"The X Files" First Person Shooter (2000)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Chris Carter

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
William Gibson (writer) ...

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

27 February 2000 (Season 7, Episode 13)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

The Lone Gunmen request Mulder and Scully's assistance in a murder case at a video game company. A virtual reality game has gone haywire...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Title Spoken By Character | FBI | FBI Agent | Alien

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Krista Allen	...	Maitreya / Jade Blue Afterglow
Michael Bower	...	Lo-Fat (as Michael Ray Bower)
Tom Braidwood	...	Melvin Frohike
Billy Ray Gallion	...	Retro
James Geralden	...	Detective Lecoeur
William Gibson
Dean Haglund	...	Richard 'Ringo' Langly
Bruce Harwood	...	John Fitzgerald Byers
John Marrott	...	Security Guard
James Marsh	...	Ivan Martinez
Christopher Ng	...	Darryl Musashi
Matthew Sutherland	...	Records Clerk (as Matt Sutherland)
Ryan Todd	...	Moxie
Constance Zimmer	...	Phoebe

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Mulder disappears into the game and Scully runs into the room at the top of the stairs, she is heard saying "Where's Mulder?" but her lips do not match what she is saying.

Quotes:

Mulder: Maybe out past where the imagination ends our true natures lie, waiting to be confronted on their own terms. Born in anarchy with an unquenchable bloodthirst we shudder to think what might rise up from the darkness.

Movie Connections:

References Raging Bull (1980)

Girl-in-thong Power!

Mulder is literally drawn into the world of computer gaming by a sexy sprite who puts the hooters in First-Person-Shooters!

Some X-Files are terrific, others terrible. Every once in a while, however, there's one that is SO bad, but in SUCH an endearing way, that it's truly memorable, if mostly for the wrong reasons. This "Tron"-derived silliness is just such an exercise.

It's hard to believe that "Neuromancer" author William Gibson could have generated this absurd idea of an F-P-S - or that the originator of "Harsh Realm" could have accepted it!!! I assume that most of the budget was spent on the 3-D graphics rendering, but even so - can Chris Carter really never have played "Doom"? "Duke Nukem?" Not even "Wolfenstein 3D?" Surely SOMEONE on the creative staff must have protested the lameness of this dumb shooting-gallery caricature?

The real problem with the story is not so much the phoniness of the game, but the phoniness of the "gal outdoes guy at guy stuff" plot device. That the thin plot ends with Scully in a thong carrying a machine gun is painfully stereotypical, and the idea of a mousy computer geek finding 'empowerment' in a stripper/hooker character BEGS for parody. Alas, all we get is same-o same-o testosterone ribbing. The helpless incompetence of the Lone Gunmen is also disappointing. No cheat codes? Come on!

The fun part of this is the treatment of Mr I-always-drop-my-gun Mulder. Initially portrayed as Mr Dark & Moody in early episodes, Mulder was gradually re-drawn as a grown-up geek boy, and in this episode we not only get the revelation that he plays F-P-S-es, we get to see him in gear saying: "Bring it on!"