The X-Files

1998 Sci Fi

This 60-million-dollar science fiction suspense drama (marketed with an additional 25 million dollars), was adapted from the popular TV series The X-Files -- arriving in theaters while the Emmy-winning series was still being aired, continuing plot threads familiar to many of the series' 25 million viewers, and featuring several familiar recurring characters introduced during the previous five TV seasons. In 15,000 B.C., a strange creature attacks a caveman. Cut to present day, when a boy at the same North Texas spot falls into a pit and is contaminated by a black substance. When a bomb threatens the Dallas Federal Building, special FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) locate the device but are unable to prevent the explosion. The agency blames Mulder and Scully for the disaster, subjecting them to lengthy interrogations while trying to sever their partnership. In a bar, conspiracy theorist Kurtzweil (Martin Landau), a friend of Mulder's father, tells Mulder about the group behind the explosion, the cover-up of the boy's death, the bodies of four infected rescue workers removed from the Federal Building, the secret government, and the forthcoming plague. Mulder and Scully set out to find answers, and their investigation becomes a foray into the fantastic. more..

Director: Rob Bowman

Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Blythe Danner

Reviews

  • Dark, funny, paranoid, arbitrary, humming with tamped-down eroticism and in love with all things weird: That's the good news.

    Owen Gleiberman - Entertainment Weekly

    20 January 2013

  • Like the TV show, The X-Files movie is stylish, scary, sardonically funny and at times just plain gross.

    Michael O'Sullivan - The Washington Post

    20 January 2013

  • As pure movie, The X-Files more or less works. As a story, it needs a sequel, a prequel, and Cliff Notes.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    20 January 2013

  • Neither true believers nor newcomers to the phenomenon will be disappointed.

    Bob Graham - The San Francisco Chronicle

    20 January 2013

  • This is more than enough material for two hours of summer-movie fun, and The X-Files delivers said fun reasonably well. The action scenes are bigger and bolder than their small-screen counterparts.

    David Sterritt - Christian Science Monitor

    20 January 2013

Awards

  • Top Box Office Films

    ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards (1999)

  • Best Actor

    Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (1999)

     
  • Favorite Actress - Sci-Fi

    Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (1999)

  • Bogey Awards, Germany (1998)

  • Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Feature Film

    Cinema Audio Society (1999)