From its Fox Network debut on September 10, 1993, to its finale on May 19, 2002, the weekly 60-minute sci-fi drama The X-Files endeavored to prove that "the truth is out there." The series' title refers to those FBI files dealing with cases of paranormal and other otherwise unexplainable phenomena -- UFO sightings, alien abductions, genetic experimentation, possessions, telekinesis, and the like. Investigating the X-Files are agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). Notorious within FBI circles as a maverick and iconoclast, the Oxford-educated Mulder made it his personal mission in life to prove that there were more things in Heaven and on Earth than were dreamt of in our philosophy. For him, it was very personal: his own sister had been abducted by extraterrestrials some 20 years earlier. His more skeptical partner, medical doctor Scully, was assigned to curb Mulder's more "fanciful" theories and to seek logical explanations to the phenomena at hand. (Ironically, in real life, actor David Duchovny doubted the existence of space aliens, while Gillian Anderson confessed to being a "true believer.") As the series progressed, Scully became more convinced that there were indeed paranormal forces beyond her ken; conversely, Mulder began to concede that Scully could be right once in a while, and tried to prove that humans, rather than aliens, were responsible for selected phenomena. Each successive season of The X-Files ended with a cliffhanger, ranging from the murder of Mulder's information source "Deep Throat" (Jerry Hardin) to the birth of a mutant child who may or may not have belonged to one of the agents. No matter what happened, the physical evidence proving (or disproving) alien intervention invariably disappeared, and it was abundantly clear that there were those within the government who didn't want the truth to come out. Among the most obstreperous of Mulder and Scully's antagonists was a ubiquitous, obnoxious stranger (William B. Davis), known variously as "Cancer Man" and "Cigarette Smoking Man," and finally identified as one C.G.B. Spender. Other regulars and semi-regulars over the years have included Mitch Pileggi as Mulder and Scully's boss, Assistant FBI Director Walter Skinner; Steven Williams as Mr. X, another enigmatic information source; Nicholas Lea as Agent Alex Krycek; Mimi Rogers as Agent Diana Fowley; Chris Owens as Agent Jeffrey Spender; and Tom Braidwood as Melvin Frohike, a member of a government "conspiracy watchdog" group known as The Lone Gunman. One of the most popular series ever to emanate from Fox, The X-Files was also one of the longest-lasting science fiction series of all time, surpassed in longevity only by the endless Star Trek saga. In 1998, the series spawned a successful theatrical feature, also titled The X-Files, which tied up several loose plot ends from the series while establishing a whole new set of mysterious complications. The X-Files was created and executive-produced by Chris Carter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide Close

The definitive American television series of the '90s comes to the big screen with an anticlimactic whimper. And how could it be otherwise? Why should material so perfectly realized in one medium necessarily translate well into another? The series is crisply and thoughtfully executed in just about every detail, but the heart of its appeal lies in the elegant handling of complicated and evolving ongoing story lines, which is not something movies are especially good at. The big-screen drive for closure cramps the creative style, though it may also help nonfans get a grip on the proceedings. We do get some invigorating thrills and chills, however, and a more satisfying sense of the scale of an all-enveloping human-alien conspiracy than ever before, but there's no more plot development here than in an average two-part season-ending. FBI black sheep Mulder and Scully have been temporarily transferred from the X-Files project to an anti-terrorist unit to investigate an Oklahoma City-style bombing. They uncover a new wrinkle in the Syndicate/Cancer Man conspiracy--basically an attempt to help one bunch of (benign?) aliens fight off another bunch who want to colonize Earth. A spectacular, ice-bound finale thrillingly staged by series-veteran director Rob Bowman offers Mulder (but not a conveniently unconscious Scully) his first clear look at a You Know What, which in some quarters qualifies as an epochal event. Martin Landau offers the agents some crucial clues, and several familiar TV faces (including the Lone Gunmen and Mitch Pileggi's indispensable Assistant Director Skinner) turn up briefly to wink knowingly at faithful fans.--David Chute