THE X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE (1998)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *cosmological, sociological*

One reviewer complained that the feature-film debut of the popular X-FILES telseries needed "Cliff's Notes." In contrast, I tend to complain that the story scripted by the series' creator/producer Chris Carter was, in effect, a Cliff's Notes version of the show. Like the famed summarization franchise, FIGHT THE FUTURE (a subtitle I'll use to avoid confusion with the TV show) boils down the essence of the ongoing series for ease of consumption.

I was never a huge X-FILES fan. I found some episodes superior, but I was never greatly invested in what the creators called the show's "mythology" or in the "will they won't they" dynamic between male FBI agent Mulder (David Duchovny) and female agent Scully (Gillian Anderson). The dominant arc of the show was that Agent Mulder, who at age 12 witnessed ETs kidnapping his sister, would attempt to unravel the mysteries of aliens on Earth and their covert interactions with human governments. The FBI assigned the rationalistic Scully to team with loose-cannon Mulder in investigating "X-Files," stories with possible paranormal associations. Though the viewer of the show is never in serious doubt as to the truth of Mulder's conspiracy theories, the duo are never able to gather conclusive evidence either of aliens or any other phenomena they investigate, be it Yetis, vampires, or metamorphic mutants.

The FUTURE being fought here is a scheme by unidentified aliens-- who may or may not be tied to the ones Mulder usually pursues-- to unleash a virus upon Earth. Indeed, the virus is implanted on Earth in primitive times, and first infects a prehistoric human. The bug remains dormant for centuries, until certain 20th-century officials form a contract with the aliens. The plan is to engender a plague that will possibly turn all of humanity into receptacles for alien habitation.

Carter's workmanlike script covers all of the usual beats of the series: the revelation of the weird phenomenon, the agents' pursuit of the strange thing amid temptations to make their relationship more than business, and then the government's cover-up, implicitly by officials who were not part of the conspiracy but who find it expedient to conceal the truth from the public. Carter's script strains to find ways to lend cinematic grandeur to a rather simple alien-plague narrative, but I don't think it would have worked even if he'd been teamed with a director with any sense of visual style. Rob (ELEKTRA) Bowman did most of his work in TV, and his idea of grandeur is having the camera pull back for a lot of capacious long-shots. 

Still, Duchovny and Anderson's chemistry is good, and may be the main thing that earned decent box office for FUTURE, which probably made possible  a second and final X-sequel ten years later.