Case studies
Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson)
September 11, and I woke up a little late
because we’d been shooting late the night
before. I turned on the TV and there it
was. At that point one of the Twin Towers
was on fire, and I immediately thought of
The Lone Gunmen. I had this secret fear that
they would find out whoever did this was
inspired by our show, because we’d been on
network TV only six months prior, and it
had been a highly-rated show. It was for
weeks that I had this gnawing feeling they
were going to find out that the bad guys
were inspired by us. Not only did they not
find that out, not only did we subsequently
find out that the hijackers had been plotting
this a long time before The Lone Gunmen was
broadcast, but a sort of collective amnesia
set in where almost no one remembered
that The Lone Gunmen had been on the air
with a similar storyline to 9/11. It really
took years before people took notice that
there was a parallel.
There are a lot of people who believe that
your version of the event, where the
government was behind it, is what really
happened. It seems all very X-Files.
It’s interesting. The BBC did a documentary
about this last year, and I agreed to be
interviewed about it, because I’ve thought
a lot about conspiracy theories, and I said
in the broadcast that I don’t believe that
9/11 was a conspiracy staged by the United
States government. I got a lot of angry
reaction from people saying I shouldn’t have
been on the show and why were they talking
to me. That’s one where I don’t think the
government was behind it, however I do
think that the government manipulated the
tragedy to stage a war—there’s not much
controversy about that at this point—and
that was something that was in The Lone
Gunmen episode; that the bombing of the
Twin Towers would be used to stage a war
that was the genius of Chris’s concept for do something that had lightness to it. It was against a tin pot dictator.
the show—that X-Files could make anything just goofy and silly, and always fun to do.
frightening. It could be lightning, it could On to the new movie The X-Files: I Want to
be water, or it could be things that are not You were one of the writers of the prescient Believe. What was the thinking behind
traditional horror subject matter. Very rarely pilot episode. How did you feel on bringing out a movie so long after the series
did they come from a traditional horror September 11? [The pilot episode of the had finished? Was it a cynical cashing in,
source, like a Frankenstein or Dracula story. series featured a story where a plane is like Sex in the City?
Sometimes, but that was the exception. hijacked and flown towards the Twin If things had gone according to plan, it
Towers, at the government’s instigation, in would have been a little simpler. The hope
You were also heavily involved in the short- order to start a war to bolster the failing was to do the movie right after the show
lived spin-off series The Lone Gunmen. economy. The episode aired six months ended. They actually came to us before the
That was a labour of love for all of us. I think before the events of September 11, 2001.] show ended to do another movie. The first
it came a little too late, unfortunately. By I have to say I felt sick for many reasons. one was successful and made money for
that time the peak of X-Files popularity had The first thing that came to my mind was them, and at the time we said, “No, we’re
already passed and it made no real business The Lone Gunmen. I distinctly remember still doing the show.” Then the show ended
sense to be embarking on a spin-off that late that because everyone remembers where in 2002 and we were too tired to go back
in the game, but we loved those characters, they were when it happened. I was directing to it right away. Then in 2003 Chris and I
and I have to say it was such a pleasure to my second episode of The X-Files, on did start meeting to figure out what the
48 By Filmmakers. For Filmmakers.
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