‘You kept me honest. You made me a whole person. I owe you everything…’
At some point maybe two years ago I decided to rewatch every episode of The X-Files from the beginning. Now, there are 218 episodes of The X-Files each one lasting roughly 45 minutes. That’s 163.5 hours. That’s almost a week. And that’s not even taking into account the feature films. Well, now I have reached the point of the first cinematic appearance of Mulder and Scully and it’s like a time capsule straight back to the heady days of 1998…
I can’t possibly relay the plot of the film. I can’t divorce it from all the episodes that led up to this moment. Mulder and Scully are there, of course, wonderfully played as ever by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson respectively. The Smoking Man is there. He’s smoking. Skinner is there looking angry or worried. There are aliens and spaceships and killer bees and a deadly virus and yet this feels more than just a really long episode of The X-Files. Fight to the Future looks and feels cinematic. The scope of it goes beyond anything in the source material. The score is soaring and majestic. Mulder says ‘Shit’ at one point. It’s all happening. What I will say, however, is that this absolutely doesn’t work as a standalone feature film. The thought of somebody entering a movie theatre in 1998 to watch this and trying to make some sense out of it is preposterous. But does that matter? Was Chris Carter, the creator of The X-Files, really trying to win over new fans with this one? Probably not.
The X-Files: Fight to the Future is essential viewing in the context of the TV show and it provides some of the most accomplished visual moments of the entire franchise. Like the best episodes, this film has also aged remarkably well and perhaps represents a high water mark for the franchise generally as by all accounts the show dipped in quality soon after the release of this film. Either way, it must be considered a success.
