Obsessing on all things The X-Files and Ten Thirteen online since 2005
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 The X-Files mythology episode by episode analysis |
 Thematic articles on X-Files and everything 1013 |
 The archival database project |
The X-Files Revival 2016Introduction: Revival |
The X-Files Revival 2018Introduction: From Season 10 to Season 11 |
+ Perihelion (novel, 2024)
+ IDW comics (S10, S11, more, 2013-2018)
Big Blue Backpack, who is focused on analyzing the storytelling structures of Mystery Box shows, just released a video on the mythology of The X-Files — arguably, the show that set the standard for all the Mystery Box shows that followed.
I was glad to participate in this one as an interviewee! Clips of our discussion are interspersed with his analysis.
Yes, it’s 4 1/2 hours long — but if you don’t want a refresher course on the mythology episodes season by season you can jump to 2 1/2 hours in! This video differs in that it is a fresh perspective: it was made by a new viewer, unburdened by past fan discourse and completely unattached to the show, unlike someone who lived through its airing live.
I recently posted about two other long-form videos on the mythology of The X-Files: it’s as if there is some sort of dialogue going on in mythology interpretations, with video essays now that text-based discussions are out of fashion. I initially created this website just to analyze the mythology 20+ year ago, and it’s amazing to me that a 30+ year old show still motivates people to create such intricate essays.
In-universe Watsonian and holistic interpretations of the mythology, from season 1 all the way to season 11, have to take into account the developments of the revival after a big time gap. There are two main strands:
Ironically, both theories interpret by far most of what happened in the show in the same way but are inherently incompatible. And funnily enough, the show’s mythology has such a reputation of being confusing that few fans out of its large audience can say much about all this with great confidence. Although I wrote about all of this in my reviews of My Struggle II and III many years ago already, I will have more to say about this.
Another Chris Carter-directed Ten Thirteen Production exists in the world, and more from it has seen the light of day, just as Carter reached his 70th birthday. See previous reporting here and here. Frankly, it looks like a perfectly good movie that should have a wider release — but it is facing the harsh uphill battle that self-financed independent productions have in order to get a wider distribution.
Official synopsis of Queens For A Day:
A right wing newscaster finds herself catapulted back into 1950s Queens New York, forced to live her own mother’s life. The America she finds, and the cramped existence she can’t escape, are a horror fable odyssey – especially since she is now raising herself as a child she doesn’t particularly like.
Trailer:
It looks like a mix of a comedy and horror. What I particularly like is that it’s not just the 1950s: there appears to be scenes from the life of the mother character across many decades, with a lot of work costumes, make-up, sets and photography that looks excellent!
Material from the movie itself, from behind the scenes and from premieres can be found in the movie’s Instagram, Carter’s own Instagram + this Facebook reel from the Calgary International Film Festival.
After its world premiere in Canada festivals in Edmonton and Calgary in September, the movie will be shown at the Whistler Film Festival in December 2-6 — appropriate, for a British Columbia production. Chris (director) and his wife Dori (writer), along with cast Erin Boyes and Andre Joseph, and producer Grace Gilroy were in attendance at the announcement (see also Pique News Magazine article):
Carter did an interview on the Edmonton Journal on September 17 (also a bit about Darin Morgan’s episodes and Coogler’s X-Files project):
My parents never drew Social Security, so they never really got to see my success. So anything I do makes me think of them. And for both my wife and I, this was a trip back for us, and it’s very personal to her. But as you might imagine, I was with her every step of the way through the rewrite process and the prep process. So this has a lot to do with us personally.
What’s always remarkable is you write a script and you’re wedded to it, in love with every scene, and it just falls away so easily. I think we cut about half an hour out of the film.
It was monumental what [Erin Boyes] had to go through, but a lot of my job – and it’s not always this way – was putting her on the map in I think five distinct time jumps. You become her navigator as well as director.
Carter and Erin Boyes did an interview on Canadian TV on CTV News on September 22:
Carter did a panel conversation at the UCLA School of Film, Theatre and Television on October 9 (Instagram announcement).
The movie had its US premiere in a week of special screenings in Laemmle Theatre in Los Angeles, over October 16-22.
Chris and Dori did a Q&A moderated by The X-Files‘ own Annabeth Gish (Monica Reyes), where several alumni also attended (Glen & Darin Morgan, Kristen Cloke, Jeff Cahn). This was reported in an extensive article in Gold Derby and another on IGN, plus photos on Instagram.
It is a personal story:
There was a question the other night about why divide us when you have an opportunity with a movie to unite us. But as harsh, dramatic, and angry as that conversation is, it speaks to the world I want to live in. By the time the movie is over, we have a character who has found her soul. That is what I am looking for in the world — a little more soul.
But it is also very much political:
We did not want to hit people over the head with it, but that is really the reason we wanted to make this movie. It is not just to tell a good tale, but to raise our fist in the air. We are angry, and we are living in a world we do not want to live in. This is our response to that.
It would have been hard to make this in the United States. It probably never would have been made if we had not self-financed it. People would have objected because of the politics. Everyone is scared right now. I am scared, too.
Rod Serling’s approach with The Twilight Zone was an inspiration:
I just read something really interesting about Rod Serling, that he kept trying to write things that they wouldn’t let him put on television. And he finally figured out for The Twilight Zone, if you write things allegorically, you can actually put things on film that you wouldn’t be able to do.
This story owes to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, where Scrooge gets to see the past and present and the future, and what Jerri sees is the future that changes her life.
And as a self-financed completely independent production, it has not found a distributor yet (which, incidentally, explains the small marketing and artisanal feeling of the poster):
Tell your friends and spread the word. We are trying to get the movie distributed, and it is a dance. It is a business and a courtship, and I am learning it as we go. We did film festivals, and word is out. There is interest. It is a movie that needs somebody who is as passionate about it as we are. I do think social media can be a superpower. If you land properly somewhere, it takes a spark, and that can create a blaze. I am excited about independent film right now.
For the time being, there is only one professional review listed on Rotten Tomatoes (at Movie Jawn) and several user reviews at Letterboxd. Overall impression is good, praising the acting and production values and how the script makes you think about the past and the present. “Equal measures social commentary, horror movie, and fairy tale”. Certainly the reception doesn’t look heavily divided between awful and masterpiece.
Let’s hope that a distributor picks it up, hopefully not just in the USA but elsewhere too, so that the rest of the world can see this!
Here is the movie’s second poster:
One of the best things Chris Carter’s Ten Thirteen produced, Millennium‘s pilot, aired 30 years ago on October 25, 1996. It started a landmark 3-year journey for Frank Black and for television. After all these years, the show is still unique, radical and profound as ever. It feels like yesterday that The X-Files reached this milestone!
To celebrate this anniversary, I am proud to present a comprehensive guide to the shooting locations of the show, with some 177 locations across the show’s 67 episodes!
This is the first time the overwhelming majority of these locations have been identified.
This is the result of Jeoffrey Gaspard‘s fine work, combing through the episodes for clues and going through Google Street View, often diving back into captures from older dates, as many locations have since been demolished or extensively refurbished and are today unrecognisable. Still, a great majority can still be seen if you plan a trip to Vancouver or if you want to spend some time browsing through Street View alongside watching the episodes.
This is in complement to my The X-Files shooting locations map that I did back in 2018, which already included a handful of Millennium locations, for the occasion of visiting Vancouver. That X-Files map has recently been superseded by a more complete map by boggsfiles, which also made use of production documents they have been collecting.
For the hardcore fans, it’s even more entertaining to identify which locations are actually next to each other from different episodes, or to map the MM locations to the XF locations and see which ones were used multiple times (and for other series shot in Vancouver: Stargate, Battlestar Galactica…). The essential part is in the Vancouver area, along with some additional establishing shots elsewhere.
Find the Millennium shooting locations map here!
Find Jeoffrey’s sheet of locations here!
Here are some comparative examples of episode screenshots and location photos for just some of the locations identified. Some are iconic and recognisable from a whole scene, some are just glimpsed in a single shot.
Location: Ashtrey Alley, Vancouver
A location reused several times, a back alley typical of Vancouver’s Gastown. Also used in The X-Files 3X23: Wetwired and 10X4: Home Again.
This is the first shot of the Pilot, the Frenchman heading to the Ruby Tip strip club:
This is also where Lara and Frank stand, watching in to the Crisis Center call center in Goodbye Charlie.
Location: West Cordova Street & Granville Street, Vancouver
Frank and Bletch have their discussion on the ramp to the underground parking in the Pilot (“my gift, my curse”).
Later, in PPT&D, that same parking appears when Frank has a sighting of the angel Sammael; he runs up the ramp to find him and looks around on the surface. This is when the surroundings of the parking from outside are visible.
Location: 321 4th Avenue, New Westminster
A well-known location. Different house from the one used in the Pilot. Yes, this is the same house as in The X-Files 1X01: Deep Throat. It’s a private house.
Location: St. Mary’s Kerrisdale church, 2490 West 37th Avenue, Vancouver
This is the church in the beginning of the episode. Frank’s sister in law disappears.
Location: Whole Foods supermarket parking lot, 1675 Robson Street, Vancouver
One of the series’ most iconic shots. Pepper comes out of the supermarket and heads towards his car in the same parking lot.
Loction: Britannia Beach
All of the Bucksnort scenes were shot here. The mining museum can be seen in the background. Yes, it’s the same location as the Strughold Mine in The X-Files 3X02:Paper Clip. Beebe’s cabin and the Old Man’s cabin were shot elsewhere.
Location: Buntzen Lake, Anmore
Frank lands with the hydroplane and later, when Alex “Ventoux” is rescued, Frank stays on the lake shore, watching the hydroplane take off.
Also used in 1M07: Blood Relatives, 3M07: Through a Glass, Darkly, 3M20: Nostalgia, as well as The X-Files 1X03: Conduit and 3X22: Quagmire.
Location: Main & 14th plaza, Vancouver
The TV Standards & Practices censor has a psychological breakdown and sees things he wants to censor everywhere. This is unacceptable!
Location: Victory Square, Vancouver
This is where Ed has his visions in the beginning of the episode.
This is actually the same spot where Frank meets Mike Atkins in 1X02: Gehenna and discuss the polaroids, and it’s just next to the Ruby Tip arch alley from the Pilot!
So, as we loop back… Enjoy, and don’t hesitate to contact me if you identify locations that are missing! The map is rich but not entirely complete.
Meanwhile, you can also purchase the expanded and reworked fan passion project documentary “After the Millennium”. Remastered, remixed and with additional material including an all-new interview with Bill Smitrovich (Lt Bob Bletcher), it is over an hour longer than the original “Millennium After The Millennium” 2019 version.
You can order the BluRay here (spicy shipping costs to outside of the US!): https://deadendfilms.org/after-the-millennium/
Or stream it for free (in the US!) here: http://tubitv.com/movies/100054675/after-the-millennium
Two videos on the mythology of The X-Files have gathered attention. Both say that they hold the final word on the mythology and that it all makes sense from start to finish. Interestingly, both defend the same theory, that the twist presented in the beginning of the revival seasons has actually been true all along: aliens are real but they never intended to colonize, and that the colonization story is a smokescreen from a group of conspirators that was manipulating everyone all along, including the Syndicate.
Helped by great production values, they make a particularly convincing case. Is it airtight though? I have my own thoughts (hint: I had expressed this theory and given the pros and cons all the way back when ‘My Struggle 2‘ aired in 2016) but I wanted to post this already before I revisit this in a longer article. What do people think?
Video 1: Rick Worley: The X-Files Mythology All Makes Perfect Sense, Actually
Video 2: Guigui: Théories & analyse de la mythologie des X-Files: La vérité vraie de la mythologie
(and thanks for the Eat The Corn mention!) (Voir aussi ma discussion avec Guigui en podcast ici)
The follow-up to the first volume of The X-Files Official Archives in 2020 has now been postponed many, many times since its original announcement for December 2023.
Now in an interview with The Wrap, author Paul Terry teases the next volume, for March 7, 2027. On the publisher’s site, Abrams Books, now says March 9, 2027. Let’s hope it will happen this time!
“The X-Files: The Official Archives: Volume II: Extraterrestrial Activity and the Syndicate” will cover the show’s mythology — so you can be sure I’m very excited to hold this in my hands! At 360 pages, it’s also 60 pages longer than Volume 1, it’s going to be big!
Note the date on the cover page next to Terry’s name: 7/3/2023, which is probably when he finished making it, already over three years ago (Volume 1 had 3/21/20, and it was published in September 2020).
The interview includes the first look of the interior: looks like the last page on 5X20: The End (the burnt X-Files office) and the first page on Fight the Future (Blackwood county, Texas).
As with Volume 1, there will be a meta-narrative woven into the files. I am guessing it will be again about Agent Leyla Harrison putting together this collection of files, or it could be something else. Terry says: “Mulder and Scully’s investigations into extraterrestrial activity and the Syndicate was often very dangerous. With volume two, I felt it was important to capture the spirit of that. And so, as the reader studies the case files, they will gradually pick up on something else that is going on. Something perilous. It heightens the classified nature of what Agents Mulder and Scully, and others, investigated, in search of the truth.”
It will cover everything from the beginning all the way to the revival, so I’m curious how and if the book will deal with the jump from the original mythology to the revival’s reworked mythology that swept several things under the rug (or contradicted what came before, take your pick).
Of course, rather than any new information on The Truth of it all, the joy of this book will be more the physical object itself, and the replicas of props and images unearthed by Terry at the Fox archives!
Why the accumulated delays? We don’t know. But we can theorize it had something to do with Disney’s takeover of Fox and the subsequent streamlining of their merchandising. Maybe they were keeping such a release handy to go together with the release of the Coogler/Yale project on Hulu/Disney+, in which case this new release date gives us a hint as to when that is coming out.
And so the recycling machine continues on its path. Disney is taking advantage of Ten/Thirteen day to announce that the Coogler/Yale The X-Files project will be more than just the pilot: it is going to series!
Ludwig Göransson confirmed as the composer for the pilot, which is good news!
No other details announced (number of episodes, when it would air). The episodes actually have to be made before any of that comes, unless Disney/Hulu wants to just release the pilot ahead of time first. 2027 would be a good guess.
As reported previously, the two-hour pilot finished shooting in June. Coogler liked it so much he was considering pushing for a feature film release. It was also announced that Coogler was moving to developing series for Netflix, so apparently he would not be further involved with the TXF series; indeed, Coogler’s five-year development deal with Disney started in 2021. Jennifer Yale will be the TXF series showrunner.
Images from Disney/Hulu’s Facebook
Happy 70th birthday for Chris Carter and happy 65th birthday for Fox Mulder…
Edit: this could just be a rumor, but World of Reel, that also said that Coogler’s pilot was a two-hour feature shot on 65mm film, says that both Mulder and Scully appear already in the pilot!
