"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
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