Directed by Rob Bowman. Screenplay by Chris Carter, based on a story by Carter and Frank Spotnitz.

36,000 years B.C., a snowy landscape that will ultimately become Texas. Two cavemen have discovered a strange body, inside a cave, and are suddenly attacked by a quick, vicious creature. One of the early humans is killed by the creature, but the second is able to defeat it. However, he comes in contact with a creepy black oil substance. Flash forward to 1998, and a young boy (Lucas Black, so good in Sling Blade and American Gothic) is infected by the same oil after falling down a hole and landing in that same cave. The area is quickly put under quarantine by FEMA, and sealed off in what appears to be a military-led operation, headed by Dr. Ben Bronschweig (Green Mile's Jeffrey DeMunn). Elsewhere in Dallas, Mulder and Scully are part of an FBI unit to investigate a bomb scare involving a Federal building. Although it's believed to be a hoax, they quickly learn the threat is very real...and the explosion that follows kills a respected agent Darius Michaud (Terry O'Quinn).

In the aftermath of the building's destruction, four other bodies are discovered...three firemen and one boy. Skinner warns that Mulder and Scully will be used as fall guys for the events, and sure enough, they're split up for the bureau. As Scully thinks about quitting, Mulder is contacted by Alvin Kurtzweil (Martin Landau), who claims the bombing was just to cover up the true facts behind the deaths of the firemen and the boy.

Following up on Kurtzweil's tip, Mulder and Scully are able to sneak their way into a military morgue, and examine one of the corpses. Kurtzweil later tells Mulder that this is all part of the beginning of a scheme to bring about a worldwide emergency that will result in a secret branch of government taking power. At the center of it all is the quarantined location, and those bodies...which contain something eating them away from the inside. As the possible beginning of the end draws near, the agents must put together all the pieces of the puzzle, watch their backs and fight the future.

The motion picture is kind of hard film for me to warm to. There's some great stuff in there for sure, yet falls well short of what it could have been. But the most important element of the film...the duo of Mulder and Scully...work very well. The agents and the actors playing them may have come across as flat and strictly small screen (like Duchovny did in the recent flick Evolution), yet they come across as endearing as they do on the weekly show. They have a cute, playful exchange in the first scene, which lets non-X regular fans warm to them before the film rears up. However, in the second hour Scully all but vanishes as she falls victim to the otherworldly illness and Mulder is the solo crusader. And how many times can Scully end up in hospital anyway? The FBI must have spent a fortune in health care on her!

Surprisingly, the film doesn't reveal many great details about the pesky conspiracy and colony plot. There's more stuff explained in the astounding fifth season double header 'Patient X'/'The Red And The Black'. That season's finale 'The End' was supposed to set up the movie, but there's very little to connect it. However, the film does to a good job of leading into the sixth season premiere 'The Beginning', especially in relation the new, unplanned alien killers.

Another of the key problems is that there's simply no major human foe for our heroes. They're all sitting in the shadows somewhere, pulling strings. Mulder and Scully run around several times frantically, but we don't know who's chasing them. This movie needed someone like Alex Krycek or the Bounty Hunter as a great physical opponent.

One of the strongest and most revealing scenes in the movie involves Mulder's confrontation with the "Well-Manicured Man" (John Neville). It explains, more or less, what's going on and Neville is at his most powerful. However, there are a few confusing bits to this scene...he's sent to eliminate Kurtzweil because of what he knows, yet he's willing to tell all to Mulder after performing his mission. The scene ends with a car bomb explosion. Why? If he was faking his death, fair enough. But if it was suicide or murder, it doesn't quite make sense when you think about it.

From there, the action moves to Antarctia as Mulder attempts to rescue Scully from a huge, bizarre storage area that ultimately turns out to be a space craft. The film slows here, which isn't good, considering it's the big climax. Plus it also seems kind of overly familiar.

Unfortunately, aside from Neville, the supporting cast just doesn't excel. Landau, the Oscar-winning character actor, gets the crucial information across to Mulder and the audience, but there's no real energy in his performance. Another Oscar (nominated) guy is Armin Mueller-Stahl, who appears here as one of the conspiracy big shots, Conrad Strughold. The actor is his typical, low key-strong self, but he only appears for a few scenes, and never really gets to do anything substantial. Chris Carter veteran O'Quinn is very short lived, but his character certainly goes out with a bang. We don't get to know anything about the characters of DeMunn and Blythe Danner (as assistant director Jana Cassidy). Reliable Glenne Headley appears uncredited as a barmaid who Mulder amusingly spills his guts too. Series regulars Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis, Dean Haglund, Tom Braidwood and Bruce Harwood appear in varying levels of success and activity.

From a technical standpoint, the movie delivers the goods. Ward Russell's cinematography is especially good. The plentiful night time scenes are strikingly done, with good blue tints and shadows. The look of the movie is clearly a blue print for the following sixth series, particularly the first episode 'The Beginning'. Mark Snow's score is also good; it has a similar feel as his series work, but on a greater, more theatrical scope.

When it's all over, The X-Files movie is a not half bad effort, done with flair, but does fall short of what we expected. Maybe it did lure not viewers to the ongoing saga, but as a movie...it kind of treads water and lacks the sheer menace and thrill of the series at it's best.

Still, it's worth seeing just to hear Mulder say "dick" and "shit" twice.

The eagerly awaited motion picture did pretty well on it's release in summer 98. Although it ultimately fell short of what some Hollywood insiders predicted, it did well enough, aided by an impressive $30 million first weekend. It was well reviewed for the most part.