German, French and Spanish titles: no
change
Italian title: Il File Da Non Aprire
translation: The Thread To Not Open
US Airdate: May 19, 1995
writer: Chris Carter
story by David Duchovny & Chris Carter
director: R.W. Goodwin
STARRING:
David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully
Guest Cast:
Byron Chief Moon as Father
Bernie Coulson as The Thinker
Peter Donat as Bill Mulder
Nicholas Lea as Agent Alex Krycek
Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Paul McLean as Agent Kautz
Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman as Albert Hosteen
Renae Morriseau as Josephine Doane
Aurelio Dinunzio as Antonio
William B. Davis as Cancer Man
Dean Haglund as Langly
Tom Braidwood as Frohike
Bruce Harwood as Byers
Michael David Simms as Senior Agent
Ken Camroux as 2nd Senior Agent
Mitch Davis as Stealth Man
MULDER'S WORLD FALLS APART AROUND HIM AS EVERY SINGLE PERSON HE
TRUSTS SEEMS TO TURN AGAINST HIM IN A CONSPIRACY LEADING TO THE HEART OF THE MYSTERY HE
CHASES.
When a computer hacker breaks into the most secret files of the
Department of Defense, he uncovers a secret going back to the end of World War II. Mulder
is drawn in as he is handed what may be the ultimate proof of extraterrestrial existence,
government conspiracy and the fate of his sister. But his increasingly irrational behavior
alarms Scully, who must save him from himself as his actions take him farther and farther
from the tenuous hold the Bureau has on him, into the realms of the most extreme
possibility. The conspirators Mulder has fought against emerge with a vengeance,
threatening the lives not only of Mulder's family but of Mulder himself in a season-finale
cliff-hanger, the first of a three-part series.
Notes
The title refers to an ancient tribe of Indians who
lived in the American Midwest in the Middle Ages; the name translates as 'ancient aliens',
and they vanished without trace in the seventeenth century.
Chris Carter himself appears in a cameo (his acting debut) as one of
Scully's interrogators in Skinner's office.
Director R.W. Goodwin makes a cameo appearance as a gardener.
On Mulder's screen, as the gibberish scans by, you can see the line
"do-ray-me-fa-so-la-todo" (5 lines under the Department of Defense heading).
The tagline changes for the third time to "EL 'AANIGOO
'AHOOT'E", which roughly translates as "The truth is out there" in Navajo.
Nope, that boxcar wasn't actually buried in New Mexico but in good
old British Columbia. To achieve the proper look, a rock quarry was painted red with 1,600
gallons of red paint and mixed with composition shots. Voila, New Mexico. Fooled _you_,
didn't it? Me too.
Personal notes: What a season ender !!! Not only did we have all
summer to fret about how Mulder was going to get out of that boxcar (an answer we'd STILL
like!), but we were forced to deal with Cancer Man having a working relationship with
Mulder's father, Bill. Of course, Bill never had a chance to explain it all to Mulder as
he gets killed by....looks like Krycek right? Maybe, we're still debating who else may
have been in that shower...or whether it was really an alien shape-shifter!
This episode is the beginning of our long journey towards the truth
about smallpox vaccinations and alien/human hybrids. More questions come up in part two
"The Blessing Way" and part three "Paper Clip". Such questions upon
questions, where will it end? Who cares, I'm in for the long-haul, however long that may
be!
Quotes
____________________
Albert Hosteen: "Leave the snakes alone today, they'll be angry
and afraid."
Mulder: "Are you familiar with the 10 Commandments,
Scully?"
Scully: "You want me to recite them?"
Mulder: "Just number 4, the one about obeying the Sabbath. The
part where God made heaven and earth but didn't bother to tell anybody about his side
projects?"
Scully: "What are you talking about?"
Mulder: "The biggest lie of all." (Mulder's computer
screen says "Department Of Defense. Top Secret.")
Scully: "What is this?"
Mulder: "The Holy Grail. The original defense department files.
Hard evidence that the government has known about the existance of extraterrestrials for
over fifty years."
Scully: "Where did you get this?"
Mulder: "Your friendly neighborhood anarchist. (the screen
shows a strange code) I don't believe this. This is just gibberish. (he stands up and hits
a pencil holder) Damn it. I'm so sick of this crap, BS and double talk. I can't believe
this."
Scully: "Mulder, this may not be gibberish."
Mulder: "It's a joke Scully, it's a bad joke."
Scully: "I think it's just encrypted and I think I recognise
it. It looks like Navajo. It was used in World War 2. My father told me it was the only
code the Japanese couldn't break, I... I remember the long strings of consonants."
Mulder: "Well can you find out?"
Scully: "Well only a handful of people can decipher it."
Mulder: "Then find one of 'em." (he goes to walk out)
Cancer Man: "Who could have predicted the future Bill? That the
computers that you and I only dreamed of, would someday be home appliances capable of the
most technical espionage."
Bill Mulder: "The files should have been destroyed."
Cancer Man: "They should have, but they weren't. Regret is an
inevitable consequence of life."
Bill Mulder: "How do you know my son has them?"
Cancer Man: "The man who stole them has come forward."
Bill Mulder: "Oh God."
Cancer Man: "As always we maintain plausible denial. The files
are only as real as their possible authentication."
Bill Mulder: "My name is in those files."
Cancer Man: The files have been encrypted, of course. We have a
certain luxury of time. We endeavoured to prevent that fact from ever coming to
light."
Bill Mulder: "You wouldn't... harm him?"
Cancer Man: "I've protected him this long, haven't I? Your son
has been provident in the alliances that he's created. The last thing we need is a martyr
in a crusade."
Bill Mulder: "But if he should, learn of my
involvement..."
Cancer Man: "You're your own man Bill. You always have been.
But I strongly encourage you in that event, to deny everything. It's good to see you again
Bill. You look well."
Bill Mulder: "It's... it's so clear now. Simple. It was so
complicated then. The, the choices that needed to be made."
Mulder: "What choices? Dad..."
Bill Mulder: "You're a smart boy Fox. You're smarter than I
ever was."
Mulder: "About what?"
Bill Mulder: "Your politics are yours, you've never thrown in.
The minute you do that, their doctrines become yours and you can be held
responsible."
Mulder: "You're talking about your work in the state
department."
Bill Mulder: "You're going to learn of things... Fox, you're
going to hear the words and they'll come to make sense to you."
Mulder: "What words?"
Bill Mulder: "The merchandise. Look I, I've been taking some
medication. You'll have to excuse me for a moment."
Bill goes to the bathroom and opens a medicine cabinet. From the
reflection in the mirror, Krycek is seen in the shower. A gun shot is heard and Mulder
runs into the bathroom.
On the phone, Mulder has woken up to find his gun missing, Scully is
running ballistics tests on it Mulder: "You took my gun. You think I did it don't
you?"
Scully: "I took your gun to run it through ballistics to try
and clear you, Mulder."
Mulder: "Well, why didn't you ask me?"
Scully: "You had a temperature of 102 last night, I didn't want
to wake you."
Mulder: "What, were you afraid that I was gonna shoot you
too?"
Scully: "Mulder, I'm being called into Skinner's office this
afternoon, they're gonna want answers and I'd like some good ones to give them."
Mulder: "So you can clear your conscience and your name?!
You've been making reports on me since the beginning, Scully, taking your LITTLE
NOTES!"
Scully: "Mulder, you're sick, you're not thinking straight, I'm
on your side. You know that."
Mulder: "Look, you have my files and you have my gun. Don't ask
me for my trust."
Scully: "Yes, I did. You didn't give me much choice. You were
about to kill Krycek."
Mulder: "Why'd you shoot ME? HE'S the one..."
Scully: "If he is, then his weapon is probably the same one
that killed your father."
Mulder: "What are you talking about?"
Scully: "If you killed Krycek with that weapon there would have
been no way to prove that you didn't kill your father. I'm sorry about your father Mulder,
I haven't been able to tell you."
Scully: "I'm afraid you're on your own with this. I didn't show
up for a meeting with Skinner the day before yesterday and I don't know what the
repercussions will be."
Mulder: "You've taken a big risk."
Scully: "I was certain they would have killed you Mulder."
Mulder: "Thank you. Thank you for taking care of me."
Scully: "There's something else. My name is in those files. It
appears in the latest entries with Duane Barry's."
Mulder: "In what context?"
Scully: "It's not clear, but it has something to do with a
test. I want you to find out Mulder. I need you to."
Albert: "In the desert, things find a way to survive. Secrets
are like this too. They push their way up through the sands of deception so that men can
know them. Here, this is my house."
Mulder: "But why me?"
Albert: "You are prepared to accept the truth aren't you, to
sacrifice yourself to it."
Mulder: "I don't understand."
Albert: "There was a tribe of indians who lived here more than
600 years ago. Their name was Anasazi, it means ancient aliens. No evidence of their fate
exists. Historians say they disappeared without a trace. They say that because they will
not sacrifice themselves to the truth."
Mulder: "And what is the truth?"
Albert: "Nothing disappears without a trace."
Mulder: "You think they were abducted."
Albert: "By visitors who come here still." (Albert gets
out of the car, Mulder follows him)
Mulder: "What's buried out there?"
Albert: "Lies. You will see for yourself." (Mulder gets on
the back of Eric's bike)
Eric: "It's through these rocks. It's down there." (Mulder
climbs down the rockface and his cell phone rings)
Mulder: "Mulder."
Cancer Man: "You're a hard man to reach."
Mulder: "Not hard enough apparently."
Cancer Man: "Where are you?"
Mulder: "I'm at the Betty Ford center, where are you?"
Cancer Man: "I need to talk to you, Mr. Mulder, in person.
There are some things to explain."
Mulder: "I'll save the government the plane fare, I just need
to know which government that is."
Cancer Man: "Your father may have told you things, Mr. Mulder.
I should warn against taking those things at face value."
Mulder: "Yeah, which things are those?"
Cancer Man: "He was never an opponent of the project. In fact
he authorised it. That's what he couldn't live with."
Mulder: "No, he couldn't live with it because you had him
killed."
Cancer Man: "We weren't involved in that."
Mulder: "Now listen to me, you black lunged son of a bitch, I'm
gonna expose you and your project, your time is over."
Cancer Man: "Expose anything and you only expose your
father." (Mulder hangs up, Cancer Man gets out of a car and climbs into a helicopter)
Black Opps Guy 1: "Sir, we got a co-ordinate on F we're ready
to go."
Cancer Man: "Let's go."
Black Opps Gut 2: "Need a cigarette?"
The helicopter takes off. Back at the reservation Mulder uncovers a
plaque in the dirt which reads Sierra Pacific Railroad RTC - 567 480
Eric: "Over here."
Mulder: "This is a boxcar." (Mulder and Eric open the
hatch into the boxcar)
Eric: "Refrigeration car."
Scully's cell phone rings
Scully: "Scully."
Mulder: "Yeah, it's me."
Scully: "Where are you?"
Mulder: "Nowhere I ever expected."
Scully: "What do you mean?"
Mulder: "I'm in a boxcar buried inside a quarry. There are
bodies everywhere."
Scully: "Bodies?"
Mulder: "Stacked floor to ceiling."
Scully: "What happened to them?"
Mulder: "I don't know."
Scully: "Mulder, in these files I found references to
experiments that were conducted here in the US by Axis Power scientists who were given
amnesty after the war."
Mulder: "What kind of experiments?"
Scully: "Some kind of tests, on humans. What they referred to
as merchandise."
Mulder: "But these aren't human Scully. From the look of it I'd
say they were alien."
Scully: "Are you sure?"
Mulder: "I'm pretty damn sure. Wait a sec... (Mulder looks at
the arm of one of the 'merchandise') This one... has a smallpox vacination scar."
Scully: "Mulder..."
Mulder: "Oh, my God, Scully, what have they done?" (The
hatch closes. A helicopter lands and black opps military rush out)
Black Opps Guy 1: "Move out, get away from there, keep him
back. Cover us we're going in. Go."
Cancer Man: "What's your name, boy?"
Black Opps Guy 1: "He's not here."
Cancer Man: "Where's Mulder?! He's here!"
Black Opps Guy 1: "No sir, if he was, he's vanished without a
trace."
Cancer Man: "Nothing vanishes without a trace. Burn it!"
An incinerary device is thrown into the boxcar, it explodes and
flames fly from the open hatch, Cancer Man and the black opps military climb back into the
helicopter and leave.