TELEVISION REVIEW
The End Zone
For 'X-Files,' the plot thickens as it heads for alien
big screen
By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff, 05/18/98
Talk about conspiracies. The makers of ''The X-Files''
are amid a
massive and unusual plot that, if it succeeds, could
rival ''Armageddon.''
It could have a ''Deep Impact'' on the movie industry. It
could become a
''Lethal Weapon 4'' for studios seeking to make a killing
at the box office ...
The big plot is to connect the story line of the popular
''X-Files'' TV series to
that of a $60 million ''X-Files'' summer movie, thereby
motivating some 20
million fans to rise out of their armchairs and visit
their local multiplex. Will
fans pay nearly $8 apiece for what they can watch for
free on TV? It may be
the first time this kind of multimedia crossover from a
still-prime-time show
has been attempted.
And so last night's season finale of ''The X-Files'' was
particularly important,
as it sets up the movie, which opens June 19. Naturally,
it was an hour filled
with teasing, head-scratching twists related to the
series-length conspiracy
thread. Has there ever been a TV show that drops so many
fat, juicy clues,
yet seems to divulge almost no real information? Have
there ever been
scriptwriters so practiced at the art of evasion?
>>Sometimes watching ''The
X-Files'' is like swimming against a powerful current.
The episode began with a wonderfully tense scene in which
a shooting is
about to occur in a large hall where a boy and a man are
playing competitive
chess. The 12-year-old avoids the bullet but, as Agent
Mulder immediately
realizes, he has been targeted because he's special - a
mind reader, we learn,
who is part alien. Mimi Rogers, as Mulder's
ex-girlfriend, Agent Fowler, is
also on hand to help in the case, although she ultimately
blows everything by
falling asleep. (By the way, the episode is shameless in
promoting the Fox
network, as the boy is seen watching ''The Simpsons'' and
then ''King of the
Hill.'')
Some of the best moments were the small ones between
Fowler and Gillian
Anderson's Agent Scully, as they work together despite
jealousy over Mulder.
The jealousy, along with almost every other emotion on
''The X-Files,'' is
subterranean and titillating. The emotional landscape of
the show is as
intentionally foggy and indistinct as the conspiracy
plot. But while coolness and
intelligence and understatement can turn into DOA TV,
David Duchovny,
Anderson, and the rest have managed to make those traits
wonderfully
compelling over the years.
Connected to the fate of the boy, of course, were a
couple of
bigger-than-anyone-knows developments. Cigarette Smoking
Man is back in
town, pulled in by double agent Alex Krycek, and he
admits to being the father
of Agent Spender, who is played by the actor (Chris
Owens) who played
Young Cigarette Smoking Man. And most important of all,
Cigarette Smoking
Man sets Mulder's office, and the X-Files in particular,
on fire - but only after
he has removed the file on Samantha Mulder. Burn down
Mulder's mission - a
very clever way to clear the slate for the movie.
What does it all mean? While promotion for the movie
promises it will provide
some definitive answers about the mysteries at the core
of ''The X-Files,''
don't count on it. It wouldn't be ''The X-Files'' if it
didn't play hard-to-get like
nobody's business, giving enough information to satisfy,
yet withholding critical
pieces to keep you hooked. If we are handed certain
truths on the big screen,
aren't they certain to lead to other, even larger and
more paranoid questions?
This story ran on page D06 of the Boston Globe on
05/18/98.
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.