The X-Files: Difference between revisions

[[File:0000002163_20060919153745.jpg|frame|The Truth is out there. Trust no one.]]

 

 

 

Creator [[Chris Carter]] was celebrated for the show's innovative mix of cop-show conventions, paranormal phenomena, government conspiracies, action, wry humor and genuinely scary moments. In the mid to late '90s, the show's high production values and sharp writing helped it reach beyond the usual science-fiction genre fan base to make it one of the most popular and acclaimed shows on television and a bona fide worldwide cultural phenomenon.

 

 

{{tropenamer}}

* [[Agent Mulder]]

* [[All Theories Are True]]

* [[Alternative Foreign Theme Song]]: The Japanese version has a few ending themes in Japan, including [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1EIlWA9xpM&feature=related "Love Phantom"] by B'z, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJOE-fCf6gw "Unbalanced"] by Maki Oguro, and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-3qSL19Yzs "True Navigation"] by Two-Mix.

* [[Anchored Ship]]: For the first five seasons.

* [[Ancient Astronauts]]: As explained in the [[Myth Arc]] and ''[[The X Files Fight the Future|Fight the Future]]''.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]: starting with {{spoiler|Deep Throat}}, and continuing throughout the rest of the show.

* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]: Scully remains a hardcore skeptic long after she's seen shape-shifting aliens, watched Mulder be mind-controlled into [[Not Himself|things he'd never do on his own]], etc. It's somewhat [[Justified Trope|justified]], though: later seasons tended to imply that Scully felt she had to take a more skeptical stance than she really believed anymore in order to keep Mulder's wacky ideas grounded.

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: An Oxford-educated psychologist and a forensic pathologist with a physics degree [[They Fight Crime|fight aliens (and all sorts of other things)]].

* [[Black Eyes of Evil]]: They mean you've been infected with the Black Oil, some kind of alien [[The Virus|virus]]...thing.

* [[Black Helicopter]]

* [[The Blank]]: The Alien Rebels have no faces, having sealed every orifice on their bodies to prevent infection by the Black Oil.

* [[Blast Out]]: The opening to "Kill Switch". A rogue AI sends messages to several Washington D.C. drug dealers telling them that their arch rivals are meeting at this diner. All of them come and set up to wait. The final message is sent to a pair of U.S. Marshals, claiming that a fugitive is there, so they burst in to arrest him and cause a shootout. [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|All to kill one nerdy guy in the middle booth.]]

* [[Cool Old Guy]]: Arthur Dales.

* [[Corrupt Hick]]

* [[Crisis of Faith]]: Scully started the show as a [[Raised Catholic|nonpracticing Catholic]]. Part of her [[Character Arc]] involved her coming to terms with her faith and deciding she could pray and attend church regularly even if she didn't always agree with everything [[The Church]] said.

* [[Cryptid Episode]]: There are enough cryptid episodes to stuff the Berlin Zoo full with them.

* [[Deal with the Devil]]: {{spoiler|Skinner makes one with the Smoking Man to save Scully's life in season four. Mulder came close to doing the same, but ultimately didn't because he wouldn't have been able to face her afterward.}}

* [[Death By Pragmatism]]: {{spoiler|The Conspiracy}}, despite their best wishes.

* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: In the episode "Shapes", Mulder and Scully travel to the Trego Indian Reservation. The singing going on during the funeral however is Lakota.

* [[Died Happily Ever After]]: {{spoiler|The fate of Samantha Mulder.}}

* [[Do Not Adjust Your Set]]

* [[Elective Mute]]

* [[Emerging From the Shadows]]: A common occurrence.

* [[Foe Yay]]: Mulder and Krycek, full stop.

** Krycek is something of a [[Foe Yay]] whore, really. He has chemistry with practically everyone, but it's most obvious with Mulder.

* [[Gas Leak Coverup]]: The episode "Jose Chung's ''From Outer Space''" features Jesse Ventura playing a [[The Men in Black|Man in Black]] who tries to persuade someone who saw a UFO into questioning his vision and perception and believing he only saw "the planet Venus".

''"If you tell anyone that you saw anything other than '''[[Rule of Three|the planet Venus]]''', you're a dead man!"''}}

* [[Geeky Turn On]]: Mulder and Scully, many times:

** He even made his parents call him Mulder!

*** Well, he claims he did. His mom and dad still call him Fox. And Scully's mother calls him Fox as well. Actually, pretty much everyone he knows who's not in the FBI or the Lone Gunmen seems to call him Fox.

** Most of the agents at the FBI go by last names; Skinner is always called by his last name even after becoming more of a friend than a superior to Mulder and Scully.

*** Averted by Reyes and Doggett, who refer to each other by first name on a regular basis.

* [[Let X Be the Unknown]]

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Season 6, and most of the comedic episodes in general.

* [[Light Is Not Good]]: The classic "aliens have floodlights all over the place" effect.

* [[Living Emotional Crutch]]: Both Mulder and Scully become this to each other, verging on [[Heroic BSOD]] whenever they're involuntarily separated. This is portrayed as basically a good thing; their relationship ends up helping both of them overcome their personal issues to some degree.

* [[The Man Behind the Man]]

* [[Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy]]: Mulder's emotional and intuitive, [[Men Don't Cry|cries at least once or twice a season]], not all that good in a fistfight, has a habit of dropping his gun, and [[Dude in Distress|gets rescued by Scully]] at least as often as he rescues her. Scully's tough, logical, scientific, [[Kuudere|rarely displays emotion openly]], [[Violently Protective Girlfriend|saves Mulder on a regular basis]], and has [[Improbable Aiming Skills]]. [[They Fight Crime]]!

* [[The Mountains of Illinois]]: What happens when you film in Vancouver (and later Los Angeles) but set your stories all over the US, even the flat bits.

* [[My Biological Clock Is Ticking]]: Scully's abduction left her infertile. It's a source of [[Angst]] for her.

* [[Mysterious Informant]]: Several. Deep Throat, X, and Marita are the three main recurring ones.

* [[No Ending]]: The series finale, "The Truth", does not actually reveal the truth or really resolve much of anything.

* [[Not Love Interest]]: While it took them seven seasons to get around to making it official, for all intents and purposes Mulder and Scully were best friends/lovers/spouses since day one. It could even be argued that their bond transcended all three of those roles to become something more all-encompassing than most people ever experience. It certainly cannot be ''denied'' that they were the most important people in each others' lives almost since the first time Scully walked into Mulder's basement office.

* [[Not Quite Dead]]:

** Mulder on more than one occasion.

** Krycek, many times.

* [[Odd Couple]]

* [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]

* [[The Only One I Trust]]: Mulder and Scully towards each other. No wonder they provide the page quote.

* [[Orifice Invasion]]: Very common, most memorably in the form of the Black Oil.

* [[Our Monsters Are Different]]: Well, most of the time.

{{quote|'''Mulder''': Whatever tape you found in that VCR? It isn't mine.

'''Scully''': Don't worry, I put it in the drawer with all the other videos that aren't yours.}}

* [[Powers That Be]]

* [[Redemption Equals Death]]:

** Also {{spoiler|Fowley}}.

** And {{spoiler|the Well-Manicured Man}}.

* [[Relationship Upgrade]]: {{spoiler|Scully and Mulder}}, but it happened offscreen and it's not clear exactly when. {{spoiler|The leading candidate is in Season 7's "All Things", which features Scully evaluating her past choices about life and relationships, leading up to a scene where she's getting dressed in Mulder's bathroom while he's asleep in bed, apparently naked.}}

* [[Rewind, Replay, Repeat]]: Happens frequently, usually when Mulder catches a glimpse of something in the footage that everyone else overlooked.

** The writers were also very aware of other shippers in the fandom, including the slash fans, and enjoyed throwing out occasional bones for the Scully/Skinner, [[Ho Yay|Mulder/Skinner]], and [[Foe Yay|Mulder/Krycek]] crowds.

* [[Single-Issue Psychology]]: A lot of Mulder's issues go back to his younger sister's abduction while they were home alone together when he was 12. He actually calls Scully out for assuming everything he does is about his sister in "Oubliette", although in that episode she's entirely correct.

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: A favorite technique when coupled with the [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: something horrible would start to happen, and the camera would pan away, with cheerful incidental music being underscored by the sound of whatever godawful thing was happening. Used memorably in "Never Again" and "Home".

* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To ''[[Kolchak the Night Stalker]]''. Several ''X-Files'' episodes are directly inspired by ''Kolchak'' episodes.

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* [[Abnormal Limb Rotation Range]]: Used as a plot point in one episode.

* [[Accentuate the Negative]]: In "One Breath", when Melissa Scully calls Mulder out for doing this while trying to convince him to go to the hospital to see Dana, who is dying:

'''Melissa Scully''': [angrily] Why don't you just drop your cynicism and your paranoia and your defeat. You know, just because it's positive and good, doesn't mean it's silly or trite. Why is it so much easier for you to run around trying to get even than just expressing to her how you feel? I expect more from you. Dana expects more. Even if it doesn’t bring her back, at least she’ll know. And so will you.}}

* [[Age Without Youth]]: "Tithonus".

* [[Alien Autopsy]]:

** [[Playing with a Trope|Played With]] this one as well as made a [[Shout-Out]] to, and a [[Take That]] against, the [[Trope Maker]] in the episode "Jose Chung's ''From Outer Space''." According to [[Agent Scully]]'s [[Rashomon Style|interpretation of events]], an autopsy which she performed on an alien and allowed to be video taped became commercially released as ''Dead Alien: Truth Or Humbug''. Embarrassed by it, Scully complains that the video ignores several of her findings, chief among them being that the dead alien was revealed to be a [[Man in A Rubber Suit]].

* [[Blood Bath]]: In the episode "Sanguinarium", Nurse Waite is discovered lying in wait for Dr. Lloyd at his house, submerged in a bathtub filled with blood.

* [[A Bloody Mess]]: Mulder did this in the third season episode "Revelations". The look on Scully's face was priceless before he explained that it was fake blood.

* [[Brief Accent Imitation]]: Gillian Anderson pulls out her British at the end of "Fire".

* [[Brown Note]]: In "Drive", a secret Navy communication device generates radio waves that vibrate at the same frequency as the human skull, inducing increasing intracranial pressure that literally blows the listener's brains out their ears unless the pressure is relieved surgically.

* [[Cliffhanger Copout]]: Near the end of "Gethsemane", the fourth season finale, the audience sees {{spoiler|Mulder alone in his apartment}}, crying with his gun in his hands. We cut away just before hearing his gun go off. The next scene is a flash forward in which {{spoiler|Scully}} has apparently been called to his apartment to identify the body of a white male who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. {{spoiler|She}} identifies it as {{spoiler|Mulder}}. The next season begins by revealing that {{spoiler|Scully}} was lying, the body is not {{spoiler|Mulder's}}, and the whole crying holding his gun thing was ''not related to anything''.

** Specifically, {{spoiler|Mulder probably was contemplating suicide -- until he was distracted by evidence that he was being spied on, confronted the spy, ended up shooting him, and concocted a plan with Scully to fake his own death}}.

* [[Combat Stilettos]]: Scully wears them most of the time, sometimes even when she has no reason to be in work clothes and knew to expect trouble ahead of time.

** [[Lampshaded]] in the episode "Hollywood A.D.", when an actress portraying Scully in a movie asks her how it's possible to run in heels that high.

* [[Creepy Child]]: Approximately one per season.

* [[Creepy Cockroach]]: In "War of the Coprophages", cockroaches are the [[Monster of the Week]], and at one point one scurries across the TV screen (as if it's [[The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You|IN YOUR HOUSE!]]).

** Richard Belzer's appearance as Lieutenant [[John Munch]] on the episode "Unusual Suspects" is more of a [[The Cameo|Cameo]] [[Shout-Out]] with a very direct [[Expy]].

** And ''[[The Simpsons]]''.

* [[Curse Cut Short]]:

** "Bad Blood":

'''Mulder''': ''Oh sh--'' [cut to opening credits}.}}

** Two examples in "Fight Club":

'''Mulder''': (on a cell phone) Somebody's got to get to that fight and keep those two women apart or else this time the [static] is going to hit the fans.}}

** Mulder also does an "Oh, shi-" in "Triangle" when he realizes he's actually back in time; the camera pans away before he finishes.

** In "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'":

'''Jose Chung''': I'm, uh, familiar with, uh, Detective Manners'..."colorful" phraseology.}}

* [[Dating Service Disaster]]: "2Shy".

*** Really, pretty much every time Scully's religion came up it was clear that the writers had some bizarre ideas about Catholicism.

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: Scully getting a tattoo in "Never Again" is definitely played this way.

* [[Double Meaning Title]]: "Field [[Mushroom Samba|Trip]]".

* [[Dramatic Thunder]]: Taken to parodic extremes in "The Post-Modern Prometheus".

* [[Motion Blur]]: "Rush" had a key plot-point where security footage at a high school was found to show a strange blur. Using [[Enhance Button|experimental technology]] to colorize it, the agents reveal the blur is made up of the school colors, suggesting that it comes from the jacket of one of the (superpowered) students.

* [[The Movie]]: Two of them. The first one is part of the show's [[Myth Arc]], the second is basically a long [[Monster of the Week]] episode.

* [[Murder by Cremation]]: "Hell Money". A gambling ring among Chinese immigrants claims organs as collateral; if you can't pay up (or if you rat), you're disposed of in a crematorium. Alive.

* [[Neurodiversity Is Supernatural]]:

** In "E.B.E.", Mulder suggests that Gulf War syndrome is the result of alien encounters.

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: In "F.P.S.", the pair meet a parody of then-gaming celebrity Dennis "Thresh" Fong.

* [[Nubile Savage]]: "The Jersey Devil".

** Her legs were rather smooth for someone living in the woods of Jersey.

* [[Saw Star Wars 27 Times]]:

** Mulder reveals in the episode "Hollywood A.D." that he's seen ''[[Plan 9 from Outer Space]]'' forty-two times. He claims that the sheer badness of the film numbs his brain, allowing him to make intuitive leaps and solve problems that have him stumped.

'''Scully:''' Doesn't that make you sad? It makes ''me'' sad.}}

** In an earlier episode, the agents ran across a woman who was convinced she'd been impregnated by Luke Skywalker. This becomes even more hilarious when it is revealed she's seen ''Star Wars'' 368 times, and was hoping to break 400 by Memorial Day.

** In one episode, a prostitute who gets murdered is called [[Die Hard|Holly McClane.]]

** "War of the Coprophages" has characters referencing ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' several times.

** A conversation in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" is a recreation of the briefing scene in ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''.

*** CSM also talks about how life is like a box of chocolates, although his view of said box is more pessimistic than [[Forrest Gump|Forrest Gump's.]]

** Subverted in "Rain King". Mulder and Scully have to share a hotel room with just one bed. They're kind of annoyed over the hotel assuming they wouldn't mind sharing a room, but no real tension or embarrassment between them comes of it.

** Played just a little straighter in "Arcadia", where they're [[Undercover As Lovers|undercover as a married couple]]. Mulder has some fun teasing Scully by suggesting that she get in bed with him, but it's still not treated like a big deal.

* [[Third Person Person]]: Duane Barry's not crazy!

* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: Apparently, a rip in space-time can cause you to [[Freaky Friday|switch bodies]] with someone near you...[[Fridge Logic|Huh?]]

* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: "Tithonus".

* [[Written-In Absence]]:

** In "Fearful Symmetry", the Lone Gunmen appeared, but Langley was absent. The real-life reason? Dean Haglund was booked to appear on a ''[[Sliders]]'' episode ("Fever"), which was filming at the same time.

* [[You Have to Believe Me]]: Mulder to Scully in "Folie à Deux", leading to this:

{{quote| '''Mulder''': Scully, you ''have'' to believe me. No one on this whole damn planet does or ever will. You're my one in five billion.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Nineties]]

[[Category:American Series]]

[[Category:Horror Series]]

[[Category:Trope Overdosed]]

[[Category:TV Series]]