.
MULDER
No you didn't.
SCULLY
Oh yeah. Had you big time.
And that's how it continues as they re-enter the
stairwell, the door slamming shut behind them.
CUT TO:
INT. BUILDING LOBBY - DAY
As an elevator DINGS and the doors open. Scully and
Mulder exit into the lobby where people move in and out.
Heads turn due to their FBI jackets. (Included
atmosphere: a GROUP OF KIDS on a field trip, being led
into an elevator by THEIR TEACHER.)
SCULLY
I saw your face, Mulder. There was a
moment of panic.
MULDER
Panic? Have you ever seen me panic,
Scully?
SCULLY
I just did. You're buying.
Mulder fishes for change, but more out of
sportsmanship.
MULDER
Alright... what'll it be: Coke, Pepsi?
A saline IV?
SCULLY
Something sweet.
Scully flashes a thin victory smile, as Mulder heads
off.
INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE VENDING MACHINE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Mulder moving to a door with a small shingle above it
which says SNACKS/BEVERAGES. As he approaches, sorting
through the change he's fished up, the door opens and A
MAN IN A VENDOR'S UNIFORM appears. He makes casual and
ever-so-brief eye contact with Mulder as he brushes past
him. Mulder making no note of this as he moves to catch
the door before it closes.
CUT TO:
INT. SNACK AREA AND SODA VENDING MACHINE ROOM - DAY
Mulder takes a few steps down into the windowless room.
Moving past the snack machines to a LIGHTED soda
machine.
Finding the correct change and plunking it in. Hitting a
button, but... nothing comes out.
MULDER
Oh, come on.
He beats his fist a couple of times on the front of the
machine.
Nothing. He finds more change. Plunking it in. Hits the
button. Nothing. He stares at the machine a minute, then
BEATS IT HARD with his fist. Nothing.
Moving around to the back of the machine, looking for:
ANGLE ACROSS BACK OF MACHINE
Mulder's face peering in on the slim space between the
machine and the wall. Reaching down and lifting the PLUG
on the end of the electrical cord. It isn't plugged in.
Realizing now why the machine hasn't spit out his
sodas.
RESUME FRONT ANGLE ON MACHINE
As Mulder appears, stepping very lightly in front of the
machine that he was just pounding away on. Looking at
it, then moving quickly to the door he entered through.
Grasping the knob, but finding it... LOCKED. He jiggles
the knob, pulls on it. But there's no two ways about it,
he's locked in.
CUT TO:
INT. BUILDING LOBBY - DAY
Scully stands looking at her watch. Wondering where
Mulder is. When her CELL PHONE starts ringing. She
answers it.
SCULLY
Scully...
MULDER (FILTER)
Scully, I found the bomb.
SCULLY
(thinks he's joking)
Where are you, Mulder?
MULDER (FILTER)
I'm in the vending room.
Scully is on the move, but she doesn't believe him for a
second.
INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE VENDING MACHINE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Scully appears, heard A POUNDING. Following this noise
to the door Mulder is obviously on the other side of.
Tries the door.
SCULLY
Is that you pounding?
INT. SNACK AND SODA VENDING MACHINE ROOM - DAY
Mulder holds his phone to his ear, using his other hand
to pound.
MULDER
Scully, get somebody to open this
door.
SCULLY (FILTER)
Nice try, Mulder.
CAMERA FOLLOWING MULDER as he steps back, revealing now
that he's gotten the hinged front of the coke machine
open. But we can't yet see what's inside.
MULDER
Scully -- listen to me. It's in the
coke machine. You've got about
fourteen minutes to get this building
evacuated.
INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE VENDING MACHINE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Scully is shaking her head. Tries the door again.
SCULLY
C'mon. Open the door.
His response to this is MORE HARD POUNDING.
SCULLY
Mulder? Tell me this is a joke.
MULDER (FILTER)
Thirteen fifty nine, thirteen fifty
eight, thirteen fifty seven...
As he is doing this, Scully is bending to see:
THE KEYHOLE
It's been freshly soldered over.
INT. SNACK AND SODA VENDING MACHINE ROOM - DAY
Mulder stands pacing in front of:
AN ELABORATELY ENGINEERED EXPLOSIVE DEVICE
Wired with circuit boards, electric belts and generally
looking like it would take an expert a good long time to
figure out where to even start. A lot longer than the
13:58 that reads on the digital read-out.
MULDER
...thirteen fifty six...
SCULLY (FILTER)
Hang on. I'm gonna get you out of
there.
The line goes dead. And off Mulder's deepening anxiety,
we:
CUT TO:
INT. BUILDING LOBBY - DAY
Scully enters like General Patton, taking charge.
Barking at the security guards who sit behind their
security console.
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 one mile radius around the
building --
SECURITY GUARD
In ten minutes.....?!
SCULLY
DON'T THINK! JUST PICK UP THE PHONE
AND MAKE IT HAPPEN!
And she's moving, dialing her cell phone now.
SCULLY
(into phone)
This is Special Agent Dana Scully. I
need to speak to S.A.C. Michaud. He's
got the wrong building --
CUT TO:
EXT. BUILDING - DAY
UNMARKED FBI VANS, CARS are pulling up out front.
Agents in windbreakers are exiting, moving at a run to
the building. Among them S.A.C. Darius Michaud. Moving
to:
ANGLE ON SCULLY
Exiting the building. Behind her, WORKERS are beginning
to stream out of the building, as well as the young
FIELD TRIPPERS. Michaud meeting up with Scully
mid-plaza. As the windbreaker Agents move past them,
entering the building.
S.A.C. MICHAUD
Where is it?
MOVING WITH THEM now, back toward the building. As FIRE
TRUCKS are pulling up out in the street out front.
Suddenly this has the distinct feel of a situation
veering out of control.
SCULLY
Mulder found it in a vending machine.
He's locked in with it.
CUT TO:
INT. SNACK AND VENDING MACHINE ROOM - DAY
THE DIGITAL READ OUT hits 7:00. Pull back to REVEAL
MULDER staring at it. If he wasn't sweating enough on
the roof, he's certainly sweating now. When his cell
phone RINGS. Answering it.
MULDER
Scully?
SCULLY (FILTER)
Mulder. Move away from the door. We're
coming through it.
No sooner is this said than the CAMERA WHIPS OFF MULDER
to the door, where A GAS PLASMA TORCH FLAME is sizzling
along the hinges.
CUT TO:
INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE VENDING MACHINE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
Where Michaud himself, wearing a Kevlar vest now, is
wielding the torch. Expertly cutting the metal while
Scully and TWO AGENTS and TWO DALLAS BOMB SQUAD men look
on. In the b.g. BUILDING EMPLOYEES are streaming out.
Michaud finishes and shuts off the torch. Yelling:
S.A.C. MICHAUD
Go.
The other Agents kick the metal door in sending it
crashing to the floor. Mulder stands on the other side.
Watching Michaud pick up a heft tool kit, stepping over
the downed door.
Scully right behind him. Along with the Agents, Bomb
techs.
ANGLE OVER MULDER AND THE SODA MACHINE/BOMB
As Michaud steps in next to him, sizing up the time on
the ticking digital readout: 4:07. And just exactly what
kind of defusing work he's got cut out for him.
MULDER
Tell me this is just soda pop in those
canisters.
S.A.C. MICHAUD
No. It's what it looks like. A big
I.E.D. - ten gallons of astrolite.
(studying the bomb)
Okay, get everybody out of here and
clear the building.
MULDER
Somebody's got to stay with you --
S.A.C. MICHAUD
I gave you an order. Now get the hell
out of here and evacuate the area.
SCULLY
Can you defuse it?
Setting his tool kit down, opening it. As the other
Agents heed his word, exiting the room.
S.A.C. MICHAUD
I think so.
MULDER
You've got about four minutes to find
out if you're wrong.
Michaud turns on him with unexpected intensity.
S.A.C. MICHAUD
Did you hear what I said?
SCULLY
Let's go, Mulder.
Scully starts out. Mulder stares at Michaud for a
moment, but Michaud's focus is on the bomb now. He won't
meet Mulder's look. Finally Mulder moves off, following
Scully.
CAMERA HOLDS ON MICHAUD, just staring at the bomb. Just
staring.
CUT TO:
EXT. PLAZA OUTSIDE BOMB BUILDING - DAY - CONTINUOUS
The last of the building occupants are being hauled off
in CITY BUSES which have moved in curbside. As these
buses pull away, so do the fire trucks that have
positioned themselves out front. And the police squad
cars. As Mulder and Scully exit the front door. Moving
quickly, until Mulder hits mid-plaza and slows. Scully
not realizing this for a few steps, then turning.
SCULLY
What are you doing?
(off his non-response)
Mulder --
One last windbreakered Agent is exiting. Moving past
them to the last cop car other than the car waiting for
Mulder and Scully.
LAST AGENT OUT
All clear.
Mulder has stopped and is looking back to the building
now as Scully hustles back the few steps separating
them.
MULDER
Something's wrong.
ANGLE OVER THEM TO THE WAITING CAR
As the Last Agent Out's car zooms away. Leaving only
their car and the man driving it: a WINDBREAKERED
AGENT.
WINDBREAKERED AGENT
What's he doing?
The plaza is desolate now, void of life.
MULDER
Something's not right...
SCULLY
-- Mulder! Get in the car!
Scully is pulling him now. Pulling him toward the car
and the obviously impatient Windbreakered Agent.
SCULLY
There's no time!
CUT TO:
INT. SNACK AND SODA VENDING MACHINE ROOM - DAY
CLOSE ON BOMB. The seconds ticking off now, as it passes
the :30 mark. CAMERA PULLING BACK, ADJUSTING to Michaud.
His tool chest is closed up, and he is sitting on it
improbably. Still staring at the bomb, then pulling his
head down in what appears to be resignation. As the
seconds tick away.
CUT BACK TO:
EXT. PLAZA OUTSIDE BOMB BUILDING - DAY - CONTINUOUS
Mulder has relented now, against his better instincts.
Moving with Scully to the car, faster as they go. The
Windbreaker Agent standing in the open door of the
driver's side. Getting in behind the wheel...
CUT BACK TO:
INT. VENDING MACHINE ROOM - CONTINUOUS
S.A.C. MICHAUD
Sitting motionless in front of the bomb as the seconds
tick down. 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1- --
HARD CUT BACK
TO:
EXT. PLAZA OUTSIDE BOMB BUILDING - DAY - CONTINUOUS
Mulder and Scully getting in the car. TRACKING BACKWARDS
with them now as the Agent driving pulls away, getting
only thirty, maybe forty yards when: the BOMB DETONATES
and the building EXPLODES. And this is no fatwa symbolic
little terror strike. This is Oklahoma City. Or do we
say, Independence Day.
REVERSE ANGLE ON CAR
As all the windows blow out and the car is lifted up,
slamming into the corner of a parked car. The air so
quickly full of debris that it would seem the whole city
has been destroyed.
RESUME BUILDING
As the debris starts to clear somewhat, much of it still
floating to the ground, though. We see the fires raging
on every floor. That most of the front of the building
has been torn away and we can see right into many
floors.
RESUME ANGLE ON CAR
Where it sits half cocked against a parked car. The air
is full of debris, particulated matter. The rear door of
the squad car opens now and Mulder gets out, covered with
glass. Moving to the front passenger door, opening it
for Scully.
MULDER
(with darkest irony)
Next time you're buying.
EXT. AERIAL SHOT OF WASHINGTON D.C. - DAY
HIGH ABOVE the U.S. capital, the entire beltway. With a
LEGEND, to establish.
LOWER AND TIGHTER NOW
On the J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI Headquarters.
Descending low on the three-sided monolith and its large
interior courtyard. As another LEGEND appears, under:
WOMAN'S VOICE (V.O.)
In light of Waco, and Ruby Ridge...
CUT TO:
INT. FBI OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL REVIEW - DAY
A formal hearing. Several ASSISTANT DIRECTORS sit at a
head table, going over documents. NAME PLACECARDS in
front of them.
PANNING the group, the sound of papers shuffling, the
occasional clearing of a throat creating a stale air of
importance, under:
WOMAN'S VOICE (V.O.)
...there is a heightened need at the
Attorney General's office to place
responsibility as early as possible.
CAMERA LANDING ON ASSISTANT DIRECTOR JANA CASSIDY
A no-nonsense 40 year-old lawyer cum FBI Agent.
CASSIDY
...for the catastrophic destruction of
public property and the loss of life
due to terrorist activities...
Next to Cassidy is Assistant Director WALTER SKINNER,
Mulder and Scully's former superior on the X-Files.
Looking ruefully at:
AGENT SCULLY
At a small table, the chair next to her conspicuously
empty.
CASSIDY
Many details are still unclear; some
agents' reports have not been filed,
or have come in sketchy, without a
satisfactory accounting of the events
that led to the destruction in Dallas.
But we're under some pressure to give
an accurate picture of what happened
to the Attorney General, so she can
issue a public statement.
The door to the room opens behind Scully now, and Mulder
enters, his manner that of a man who knows he's late to
a function.
RESUME A.D. CASSIDY
She looks up at Mulder and Scully with a stern glare.
CASSIDY
We now know that five people died in
the explosion. Special Agent in Charge
Darius Michaud who was trying to
defuse the bomb that had been hidden
in a vending machine. Three firemen
from Dallas, and a young boy.
OVER MULDER AND SCULLY
Mulder pulls out his chair to sit down, but remains
standing. They trade a look. This is new news to them.
MULDER
Excuse me -- the firemen and the boy
-- they were in the building?
CASSIDY
Agent Mulder, since you weren't able
to be on time for this hearing, I'm
going to ask you to step outside so
that we can get Agent Scully's version
of the facts. So that she won't have
to be paid the same disrespect.
MULDER
We were told the building was clear.
CASSIDY
You'll get your turn, Agent Mulder.
Please step out.
Mulder trades looks with:
A.D. SKINNER
Who stares at him evenly, but not unsympathetically.
He's been here with Mulder on many occasions. Seen
Mulder run up against the Bureau and its stiff
conventions. Always in the middle.
MULDER
It does say there in your paperwork
that we were the ones who found the
bomb...
CASSIDY
Thank you, Agent Mulder. We'll call
you in shortly.
RESUME MULDER, SCULLY
As Mulder slides his chair in. Scully watching him
exit.
CUT TO:
INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE OPR HEARING ROOM - DAY
Mulder sits by himself in a chair, head down. When the
door to the hearing room opens. Mulder rising as A.D.
Skinner exits.
SKINNER
Sit down, they're still talking to
Agent Scully.
MULDER
About what?
SKINNER
-- They're asking her for a narrative.
They want to know why she was in the
wrong building.
MULDER
She was with me.
Skinner studies Mulder, shaking his head.
SKINNER
You don't see what's going on here, do
you?
(off Mulder's look)
There's four hundred million dollars
in damage to the city of Dallas. Lives
have been lost. No suspects have been
named. So the story being shaped is
this could have been prevented. That
the FBI didn't do its job.
MULDER
And they want to blame us?
SKINNER
Agent Mulder -- we both know that if
you and Agent Scully hadn't taken the
initiative to search the adjacent
building, you could have multiplied
the fatalities by a hundred --
MULDER
(grasping the irony)
But it's not the lives we saved. It's
the lives we didn't.
SKINNER
(reciting the dictum)
-- if it looks bad, it's bad for the
FBI --
MULDER
-- if they want someone to blame,
they can blame me. Agent Scully
doesn't deserve this.
SKINNER
She's in there right now saying the
same thing about you.
MULDER
I breached protocol. I broke contact
with the S.A.C. I ignored a primary
tactical rule and left him alone with
the device.
SKINNER
Agent Scully says it was she who
ordered you out of the building. That
you wanted to go back.
Mulder doesn't get to respond, because the door opens
again and Agent Scully exits. She looks like she's been
through it.
SCULLY
(to Skinner)
They're asking for you, Sir.
Skinner gives one last look to Mulder, then re-enters.
Leaving Mulder and Scully alone. Scully wearing a pained
look.
MULDER
Whatever you told them in there, you
don't have to protect me.
SCULLY
All I told them was the truth.
MULDER
They're trying to divide us on this,
Scully. We can't let them.
SCULLY
They have divided us, Mulder. They're
splitting us up.
MULDER
(beat)
What? What are you talking about?
SCULLY
I meet with the OPR day after tomorrow
for remediation and reassignment...
MULDER
Why?
SCULLY
I think you must have an idea. They
cited a history of problems relating
back to 1993.
MULDER
They were the ones that put us
together.
SCULLY
Because they wanted me to invalidate
your work, your investigations into
the paranormal. But I think this goes
deeper than that.
MULDER
This isn't about you, Scully. They're
doing this to me.
SCULLY
They're not doing this, Mulder.
(off his look)
I left behind a career in medicine
because I thought I might make a
difference at the FBI. When they
recruited me they told me women made
up nine percent of the bureau. I felt
this was not an impediment, but an
opportunity to distinguish myself. But
it hasn't turned out that way. And
now, if I were to be transferred to
Omaha, or Wichita or some field office
where I'm sure I could rise, it just
doesn't hold the interest for me it
once did. Not after what I've seen and
done.
MULDER
You're... quitting?
SCULLY
There's really no reason left for me
to stay anymore.
(off his look)
Maybe you should ask yourself if your
heart's still in it, too.
The door opens to the hearing room again now. A.D.
Skinner steps part way out, gesturing to him.
SKINNER
Agent Mulder. You're up.
SCULLY
(regretfully)
I'm sorry. Good luck.
Mulder rises. Scully studying his poorly disguised hurt.
Before he turns and goes into the room.
Scully watching the door close behind him. Her feelings
poorly disguised, too.
CUT TO:
INT. DOWNSCALE D.C. BAR - NIGHT
CLOSE ON A SHOOTER OF TEQUILA being poured. CAMERA
ADJUSTING to reveal the ATTRACTIVE BARMAID tipping the
bottle. Pushing it across the bar to where TWO EMPTY
SHOOTERS sit, making the exchange.
BARMAID
I'd say this about exceeds your
minimum daily requirement.
The person she's talking to us:
MULDER
He sits by himself on a stool, staring down at the bar.
Staring at the shooter which he spins with his fingers.
BARMAID
Gotta train for this kind of heavy
lifting.
Mulder tosses back the shooter anyway. She watches him
as she retrieves the small shot glass, intrigued by his
dark silence.
BARMAID
Poopy day?
MULDER
Yup.
BARMAID
A woman?
(Mulder shakes his head no)
Work.
Mulder nods, pointing to the tequila bottle again. The
Barmaid agrees to pour another one, reluctantly.
ANGLE OVER TO A MAN AT THE END OF THE BAR
Staring at Mulder intently. He's older than Mulder,
dressed in an old Brooke Brothers light summer suit.
Mulder notices him, feels his gaze, but doesn't give it
thought.
RESUME BARMAID, MULDER
BARMAID
What do you do?
MULDER
What do I do.
(off her curious look)
I'm a key figure in an ongoing
government charade. An annoyance to my
superiors. A joke among my peers.
"Spooky," they call me. Spooky Mulder.
Whose sister was abducted by aliens
when he was a kid. Who now chases
little green men with a badge and a
gun, shouting to the heavens and
anyone who'll listen that the fix is
in. That our government's hip to the
truth and a part of the conspiracy.
That the sky is falling and when it
hits it's gonna be the shitstorm of
all time.
She stares at him for a moment, startled by his drunken
screed. She pulls back the shooter she's just poured
Mulder.
BARMAID
I think that about does it, Spooky.
MULDER
Does what?
BARMAID
Why don't you go home to the old lady
--
MULDER
Sorry. Don't have one.
Mulder slides off his stool, noticing:
MULDER'S POV
The Watchful Man is gone.
RESUME MULDER
He feints toward the door, then reverses direction.
Heads to the back of the place.
INT. REAR OF DOWNSCALE BAR - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
Mulder appears, moving to the bathroom door. Only to
find an OUT OF ORDER sign on it. He moves to the woman's
room, but it's locked. Gathering what's left of his
wits, Mulder does what any red-blooded man would do in
this situation. He goes to the back door of the bar and
exits into the alley.
EXT. ALLEY BEHIND BAR - NIGHT
Mulder has found a place against a wall, between two
dumpsters. Jerking around in surprise at the sound of a
VOICE.
WATCHFUL MAN'S VOICE
That official FBI business?
MULDER
(startled)
What?
ANGLE TO INCLUDE THE MAN FROM THE BAR
He's not far from Mulder. His name is KURTZWEIL.
KURTZWEIL
Bet the Bureau's accusing you of the
same thing in Dallas.
Mulder's weirded out as the stranger moves to him un-
threateningly.
MULDER
How's that?
KURTZWEIL
Standing around holding your yank
while bombs are exploding.
Kurtzweil enjoys a little laugh over this.
MULDER
Do I know you?
KURTZWEIL
No. I've been watching your career for
a good while. Back when you were just
a promising young agent -- before
that.
Mulder stares at this man as he finishes, zipping up.
MULDER
You follow me out here for a reason?
KURTZWEIL
Yeah, I did.
Kurtzweil unzips his own pants now. There is a moment;
one of those awkward moments where Mulder's not sure
what's about to happen. But Kurtzweil's just relieving
himself, too. Shuffling up to the wall, Mulder takes
this as an opportunity to head back toward the bar. But
Kurtzweil hails him again.
KURTZWEIL
My name's Kurtzweil. Dr. Alvin
Kurtzweil.
MULDER
I know the name. Why?
KURTZWEIL
Old friend of your father's.
Kurtzweil continues peeing. Knows this got Mulder's
attention.
KURTZWEIL
Back at the Department of State. We
were what you might call fellow
travelers, but his disenchantment
outlasted mine.
(beat)
I never believed in the Project.
Mulder stares at Kurtzweil now. He's being toyed with.
He turns, opens the door into the bar. As Kurtzweil gets
a little louder.
KURTZWEIL
Oh, come on. Don't pretend you don't
know about the Project. Your father
died for it. Your sister was taken
because of it.
Kurtzweil finishes nature's call. Zips up. Heads after
Mulder.
CUT TO:
INT. DOWNSCALE D.C. BAR - NIGHT
Mulder is coming from the back. Kurtzweil moving to
catch up. And he does, at the coat stand. The place has
pretty much cleared out, except for the Barmaid and some
help.
MULDER
How'd you find me?
KURTZWEIL
Heard you come here now and again.
Figured you'd be needing a little
drinky tonight.
MULDER
You a reporter?
KURTZWEIL
I'm a doctor, but I think I mentioned
that. OB-GYN.
MULDER
Who sent you?
KURTZWEIL
I came on my own. After reading about
the bombing in Dallas.
MULDER
Well, if you've got something to tell
me, you've got as long as it takes me
to hail a cab...
Mulder starts out the door, but Kurtzweil grabs his
arm.
KURTZWEIL
They're going to pin Dallas on you,
Agent Mulder. But there was nothing
you could've done. Nothing anyone
could've done to prevent that bomb
from going off. Because the truth is
something you'd never have guessed;
never have predicted.
Mulder pulls away from Kurtzweil, but Kurtzweil dogs him
to:
EXT. STREET OUTSIDE DOWNSCALE BAR - NIGHT
The street is empty, the hour is late. Mulder moves to
the curb.
MULDER
And what's that?
KURTZWEIL
S.A.C. Darius Michaud never tried or
intended to defuse the bomb.
MULDER
(rhetorical disbelief)
He just let it explode.
KURTZWEIL
What's the question nobody's asking?
Why that building? Why not the Federal
Building?
MULDER
The Federal Building was too well
guarded.
KURTZWEIL
No. They put the bomb in the building
across the street because it DID have
federal offices. The Federal Emergency
Management Agency had a provisional
medical quarantine office there. Which
is where the bodies were found. But
that's the thing...
Mulder's got his hand up for a taxi coming. It's pulling
over as Mulder steps from the curb, stepping away from
Kurtzweil.
KURTZWEIL
...the thing you didn't know. That
you'd never think to check.
Mulder's got the taxi door open, turning to Kurtzweil.
KURTZWEIL
Those people were already dead.
MULDER
Before the bomb went off?
KURTZWEIL
That's what I'm saying.
Mulder stares at Kurtzweil for a moment.
MULDER
Michaud was a twenty-two year veteran
of the bureau --
KURTZWEIL
Michaud was a patriot. The men he's
loyal to know their way around Dallas.
They blew that building to hide
something. Maybe something even they
couldn't predict.
MULDER
You're saying they destroyed an entire
building to hide the bodies of three
firemen...?
KURTZWEIL
And one little boy.
Mulder gets in the cab, closes the door. Rolls down the
window.
MULDER
I think you're full of shit.
KURTZWEIL
Do you?
Kurtzweil raps the top of the roof and steps away from
the car. As the taxi takes off. WE STAY WITH KURTZWEIL,
watching Mulder's cab speed away. (NOTE: This should
also be covered from inside the cab with Mulder, to play
the scene out on him.)
CUT TO:
INT. AGENT SCULLY'S BEDROOM - NIGHT
Scully is in bed, lying awake. Staring at the ceiling.
When she reacts to a POUNDING AT HER DOOR.
CUT TO:
INT. SCULLY'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
CLOSE ON THE FRONT DOOR. Scully peeks in the peephole.
Then she removes the safety chain, opening the door.
MULDER
(strangely intense)
I wake you?
SCULLY
No.
MULDER
Why not? It's three AM.
Scully gets a whiff of his breath. As he moves past her
into the apartment. Radiating a kind of manic
intensity.
SCULLY
Are you drunk, Mulder?
MULDER
I was until about an hour ago.
SCULLY
Is that before or after you got the
idea to come here?
Mulder looks at her curiously.
MULDER
What are you implying, Scully?
SCULLY
(frowning)
I thought you may have gotten drunk
and decided to come here to talk me
out of quitting.
MULDER
Is that what you'd like me to do?
Scully hesitates. Long enough to indicate her own
wavering heart.
SCULLY
Go home, Mulder. It's late.
MULDER
Get dressed, Scully.
SCULLY
Mulder -- what are you doing?
MULDER
Just get dressed. I'll explain on the
way.
CUT TO:
EXT. TEXAS FLATLAND - NIGHT
The moon is rising over the horizon, across the
curvilinear distance of endless scrub and sagebrush.
When FLYING OBJECTS cross between it and us, their forms
unidentifiable in the rising heat waves off the earth.
But they are moving towards us, SILHOUETTES in the
background of the moon.
They move silently, their size INCREASING as they move
closer. And then we hear them, moments before they
arrive at our position, UNMARKED HELICOPTERS just
overhead. Hugging the ground as they blast across the
dark Texas night.
INT. UNMARKED BLACK HELICOPTERS - NIGHT
Flying at dangerously low altitude over the almost
featureless night landscape. Heading for something that
we see ahead in the distance. What looks like a LARGE
GLOWING DOME surrounded by the lights of a residential
area we've already seen, on the edge of suburban Dallas
sprawl.
CUT TO:
EXT. SMALL DIRT FIELD - CENTRAL TEXAS - NIGHT
The field where the kids had been digging has been
transformed into some kind of worksite.
A LARGE WHITE DOMED TENT has been erected over almost
the entire patch of ground, surrounded by the CARGO
TRUCKS that we saw earlier, and more unmarked vans and
trucks. There are men in black fatigues moving about,
and scientists in haz-mat suits.
As the UNMARKED BLACK HELICOPTERS bank overhead. Coming
in for a landing in the glow cast from the tents. CAMERA
MOVING TOWARD one of the helicopters as it lightly
touches down and its black door swings open. A man
stepping out, and as CAMERA PUSHES UP INTO HIS FACE we
recognize him as The Cigarette Smoking Man.
The figure that we've come to know as an assassin and a
model of modern self-interest and amorality. One of the
central protagonists in the conspiracy to keep the truth
from the American people about the existence of
extraterrestrial life.
Something known only as: "The Project."
He walks out from under the whirring prop, just far
enough to get a flame from his lighter, to get a
cigarette lit. As we:
CUT TO:
INT. LARGE WHITE TENT - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
A SCIENTIST in a haz-mat suit is moving through the maze
of clear plastic tubing that divides work areas within
the tent. Areas where scientists are working at tables
doing what appears to be some kind of high-tech
archeological work. It is a hive of activity within, as
the Scientist leads us past the REFRIGERATION UNITS to
the earthen hole where Dr. Bronschweig (we've met him
earlier, coming out of a med-evac chopper that landed
when the tent city was erected) appears out of the
earthen hole, which is reason for all this excitement.
Climbing out A CLEAR HATCH which has been fashioned to
cover the hole. Seeing:
THE CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Now suited up himself. Bronschweig approaches him.
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
You've got something to show me.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
(nervous excitement)
Yes.
CUT TO:
INT. ICE CAVE - CONTINUOUS
What we originally established as icy, and what later
became the unfrozen Texas field where the boys
discovered the human skull, has been turned to its
previously icy state. Thanks to two large vents that Dr.
Bronschweig is pointing at:
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
We brought the atmosphere back down to
freezing in order to control the
development, which is nothing like
we've ever seen.
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Brought on by what?
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
Heat, I think. The coincident invasion
of a host, the fireman, and an
environment that raised his basic body
temperature above ninety eight point
six.
They step over to a section of the cave which has been
draped with more plastic, the lights from inside this
are giving off a cool blue light (passing by TWO
PORTABLE DRILLING RIGS which have been erected, their
pumps moving up and down like rocking horses.)
Bronschweig pushes away the plastic, revealing A MAN
lying on a gurney draped in plastic. he is hooked up to
various and sundry machines which are monitoring his
life signs.
His skin has turned almost translucent, the veins and
capillaries now clearly visible, as is his pulse. His
heartbeat sending life-sustaining blood and energy
through his body.
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
This man's still alive.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
Technically and biologically, though
he'll never recover.
The CSM is shaking his head in nervous, uneasy wonder.
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
How can this be?
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
The developing organism is using his
life energy, digesting bone and
tissue. We've just slowed the
process.
Bronschweig redirects a light so that it shines hard
into the man's face and; then we see it. Movement.
CLOSE ON MAN'S FACE
Though the man's eyes still blink occasionally, we can
actually see through his tissue and the bones in his
skull to see something IS LIVING INSIDE HIM.
ANGLE UP ON CSM AND BRONSCHWEIG
The Cigarette Smoking Man's mind is working intently on
all the possibilities, and consequences.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
Do you want me to destroy this one,
too? Before it gestates?
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
No. No...we need to try our vaccine on
it.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
And if it's unsuccessful?
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Incinerate it. Like the others.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
This man's family will want to see the
body laid to rest.
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Tell them he was trying to save the
young boy's life, and that he died
heroically like the other firemen.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
Of what?
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
They seemed to buy our story about the
Hanta virus. You'll make sure the
families are taken care of
financially, along with a sizeable
donation to the community.
(beat)
Maybe a small roadside memorial.
He watches the CSM exit, then back to the prostrate
fireman.
CLOSE ON PROSTRATE FIREMAN
There is more movement within his body. Within his chest
and neck, as if the creature gestating inside is
continuing to stretch and grow. So that now we can see
one of its BLACK EYES staring from through the clear
flesh of the fireman. An eye which BLINKS at us. As we:
CUT TO:
INT. BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL - NIGHT
Mulder and Scully appear at the end of a long hall.
Moving TOWARD CAMERA where a YOUNG NAVAL GUARD sits in
f.g. As a LEGEND appears, to establish.
Mulder and Scully moving the long distance to the
Guard's station. Where the Guard looks up at them with
military scrutiny.
YOUNG NAVAL GUARD
ID and floor you're visiting.
They both show their FBI IDs.
MULDER
We're going to the morgue.
YOUNG NAVAL GUARD
That area is currently off limits to
anyone other than authorized medical
personnel.
MULDER
On whose orders?
YOUNG NAVAL GUARD
General McAddie's.
Mulder doesn't miss a beat.
MULDER
General McAddie is who requested our
coming here. We were awakened at three
AM and told to get down here
immediately.
YOUNG NAVAL GUARD
I don't know anything about that.
MULDER
Well, call General McAddie.
YOUNG NAVAL GUARD
I don't have his number.
MULDER
They can patch you in through the
switchboard.
The Guard is nervous about this, checking his watch. He
picks up the phone, going through a large directory.
MULDER
Hey! We don't have time to dick around
here watching you demonstrate your
ignorance in the chain of command. The
order came direct from General
McAddie. Call him. We'll conduct our
business while you confirm
authorization.
Mulder is already directing Scully past the Naval Guard
who tentatively picks up the phone again.
YOUNG NAVAL GUARD
(to their backs)
Why don't you go on ahead head and
I'll confirm authorization.
MULDER
Thank you.
LEADING Mulder and Scully, moving they've pulled off a
con.
MULDER
Why is a morgue suddenly off limits on
orders of a general?
CUT TO:
INT. BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL - MORGUE FREEZER - NIGHT
TRACKING TABLE HEIGHT across gurneys where white
sheet-wrapped bodies lie. CAMERA LANDING ON Scully.
Standing next to Mulder who is undoing the peculiar
ropey stitching on the sheet used to secure the bodies.
SCULLY
This is one of the firemen who died in
Dallas?
MULDER
According to this tag.
SCULLY
And you're looking for?
SCULLY
I can tell you that without even
looking at him.
(off Mulder's look)
Conclusive organ failure due to
proximal exposure to source and flying
debris.
Scully pulls out an autopsy report that was laid on the
gurney under the body of the sheet-wrapped corpse.
SCULLY
This body has already been autopsied,
Mulder. You can tell from the way it's
been wrapped and dressed.
Undeterred, Mulder works to get the sheet off. The first
thing we notice is that he's still in his fireman's
uniform. His face looks familiar to us, not because we
know him, but because of the translucency of skin we saw
in the other fireman. (We will also notice he's
missing an arm, a leg and large part of his torso.)
MULDER
Does this fit the description you just
read me, Scully?
Scully comes around, reacting to what she sees.
SCULLY
Oh my God. This man's tissue...
Scully is quickly removing a pair of latex gloves,
stretching them on to palpate the man's tissue.
MULDER
It's like jelly.
SCULLY
There's some kind of cellular
breakdown. It's completely edematous.
She palpates the spongy skin on the man's face, neck.
Unbuttoning the uniform now, seeing:
SCULLY
And there's been no autopsy performed.
There's no Y incision here; no
internal exam.
MULDER
You're telling me the cause of death
on the report is false. That this man
didn't die from an explosion, or from
flying debris.
SCULLY
I don't know what killed this man. I'm
not sure if anybody else could claim
to either.
Off Mulder's reaction to this:
CUT TO:
INT. MORGUE - PATHOLOGY LAB - NIGHT - MINUTES LATER
The gurney with the fireman is pushed through a pair of
swinging doors into the darkened lab. Scully flips the
lights on, looking around at the giant facility.
SCULLY
(pushing him)
You knew this man didn't die at the
bomb site before we got here.
MULDER
I'd been told as much.
SCULLY
You're saying the bombing was a
cover-up. Of what?
MULDER
I don't know. But I have a hunch what
you're going to find here isn't
anything that can be categorized or
easily referenced.
SCULLY
Mulder, this is going to take some
time, and somebody's going to figure
out soon enough we're not even
supposed to be here.
(beat)
I'm in serious violation of medical
ethics.
MULDER
We're being blamed for these deaths.
Scully, I want to know what this man
died of. Don't you?
Scully stares at Mulder, then back down at the body. How
can she refuse, given the finality and the personal
appeal of the request? After a moment's hesitation, she
turns to the body, and to the tray table of tools
nearby. Resigned, if not resolved.
CUT TO:
EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - NIGHT
A LEGEND appears: WASHINGTON D.C., DUPONT CIRCLE. 4:00
AM. The street is fairly empty, save for a garbage truck
picking up the stacks of green garbage bags laid out on
the sidewalks. Then A TAXI turns off a main street,
MOVING TOWARDS US.
INT. WASHINGTON D.C. STREET - TAXI - NIGHT
OVER MULDER to the street: Where the taxi is moving
forward toward a spot where two ARLINGTON PD cruisers
are pulled up to the curb. Mulder checks the address he
has written down.
MULDER
(to the Cabbie)
I think this is it up here.
EXT. SIDE STREET - NIGHT
The taxi pulls over and Mulder exits, starting up the
steps of a walk up where the door is open.
INT. KURTZWEIL'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
There are UNIFORMED OFFICERS inside, and a DETECTIVE.
Mulder steps into an office. FOUR PAIRS of eyes give him
the once over. The Detective stepping over to him.
MULDER
Is this Dr. Kurtzweil's residence?
DETECTIVE
(suspiciously)
You got some kind of business with
him?
MULDER
I'm looking for him.
DETECTIVE
Looking for him for what?
Mulder pulls out his ID, flashes it at the Detective.
DETECTIVE
(to his partners)
Feds are looking for him, too.
(turns to Mulder)
Real nice business he's got, huh?
MULDER
What's that?
DETECTIVE
Selling naked pictures of little kids
over his computer.
Mulder nods, though this is news to him. He steps in a
little further, noticing a shelf lined with books. Their
spines all have the author's name written large: DR.
ALVIN KURTZWEIL.
Mulder picks up one of these books, with the title: THE
FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE GLOBAL DOMINATION CONSPIRACY.
DETECTIVE
You looking for him for some other
reason?
MULDER
Yeah, I had an appointment for a
pelvic examination.
They stare at Mulder like he's a sicko. He smiles and
they break into RAUCOUS LAUGHTER.
DETECTIVE
You want a call if we turn up
Kurtzweil?
MULDER
No. Don't bother.
Mulder puts the book back among the others on the shelf.
And exits. Onto:
RESUME EXT. KURTZWEIL'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
Mulder starting up the street when he notices:
MULDER'S POV
Kurtzweil has stepped from between two apartments. He's
staring at Mulder, nodding furtively to him. Then
stepping back.
RESUME MULDER
Slows, then speeds up.
EXT. SPACE BETWEEN TWO APARTMENTS - NIGHT
Mulder appears at the end of the narrow walkway, finding
Kurtzweil tucked a few yards in.
KURTZWEIL
See this bullshit...? Somebody knows
I'm talking to you.
MULDER
Not according to the men in blue.
KURTZWEIL
What is it? Kiddie porn again? Sexual
battery of a patient? I've had my
license taken away in three states.
MULDER
They want to discredit you -- for
what?
KURTZWEIL
For what? Because I'm a dangerous man.
Because I know too much about the
truth.
MULDER
You mean that apocalyptic trash you
write? I knew your name was familiar.
I just didn't know why.
KURTZWEIL
You know my work?
MULDER
(pointedly)
Dr. Kurtzweil, I'm not interested in
bigoted ideas about race or genocide.
I don't believe in the Elders of Zion,
the Knights Templar, the Bilderburg
Group or in a oneworld Jew run
government --
KURTZWEIL
I don't either, but it sure sells
books.
He says it with an ironic smile. Causing Mulder to turn
and start off. But Kurtzweil hurries to grab him, to
prevent this.
KURTZWEIL
I was right about Dallas. Wasn't I,
Agent Mulder?
MULDER
How?
KURTZWEIL
I picked up the historical document of
the venality and hypocrisy of the
American government. The daily
newspaper.
MULDER
You said the firemen and the boy were
found in the temporary offices of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Why?
KURTZWEIL
According to the newspaper, FEMA had
been called out to manage an outbreak
of the Hanta virus. Are you familiar
with the Hanta virus, Agent Mulder?
MULDER
It was a deadly virus spread by field
mice in the Southwest U.S. several
years ago.
KURTZWEIL
And are you familiar with FEMA? What
the Federal Emergency Management
Agency's real power is? FEMA allows
the White House to suspend
constitutional government upon
declaration of a national emergency.
To create a non-elected government.
Think about that.
(beat)
What is an agency with such broad
sweeping power doing managing a small
viral outbreak in suburban Texas?
MULDER
Are you saying it wasn't such a small
outbreak?
Kurtzweil is getting intense now.
KURTZWEIL
I'm saying it wasn't the Hanta virus.
They are both given a start when a POLICE CRUISER rolls
by on the street, giving a burp of its siren. It rolls
past as the two men tuck in tighter.
MULDER
What was it?
KURTZWEIL
When we were young men in the
military, your father and I were
recruited for a project. They told us
it was biological warfare. A virus.
There were rumors about its origins.
MULDER
What killed those men?
KURTZWEIL
What killed them I won't even write
about. I tell you, they'd do more than
just harass me. They have the future
to protect.
MULDER
I'll know soon enough.
KURTZWEIL
(worked up)
What killed those men can't be
identified in simple medical terms. My
god, we can't even wrap our minds
around something as obvious as HIV.
We have no context for what killed
those men, or any appreciation of the
scale in which it will be unleashed in
the future. Of how it will be
transmitted; of the environmental
factors involved.
MULDER
A plague?
KURTZWEIL
The plague to end all plagues, Agent
Mulder. A silent weapon for a quiet
war. The systematic release of an
indiscriminate 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 was fighting gooks and commies
these men have been secretly
negotiating a planned Armageddon.
MULDER
Negotiating with whom?
KURTZWEIL
I think you know. The timetable has
been set. It will happen on a holiday,
when people are away from their homes.
When our elected officials are at
their resorts or out of the country.
The President will declare a state of
emergency, at which time all federal
agencies, all government will come
under the power of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. FEMA,
Agent Mulder. The secret government.
MULDER
And they tell me I'm paranoid.
KURTZWEIL
Something's gone wrong -- something
unanticipated. Go back to Dallas and
dig. Or you're only going to find out
like the rest of the country, Agent
Mulder. When it's too late.
Kurtzweil turns, starts off. Mulder stares after him.
Then:
MULDER
How can I reach you?
KURTZWEIL
You can't.
Mulder moves to catch up to Kurtzweil, pulling out his
cell phone. Kurtzweil stops, turns. Truly and intensely
paranoid. Mulder makes him take the cell phone.
MULDER
No calling Hawaii.
Mulder turns and moves back out onto the street.
CUT TO:
INT. MORGUE - PATHOLOGY LAB - NIGHT
Agent Scully wears a surgical mask, latex gloves.
Working on the body of the fireman...when she reacts to
a NOISE. Doors opening, closing somewhere o.s. CAMERA
MEDIUM WHIPS to a door where she and Mulder entered the
morgue. Where...the Young Naval Guard and TWO MPs push
through and enter. They stand looking at:
THEIR POV
Where Scully stood moments ago, there is now just an
unattended gurney. A sheet over the fireman's body.
Scully is gone.
RESUME YOUNG NAVAL GUARD, MPs
Tense. Listening, watchful. Moving into the room.
CUT TO:
INT. BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL - MORGUE FREEZER - NIGHT
Scully enters the space where she and Mulder found the
fireman's body. Trying to quietly click the door shut.
Standing now near the door, tense, listening. When the
CHIRPING of her cell phone breaks the tense silence. She
pats frantically at her coat, trying to get it answered
before it rings again. Unsuccessfully. Finally getting
a hold of it and hitting the send button. Scully sits
breathing heavy, nervous breaths -- waiting for the
Young Naval Guard to come running in.
MULDER'S VOICE (FILTER)
Scully...?
She puts the phone slowly up to her face.
SCULLY
(low whisper)
Yeah.
INTERCUT WITH:
INT. PHONE BOOTH - WASHINGTON D.C. - MORNING
Mulder's at the pay phone.
MULDER
Why are you whispering?
SCULLY
I can't really talk right now.
MULDER
What did you find?
SCULLY
Evidence of a massive infection.
MULDER
What kind of infection?
SCULLY
I don't know.
MULDER
Scully -- listen to me. I'm going
home, then I'm booking a flight to
Dallas. I'm getting you a ticket,
too.
SCULLY
Mulder --
MULDER
I need you there with me. I need your
expertise on this. The bomb we found
was meant to destroy those bodies and
whatever they were infected by.
SCULLY
I've got a hearing tomorrow --
MULDER
-- I'll have you back for it, Scully.
Maybe with evidence that could blow
that meeting away.
SCULLY
Mulder -- I can't -- I'm already way
past the point of common sense here
--
Scully hears VOICES in the hall outside the freezer.
CUT TO:
MULDER
MULDER
Scully...? Hello...?
But the line OFF, goes dead. Mulder hangs up the
phone, frustrated. Exits the booth in a hurry.
CUT TO:
INT. BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL - MORGUE FREEZER - NIGHT
The door opens and the Young Naval Guard steps inside,
followed by the MPs. Moving into the room.
LOW ANGLE - TRACKING
with the Naval Guard's feet as they pass by the rolling
carts on which bodies are laid. TRACKING to find SCULLY,
where she hides under one of the carts. Huddled and
cold.
The Guard's feet stop near here. He stands motionless
for a moment, then moves off. HOLD her until the door
slams shut.
INT. FBI OFFICE - DALLAS - MORNING - MULDER
enters a forensics lab with a FIELD AGENT. A LEGEND
reads: FBI FIELD OFFICE, DALLAS : 11:20 AM.
FIELD AGENT
You're looking for what amounts to a
needle in a haystack. I'm afraid the
explosion was so devastating there
hasn't been a whole lot we've been
able to put together just yet.
They are walking amid BOXES of evidence. STACKS of
debris. There are FORENSIC TECHS sorting through this
material. It looks like the most tedious and painstaking
job in the world.
MULDER
I'm looking for anything out of the
ordinary. Maybe something from the
FEMA offices where the bodies were
found.
FIELD AGENT
We weren't expecting to find those
remains, of course. They went right
off to Washington.
MULDER
Was there anything in those offices
that didn't go to D.C.?
FIELD AGENT
Some bone fragments came up in the
sift this morning. We thought there'd
been another fatality, but we found
out FEMA had recovered them from an
archeological site out of town.
MULDER
Have you examined them?
FIELD AGENT
No. Just fossils, far as I know.
Mulder is nodding, when both men look off at something
that's caught their attention o.s.
MULDER
I'd like this person to take a look,
if you don't mind.
THEIR POV - AGENT SCULLY
Standing in the doorway to the lab. She looks at Mulder
as if she's come in spite of her misgivings. Moving
toward them now.
FIELD AGENT
Let me just see if I can lay my hands
on what you're looking for.
The Field Agent nods to Scully as he passes, exiting
deeper into the room. Leaving Mulder and Scully by
themselves momentarily.
MULDER
You said you weren't coming?
SCULLY
I wasn't planning on it. Particularly
after spending a half hour in cold
storage this morning. But I got a
better look at the blood and tissue
samples I took from the firemen.
MULDER
What did you find?
SCULLY
(voice lowering pointedly)
Something I couldn't show to anyone
else. Not without more information.
And not without causing the kind of
attention I'd just as soon avoid right
now.
(off Mulder's look)
The virus those men were infected with
contains a protein coat I've never
seen before. What it did to them it
did extremely fast. And unlike the
AIDS virus or any other aggressive
strain, it survives very nicely
outside the body.
MULDER
How was it contracted?
SCULLY
That I don't know. But if it's through
simple contact of blood to blood, and
if it doesn't respond to conventional
treatments, it could be a serious
health threat.
Mulder's reaction is postponed, or at least subdued by
the reappearance of the field agent.
FIELD AGENT
Like I said, these are fossils, and
they weren't near the blast center, so
they aren't going to tell you much.
SCULLY
May I?
He offers Scully the small glass vials in which the bone
fragments have been separated. She takes them, looking
at them on her way over to the microscope. Tapping out a
tiny fragment onto the viewing bed. She puts her eyes
down to the stereoscope eyepieces, then almost
immediately looks up at Mulder who translates this look
almost instantly.
MULDER
You said you knew the location of the
archeological site where these were
found.
FIELD AGENT
Show you right on a map.
Off Mulder and Scully's traded looks:
CUT TO:
EXT. SMALL PUBLIC PARK - WEST TEXAS - DAY
The domed white tent is still in place, the fleet of
trucks and equipment surrounding it unmanned. Several
large sound-dampened generators still hum away, but the
work being done here would be a mystery to anyone who
didn't have access to the tent.
CUT TO:
INT. DOMED TENT - DAY
An electric Bobcat-like bulldozer maneuvers a very high
tech-looking CLEAR CONTAINER to the edge of the earthen
hole. The container has monitors and gauges on it,
oxygen tanks and what looks like a circulation
refrigeration unit. A self-contained life support
system. The inside of the container is covered with a
thin layer of frost.
When the small bulldozer gets the container over near
the hole, several technicians lift it down off the
shovel, hand carrying it toward the hole opening. As Dr.
Bronschweig APPEARS, moving to a ladder that leads down
into the hole. He's dressed in a haz-mat suit, with the
hood off.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
I need to have those settings checked
and re-set. I need a steady minus two
Celsius through the transfer of the
body, after I administer the vaccine.
The men nod to Bronschweig, begin checking the settings
as Bronschweig puts his hood on, starts down into the
hole, through the clear hatch.
INT. SMALLER ICE CAVE - DAY
The refrigeration vents are still pumping in arctic air
when Dr. Bronschweig appears descending a fixed ladder.
It is dark in here, save for the ice blue glow of light
coming from the plastic draped area where we saw the
fireman acting as an incubator/host for some kind of
organism growing inside him.
Bronschweig steps over to this area, moves aside the
plastic drapery to enter.
ANGLE INSIDE, PLASTIC LINED AREA
Where the body of the fireman is still inside the
quarantine bubble litter in f.g. Bronschweig takes out of
his pocket a SYRINGE and an AMPULE. Turning now to the
body. Stepping to it. Moving a work light, as he had
done for the Cigarette Smoking Man, so that it shines on
the face of the fireman. But when he does this,
Bronschweig nearly JUMPS, his breath stolen away.
Reacting to:
ANGLE ON FIREMAN'S BODY
The chest and torso have imploded. It has been turned
into a muddy mass of blood-stained jelly; bone and
tissue melted into an oozing mass which has sunken due
to the fact that the creature which was inside is now
gone.
CAMERA WHIPS from Bronschweig to the wall. To the
temperature gauge which reads about 6 degrees Celsius.
WHIPPING BACK to Bronschweig who is now panicked.
INTERCUT WITH:
INT. DOMED TENT - DAY
ANGLE DOWN ON EARTHEN HOLE, where the Technicians
Bronschweig was speaking to minutes ago react to
Bronschweig's MUFFLED VOICE. He's down below them in the
cave, looking up.
Pulling his haz-mat hood off. Yelling up to them.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
It's gone!
TECHNICIAN
It's what?
OVER THE TECHNICIANS TO BRONSCHWEIG DOWN BELOW
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
It's left the body. I think it's
gestated --
Bronschweig is starting up the ladder when something
stops him.
RESUME INT. ICE CAVE
CREATURE'S POV OF BRONSCHWEIG
He stands frozen on the ladder, squinting into the
darkness.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
Wait -- I see it --
BRONSCHWEIG'S POV
In the shadows there is movement, the creature edging
into the light cast from the draped area. We see it is
fully formed -- a replica of the Creature we saw at the
opening of our story. Though it does not make any kind
of aggressive move. As if, newborn, it is tentative.
RESUME BRONSCHWEIG - CREATURE'S POV
He remains standing on a rung of the ladder for a
moment, then takes a gentle step back down to the
ground.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
(nervous wonder)
Oh my god. Oh my god.
TECHNICIAN
You see it?
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
Yes. It's...amazing. You want to get
down here --
(sotto to himself)
Jesus Lord...so much for little green
men.
Dr. Bronschweig moves shakily to put the syringe in the
ampule again...when, suddenly, the Creature STRIKES.
CAMERA RUSHING FORWARD TO BRONSCHWEIG.
MATCH CUT TO:
OVERHEAD ANGLE - OVER THE TECHNICIANS
As the Creature slams into Bronschweig, knocking him out
of the line of sight from the top of the earthen hole.
There are SCREAMS OF PAIN from Bronschweig, then they
abate.
RESUME INT. ICE CAVE
Bronschweig can be heard, but not clearly seen. He is in
the shadows himself now.
Trying to pick himself up, and when he manages to do
this, teetering back into the light we see that he is
bloodied. He is hurt, injured. Making his way back
toward the patch of light that comes from the hole
above. Hoping to see that help is on its way, while
keeping a watchful, wary and worried eye on the shadows,
for another attack by the Creature.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
Hey -- I need help.
But the Technicians looking down on him offer him
nothing of the sort. All they do is quickly close the
clear hatch that seals Bronschweig inside the cave.
DR. BRONSCHWEIG
Hey!
But he gets no answer, climbing the ladder shakily. A
moment later the first Bobcat shovel-full of dirt falls
onto the clear hatch and partially obscures the light.
They are burying Bronschweig alive.
INT. DOMED TENT - DAY
ANGLE DOWN ON BRONSCHWEIG through the glass hatch. His
SCREAMS continue. ADJUSTING to the small bulldozer which
is quickly hauling the mound of excavated earth into the
hole from which it came. While, all around, there is a
hive of activity. Men running everywhere.
CUT TO:
RESUME INT. ICE CAVE
Bronschweig reacts in silent horror now, only to turn in
further horror when he feels the impending attack of:
THE CREATURE
Right behind and just below him. Its grotesque features
in momentary high resolution, BEFORE IT ATTACKS CAMERA.
Over and over, savaging Bronschweig in a violent fury.
Its hideous teeth tearing at his flesh - AT CAMERA -
driving him off the ladder where the attack continues in
momentary glimpses of teeth, of bloody flesh, and of
OILY BLACK BLOOD being spattered about. At the
height of the violence we hear Bronschweig SCREAM.
Matching the wound of this, as we:
CUT TO:
EXT. ESTATE SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE LONDON - EARLY EVENING
A CHILD'S SCREAM OF JOY. ENGLISH CHILDREN are playing
tag or some kind of children's game in the
well-manicured garden of a man who the CAMERA FINDS IN
F.G. -- the man we have come to know as THE
WELL-MANICURED MAN. He is also a member of the syndicate
running "The Project", though his venality is cloaked in
civility and statesmanship. Right now he's watching the
children from the back steps of his mansion, charmed by
their game. When he is called by someone o.s.
VALET'S VOICE
Sir -- you have a call.
The Well-Manicured Man turns to see:
HIS VALET
Holds the door. After a moment the W.M.M. enters past
the Valet. As the screams of the children continue to
rise and fall.
CUT TO:
INT. SUBURBAN LONDON ESTATE - A BEAUTIFUL STUDY -
EVENING
The Well-Manicured Man enters, picks up a blinking line.
Through a window he can still see the children playing.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Yes.
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
(FILTER)
We have a situation. The members are
assembling.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Is it an emergency?
INTERCUT WITH TIGHT CSM AT INT. KENSINGTON BUILDING
(NEXT LOC.)
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Yes. A meeting is set. Tonight in
London, to determine a course.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Who called this meeting?
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Strughold. He's just gotten on a plane
in Tunis.
This pronouncement has the power of ending any further
questions. An immediate sense of gravity of the
situation. The W.M.M. hangs up, moves to the window
where he sees some of the HELP is running from the
house. The children have all gathered around a BOY who
seems to have hurt himself. He's lifted and being
carried by the man who's called the W.M.M. into the
house.
Off the Well-Manicured Man's concern, we:
CUT TO:
EXT. LONDON STREET - NIGHT
A discreet Town Car pulls up out front an understated
building in a better West End neighborhood. A driver
exits coming around for the Well-Manicured Man who is
already exiting, moving to the building. As a LEGEND
appears: KENSINGTON, LONDON: 8:01 PM.
CUT TO:
INT. KENSINGTON BUILDING - NIGHT
The Well-Manicured Man is admitted by a Valet. The
interior has the well-heeled look of money, or a finely
appointed residence that no one lives in. The Valet
takes the W.M.M.'s coat.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Has Strughold arrived?
VALET
They're in the library.
He leads the W.M.M. down a hall, to:
INT. LARGE STATELY LIBRARY - NIGHT
A GROUP OF MEN are standing, looking at something on a
TV monitor. A surveillance video. They turn when the
W.M.M. enters. CAMERA FAVORING A SMALL LEAN MAN with
close-cropped hair.
He is at once elegant and imposing with eyes that hold
you with laser-like acuity. He is CONRAD STRUGHOLD.
The others are of various ethnicities, tailored and
dignified. This might be a collection of U.N. delegates.
Indeed some are.
Their business here, however, doesn't represent anyone's
interests but their own. As tipped by the attendance of
a GROUP ELDER from the U.S. who we've come to know.
But, more importantly, by the Cigarette Smoking Man who
holds the VCR remote. He pauses the picture.
STRUGHOLD
We began to worry. Some of us have
traveled so far, and you are the last
to arrive.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
I'm sorry. My grandson fell and broke
his leg.
The non-response to this has the same effect as a
reprimand. But the W.M.M. will not apologize of kowtow.
STRUGHOLD
While we've been made to wait, we've
watched surveillance tapes which have
raised more concerns.
The Well-Manicured Man glances to the TV, sees the
frame paused.
HIS POV OF TV MONITOR
Where Mulder and Scully's faces are seen in a hallway
that we recognize as the Bethesda Naval Hospital.
RESUME WELL-MANICURED MAN
WELL-MANICURED MAN
More concerns than that?
STRUGHOLD
We've been forced to reassess our role
in Colonization by new facts of
biology which have presented
themselves.
GROUP ELDER
(speaking up)
The virus has mutated.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
On its own?
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Its effect on the host has changed.
The virus no longer just invades the
brain as a controlling organism. It's
developed a way to modify the host
body.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Into what?
STRUGHOLD
A new extraterrestrial biological
entity.
It takes a moment to sink in. The weight of this fact.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
My god...
STRUGHOLD
The geometry of mass infection
presents certain conceptual
re-evaluations for us. About our place
in their Colonization.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
This isn't Colonization, it's
spontaneous repopulation. All our
work... if it's true, then they've
been using us all along. We've been
laboring under a lie!
2ND ELDER
It could be an isolated case.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
How can we know?!
STRUGHOLD
We're going to tell them what we've
found. What we've learned. Turn over a
body infected with the gestating
organism.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
In hope of what? Learning that it's
true?! That we are nothing more than
digestives for the creation of a new
race of alien lifeforms?!
STRUGHOLD
Let me remind you who is the new race.
And who is the old.
(beat)
What could be gained by withholding
anything from them; By pretending to
ignorance? Our knowledge may forestall
their plans to step up the timetable.
To start Colonization early.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
And if it doesn't? By cooperating now
we're but beggars to our demise! Our
ignorance was in cooperating with the
Colonists at all.
STRUGHOLD
Cooperation is our only chance of
saving ourselves.
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
They still need us to carry out their
preparations.
STRUGHOLD
We'll continue to use them as they do
us. If only to play for more time, to
continue work on our vaccine.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Our vaccine may have no effect!
STRUGHOLD
Well, without a cure for the virus,
we're nothing more than digestives
anyway.
All eyes go to the Well-Manicured Man. He is respected,
if not the odd man out in this room. But he is all
restrained anger now.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
My lateness may have well been
absence. A course has already been
taken.
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
There are complications.
He turns back to the TV monitor where Mulder and Scully
remain frozen on the screen.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Do they know?
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Mulder was in Dallas when we were
trying to dispose of evidence. He's
gone back there again. Someone has
tipped him.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Who?
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Kurtzweil, we think.
STRUGHOLD
We've allowed this man his freedom.
His books have actually helped us to
facilitate plausible denial. Has he
outlived his usefulness to us?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
No one believes Kurtzweil or his
books. He's a toiler. A crank.
STRUGHOLD
And Mulder?
ELDER
Our new situation makes us vulnerable.
If he learns information as we do, he
could jeopardize the Project's
secrecy.
2ND ELDER
Control of information means control
of Mulder.
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
I can control Mulder. I've always
controlled Mulder.
STRUGHOLD
This may take another approach.
He says this, casting his look toward the Well-Manicured
Man. A look of cold malevolence. The W.M.M.'s reaction
is disdain.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
You can't kill Mulder. He's got too
much light on him.
STRUGHOLD
You need not kill a man to destroy
him.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
(personalizing the
inference)
No, you need only take away what is
most precious to him.
HARD CUT TO:
EXT. SMALL PUBLIC PARK - CENTRAL TEXAS - DAY
AGENT SCULLY
She stands against a backdrop of Texas flatland,
squinting into the sun. Shaking her head.
SCULLY
I don't know, Mulder...
We are:
WIDE ANGLE REVERSE, TO INCLUDE MULDER, standing in the
middle of a park, replete with jungle gyms, playground
equipment. All brand spanking new. They are standing
right where there had once been a hard scrabble, parched
and barren little field. Where the earthen hole had been
dug by the young boys. And what had later been the site
of so much activity by the group of scientists. But
where there's now a park, thick green grass covering the
parch of ground, including the spot where the hole had
been.
SCULLY
He didn't mention a park.
MULDER
This is where he marked on the map,
Scully. Where he says those fossils
were unearthed.
SCULLY
I don't see any evidence of an
archeological or any other kind of
digsite. Not even a sewer or a storm
drain.
Mulder scans the area, confounded. Shaking his head as
they walk.
MULDER
You're sure the fossils you looked at
showed the same signs of deterioration
you saw in the fireman's body in the
morgue?
SCULLY
(nodding)
The bone was porous, as if the virus
of the causative microbe were
digesting it.
MULDER
And you've never seen anything like
that?
SCULLY
No. It didn't show up on any of the
immunohistochemical tests --
Mulder is listening to all this while looking down at
his feet:
MULDER
This looks like new grass to you?
SCULLY
It looks pretty green for this
climate.
Mulder stops, kneels, touches the thick green carpet of
turf. He digs around, lifting up a corner of a new
square.
MULDER
Ground's dry about an inch down.
Somebody just laid this down. Very
recently, I'd say.
SCULLY
(looking off)
All the equipment is brand new.
MULDER
No irrigation system. Somebody's
covering their tracks.
They both turn, looking at something that's caught their
attention on the street where their rental car is
parked. Three kids, all of whom we recognize from
earlier. Stevie's "friends".
Tooling down the street on new BMX bikes. Reacting to
Mulder's loud WHISTLE. This stops them, staring at
Mulder blankly across the distance.
MULDER
Hey!
They don't answer. Just keep staring, squinting into the
sun. Mulder and Scully start walking toward them.
SCULLY
Do you live around here?
2ND BOY
Yeah.
As the Agents approach.
MULDER
You see anybody digging here?
The kids don't answer quickly.
2ND BOY
Not supposed to talk about it.
SCULLY
You're not supposed to talk about it?
Who told you that?
3RD BOY
Nobody.
MULDER
Nobody. Same nobody who put this park
in? That new equipment...
(off the boys guilty looks)
They buy you these bikes?
The kids shift uncomfortably.
SCULLY
I think you better tell us.
2ND BOY
We don't even know you.
SCULLY
Well, we're FBI agents.
2ND BOY
You're not FBI agents.
MULDER
How do you know?
2ND BOY
Cause FBI agents wear like suits and
goofy ties. And dresses like my mom
wears to church. Like on that one
show.
Mulder and Scully pull their badges. The kids' mouths
drop.
MULDER
Maybe you've been watching too much
TV.
3RD BOY
They all left twenty minutes ago.
4TH BOY
Going that way.
The kids all pointing in the same direction.
EXT. CENTRAL TEXAS HIGHWAY - LATE DAY
As Mulder and Scully's rental car RACES by at high
speed.
CUT TO:
INT. MULDER AND SCULLY'S RENTAL CAR - DAY - CONTINUOUS
Mulder at the wheel, foot to the floor. Scully's got a
map out. The mood is urgent, tense.
MULDER
Unmarked tanker trucks... what are
archaeologists hauling out in tanker
trucks?
SCULLY
I don't know, Mulder.
MULDER
And where are they going with it?
SCULLY
That's the first question to answer,
if we're going to find them.
CUT BACK TO:
EXT. CENTRAL HIGHWAY - LATE DAY
Mulder slows down to a stop. They've come to a three-way
intersection in the middle of absolutely nowhere that
offers them three choices. The car sits idling for
several beats.
RESUME INT. RENTAL CAR
Mulder's got his hand on his face rubbing his eyes.
MULDER
What are my choices?
SCULLY
About a hundred miles of nothing in
each direction.
MULDER
Where would they be going?
SCULLY
We've got two choices. One of them is
wrong.
They are both looking in different directions. The car
idling.
MULDER
You think they went left?
SCULLY
I don't know why I think they went
right.
A few moments of silence. Then Mulder steps on the gas
and goes straight. Heading out onto the only unpaved
road. Accelerating away.
Scully looks at him, wondering. As they bump along at
speed. Mulder won't look at her for a few moments. Then,
turning to her:
MULDER
Five years together -- how many times
have I been wrong.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. TEXAS HIGHWAY - NIGHT
HEADLIGHTS appear in the distance on a long, dusty
stretch of road. GROWING as they approach, then coming
to a stop in a cloud of dust as they move into f.g.
Where a LINE OF FENCEPOSTS, BARBWIRE blocks their path.
As the car brakes, the passenger door opens and Scully
exits. A hot Texas wind blows. A dog is BARKING
somewhere. Scully walks into the headlight wash, looking
at a sign on the fence.
After a moment, the driver's door opens and Mulder
exits.
MULDER
Hey, I was right about the bomb,
wasn't I?
SCULLY
This is great. This is fitting.
REVERSE ON SCENE
On the fence sign, painted in crude letters, are the
words: SOME HAVE TRIED, SOME HAVE DIED. TURN BACK -- NO
TRESPASSING.
MULDER
What?
SCULLY
I've got to be in Washington D.C. in
eleven hours for a hearing -- the
outcome of which might possibly affect
one of the biggest decisions of my
life. And here I am standing out in
the middle of nowhere Texas, chasing
phantom tanker trucks.
MULDER
We're not chasing trucks, we're
chasing evidence --
SCULLY
-- of what exactly?!
MULDER
That bomb in Dallas was allowed to go
off, to hide something: bodies
infected with a virus you detected
yourself.
SCULLY
They haul gas in tanker trucks, they
haul oil in tanker trucks -- they
don't haul viruses in tanker trucks.
MULDER
Yeah, well they may this one.
SCULLY
What do you mean by haul?
(off his reaction)
What are you not telling me here?
MULDER
This virus -- it...
(afraid to say)
SCULLY
Mulder --
MULDER
It may be extraterrestrial.
SCULLY
I don't believe this. I don't fucking
believe this.
(reaching her limit of
impatience)
Y'know, I've been here... I've been
here one too many times with you,
Mulder.
MULDER
Been where?
SCULLY
Pounding down some dirt road in the
middle of the night. Chasing some
elusive truth on a dim hope, only to
find myself standing right where I am
right now: at another dead end --
As she says this A BELL starts to sound. A flashing
light hits Mulder and Scully. They both turn to see:
HIGH ANGLE OVER A RAILROAD CROSSING SIGN
Sitting all by its lonely self. No swinging arms or
gate. Just one little sign between Mulder and Scully and
their car.
CAMERA PANNING to the light of a locomotive speeding
toward us.
WIDE ANGLE OVER TRACKS TO MULDER AND SCULLY
They move toward their car, but the train is coming
fast. Mulder and Scully stop and wait, watching the
train. As the engine breaks frame, eclipsing Mulder and
Scully from view. And as it passes by we see TWO VERY
FAMILIAR WHITE TANKERS loaded piggyback atop flat bed
cars.
The train, which is not much longer than this, passes.
And Mulder and Scully make a mad dash for their car. The
lights come on and Mulder swings the vehicle into a hard
accelerating turn, taking the spoke of the intersection
that parallels the tracks. As the car hauls ass after
the train, we:
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. OPPOSITE END OF MOUNTAIN PASS - NIGHT
The rails come up a grade where they appear out of a
long bending turn. Exiting the mountain pass near the
summit of the mountain. And now HEADLIGHTS appear,
bouncing toward us. It's Mulder and Scully's rental
chugging up the grade.
And now pulling to a stop as it REACHES CAMERA. Then the
car doors open and Mulder and Scully exit. Putting
jackets against the cold desert night. Running over the
gravel on the rail bed into sharp f.g.
SCULLY
What do you think it is?
MULDER
I have no idea.
They start out toward it anyway, whatever it is. But the
image that we see next might cause us to ask the same
question.
REVERSE ANGLE -- MULDER AND SCULLY'S FORMER POV
The Agents are moving off the tracks now, picking their
way toward the horizon where, at the edge of the great
plateau that lays out before them, there are TWO GIANT
GLOWING WHITE DOMES.
It is otherwise pitch dark out, almost giving the
impression that the domes are floating.
It would give the distinct impression of
otherworldliness, if we hadn't seen a similar, smaller
glowing dome over the dirt field where the boys found
the skull. And if we could not see the lights of the
TRAIN rolling to a stop near the mysterious domes.
CUT TO:
EXT. GREAT PLATEAU - NIGHT - HIGH WIDE ANGLE
SLOWLY CRANING DOWN as Mulder and Scully move through
the low scrub of the high desert. Moving towards us as
CAMERA CONTINUES ITS SLOW CRANE DOWN, REVEALING in f.g.
the tops of CORN STALKS (yes, corn stalks.) What is the
perimeter edge of:
REVERSE CRANE DOWN (TO MATCH)
Acres and acres of corn fields, laying out before us in
the dark night. Running all the way to the WHITE DOMED
TENTS in the b.g.
Mulder and Scully enter the perimeter edge, disappearing
into:
EXT. ACRES OF CORN - NIGHT
TRACKING WITH Mulder and Scully as they move through the
field.
SCULLY
This is weird, Mulder.
MULDER
Very weird.
SCULLY
Any thoughts on why anybody'd be
growing corn in the middle of the
desert?
MULDER
Not unless those are giant Jiffy Pop
containers out there.
CONTINUE TRACKING as they move through the tall uniform
rows.
ANGLE BEHIND THE AGENTS
Shooting down the long straight rows. CRANING UP to
REVEAL DOMES once again. Like space ships that have
landed.
CUT TO:
OPPOSITE PERIMETER OF THE FIELD OF CORN
The Agents exit the edge of the crop field. They have
come upon the glowing tents now. Tall and pillowy
against the dark sky.
There is no evidence of anyone about. No sound, no
signs.
Mulder and Scully stand at the edge of the field for a
moment. Then move cautiously across an open area to one
of the domes.
CUT TO:
INT. WHITE DOME TENT - NIGHT
Mulder pulls open the steel door leading in. It opens
with a SUCKING SOUND which suggests the interior is
pressurized. And as he and Scully step in -- they both
JUMP when LARGE FANS just overhead hit them both with
hard blasts of air.
Stepping quickly out of the downward blasting air, into
the still silence of the space beyond.
SCULLY
Cool in here. Temperature's being
regulated.
MULDER
For the purpose of what?
HIGH OVERHEAD ANGLE
Our view is down through the crosswires and cables that
create the tension support. The effect is a combination
of simplicity and perfect function. Stark and high tech.
The flooring is gray and flat, featureless. But we don't
yet see from this angle exactly what the white domed
tent houses.
Though the air is still and there is no movement of any
kind, there is a sound that permeates the interior. A
STEADY HUM. Almost electrical hum, but different.
Mulder and Scully move together toward the middle of the
space.
WIDE ON TENT - MULDER AND SCULLY'S POV
Laid out in a grid, low to the ground, are what look
like BOXES. Fixed in place like roof vents, except these
are on the floor, no more than three feet tall, and
about the same measure square.
NEW ANGLE - TRACKING WITH MULDER AND SCULLY
As they continue to move cautiously, walking out into
the grid of box-shaped objects. Coming to the center of
the capacious, arena-sized space. Standing over one of
the mysterious boxes, which we now see have LOUVERED
TOPS. The louvers, however, are shut so that whatever is
inside the boxes cannot be seen.
SCULLY
I think we're on top of something. I
think these are some kind of venting.
Mulder lays his head and ear to the top of the box.
MULDER
You hear that?
SCULLY
I hear the humming. Like electricity.
High voltage maybe.
MULDER
Maybe. Maybe not.
Scully looks skyward.
SCULLY
What do you think those are for?
Mulder takes his ear off the box, looking up now, too.
THEIR POV
At the top of the dome are two LARGE corresponding
LOUVER VENTS.
RESUME MULDER AND SCULLY
Looking up at these vents.
CUT TO:
INT. WHITE DOME TENT - NIGHT
HIGH WIDE ANGLE OVER MULDER AND SCULLY, staring up JUST
PAST CAMERA at the louvered vents at top center of the
tent. When A LOUD METALLIC NOISE makes them jump.
AGENTS POV THE LOUVERED VENTS ABOVE THEM
One of the vents is opening automatically, its large
metal louvers straining from their flat closed position
into an up-and-down open position. When this is
complete, the SECOND LOUVER does the same.
The straining sound of galvanized metal-on-metal.
LOW ANGLE ON MULDER AND SCULLY
As Mulder turns his look from the ceiling back down to
the mysterious box they're standing next to. Something
occurs to him. Something frightening.
MULDER
Scully....?
SCULLY
Yeah...?
MULDER
Run.
Mulder grabs her hand, pulling her along. Though she
doesn't know why. Or what's about to happen. TRACKING
FAST WITH THEM as Mulder leads her back toward the door
they entered, which is a good hundred yards away.
SCULLY
(yelling, on the run)
What are you doing?
MULDER
(yelling back)
Come on!
When the LOUVERED VENTS on all the low grid-arranged
boxes OPEN IN DOMINO-LIKE SUCCESSION -- out of them
pouring THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF BEES, rapidly filling
the atmosphere of the domed space.
As if the insects are being shot out of non-stop
cannons.
HIGH ANGLE
THICK STREAMS of bees head RIGHT AT CAMERA, flying for
the open louvers at the top of the dome. As Mulder and
Scully run for it down below.
TRACKING WITH MULDER AND SCULLY
Scully's hand slipping from Mulder's as she pulls her
jacket up over her head. Mulder doing the same now,
ducking his head inside his own jacket. The Agents are
slowed by the bees but still make their zigzag way
toward the door -- bees clinging to their clothes. But
motion seems to be the key.
As Mulder RUNS TOWARD CAMERA -- where the downward blast
of air knocks all the bees off him. In the b.g., we see
that Scully has fallen behind. Still running, but losing
her way in the process, losing her bearings as the
thickening swarm of bees descends.
CLOSE ON SCULLY
When Mulder enters frame, jacket pulled over his head
again. Taking Scully by the back of her coat and
swinging her toward the direction of the door.
Whipsnapping her the rest of the distance to the
doorfans. Following right behind her as the fans
BLASTING them and the Agents continue right out the
doors. To:
EXT. WHITE DOMED TENT - NIGHT
Scully and Mulder comes blasting out themselves now, but
they haven't even had time to catch their breaths when
they react to MOVEMENT. Something coming at them in the
night.
THEIR POV'S - STRAIGHT DOWN THE ROWS OF DOMED TENTS
Where BRIGHT BEAMS BLAST ON, moving fast toward them.
The RUSHING WHIR of the turbine engines of the unmarked
choppers. The bright beams skimming across the ground
toward Mulder and Scully, traveling right along the
edges of ends of the white domed tents. Threatening to
spot the Agents, unless they -- RUN.
And they do -- bolting just as the beams and the
helicopters blast over the spot they held just moments
before. Running to:
EXT. ACRES OF CORN - NIGHT - MULDER AND SCULLY - VARIOUS
HANDHELD
Running flat out now, knocking away the stalks and
leaves that block their way.
Following and leading shots.
POVs and Tracking shots.
And chasing angles, as the Agents run through the only
cover they've got. As:
ANGLE JUST OVER THE TOP OF CROPS
The unmarked helicopters swoop right overhead, their
BRIGHT SPOTLIGHTS searching and cutting through the
cornrows. As the Agents zig and zag just out of the
discovering beams. As the choppers zoom right over their
heads.
REVERSE ON CHOPPERS
Traversing the field, then doing sharp banking turns and
swooping back over the field now in low drifting hovers.
The wash from the blades knocking the corn stalks down
so as to reveal anything hidden within.
The bright spots making sure that nothing might escape
detection.
LOW ANGLE - CAMERA SEARCHING AND FINDING SCULLY
as she runs up INTO FRAME. She's lost sight of:
SCULLY
Mulder?!
ANGLE ELSEWHERE ON MULDER
As he too runs to a stop. Hearing his name.
MULDER
Scully?!
RESUME SCULLY
Reacting to the sound of her name, but there's no time
to find her bearings on Mulder. Not before she has to
take flight again. As one of the choppers appears
overhead, hovering into view. Knocking the corn down in
a path moving straight toward her.
CAMERA LEADING HER as she runs from the oncoming craft.
PASSING CAMERA to the left, as the chopper passes CAMERA
RIGHT.
CUT TO:
TRACKING FAST WITH MULDER
Beating his way through the corn like Bomba through the
jungle.
Matching this action, as Mulder runs toward us. When one
of the unmarked helicopters BREAKS INTO FRAME in an
intersecting path, its BEAM passing right over Mulder
and ILLUMINATING HIM. But while it doesn't slow Mulder
down, the helicopter maneuvers into a hard banking turn,
sweeping over the far end of the corn field and heading
RIGHT BACK AT MULDER - AT US.
CUT TO:
NEW LOW ANGLE ON EDGE OF CORN FIELD
Where Mulder bursts out of the perimeter, turning on a
quick dime and running an out pattern, just before the
chopper BURSTS into frame overhead, its search beam
narrowly missing Mulder.
NEW ANGLE ON MULDER
Running the corner of the field, looking frantically
down each corn row until he comes to a stop. No sign
of:
MULDER
Scully?!
Mulder reacting to the sound of her response:
SCULLY
(distant o.s.)
Mulder!
NEW ANGLE ON SCULLY
She's exiting the field behind him. Running toward him,
and when she gets to him they both break into a run
across the desert. CAMERA FOLLOWING THEM as they sprint
away.
FOLLOWING THEM until they both start to slow. Slowing to
a stop in the darkness. Turning to see:
THEIR POV
The helicopters have disappeared.
RESUME MULDER AND SCULLY
Reacting to this.
SCULLY
Where'd they go?
MULDER
I don't know.
Then they both turn again and continue running. As fast
as their feet will take them. Back towards the bluff
where their car is parked.
EXT. BLUFF OVERLOOKING CORN FIELDS - NIGHT
Where Mulder and Scully's car is parked. Stillness,
until Mulder and Scully's heads appear as they climb up
from the direction of the corn fields. They get in their
car and start it quickly. Mulder turns the ignition, but
the car doesn't start immediately. He turns it over and
over but it won't kick.
As he does this, unbeknownst to the agents ONE OF THE
BLACK HELICOPTERS rises up from below the bluff,
appearing in their rear windshield. Hovering just behind
the car like a giant bumblebee. Just as...
...Mulder gets the car started, throwing the
transmission in gear and spinning the tires. As they
head off back in the direction they came, without their
lights on. As they do this, the black chopper continues
to hover for a moment, then BANKS OFF AND AWAY. Into the
night.
Mulder and Scully speed off in the opposite direction.
As we:
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. FBI OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL REVIEW - DAY
CLOSE ON A FILE
Being leafed through by a woman's hands. CAMERA TILTING
UP to Special Agent Cassidy, the woman we met earlier
running the OPR hearing. She takes a quick glance at her
watch, looking up when:
THE DOOR TO THE ROOM
opens. A beat, then Skinner enters with a wearied look.
SKINNER
She's coming in.
Skinner ducks his head back out to look at:
INTERCUT WITH:
INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE OPR HEARING ROOM - DAY
Where Scully stands looking into the glass of a display
case, trying to put her hair and clothes and person
together. She's still in the same clothes we saw her in.
Seeing Skinner now moving toward him.
RESUME OPR HEARING ROOM
Scully enters past Skinner. Though she has straightened
them, and her hair, there is no mistaking that she's
been to the dust bowl and back to get here. Her manner
is chastened.
Scully tries to keep her eyes on the table where she'll
be sitting. Venturing only a brief, polite look to:
ANGLE TO INCLUDE CASSIDY AND THE OTHER PANEL MEMBERS
They reshuffle their papers, pulling up their chairs.
Ready to get down to business now.
CASSIDY
Special Agent Scully --
SCULLY
I apologize for making you wait --
I've brought some new evidence with me
--
CASSIDY
Evidence of what?
CLOSE PROFILE ON SCULLY
Reaching into her satchel, pulling out an evidence bag.
Whatever she's reaching for she's reluctant to present
with confidence.
SCULLY
These are fossilized bone fragments
I've been able to study, gathered from
the bomb site in Dallas...
As Scully speaks we see A BEE crawl out from under the
collar of her suit jacket, crawling toward the back of
her neck. Crawling slowly, as if stretching its legs
from its long journey. CAMERA DOLLYING around Scully as
the bee does, moving into an OVER to:
CASSIDY
You've been back to Dallas?
SCULLY
Yes.
CASSIDY
Are you going to let us in on what
exactly you're trying to prove --
SCULLY
That the bombing in Dallas may have
been to destroy the bodies of those
firemen, so their deaths and the
reason for them wouldn't have to be
explained --
CASSIDY
(challenging)
-- those are very serious allegations,
Agent Scully --
SCULLY
Yes. I know.
There is a hush of murmured responses to this, the panel
members speaking to one another. Assistant Director
Skinner shifts uneasily in his chair. He's been here
before with Agents Mulder and Scully. He's sensing
something outrageous.
CASSIDY
And you have conclusive evidence of
this? Something to tie this claim of
yours to the crime --
SCULLY
(grudgingly)
Nothing completely conclusive --
We have returned to the OVER ANGLE on Scully, where we
see the BEE just below her jacket collar on the back of
her neck.
It CRAWLS back under her collar, DISAPPEARING from
sight.
SCULLY
I hope to. We're working to develop
this evidence --
CASSIDY
Working with?
SCULLY
Agent Mulder.
Off Cassidy's knowing nod, a general shifting in chairs,
we:
CUT TO:
INT. DOWNSCALE D.C. BAR - LATE DAY
Mulder pushes through the front, scanning the room for:
ANGLE ON KURTZWEIL
Sitting at a booth at the dark rear of the
establishment. Mulder enters frame, sitting down across
from him. Kurtzweil is jumpy, but he sees from Mulder's
expression that something's up.
KURTZWEIL
You found something?
MULDER
Yes. On the Texas border. Some kind of
experiment. Something they excavated
was brought there in tanker trucks.
KURTZWEIL
What?
MULDER
I'm not sure. A virus --
KURTZWEIL
-- You saw this experiment?
MULDER
What did it look like?
MULDER
There were bees. And corn crops.
Kurtzweil smiles at Mulder, laughs with nervous
excitement. Mulder doesn't quite realize it yet, but
this is news to him.
MULDER
What are they?
Kurtzweil slides from his seat, rising.
KURTZWEIL
What do you think?
MULDER
A transportation system. Transgenic
crops. The pollen genetically altered
to carry a virus.
KURTZWEIL
That would be my guess.
MULDER
Your guess?
But Kurtzweil doesn't respond to this. He's moving
toward the back of the bar. Mulder slides out, pursuing
him.
ANGLE ON BARMAID
The few PATRONS sitting at the bar, all turning in
reaction to this sudden flurry of activity.
INT. REAR OF DOWNSCALE BAR - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
Near the bathrooms. Mulder catches up to Kurtzweil.
MULDER
What do you mean, your guess?
Kurtzweil doesn't stop. So Mulder must physically stop
him.
MULDER
You told me you had answers.
KURTZWEIL
Yeah, well I don't have them all.
MULDER
You've been using me --
KURTZWEIL
I've been using you?!
MULDER
You didn't know my father --
KURTZWEIL
I told you -- he and I were old
friends --
MULDER
You're a liar. You lied to me to
gather information for you. For your
goddamn books. Didn't you?
Mulder is getting heated, rough with Kurtzweil. When,
unexpectedly A MAN suddenly exits the bathroom. REACTING
to this scene. Kurtzweil uses the moment to break from
Mulder. Slipping out the back door. Mulder takes a beat,
then goes after him.
Pushing out the back door into the blinding brightness.
CUT TO:
EXT. ALLEY BEHIND BAR - DAY
Mulder busts out the back door, chasing Kurtzweil.
MULDER
Kurtzweil!
Kurtzweil turns to him. With restrained ferocity.
KURTZWEIL
You'd be shit out of luck if not for
me. You saw what you saw because I led
you to it. I'm putting my ass on the
line for you.
MULDER
Your ass? I just got chased across
Texas by two black helicopters.
KURTZWEIL
And why do you think it is you're
standing here talking to me? These
people don't make mistakes, Agent
Mulder.
And with that he turns now, striding off. Leaving Mulder
to deal with the excellent logic of this. When suddenly
Mulder reacts to A NOISE. Somewhere above him.
MULDER'S POV
Up on a fire escape, A MAN is moving. Mulder can only
see his feet and legs from this angle, but it is clear
he has been watching Mulder. Upon being spotted, the
figure slides away and disappears.
ANGLE FROM INSIDE FIRE ESCAPE BUILDING
We get a glimpse of the man who was watching him. A face
we recognize as that of the man who brushed past Mulder
coming out of the vending room, not long before the
building in Dallas blew. He is moving quickly now,
disappearing into the shadows. CAMERA TILTING DOWN to
find:
MULDER. He stands staring up, but only for a moment
until he turns and hurries off in the opposite direction
Kurtzweil disappeared in.
CUT TO:
INT. MULDER'S APARTMENT - MAGIC HOUR
ANGLE OVER MULDER'S DESK at the far end of the living
room. The sound of keys in the door, then Mulder enters
his apartment in a hurry. Moving to the desk and going
at this pace through the drawers. Looking for... A
PICTURE ALBUM.
Which he takes now, leafing through it. Flipping the
pages, looking for:
ANGLE OVER MULDER
Finding old pictures of young Fox Mulder with his
SISTER, Samantha. With his father and mother. The
plastic-covered page is peeled back and one of these
photos is removed. It is an old family snapshot. A
picnic possibly.
Mulder stares at the picture.
INSERT PHOTO - In the b.g. of the picnic, his head
turned to camera, is a young KURTZWEIL.
Mulder studies the photo intensely, when there's a KNOCK
at his door. Mulder turning to see:
SCULLY
In his haste, Mulder had neglected to lock his door.
Scully is pushing it open. She's still in the same
clothes. She looks beat. Her eyes meeting Mulder's. A
gaze that says bad news.
MULDER
What? What's wrong?
SCULLY
Salt Lake City, Utah. Transfer
effective immediately.
Mulder is shaking his head. Not wanting to hear this.
SCULLY
I already gave Skinner my letter of
resignation.
MULDER
You can't quit, Scully.
SCULLY
I can, Mulder. I debated whether or
not to even tell you in person,
because I knew --
MULDER
We're close to something here -- we're
on the verge --
SCULLY
You're on the verge, Mulder -- please
don't do this to me --
MULDER
After what you saw last night -- after
all you've seen -- you can't just walk
away --
SCULLY
I have. I did. It's done.
MULDER
Just like that --
SCULLY
I'm contacting the state board Monday
to file medical reinstatement papers
--
MULDER
I need you on this, Scully --
SCULLY
You don't Mulder -- you've never
needed me. I've only held you back.
(beat)
I've got to go.
And with that she exits his apartment, the argument too
painful, and her ability to be persuaded too clear to
herself.
INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE MULDER'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
WIDE ANGLE FROM END OF HALL where we see Scully,
leaving Mulder's apartment. Moving at a hurried clip to
the elevator -- TOWARD CAMERA. As if anticipating her
own impulse to turn around and go back. As she moves
into f.g. Mulder exits his apt. door.
MULDER
You're wrong --
He hurries to catch her. As she turns on him.
SCULLY
Why was I assigned to you? To debunk
your work. To reign you in. To shut
you down.
MULDER
You saved me, Scully.
(off her look)
As different and frustrating as it's
been sometimes, your goddamn strict
rationalism and science have saved me
a thousand times; have kept me honest
and made me whole. I owe you so much,
Scully, and you owe me nothing.
(beat)
I don't want to do this without you. I
don't know if I can. If I quit now,
they win.
She is silent, moved. In spite of all her desire not to
be. She moves to Mulder, holds him. They break slightly
and she looks up at Mulder with deep respect, admiration
and... kisses him on the forehead. When...
...suddenly a physical intimacy we've never seen. A
heat and passion that can't be denied. The opportunity
for the inevitable has presented itself.
The moment of truth has arrived. Mulder is staring at
Scully as she's looking back at him. His head moves
slightly toward hers -- as one of his hands moves up to
her neck, drawing her to him. Where there is hesitation
on her part, there is also desire. When:
SCULLY
OUCH!!!
Scully pulls away from Mulder, RUBBING at her neck where
his hand had been.
MULDER
What? What happened?
SCULLY
I think... something stung me.
Scully's hand comes out with THE SQUIRMING BEE, which
she holds in her hand while Mulder moves around her,
checking her neck.
MULDER
It must...
But he doesn't finish his sentence before he has to
catch Scully from falling. Her head bobs and she has to
catch it.
MULDER
Scully...
SCULLY
Something's wrong...
(fighting for clarity)
I'm having -- lancinating pain -- my
chest. My... motor functions are being
affected. I'm...
Mulder lays her down on the floor during this. Scully
continues to speak, though her eyes are not focusing.
She is limp in Mulder's arms.
SCULLY
...my pulse feels thready and I've
got a funny taste in the back of my
throat.
MULDER
I think you're in anaphylactic shock
--
SCULLY
No -- it's --
Her voice is getting thin now, too.
MULDER
Scully --
SCULLY
I've got no allergy. Something...
this... Mulder... I think... I think
you should call an ambulance.
And Mulder is on his feet in a flash, running for:
CUT TO:
INT. MULDER'S APARTMENT - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
CLOSE OVER PHONE as Mulder races into the apartment,
dashing TOWARD CAMERA, picking up the receiver, dialing.
HOLDING ON THE PHONE during this action. TILTING UP
for:
MULDER
This is Special Agent Fox Mulder. I
have an emergency -- I have an agent
down --
INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE MULDER'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
SCULLY - HANDHELD
Picked up and one-two-three loaded on a gurney by TWO
PARAMEDICS.
1ST PARAMEDIC
Can you hear me? Can you say your
name?
Scully is trying, but the words won't come out.
1ST PARAMEDIC
She's got constriction in the throat
and larynx -- are you breathing okay?
He lays his head down to her mouth.
1ST PARAMEDIC
Passages are open. Let's get her in
the van --
NEIGHBORS are in the hall now, along with Mulder. Who is
moving beside the Paramedics as they hustle the gurney
down the hall.
1ST PARAMEDIC
Coming through people -- here we go.
Coming through --
CUT TO:
EXT. MULDER'S APARTMENT - NIGHT - CONTINUED HAND HELD
The Paramedics bang out the front door, stutter-stepping
the gurney down to the walk, to their EMT VAN which sits
at the curb with the LIGHT BAR FLASHING. Mulder
following close by.
MULDER
She said she had a taste in the back
of her throat -- there was no
pre-existing allergy to bee-stings --
the bee that stung her may have been
carrying a virus --
2ND PARAMEDIC
A virus?
1ST PARAMEDIC
Get on the radio, tell them we have a
cytogenic reaction, we need an advise
and administer --
They get her to the back of the vehicle, guiding the
gurney in with experienced hands. Scully's eyes are on
Mulder as she's slid into the brightly lit interior.
The 1st Paramedic blocks Mulder somewhat as he steps
toward the van, anticipating that he's going with them
to the hospital. But the doors are closing on him before
he gets an opportunity.
FOLLOWING MULDER around to the driver's side of the van
now, moving to the driver's window where THE DRIVER can
be seen in the rear view mirror, his eyes watching
Mulder.
ON MULDER
A moment of vague recognition -- a catch in his step.
RESUME
As Mulder's momentum carries him to the driver's window
where se see again the man from the vending room, who
was also surveilling Mulder. And he has a HANDGUN
pointed at Mulder, which he FIRES THROUGH THE WINDOW.
The glass shattering.
RESUME MULDER
Throwing himself away backward, but the bullet catches
him in the head. Blood and glass spraying onto the side
of the van. He goes down to the ground -- as the
paramedic van accelerates fast away.
LOW ANGLE REVERSE ON MULDER
Lying in the street, his head bleeding profusely. While
in the b.g., A SECOND AMBULANCE IS SPEEDING TO THE
SCENE. As it skids to a stop and TWO NEW PARAMEDICS jump
out, we:
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. WASHINGTON NATIONAL AIRPORT - NIGHT
A MEDIUM SIZED PRIVATE JET is taxiing down an alley off
the main runway where a 747 is speeding toward takeoff.
The private jet turning TOWARD CAMERA and nosing into
f.g.
NEW ANGLE ON TARMAC
Where MEN IN FAMILIAR BLACK FATIGUES are unloading
something from an unmarked cube truck that is also
familiar: the very high tech-looking CLEAR CONTAINER,
with its monitors and gauges, its oxygen tanks and
refrigeration unit. A self-contained life support
system. The inside of the container is covered with a
thin layer of frost, through which we can see AGENT
SCULLY.
She lies as if in a state of paralysis, but a blink of
her eyes is enough to tell us that she is... alive.
TRACKING WITH THE MEN moving the container. As they
hustle it to the waiting jet. As The Cigarette Smoking
Man is descending the steps of the plane onto the
tarmac. Watching as the container is moved to the cargo
hold and loaded inside.
The hold is closed and the jet engines wind back up. As
the Cigarette Smoking Man reboards the aircraft and it
taxis away.
FADE SLOWLY TO BLACK
INT. HOSPITAL - NIGHT
Voices fade in slowly, inaudible at first. For regular
viewers of the show, they will recognize the voices of
the Lone Gunmen.
Three nerdish paranoiacs who publish a magazine which
charts and cataloged conspiracies past and present,
among other government malfeasance. They are Langly,
Byers and Frohike.
BYERS
I think he's coming out --
LANGLY
He's coming to.
FROHIKE
Hey, Mulder...
FADE UP, as if our eyes are blinking open. We are in
Mulder's POV, and the face right above us is Frohike's.
FROHIKE
Mulder...?
Behind Frohike, looking down at Mulder, are Byers and
Langly.
REVERSE ON MULDER
Staring at the diminutive Frohike, the long-haired
Langly and the courtly Byers with dawning recognition.
MULDER
Oh god...
LANGLY
What's wrong?
MULDER
(to Byers, then Langly)
Tin Man. Scarecrow.
(to Frohike)
Toto.
Mulder sits up now, rubbing his face, feeling the
BANDAGE he's got on his head.
MULDER
What am I doing here?
BYERS
You were shot in the head. The bullet
broke the flesh on your right brow and
glanced off your temporal plate.
MULDER
(woozy)
Penetration but not perforation.
LANGLY
Three centimetres to the left and we'd
be playing the harp.
Mulder is still shaking out the cobwebs.
BYERS
They gave you a craniotomy to relieve
the pressure from a subdural hematoma.
But you've been unconscious since they
brought you in.
MULDER
When was that?
FROHIKE
Two days ago. Your guy Skinner's been
here with you around the clock.
LANGLY
We got the news and made a trip to
your apartment. Found a bug in your
phone line.
FROHIKE
And one in your hall.
Byers holds up the first small device. Frohike holds up
a vial containing A BEE. Mulder realizing:
MULDER
Scully had a violent reaction to a bee
sting --
BYERS
You called 911. Except the call was
intercepted.
MULDER
(sitting up)
They took her --
Mulder pushes the covers off. Swinging his legs to the
ground. As A.D. Skinner enters the room. Surprised to
see Mulder up.
SKINNER
Agent Mulder --
MULDER
Where's Scully?!
As he says this he loses his balance slightly, has to
hold onto one of the Gunmen. Struggling with his
faculties.
SKINNER
She's missing. We've been unable to
locate her or the vehicle they took
her in.
MULDER
Whoever they are -- this goes right
back to Dallas -- it goes right back
to the bombing --
SKINNER
I know.
(off Mulder's reaction to
this)
Agent Scully reported your suspicions
to OPR. On the basis of her report, I
sent techs over to S.A.C. Michaud's
apartment. They picked up PSTN
residues on his personal effects
consistent with the construction of
the vending machine device in Dallas.
MULDER
(reeling)
How deep does this go?
SKINNER
I don't know.
Mulder sees A MAN IN A SUIT passes by the small window
in the door, casting a furtive glance in, then moving
off. He turns his look back to Skinner.
MULDER
Are we being watched?
SKINNER
I'm not taking any chances.
Mulder nods. Pulling now at the bandage on his head.
Peeling it away and revealing the wound beneath.
MULDER
I need your clothes, Byers.
BYERS
Me?
SKINNER
What are you doing?
MULDER
I've got to find Scully.
FROHIKE
Do you know where she is?
MULDER
No. But I know someone who might have
an answer. Who better.
Mulder is undoing his hospital gown now, his white buns
gracing the screen for the first time in history. As he
ducks into the bathroom. As the men left standing in the
room all look to Byers, reluctantly removing his duds.
Off this:
CUT TO:
INT. HOSPITAL HALLWAY - NIGHT
ANGLE OVER MAN IN A SUIT standing with his back to
Mulder's room, reading a section of a newspaper (the
rest of the paper sitting on a chair, as if the man's
possibly set up here.) As the door to Mulder's room
opens in the b.g. and Frohike appears.
Frohike keeps his eyes on the Man as Langly appears now,
followed by...Byers? We can't see clearly as the other
two block our POV and the third man out doesn't show us
his face. The threesome starts down the hall, their
footsteps drawing the attention of the Man in a Suit.
ANGLE OVER MULDER AND THE OTHER GUNMEN
As they head TOWARD CAMERA. Walking at a pace. In the
b.g. the Man in the Suit is drifting toward Mulder's
hospital room.
ANGLE ON MAN IN SUIT
Suspicious. He moves to the door, looks in the little
glass window. Seeing...Byers, the sheets pulled up to
his nose to hide his beard and mustache. Skinner
standing next to him, talking on the phone.
The Man in the Suit looking down to the end of the hall
again.
RESUME ANGLE OVER MULDER AND THE GUNMEN
As Mulder and his two flankers MOVE RIGHT TO CAMERA.
Mulder is taking a cell phone being handed to him by
Frohike. Dialing on the move.
CUT TO:
EXT. ALLEY BEHIND DOWNSCALE D.C. BAR - NIGHT
A FIGURE appears at the end of the alley, moving toward
us. It could be Mulder from this distance, but as the
figure comes closer we recognize him as Kurtzweil.
Moving into the f.g., checking behind him, ahead of him.
Jumpy.
He takes a cautious beat, then moves to the door leading
into the bar (established), reaching for the knob.
Opening it, finding the Well-Manicured Man standing
there.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Dr. Kurtzweil, isn't it? Dr. Alvin
Kurtzweil?
KURTZWEIL
Jesus Christ.
Kurtzweil is shaken by the sight of this man.
Backpedaling a bit, looking around and behind him for an
ambush.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
You're surprised. Certainly you've
been expecting some response to your
indiscretion.
The W.M.M. steps out of the doorway, following
Kurtzweil.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
I'm quite sure whatever you told Agent
Mulder, you have your good reason.
It's a weakness in men our age; the
urge to confess.
(stopping his walk)
I forgive you that.
Kurtzweil is thrown by the words, and the delivery.
Stopping his backward progress. Studying this upright
and civil man.
KURTZWEIL
What are you doing here? What do you
want from me?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
You must try to understand, what I'm
here to do is only to protect my
children. You and I have but short
lives left. I can only hope the same
isn't true for them.
On this note, Kurtzweil turns and hoofs it back in the
direction from which he came. TRACKING BACK WITH HIM
until HEADLIGHTS hit his face.
REVERSE ANGLE
A TOWN CAR has pulled into the alley behind him.
Accelerating fast down the narrow corridor. Effectively
trapping Kurtzweil in. As he squints into its
headlights, then turns back with fear in his eyes to the
W.M.M.
CUT TO:
EXT. STREET OUTSIDE DOWNSCALE BAR - NIGHT
Where a figure is coming down the street toward us.
Running, it's Mulder, going balls out. Running to the
entrance of the bar and yanking open the door.
INT. DOWNSCALE D.C. BAR - NIGHT
Moderately crowded as Mulder enters, stopping to catch
his breath. Moving to the back of the bar. Looking for:
THE BOOTH WHERE HE MET KURTZWEIL EARLIER
It's empty.
RESUME MULDER
Moving through the bar -- real panic in his expression.
He heads to the back.
INT. REAR OF DOWNSCALE BAR - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
Mulder passing the bathrooms, moving to the door where
we saw the Well-Manicured Man standing just a short bit
ago. But there is no one back here now. Mulder moves to
the back door, the one leading to the alley, pushing it
open and finding:
The Well-Manicured Man stands with HIS DRIVER closing
the trunk on the idling Town Car (which has been turned
around.) The W.M.M. turns to see:
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Mr. Mulder.
MULDER
What happened to Kurtzweil?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
He's come and gone.
The W.M.M. moves to Mulder, who doesn't trust him for a
second. Mulder is still breathing hard, sizing up this
scene.
MULDER
Where's Scully?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
I have answers for you.
MULDER
Is she alive?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Yes.
Mulder stares at the W.M.M. - measuring him.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
I'm quite prepared to tell you
everything, though there isn't much
you haven't guessed.
MULDER
About the conspiracy?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
I think of it as an agreement. A word
your father liked to use.
MULDER
I want to know where Scully is.
The Well-Manicured Man suddenly reaches into his jacket
pocket, without warning or explanation. Mulder tensing
slightly. He removes a thin felt envelope.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
The location of Agent Scully. And the
means to save her life.
(off Mulder's look)
Please...
He gestures toward the car where the Driver stands with
the back door open. Mulder hesitates, then steps from
the doorway. Moving past the W.M.M., sliding in. The
W.M.M. gets in after him, closes the door. The car pulls
away.
CUT TO:
INT. LIMOUSINE - NIGHT - CONTINUOUS
WE SEE MULDER in the back seat, reflected in the
rear-view mirror. Where we also see the eyes of the
DRIVER watching him. Mulder is handed the felt envelope
by the W.M.M.
MULDER
What is it?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
A weak vaccine against the virus Agent
Scully has been infected with. It must
be administered with ninety six
hours.
MULDER
(beat)
You're lying.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
No. Though I have no way to prove
otherwise. The virus is
extraterrestrial. We know very little
about it, except that it is the
original inhabitant of this planet.
MULDER
(dubious, to say the least)
A virus?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
A simple, unstoppable lifeform. What
is a virus but a colonizing force that
cannot be defeated? Living in a cave,
underground, until it mutates. And
attacks.
MULDER
This is what you've been conspiring to
conceal? A disease?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
No! For God sake you've got it all
backwards.
This outburst comes suddenly, unexpectedly.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Aids, the ebola virus -- on the
evolutionary scale they are newborns.
This virus walked the planet long
before the dinosaurs.
MULDER
What do you mean, walked?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Your aliens, Agent Mulder, your little
green men, first landed here millions
of years ago. Those that didn't leave
have been laying dormant underground
since the last Ice Age. In the form of
an evolved pathogen. Waiting to be
reconstituted when the alien race from
which it came returns to colonize the
planet. Using us as hosts. Against
this we have no defense. Nothing but a
weak vaccine.
(beat)
Do you see why it was kept secret? Why
even the best men -- men like your
father -- could not let the truth be
known?
The force and conviction of his delivery leave Mulder
shaken.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Until Dallas, we believed the virus
was simply a controlling organism.
That mass infection would make us a
slave race.
MULDER
That's why you bombed the building.
The infected firemen, the boy --
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Imagine our surprise when they began
to gestate. My group has been working
cooperatively with the alien
colonists, facilitating their
programs. To give us access to the
virus. In false hope we might be able
to secretly find a cure. So that we
might save ourselves, as the last of
the species.
(beat)
Your father wisely refused to believe
this, choosing hope over selfishness.
Hope is the only future he had: his
children,
(beat, then self-revealing)
The only future any of us have.
This draws a look back in the mirror from the Driver.
MULDER
But... he sacrificed his own daughter.
My sister, Samantha.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
The only true survivors of the viral
holocaust will be those immune to it:
those vaccinated against it and
human/alien hybrids. Your father
arranged for your sister's abduction.
He allowed her to be taken to an alien
hybrid program, so that she would
survive. As a clone.
(beat)
He had different hopes for you. That
you would uncover the truth about the
Project. That you would stop it. That
you would fight the future.
Mulder sits stunned by this. As if somehow his destiny
has been validated, if not pre-ordained. Or maybe just
justified.
MULDER
Why are you telling me this?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
I thought it only fair you should
know, given how hard you've worked.
MULDER
What happened to Kurtzweil?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
As your father knew, things need to be
sacrificed to the future.
MULDER
Where is he?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Dr. Kurtzweil is in the trunk.
Mulder stares at the W.M.M., at his cold-blooded
expression.
MULDER
Let me out. Stop the car.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
(motioning)
Driver.
Mulder reaching to this as the limo pulls to a stop.
Trying the door, but the door is locked. When he turns
back to the W.M.M. he has produced a handgun, which is
now pointing at Mulder. Laid casually across a folded
arm. Mulder reacts on seeing it.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
The men I work with will stop at
nothing to clear the way for what they
believe is their stake in the
inevitable future. I was ordered to
kill Kurtzweil. A necessary action to
protect my grandchildren's lives.
(beat)
I might just as easily kill you.
Mulder is recoiling as he says this. Then, without
hesitation in one quick move, he SHOOTS the Driver in
the head.
The blood spattering on the front windshield -- and on
Mulder who has barely had a chance to react.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Trust no one, Mr. Mulder.
Mulder looks at The Well-Manicured Man, expecting to be
next. And for a moment, we do too. But the W.M.M. simply
opens the door and steps out of the car. Holding the
door open for Mulder who is still frozen by the actions
that went just before.
EXT. DESOLATE D.C. STREET - NIGHT
Mulder steps out of the car, holding the felt envelope.
The Well-Manicured Man stands with a sober, intense
look.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
(with quiet force)
You have precious little time. What
I've given you the alien colonists
have no idea exists. You hold in your
hand the power to end the project.
MULDER
How?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
The vaccine you hold is the only
defense against the virus. Its
introduction into an alien environment
may have the power to destroy the
delicate plans we've so assiduously
protected for the last fifty years.
(beat)
Or it may not.
MULDER
What alien environment?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Find Agent Scully. Save her. Only her
science can save the future.
MULDER
What about you?
WELL-MANICURED MAN
My life is over.
(beat)
Go.
Mulder stands speechless for a moment. Until the W.M.M.
points the weapon he's still holding at him.
WELL-MANICURED MAN
Go now!
And Mulder does. Moving away from the car, looking back
over his shoulder. As the Well-Manicured Man gets back
into the limousine, closes the door. A moment later...
THE CAR EXPLODES INTO FLAMES, knocking Mulder to the
ground.
ANGLE ON MULDER
The felt envelope has been jarred from his grasp. Its
contents loosed from inside: a piece of paper with
COORDINATES on it and an AMPULE and SYRINGE.
Mulder gets up, looks back. Then he picks up the
envelope and its contents -- and begins to run. Running
as fast as he can go. Until, far down the block, he
disappears.
As the SCREEN DISSOLVES TO WHITENESS -- under which we
hear an ominous low end Dolby THX Big Screen rumble. The
same sound that opened our story.
Then there is movement, as the curvilinear line of a
horizon becomes visible, bi-secting the screen between
the white of the earth and the white of the sky. We
are:
EXT. POLE OF INACCESSIBILITY - ANTARCTICA
Across the expanse of whiteness, a DARK IMAGE appears on
the long flat horizon. Moving toward us. As a LEGEND
appears, to establish.
CLOSER ON A SNOW TRACTOR
Crawling across the harsh frozen land like a domed
insect.
INT. SNOW TRACTOR
Agent Mulder sits behind the controls of the enclosed
cabin, several days growth on his face. Dressed in
thick, bundled outerwear. He maneuvers the vehicle to a
stop. Reaching for a handheld GPS monitor to check his
position. Catching his breath for a moment -- all
movement is exertion in this climate. Mulder stares hard
out the front window, the wipers beating time, but there
is nothing out there but whiteness. He wipes the fog
from a side window with his gloved hand, seeing nothing
but more whiteness. Checking the GPS device again, then
reaching for the door latch.
RESUME WIDE EXTERIOR
Agent Mulder exits the vehicle, hopping down onto the
snowscape crust. Setting out on foot with the GPS device
held before him. In this forbidding environment he might
as well be taking a space walk -- without the security
of a lifeline. Which is the impression we get as his
tiny figure trudges across the ice, increasing the
distance between himself and the snow tractor.
MOVING WITH MULDER
Up a gentle grade, the snow tractor now behind him.
Moving into tight f.g. where he stops, seeing something
now which allows him to pocket the GPS device. Dropping
instinctively to his knees, so as to avoid being seen
by:
MULDER'S POV
In the distance is an ICE STATION. A row of
interconnecting WHITE DOME TENTS, whose design is now
familiar to us. There are what look like snow tractors
and other snow vehicles parked alongside the
structures.
RESUME MULDER
Pulling a compact pair of binoculars from one of his
deep jacket pockets. Training them on:
THE ICE STATION - BINO MATTE
PANNING across the domes and vehicles, where there is no
sign of personnel -- until MULDER PANS off the building,
finding in his field glasses AN APPROACHING SNOW
TRACTOR. Moving across the landscape toward the ice
station. When it pulls to a stop, A MAN exits out of one
of the domes: THE CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN. Moving to the
vehicle and getting in.
The vehicle reverses now, transporting the CSM back
away from the ice station.
CLOSE ON MULDER
Taking the field glasses away from his eyes. The
excitement he feels expressed now in his breathing,
which has become harder and shallower. Mulder rises,
beginning to move the still great distance between
himself and the ice station.
CUT TO:
WIDE ON SCREEN
Mulder moving slowly across the white horizon toward the
domed tents.
LOW ANGLE ON MULDER'S FEET
Moving cautiously, and with effort on the snowscape
crust. CAMERA RISING up to Mulder's face, determined and
watchful.
FOLLOWING MULDER
The ice station still several hundred yards in the
distance, when MULDER SUDDENLY FALLS OUT OF FRAME,
disappearing into a hole in the snowscape crust that
just moments earlier had been stable footing.
HARD CUT TO:
INT. SNOW ICE BUBBLE - CONTINUOUS
Where Mulder's body falls through a ceiling of snowscape
crust, landing on his back with a THUD on a hard
surface. It takes him a moment to catch his breath,
somewhat reminiscent of Stevie at the beginning of the
picture. Wincing through the pain. Until he turns over,
regaining his wits, and his bearings.
NEW ANGLE
Mulder has fallen on a hard, narrow metallic structure.
Its dull black color a stark contrast to the white ice
it's encased in. The bubble has been created by air
coming out of vents in the structure, carving out
corresponding patterns in the ceiling; softening the ice
and snow above.
CLOSER ON MULDER
rising to his knees, the AIR from one of these vents
blowing onto his face. Pulling off the hood of his
jacket, looking deep into the vent which is open,
ungrated.
And big enough for a man to crawl into. Which, after
considering the hole he's fallen through high above him,
is really Mulder's only choice.
CUT TO:
INT. RIBBED CORRIDOR DUCT - CONTINUOUS
Mulder pulls himself forward through the ribbed corridor
duct with his elbows, moving lizard-like into the
constricted darkness.
CUT TO:
INT. UPPER RIBBED CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS
Above a frozen ice lith, Mulder's head appears,
squeezing his shoulders and body out of a venting. With
effort, Mulder slides out of the small space, using some
architecture above as a handhold. Pulling his legs free
and dropping onto the floor.
MULDER'S POV
It is dark in here, the features of the corridor
ill-defined.
RESUME MULDER - WIDER
Mulder pulls a flashlight from a pocket in his parka,
snicks it on. Its beam reflecting off tall frozen liths
of ice regularly spaced on both sides of the corridor.
NEW ANGLE ON MULDER
Training the light down the corridor, which curves away
in both directions. Then pointing it at something right
in front of his nose: something that gives him a start.
Reaching up with his hand to brush away frost from the
lith. Finding A MAN FROZEN IN ICE. Naked, his eyes
staring into some long-forgotten distance. His hair is
dark, his flat features familiar to us. He is the
prehistoric hunter from the opening scenes of the movie.
His flesh has the opaque, see-through quality that we've
seen before. Inside of which, frozen along with the man,
is an EMBRYONIC CREATURE.
REVERSE ON MULDER
Reacting to this sight, then moving off down the
corridor, his pace quickened.
CUT TO:
EXT. POLE OF INACCESSIBILITY - ANTARCTICA
LOW ANGLE on the great white expanse. Across which a
snow tractor is moving. PANNING with the vehicle to...
Mulder's snow tractor, where the first tractor stops,
its headlights trained on Mulder's ride.
A beat, then the discovering machine moves out again,
following the tracks that Mulder has left, which brings
it STRAIGHT TOWARD CAMERA. As it passes us, we can see
the DRIVER and the Cigarette Smoking Man sitting in the
cabin. As we:
CUT BACK TO:
INT. UPPER RIBBED CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS
MULDER comes to the end of the dim ice corridor where
soft light is penetrating through several low, arched
openings.
Mulder has to drop down to his knees to see into the
openings.
ANGLE FROM OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE BALCONY PASSAGEWAY
Where Mulder is seen looking TOWARD CAMERA. The Balcony
passageway is short. Mulder drops to his stomach again,
pulling himself through, toward us. When he reaches the
opposite end, Mulder pokes his head out, looking up in
wonder at:
INT. CENTRAL THEATER - BALCONY - CONTINUOUS - WIDE ON
A STADIUM-SIZED DOME -- (CGI SET EXTENSION)
Imagine a domed sports arena -- this is the scope and
scale of the space that Mulder has penetrated. We see
him as only a small speck on a balcony midway between
floor and ceiling. Pulling himself out of the balcony
passageway, which is like countless other passageways.
Which are actually ventilation ports.
ANGLE OVER MULDER
Pulling himself to his feet. Beholding the space before
him. Looking down to the center floor where a large
central theater gives off a light different from
elsewhere in the dome. An icy, bright glow. Leading down
to the central theater far below are several LARGE
TUBULAR SPOKES. (One of which leads up right next to
Mulder's position.)
ANGLE ON MULDER
Reacting to this. Then something captures his
attention.
MULDER'S POV
There on the floor, far down below, is THE BUBBLE LITTER
Scully was transported in. (NOTE* Scully's clothes are
still in the bubble litter.) Standing out as a rather
human artifact against the otherwise dull gray bulwarks
and architecture surrounding it.
INT. CENTRAL THEATER - BALCONY - CONTINUOUS - WIDE ON
MULDER
looks beside him where the joint that connects two
sections of one of the long tube spokes is designed with
an allowance -- a separation that might allow a man to
slip through the joint into the tube. Which is what
Mulder does here.
CUT TO:
INT. TUBULAR SPOKE - CONTINUOUS
WIDE ANGLE FROM INSIDE TUBE TERMINUS
Mulder squeezing through into the tube, looking down
past what looks like a chair lift-like track, on which
the chairs are actually empty cryopod mechanisms; the
same structures Mulder saw in the ribbed corridor in
which bodies were encased in ice. Except these cryopods
are empty.
Mulder begins to creep down TOWARD CAMERA, picking his
way around the empty cryopods.
REVERSE ANGLE ON MULDER
Creeping away from us. Heading toward:
INT. LOWER CRYOPOD CORRIDOR
Where Mulder pops out at the lower tube terminus. Which
leads into this bulwarked corridor at the base of the
large stadium structure. Where:
REVERSE ON THIS CORRIDOR
Where Mulder is walking past frozen CRYOPODS hanging on
a track. Each icy pod containing a HUMAN BODY frozen
within. Partially visible behind clear blue ice. But
these are modern men, and women. Their expressions a
confused horror, as if they have been somehow frozen
alive. They are slowly tracking.
Walking along the slowly moving carousel of frozen
humanity. Stopping, turning, almost as if having
sensed:
NEW ANGLE OVER OPPOSITE CRYOPOD
PUSHING IN ON MULDER'S FACE. Recording the horror and
fear he's experiencing, on seeing:
CAMERA RISING UP A FROSTY WALL OF BLUE ICE
Where a woman's body is encased, its naked features
hidden behind the opacity of the newly frozen blue
crust. But whose face is unmistakable as that of Agent
Scully's. Frozen in a similar expression of far-away
horror, her eyes cast slightly heavenward.
MULDER
hurries to get his jacket unzipped. Removing the FELT
ENVELOPE, removing the syringe body, the needle and the
AMPULE.
Hastily putting the syringe together, getting the needle
poked into the soft rubber cap of the ampule. Bleeding
the syringe now, the substance inside squirting out of
the end of the needle onto the floor of the ship.
And the moment it does, the whole floor SIZZLES like
water being dropped onto a hot skillet. Spreading out
from Mulder in every direction. A VIOLENT CHEMICAL
REACTION, as predicted by the man who gave him this
substance. A moment later the entire structure Mulder is
in SHUNTS. Shuddering violently and setting up a low-end
RUMBLE. Causing Mulder to accidentally drop the
syringe.
LOW CLOSE ANGLE
on the floor, where the syringe hits and bounces, but
does not break or leak. Mulder scrambling into frame to
re-collect it. Seeing the floor where the liquid from
the syringe hit -- where it has been ETCHED AWAY by the
substance.
EXT. HULL OF SPACESHIP/ICY BUBBLE - CONTINUOUS
Where Mulder crawled into the duct. Condensed air is
streaming out of all the ducts now. The ice and snow
above beginning to melt from the force and heat of the
blasting all.
CUT BACK TO:
EXT. ICE STATION - CONTINUOUS
We can hear low end rumble and vibration. TWO DOZEN MEN
are streaming out of the dome tents. Moving to their
carious snow tractors and starting the vehicles.
A small exodus, the tractors pulling out of camp in a
rush. Heading off in various directions.
CAMERA FINDING THE CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN moving to his
tractor, with THE MAN WHO SHOT MULDER. Taking the last
drag of his cigarette before throwing it into the snow.
He stares down at it a moment, as if caught in the grip
of some emotion conflicting with duty.
The Man who shot Mulder inside the tractor now, throwing
open the door for the CSM.
MAN WHO SHOT MULDER
C'mon. It's all going to hell.
He climbs up onto the vehicle, gets in and closes the
door. And the vehicle pulls away as we:
CUT BACK TO:
INT. LOWER RIBBED CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS - AGENT MULDER
Back on his feet, SMASHING now at the crust of brittle
blue-ice that encases Scully. BASHING, SMASHING and then
finally breaking through the hard outer later, its inner
slushy contents spilling out of the puncture that
exposes Scully's face and shoulder. Watery aqua-tinted
liquid drains from her mouth and nose. But Scully is not
conscious, and there is no indication she is even alive,
her face frozen in a blank, almost beatific expression.
OVER MULDER TO SCULLY
As he plunges the needle into Scully's arm at the front
of her shoulder. To which there is an immediate reaction
-- as if given a shot of adrenalin. Her eyes blinking
away the cold moisture.
MULDER
Scully --
Scully's lips move goldfish-like as she tries to suck in
air, an almost fearful expression overcoming her like a
swimmer who's been held under too long. But no words are
coming out yet.
MULDER
Breathe -- can you breathe?!
Scully is straining to do just that -- when liquid
suddenly SPEWS from Scully's mouth. And she begins to
cough and gag -- taking big gulps of air as her eyes
focus on Mulder as if on a phantom, or a miracle.
Finally faint words ushering forth, whispering breaths
that Mulder cannot discern.
MULDER
What?
CLOSE ON MULDER AND SCULLY
As he leans into her, putting his ear up to her mouth.
As the softest sound comes out in Scully's frosty
breath.
SCULLY
Cold...
MULDER
Hang on. I'm going to get you out of
here.
As she continues to suck air.
CUT TO:
EXT. HULL OF SPACESHIP/ICE BUBBLE - CONTINUOUS
The hot air blasting from the ducts is causing the ice
pack above to melt and collapse.
CUT TO:
EXT. ICE STATION - CONTINUOUS - WIDE
As the ice tractors head away in all directions from the
domed structures. A misty fog now emanating from the
seams of the domes. Heat and condensation.
CUT BACK TO:
INT. UPPER RIBBED CORRIDORS - CONTINUOUS
Filling with misty condensation, too. The small beams of
light that lighted Mulder's way earlier are now small
shafts piercing the gathering interior cloud.
Illuminating:
THE PREHISTORIC MAN
Frozen in his icy pod, the hard semi-translucent surface
of which is now etched with small streams of water
running to the floor. Everything is melting and in
motion.
Including the CREATURE which is vaguely visible inside
the frozen man. It TURNS slightly inside the body, like
an animal in utero. Its eyes now looking at us,
blinking. As it presses against its own fleshy
container, the body of its human host.
CUT BACK TO:
INT. LOWER RIBBED CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS
It, too, is filling with misty condensation.
VARIOUS SHOTS
Of the ice encasing the human forms sweating and
melting.
CAMERA ADJUSTING UP TO REVEAL Mulder pulling Scully
along in a fireman's carry. She is dressed now in
Mulder's snow parka and the outer nylon pants he was
wearing. Scully's legs are weak beneath her. Her body
limp, but not lifeless. Mulder laboring to get her up
the INTERIOR of the steep curving cylinder spoke, as the
air fills with mist.
INT. LONG TUBE TERMINUS
NEW ANGLE ON MULDER AND SCULLY - LOOKING DOWN THE TUBE
Moving toward along the now-halted cryopod carrier
hanging from the transport track. Mulder struggling
against his own fading energy, pulling Scully up
toward:
ANGLE ON BALCONY/CATWALK
Mulder pushing Scully up, though she seems to have at
least some limited ability to do this on her own. The
DEEP, LOW RUMBLE we heard in the open frames of the
movie reaching full volume now. The whole environment
vibrating as Mulder boosts Scully up on the catwalk.
Climbing up over the prostrate body. Picking her up from
the floor, pulling her back into the fireman's carry.
INT. LOWER RIBBED CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS
Where the bodies are all beginning to melt.
VARIOUS SHOTS of rivulets of water forming on the
icy liths that encase the bodies. The water from them
seeping onto the circular central floor. The condensing
mist thick and swirling.
CLOSE ON PODS
Where the body it houses seems to move. Though AS CAMERA
PUSHES IN we see that it is the creature inside this
body moving, as if the heat and the defrosting are
bringing the embryos to life.
INT. UPPER RIBBED CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS - ANGLE DOWN
CORRIDOR
Scully's head pokes through now, as she's pushed through
the opening that Mulder used earlier to get into the
vaulted arena. Pushed in fits and starts until she's all
the way through. Mulder now straining and squeezing to
do the same on his own.
The corridor is filled with heavy condensed mist now as
Mulder finally slips out of the low passageway, trying
to get his bearing now as he huddles low over Scully.
Turning his attention to her as she COUGHS HOARSELY --
in some kind of acute spasm of pain -- but alive.
MULDER
We've got to keep moving.
SCULLY
(weakly)
Where are we?
MULDER
You got me. But I think I know what
they did with Jimmy Hoffa.
Scully is struggling now as Mulder tries to pull her to
her feet again. In real physical pain.
SCULLY
I can't...
Scully can't finish speaking, her voice becoming a
hoarse cough.
SCULLY
(barely a whisper)
I can't go any farther.
MULDER
Yes you can. You're going to make it,
Scully.
Mulder hauling Scully up off the floor AWAY FROM CAMERA
now.
NEW ANGLE ON RIBBED CORRIDOR
CAMERA MOVING THROUGH SPACE in the empty corridor,
moving at a speed equal to Mulder and Scully's as they
round the semi-circular ribbed corridor to meet us.
Coming out of the mist, Scully back in the fireman's
carry. Approaching the place where Mulder slipped down
into the corridor.
Mulder stopping and seeing:
THE BODY IN THE MELTING ICE LITH
As it too moves, the embryonic creature inside it
turning slightly, as if coming awake.
REVERSE ON MULDER
Reacting to this -- and then to Scully who suddenly
starts GASPING FOR BREATH.
Falling now from Mulder's grasps as her legs buckle and
she goes down.
LOW ANGLE ON SCULLY
Her face is going red, straining for air. Her eyes
rolling, seeking relief. As Mulder drops down beside
her.
MULDER
Shit --
But she is unable to answer. Mulder hastening to unzip
her/his jacket. To get to her neck and find a pulse.
MULDER
Scully --
Mulder cannot find a pulse. Scully straining harder now
as Mulder reaches his fingers into her mouth, clearing
her passageway. Moving on top of her now, and pumping
forcefully on her chest -- trying to get air into her.
One - two - three.
And putting his mouth down to hers (FINALLY!), breathing
his life into her. Pulling away from her to see that he
is unsuccessful at this -- that Scully is continuing to
strain. Pumping her chest again --
MULDER
You're not dying on me now -- godammit
godammit godammit --
As he pumps her chest. Placing his mouth over hers again
and BREATH - BREATH -- BREATH.
Lifting his mouth from hers, feeling for a pulse again,
putting his eat down to her mouth, praying he'll feel
the breeze of a breath. Nothing. While:
ANGLE OVER HIM TO THE CREATURE IN THE ICY POD
As it moves again, MORE VIOLENTLY NOW. As the ice around
it continues to melt and fissure.
RESUME MULDER
His hands going to a pocket on the inside of the jacket
Scully is wearing -- his jacket -- finding again the
syringe that he used on Scully. It is still partially
full of vaccine. Mulder finding this, getting ready to
use it when --
-- Scully's body suddenly comes back to life beneath
him. Labored breaths which turn into a coughing spasm.
Mulder breaths relievedly for a moment, watching Scully
coughing, coming back to life. Her eyes trying to focus
on him, finding him. Seeing his labored relief. The
panic melting away.
SCULLY
(weakly, pained whisper)
Mulder...
She wants to tell him something. He leans down next to
her.
SCULLY
(continued weak)
Had you big time.
Mulder has but a moment to savor this weary victory
though when he REACTS to something, that causes him to
WHIP HIS HEAD AROUND.
MULDER'S POV DOWN RIBBED CORRIDOR
Through the condensed mist he can see CREATURES
BEGINNING TO HATCH, sprouting from the melted
ice-encased bodies they have gestated in. Their THREE
FINGERED HANDS beating at the soft ice. Their powerful
feet kicking at it, too.
RESUME MULDER
Looking the other way down the corridor, seeing --
MORE CREATURES
The slushy material that makes up the inner core
spilling out with them as the creatures KICK out of
their tombs.
RESUME MULDER
Lifting Scully up with all his strength he has left in
him. He's got to get her overhead now, back up the
venting that he slipped down from. She is weak and of
little help.
Mulder gets her propped up on his strength so that he
can use the power of his legs to boost her toward the
opening. Which puts him face to face with THE EMBRYONIC
CREATURE. Its eye looking directly at him, blinking,
before it goes into another FITFUL SPASM inside its host
body.
ANGLE DOWN FROM VENT
Where Scully is boosted up TOWARD CAMERA. Her hands
reaching feebly for something to grab onto. Finding a
handhold.
MULDER
Keep breathing, Scully.
She utters something guttural, unintelligible as the
next thrust up from Mulder gets her head and shoulders
into the opening of the vent.
RESUME MULDER
Beneath her, pushing with all his might. His hands under
her shoes now, forcing her up into the vent like a
rolled carpet into the rafters.
RESUME SCULLY
Struggling with her arms and elbows, barely conscious,
but somehow able to manage herself forward.
RESUME MULDER
Pushing Scully up the last little way. Then reaching up
to find a handhold for himself. Grabbing hold and
lifting himself as one of his feet kicks at the ice --
where the creature he was just face to face with BURSTS
from its icy pod. One hand, then the other shooting out
of the ice where they have broken through the host.
Ripping open the front of the body, including the man's
face. Making a slimy, gaping tear in what was formerly
flesh.
Its hands grabbing at Mulder as he thrashes to free
himself from it getting a grip.
As Mulder struggles to pull himself up, fighting off the
creature which he cannot see beneath him.
RESUME CREATURE
As it emerges from the ice, still grasping and TEARING
at Mulder's legs with its claws. But as it BURSTS
COMPLETELY from its place, Mulder is able to pull
himself up and into the vent in one athletic movement.
ANGLE FROM INSIDE THE VENT - SCULLY
lies motionless in the ducting, her body forced forward
by Mulder's in this last surging move.
TIGHT ANGLE ON MULDER
Drawing his legs up quickly inside. Not wasting a moment
shoving Scully's butt forward in front of him.
MULDER
Scully -- you breathing?
RESUME SCULLY
Letting out another low, guttural sound -- which STRAINS
out of her with each push forward.
CUT TO:
EXT. SNOW/ICE BUBBLE - CONTINUOUS
Scully's head and arms push up through the vent where
Mulder first entered. The ice and snow surrounding it,
which had created the bubble structure, have melted and
fallen. So that above Scully's larger hole has opened up
to the surface. The air is full of condensation,
swirling around them.
ANGLE FROM ABOVE - THROUGH THE HOLE IN THE ICE
Where, through the swirling steam we see Mulder push
Scully clear of the vent. Climbing free himself now.
When the surface they are upon SHUDDERS AND QUAKES. As
if it has come unloosed, destabilized.
And with this comes A MIGHTY FORCE OF STEAM from the
vent Mulder and Scully just crawled from. Blasting up
past them with terrible HISSING FORCE. Causing Mulder to
throw Scully away from its superheated energy.
Pulling her up the now climbable embankment created by
the melting snow; pulling her toward the surface of the
ice sheet.
CUT TO:
EXT. POLE OF INACCESSIBILITY - ANTARCTICA - WIDE
Where a wide radius of steam rises from similar and
regularly spaced holes in the ice sheet, defining a
circular structure beneath. The White Domed Tents of the
ice station are in the center of this, dwarfed by the
enormity of the melting radius.
RESUME MULDER AND SCULLY
Mulder pulling her up the softened and collapsed snow.
The hot steam blasting up with hideous force behind
them. The sound DEAFENING.
NEW ANGLE OVER MULDER AND SCULLY
Pulling her to the surface of the ice sheet where behind
them in the distance the ICE STATION can be seen through
the atmosphere of condensed air. When suddenly the ice
beneath it gives way and the ice station falls away,
caving in to the center of the radius. Which is what
begins to happen to the rest of the ice sheet that
spreads out to where Mulder and Scully are standing.
Causing Mulder to realize:
MULDER
(over the din)
We've got to run!
She is weak, but is able to find her footing. Dragged
behind Mulder as the ice behind them begins to break
away, falling down into an ever-expanding center and
sending up magnificent geysers of steam created by the
superheated surface below.
WIDE ON SCENE
Mulder and Scully running AT CAMERA just ahead of the
collapsing center. The mass of ice around them beginning
to break up. Steam vents erupting instantaneously
everywhere.
CUT TO:
HIGH ANGLE ON SCENE
A black dome is becoming visible through the giant
circle of steam, in the ever-widening center hole that
Mulder and Scully are running from. Which is chasing
them to the edge of the radius.
CUT TO:
ANGLE FOLLOWING MULDER AND SCULLY
As Mulder struggles to pull Scully fast enough to
outrace the icy debris that is tumbling away just behind
them. Large chunks falling and bouncing off the
superheated surface below, blown back up like water
being dropped onto a hot skillet.
CUT TO:
EXTREMELY HIGH AND WIDE
The Agents mere specks fleeing the circle of churning
ice and steam. As it cascades away in three hundred and
sixty degrees. From here the deafening sound if absorbed
into the vastness, tricking us of the reality of the
massive movement of frozen material down below.
CUT TO:
ANGLE LEADING MULDER AND SCULLY
As Scully loses her footing, falling to the ground.
Mulder dragging her back up to her feet, though,
maintaining forward momentum. While behind them the
thundering force of the superheated melting snow and ice
is moving in on them.
And then suddenly -- MULDER AND SCULLY are gone!
The radial edge of the falling snow continuing only a
few feet beyond where they disappeared. The violent
upheaval of snow abating but slightly. Beat, beat...
THEN THE AGENTS APPEAR AGAIN. Thrust upward by a RISING
BLACK PRECIPICE which catapults them off its leading
edge. As they fall the distance to the sheet of ice
below.
CUT TO:
LOW ANGLE ON ICE SHEET
Where the Agents hit hard on the ice sheet. The rain of
ice chunks pounding all around them. As the monolithic
wall of the craft continues to rise.
Mulder trying to get to Scully in this hail of debris
which he shields his face from.
WIDE ON LEADING EDGE
Rising faster now out of the earth as it begins to
increasingly shed and break free of the frozen weight it
carried. Until the bottom of the edge of the wall
appears, lifting clear of the ice sheet and the crater
that held it.
CUT TO:
EXTREME HIGH WIDE ANGLE ON SPACE SHIP
Where now we see the scope and shape of the ship, which
is breathtaking. The domed center sloping off to a
gentle gradient, which is the surface that Mulder and
Scully were running on. The ship is now slowly rotating
as it moves upward in a gently rising hover.
Mulder and Scully are on the ice sheet below.
RESUME MULDER AND SCULLY
Scully face down on the ice. Mulder lifting his head
when THE HEAVY SHADOW of the ship comes over them.
Looking up from this position to see:
THE SPACE SHIP
Moving slowly, laterally just overhead. Thunderously
rumbling. The dark detail of its underside visible in
this angle. As it continues to rise, the shadow passing
over Mulder and Scully.
CUT TO:
NEW ANGLE OVER MULDER AND SCULLY
Scully is still face down on the ice, as Mulder watches
the ship's shadow cast over Mulder's SnowCat which is
still parked in the distance. Moving up and off.
The ship continues up into the Antarctic sky where it
rises toward the sky where it begins to get WHITEHOT.
Transforming itself into pure energy. It is visible for
several moments during transformation. Then it
disappears completely. As it does the RUMBLE, which
dopplers across the white, barren landscape. Then it is
gone.
MULDER
Watches this then lays his head down on Scully's back.
He is spent, at the brink of complete exhaustion. His
whole body heaving. But now starting to shiver, and to
lose consciousness.
Scully's body is motionless beneath him, for a moment we
might believe that this is the way it might end. Out
here on the ice with Mulder and Scully freezing to
death. A chill wind blows off the Antarctic plain, the
same LOW RUMBLE, the only taint of silence in vastness
of this literal end of the world.
Then Scully coughs -- the same hoarse cough. She's
alive. Struggling to consciousness. Her head lifting
slightly, TURNING TO CAMERA. Her eyes blink open and she
coughs again. Feeling Mulder's weight on top of her,
unaware of his condition or even where she is.
SCULLY
(weakly)
Mulder...
There is no answer. Scully struggling to pull herself
out from under the weight of his body. Rolling over so
that her face is opposite Mulder's now. Seeing that he
has lost consciousness. Finding the strength to roll him
over, so that she can cradle him and warm him.
HIGH WIDE ANGLE ON THIS SCENE
With the Snowcat a short distance away, Mulder and
Scully in each others arms. The way it should end.
FADE TO BLACK
Silence. Longer than we would like. Long enough to make
us nervous, then certain, then angry. Then...we FADE UP
a prelap of the sound of a CRACKLING FIRE.
FADING UP ON:
EXT. ACRES OF CORN - MAGIC HOUR
TRACKING LOW WITH MEN IN FATIGUES, moving along the
perimeter of the corn field as they set fire to the corn
stalks with small handheld butane burners. While other
Men in Fatigues are moving between the rows dousing the
furrows with accelerant.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. FBI FIELD OFFICE - DALLAS - NIGHT
The large room filled with the evidence and debris from
the bombing. It is dark. Until A FLASHLIGHT BEAM pricks
the blackness, moving toward us into f.g. Carried by the
man we now recognize as The Man Who Shot Mulder. He
moves with directness, purpose. Finding what he's
looking for amid the cataloged material, he finds on a
work bench. Next to the microscope Scully had used. It
is the BONE FRAGMENTS, held in an evidence container.
He pockets them and exits as quiet and directly as he
entered.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. ACRES OF CORN - WIDE - CGI PLATE
The sky aglow with orange flames as the crops burn to
the ground. We hold on this shot, PRELAPPING the sound
of:
JANA CASSIDY'S VOICE
... in light of the report I've got
before me; in light of the narrative
I'm now hearing...
INT. FBI OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL REVIEW - DAY
Jana Cassidy sits at the head of the desk, just as when
we first met her.
She is flanked by the other members of the review board,
including A.D. Skinner who sits at the end of the
table.
Cassidy flips through a file she's referred to before
she continues. Looking up with consternation as she
resumes.
CASSIDY
... my official report is incomplete
pending these new facts I'm being
asked to reconcile. Agent Scully...
AGENT SCULLY
Sitting where she last sat, at the small table. The seat
next to her conspicuously empty. Her face bears the
signs of slight frostbite, somewhat healed. Her
expression is even, her attitude composed, but her eyes
are filled of dark, restrained defiance.
CASSIDY
...while there is direct evidence now
that a federal agent may have been
involved in the bombing... the other
events you've laid down here seem too
incredible on their own, and quite
frankly implausible in their
connection.
PANNING THE OTHER BOARD MEMBERS - curious, bemused like
Cassidy. Skinner shifts uncomfortably.
SCULLY
What is it you find incredible?
CASSIDY
Well...where would you like me to
start? Antarctica is a long way from
Dallas, Agent Scully. I can't very
well submit a report to the Attorney
General that alleges the links you've
made here. Bees and corn crops do not
quite fall under the rubric of
domestic terrorism.
SCULLY
No, they don't.
CASSIDY
Most of what I find in here is lacking
a coherent picture of an organization
with an attributable motive. I realize
you're very lucky to be alive Agent
Scully. The ordeal you've endured has
clearly affected you -- though the
holes in your account leave this panel
with little choice but to delete these
references from our final report to
the Justice Department. Until which
time hard evidence becomes available
that would give us cause to pursue
such an investigation.
Scully has her hand in her coat pocket now. Moving
around the table and approaching Cassidy. Removing
something which she puts on the desk in front of her. A
small vial.
SCULLY
I don't believe the FBI currently has
an investigation unit qualified to
pursue the evidence in hand.
Cassidy picks up the vial, studying the contents of this
vial: the dead bee that stung Scully. Studying it as
Scully turns and moves to the door, without permission,
no further adieu.
ANGLE TO INCLUDE A.D. SKINNER
Watching Scully exit.
CASSIDY (O.S.)
Mr. Skinner....?
CAMERA PIVOTING TO INCLUDE CASSIDY. Looking at him.
CASSIDY
Please ask Agent Scully to come back
to this hearing. We're not quite
finished.
As Skinner rises, unsure of the intent behind this
directive, we:
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - DAY
We are JUST ABOVE THE TREETOPS. The Capitol Dome is in
the far distance. CAMERA CRANING DOWN to find Mulder
sitting by himself on a park bench. We are WIDE. There
is no one else around.
Until the Cigarette Smoking Man appears. Walking through
the otherwise deserted park. Joining Mulder on the park
bench.
CLOSER ON MULDER, THE CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
They do not speak for several moments. A quite tension
as the CSM lights up a trademark smoke. Inhaling,
exhaling. Then:
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
Congratulations on your survival. Your
life is worthless now, I hope you know
that.
MULDER
And yours?
CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN
(derisive)
You think you've stopped it. What I've
worked for fifty years to create. You
haven't stopped it. You can't stop
it.
(takes a drag)
You're just one man.
MULDER
You're wrong.
WIDE ANGLE
Mulder rises from the bench heading TOWARD CAMERA. The
CSM rising, watching him.
As Mulder continues toward us. ADJUST TO REVEAL Agent
Scully in the f.g. Mulder moving to her as the CSM
watches from the distance. Their eyes meet, an unspoken
restored bond exchanged in this moment. Before Mulder
takes Scully by the arm, leads her off. Leaving the CSM
standing alone in the distance. As we:
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. CORN FIELDS/WHITE DOMES - TUNISIA - DAY
TRACKING LOW WITH A PAIR OF FEET
The wearer of them sporting peasant sandals. We realize
shortly that while the feet are moving across sandy
ground, that the foliage in the near b.g. is corn. And
that the person we are tracking with is passing row
after row of stalks.
CAMERA RISING AS IT TRACKS
REVEALING A TUNISIAN MAN dressed in peasant clothes. He
is carrying a piece of paper. Moving with hasty purpose.
Stopping at the end of one of the long rows of corn
where CONRAD STRUGHOLD is coming toward him. Making his
way between rows of stalks. The Peasant waits patiently
as Strughold approaches, handing him the piece of
paper.
Strughold reads it, his otherwise steely countenance
reflecting a disturbance seen only in the slight
narrowing of his eyes.
He looks up at the Peasant and says something to him in
Tunisian Arabic. Said as command, which causes the
Peasant to nod dutifully and move off as he came.
Strughold stands for a moment, then crumples the paper
slightly and drops it. Moving off down the same corn row
in which he approached.
CAMERA DROPPING TO THE GROUND where we find the paper on
which we see a flat section that is not so crumpled we
cannot read the words: X-FILES RE-OPENED. STOP. PLEASE
ADVISE. STOP.
CAMERA RISING NOW. Rising up past the stalks. Where we
can still see Strughold walking. RISING UP AND UP to
reveal ACRES AND ACRES OF CORN. Many times more than we
had seen previously. Stretched out across the Tunisian
Desert, ending only where THREE WHITE DOMES stand on the
distant horizon.
Off this image we FADE OUT.
THE END
|
| X-Files: Fight the Future, The
Writers : Chris Carter
Genres : Action Sci-Fi Thriller
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