Ok here’s my FIGHT THE FUTURE thread for the X FILES FEATURE FILM that it’s still wild to me was produced and released in theaters.

Imagine being the X Files fandom in the 90s is all I’m sayin. They just don’t respect us nerds like that any more!!

I love how the task of the beginning of this movie is to introduce Mulder and Scully to audiences and they decided the best way to do this is to just have them FLIRT OUTRAGEOUSLY WITH EACH OTHER

I’m gonna do more specific commentary later but for rn my notes have DEVOLVED:

The aesthetic of Mulder and Scully in that opening scene with their FBI jackets on the rooftop is such an iconic image it was all I remembered from the first time I watched

I’m seriously that even after the X Files were closed they still act like they’re partners even in bomb control duty just more proof that they’re life partners now

This monologue deserves its own tweet

I’m turned ON

Mulder’s FACE when she tells them they’re being split up and she’s thinking of quitting.... he really only cares about being with her huh

YALL THIS SCENE THOUGH???? IS LIKE, EXPLICTLY ROMANTIC ?? SCULLY REALLY THINKS THE LOGICAL END OF MULDER HEARING SHE’S QUITTING IS HIM SHOWING UP AT 3AM SO THEY CAN FUCK EYE—

Mulder showing up drunk at Scully’s apartment at 3am in FTF to ask her to do an autopsy further illustrates that asking for autopsies represents romantic and/or sexual overtures between them, a motif also present in 2x04 “Sleepless” & 5x12 “Bad Blood” in this essay I will

THE POWER THIS TRANSITION HOLDS

This screenshot is where they got the idea for Stranger Things change my mind

THE WAY THIS KID CAME FOR MULDERS WHOLE LIFE

Mulder panicking and screaming Scully’s name 15 times in a cornfield in the middle of the night is somehow a whole ship aesthetic

I JUST THINK THEY’RE NEAT

GOD ITS MIDNIGHT I RLY CANT TWEET ABOUT THE HALLWAY SCENE RN I CANT IM TOO FRAGILE ITS TOO MUCH

THIS FUCKING GIF,, THE PURPOSEFUL WAY HE STRIDES AFTER HER IN THAT FUCKING T SHIRT, THE WAY SHE TURNS AROUND READY TO FIGHT SO U KNOW SHE WASNT RLY TRYING TO LEAVE, THE WAY YOU /KNOW/ THIS IS ABOUT TO BE AN ICONIC ASS HALLWAY SCENE I JUSTTTTTT

BUT YOU SAVED ME! AS DIFFICULT AND AS FRUSTRATING AS ITS BEEN SOMETIMES, YOUR GODDAMNED STRICT RATIONALISM AND SCIENCE HAVE SAVED ME A THOUSAND TIMES OVER YOU KEPT ME HONEST YOU MADE ME A WHOLE PERSON I OWE YOU EVERYTHING SCULLY AND YOU OWE ME NOTHING

EYE JUST— ITS PERFECTION PERFECTION PERFECTION,, ALL SCULLYS INSECURITIES LAID BARE— THAT HE DOESNT NEED HER, THAT SHES JUST A PROFESSIONAL ACCESSORY BUT NOT PRECIOUS TO HIM — AND MULDERS CONVICTION THAT HE CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT HER AND HOW CAN SHE NOT REALIZE THAT?? IM SOBBING

THE LOOK!! ON HER!! FACE!!!!!!!! [SCREAMING] FUCK!

“YOU MADE ME A WHOLE PERSON”

HAS THERE EVER BEEN A MORE TRAGIC AND BEAUTIFUL AND SIMPLE LOVE DECLARATION AS THAT

I HAVE NEVER BEEN FUCKING PLAYED SO HARD IN MY LIFE,, BY A DAMN BEE!!! A FUCKING INSECT !!!

THEIR FUCKING PHYSICALITY IN THIS SCENE,, THEY /ARE/ LOVERS I TRILY DONT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY

Me about to fucking fight the entire bee species after this scene—

OKAY BUT maybe my fave part of the physicality of this scene is right after Scully gets stung?? Mulder doesn’t awkwardly draw away— their intimacy is such that even their near kiss can’t interrupt their casual caressing I’D LIKE TO END IT ALL

I just will never be over at how succinctly this scene crystallizes their relationship. Scully has been following Mulder for years, her loyalty and patience the proof of her love, an unasked question that finally, in this scene, is answered for her.

It’s crazy that Scully could ever doubt her importance to Mulder or to the cause of finding the truth, but it’s an insecurity that’s festered. And Mulder has never addressed it head on bc I think it may have seemed preposterous to him to say out loud what was so apparent to him.

Because from the moment of that very first revelation in the rain five years ago, Scully has been absolutely essential to him. He never looked back. He folded her into his heart and his work - one and the same for him - and she became his Most Important Thing.

Gonna be fucking thinking about this for a looooooong while huh

Anyway this is the part where we all say THANK YOU DAVID AND GILLIAN

The fact that Gillian and David apparently just make out for fun!!! Need me a freak like that!!!

The fact that there are TWO DIFFERENT outtakes of an actual kiss in this scene... maybe there is a God https://scullysflannel.tumblr.com/post/618593052570861569

Anyway I had to sleep off the adrenaline high I had after the hallway scene last night but I’m BACK

I thought I would move on immediately but like: Mulder holds her face and they stare into each other’s eyes for like WHOLE MINUTE BEFORE GOING IN FOR THE KISS. WHAT IS THE REASON

ALSO I DIDNT EVEN TALK ABOUT THE HUG??? The way my shoulder kink was ACTIVATED—

Also I really wanna talk about how FUCKING BADASS it is when Scully starts narrating her own LIKELY FATAL reaction to the bee sting. She’s literally DYING and Mulder is FREAKING OUT & she’s just relating her threading pulse and lancing pain like she’s her own patient I am in AWE

As a person who, like Mulder, actually lives in an apartment in Arlington, VA, I cannot imagine coming home to witness THIS in my hallway I would quite simply expire

As a DC gremlin I can confirm that the shot of the rat running across the alleyway in front of Mulder lends more credibility to the fact that they shot on location in DC than any shot of the Capitol building ever could

Mulder’s reaction to having someone shot in the head right in front of his salad SENDS MEEEEE

Mulder is told that Scully has hours to live & somehow manages to hop a plane to Antarctica, procure a suped up snow mobile and treck across dozens? hundreds? Of icy terrain to find her coordinates in like less than a day.

@ other men what is keeping u from this level of hustle

Mulder: *pulls unclothed Scully out of alien goo*

My roommate who has been half following my X Files rewatch: “gotta say that’s not how I expected him to see her naked for the first time ”

Me:

MINUTES LATER WHEN HE PERFORMS MOUTH TO MOUTH ON HER

The best part about this movie is how boring it must’ve been for people who weren’t already invested in Mulder & Scully like there’s no big final battle, no shocking reveal of extraterrestrials to the world; just Mulder being willing to move heaven and Earth to save his partner

They really just said: “feature film? Let’s just make a 2 hour long x files episode with better CGI and lighting” and called it a day you love to see it

Mulder and Scully: *in a literal alien spaceship, surrounded by proof of the crusade they’ve supposedly devoted ever to along hour to for the past 5 years*

Mulder and Scully:

TFW you think the angst is over and then Mulder hits you with the—

“You were right to want to quit! You were right to want to leave me! You should get as far away from me as you can! I'm not going to watch you die, Scully, because of some hollow personal cause of mine.”

This is lowkey my fave line bc it makes explicit the fact that Mulder sees Scully quitting the FBI or doubting/being frustrated by their work as her LEAVING HIM, being done WITH HIM. The the same way the hallway scene addressed Scully’s insecurity, this one shows Mulder’s

How does she look THIS GOOD with frostbite

AND THATS A WRAP

Honestly despite how much I love this movie it really just proves the superiority of TV as a medium. Especially when it comes to Scully’s agency, which she has almost none of in the film, but which the 20+ hour-long eps per season of TV cant help but give her a chance to explore

The movie is kinda Hollywood-ized in the sense that it’s Mulder who is the Main Hero w Scully as sort of a sidekick/damsel, tho they do an admirable job trying to avoid that by emphasizing her importance. TBH I think it’s a function of what ppl expected from movie arcs then/now

Whereas in the procedural TV show they have so much time and flexibility and investment with the characters they and their arcs never have to be simplified or sound-byted. And the leads get more equal footing. Basically,, I LOVE THE X FILES

Also I wanna say FTF does a GREAT job showing all the small/subtle ways M&S save and compliment each other on a daily basis, especially how Scully saves Mulder (sometimes from himself), so we’re SHOWN how they can’t live without each other, not just told.

N e way let me leave y’all with the image that has not left my mind for 24 hours

Also if you enjoyed these rambling thoughts on FTF here’s a SHAMELESS PLUG for my ridiculously long X Files rewatch thread:
https://twitter.com/thefatlannister/status/1259671969550733320?s=21 https://twitter.com/thefatlannister/status/1259671969550733320

And ofc the separate thread I did on the pilot bc I’m an incoherent mess
https://twitter.com/thefatlannister/status/1307010545669857281?s=21 https://twitter.com/thefatlannister/status/1307010545669857281