Sci-fi / paranormal / horror crime drama that aired from 1993 to 2002. Features the investigations of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Spawned two feature length films and various other media, as well as a 2016 television miniseries.
The X-Files is an American sci-fi / paranormal / horror / crime drama created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The series also spawned two feature films, the eponymous The X-Files (titled or sub-titled Fight the Future in some regions) and The X-Files: I Want to Believe. A 6-episode television miniseries of original episodes aired in 2016. Outside of television and film, there are X-Files comic books and novels. All of these are on-topic for this tag.
The television series aired originally from September 10, 1993 to May 19, 2002. During its long run, it featured plotlines related to many aspects of the paranormal. However, the main mythology arcs involved alien abduction and alien colonization. Episodes unrelated to the show's mythology are referred to as "monsters of the week".
Its principal protagonists are Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, FBI Special Agents based in Washington, D.C. and attached to the "X-Files", which are unsolved cases that often feature a paranormal bent. Mulder is an Oxford-educated criminal profiler of great esteem, but his growing obsession with the paranormal eventually earns him the moniker “Spooky Mulder". The unexplained disappearance of Mulder's sister Samantha is the major motivating factor for his nearly unwavering interest in the paranormal. Scully, on the other hand, is a medical doctor by training with an undergraduate degree in physics. She manages to find a balance between scientific rigor and her religious upbringing. She tempers Mulder's beliefs by viewing their cases through the lens of "hard science". Scully was assigned to the X-Files to "debunk" Mulder's work.
Mulder and Scully are later joined by agents Jeffrey Spender, Diana Fowley, John Doggett, and Monica Reyes. Work on the X-Files is coordinated for the majority of the show's run by Assistant Director Walter Skinner, who comes to sympathize with Mulder's beliefs. However, Deputy Director Alvin Kersh, a no-nonsense hard-line skeptic, assumes responsibility eventually.
The show's principal antagonists are the "Cigarette-Smoking Man", hired gun Alex Krychek, the "Bounty Hunter" (a shapeshifting alien, possibly one of many who assume a common form), and "supersoldiers" Knowle Rohrer and the "Toothpick Man".
Several characters' loyalties and moral compasses are unclear, including those of Jeffrey Spender, Fowley, Kersh, the "Well-Manicured Man" (a senior partner in the Smoking Man's circle) and those of the various contacts that Mulder maintains, including Senator Matheson (initially one of Mulder's most influential backers), "X" (a point man within the Smoking Man's Syndicate), Marita Covarrubias (a UN Special Representative), and Michael Kritschgau (an informed non-believer).
Mulder and Scully are played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, respectively. The Cigarette-Smoking Man is played by William B. Davis. Mitch Pileggi and Nicholas Lea play Walter Skinner and Alex Krychek, respectively.
Seasons 1 through 5 were filmed in Vancouver, BC, Canada, whereas Seasons 6 through 9 were filmed in Los Angeles, CA, USA. The rainy, foggy atmosphere and extensive wilderness surrounding Vancouver were seen as catalysts for the show's dark ambience and uneasy mood.
The X-Files is credited with introducing and popularizing the following catchphrases, which became touchstones of the 1990s:
The Truth Is Out There, Trust No One, and I Want to Believe.
The first movie was released in 1998, taking place between seasons 5 and 6. It provides an integral component of the show's mythology. The second was released in 2008 — six years after we last see the characters on television — and is a "monster of the week".
Two television mini-series, which are considered to be Season 10 and Season 11, aired in 2016 and 2018, respectively. The mini-series revisit certain unanswered questions of Mulder and Scully’s lives and work in order to complete the arc of the show.
