In terms of the “X-Files” phenomenon as a whole, “Fight the Future” was an exercise in power. Not only was the series taking the rare leap from television series to feature film, promising answers along the way, but before the film aired, the series was renewed to continue past the premiere date. Thus “Fight the Future” became something rather unique: the culmination of everything that had come before, and in very real terms, the demarcation between the “classic” phase of the franchise and the more challenged “post-mythology” and “new mythology” stages.
In the course of writing the screenplay for “Fight the Future”, a process that began early in the third season and took a tortuous path for more than two years, Chris Carter had several goals. His original prediction was that the series would more or less play itself out by the end of the fifth season, thus making the film the end of the mythology as it had emerged in the late stages of the second season.
However, by the end of the fourth season, during which the writers were on a clear mission to arc the episodes towards the feature film (incorporating several elements of the film’s explanation for the mythology), it became clear that there were changes to be made. After principal photography was completed in the hiatus between seasons, the series was all but assured a sixth season. Suddenly the film wasn’t going to capstone the series, and that meant tailoring the fifth season (originally viewed as a 20-episode trailer for the film) into a launching point for something more.
That divergent focus left the fifth season with some of the highest quality episodes of the run, but also a somewhat scattered approach leading into the film. Reshoots were done to tailor the film more as a stepping stone than the end of a journey. In some instances, the adjustments seem obvious; why tease the audience with the Mulder/Scully relationship moving to the next level if the film is the end of the line? In other cases, it plays out like more evasiveness, promising answers but pulling back from true revelation. (In fact, the writers soon realized that if the series was to continue, the real answers would have to come during the sixth season, not in the film.)
This was potentially disastrous. After all, if the series must continue, then the film would have to be designed to exist almost independently of the series itself. The producers and writers could not assume that the entire television audience would see the film and be up to speed for the sixth season premiere. (If the film had capped off the series, enough time would pass before a second film to allow the mass audience to catch up, allowing for more risk.) This puts the film in a difficult position, since it must stand-alone, yet satisfy the demands of the fandom, which was the primary audience.
Much of this film plays like yet another mythology mess, with scenes designed to introduce the main characters and their situation. By the time the film premiered, of course, Mulder and Scully were legendary within the popular culture. Equally legendary was the primary villain, Cancer Man. Thankfully for the seasoned viewer, the writers didn’t have to go very far with exposition.
If there was a problem with “Fight the Future”, from an objective point of view, it’s that the plot sounds like something that was pieced together from rejected story ideas from the old British “Avengers” series. The plot is quite bizarre, and at times, even laughable. Just the bees themselves are a source of instant mockery. It doesn’t help that informed X-Philes didn’t really understand how the whole conspiracy was supposed to work, or what the motivations of certain characters might be.
It also doesn’t help that Chris Carter never truly committed to the idea of a consistent mythology. He much preferred the idea of an anthology series with recurring lead characters, something very much in the vein of his childhood favorite, “Kolchak the Night Stalker”. He wasn’t entirely sold on the idea that the main characters would need much depth or definition. Once it was determined that Mulder was the believer and Scully was the scientist, the format was in place and little more was necessary.
This film proves how wrong that is, and in fact, the direction of the series coming into the film demonstrated why Mulder and Scully’s characterization needed to be so rich. It became more about how these situations changed the lead characters, and how they dealt with the slow but steady isolation. The film centers almost entirely on where these two characters stand in relation to one another, and that’s the strength at the heart of the film. The mythology-heavy plot is almost a secondary concern.
The new viewer doesn’t really see the “scope and grandeur of the Project”. They don’t understand why these events are so significant to the agents in question. But they can recognize and appreciate the character dynamic above and beyond all else. For that reason alone, the film bought a huge number of new fans to the table, many of which didn’t realize that the film was the end of an era until years later, when they finally saw the episodes that led to the film’s creation.
But as already mentioned, the film had much deeper meaning for the experienced fans, since the mythology elements were far more familiar and they had lived through the emotional ups and downs for both characters. Even so, it’s hard to reconcile the mythology as it is presented in this film in light of the post-film mythology episodes. Bringing it all together means ignoring, to some extent, the original intentions of the writers and looking for the connective threads over the full course of the series. The obvious first step is outlining the basic structure of the full mythology.
