The X-Files s01e01 Episode Script

Pilot

They put the time of death between eight and twelve hours ago.
No visible cause, no sign of battery or sexuaI assault.
All we have is this.
Can we turn her over? Karen Swenson.
- Is that a positive ID? - She went to schooI with my son.
Would that be the class of '89? It's happening again, isn't it? Agent Dana Scully.
Come in.
Agent Scully, thank you for coming on such short notice.
Please.
- You've been with us just over two years.
- Yes, sir.
You went to medicaI schooI but you chose not to practise.
How'd you come to work for the FBI? Well, sir, I was recruited out of medicaI schooI.
My parents still think it was an act of rebellion.
But I saw the FBI as a place where I could distinguish myself.
Are you familiar with an agent named Fox Mulder? Yes, I am.
- How so? - By reputation.
He's an Oxford-educated psychologist who wrote a monograph on seriaI killers and the occult that helped to catch Monty Props in 1988.
Generally thought of as the best analyst in the violent crime section.
He had a nickname at the Academy.
Spooky Mulder.
Agent Mulder has developed a consuming devotion to an unassigned project outside the Bureau mainstream.
Are you familiar with the so-called X-Files? I believe they have to do with unexplained phenomena.
More or less.
The reason you're here is we want you to assist Mulder on these X-Files.
You'll write field reports on your activities and your observations on the validity of the work.
Am I to understand that you want me to debunk the X-Files project, sir? We trust you'll make the proper scientific analysis.
You'll want to contact Agent Mulder.
We look forward to your reports.
Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's Most Unwanted.
Agent Mulder.
I'm Dana Scully.
I've been assigned to work with you.
Oh, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded! Who did you tick off to get stuck with this? Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you.
I've heard a lot about you.
Oh, really? I was under the impression that you were sent to spy on me.
If you have any doubt about my qualifications or credentials You're a medicaI doctor.
You teach at the Academy.
You did your undergraduate degree in physics.
"Einstein's Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation.
Dana Scully.
" That's a credentiaI, rewriting Einstein.
- Did you bother to read it? - I did.
I liked it.
It's just that in most of my work, the laws of physics rarely seem to apply.
Maybe I can get your medicaI opinion on this though.
Oregon female, age 21, no explainable cause of death.
Autopsy shows nothing.
Zip.
There are, however, these two distinct marks on her lower back.
Dr Scully, can you ID these marks? Needle punctures, maybe.
An animaI bite.
Electrocution of some kind.
How's your chemistry? This substance was found in the surrounding tissue.
It's organic.
I don't know.
Is it some kind of synthetic protein? I've never seen it before either.
But here it is again in Sturgis, South Dakota.
And again in Shamrock, Texas.
- Do you have a theory? - I have plenty of theories.
Maybe what you could explain to me is why it's Bureau policy to labeI these cases as unexplained phenomena and ignore them.
Do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials? Logically, I would have to say no.
Given the distances needed to traveI from deep space the energy requirements would exceed ConventionaI wisdom.
This Oregon female is the 4th person in her graduating class to die under mysterious circumstances.
Now when convention and science offer us no answers might we not finally turn to the fantastic as a plausibility? The girI obviously died of something.
If it was naturaI causes maybe something was missed in the postmortem.
If she was murdered, it's plausible there was a sloppy investigation.
What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science.
The answers are there.
You just have to know where to look.
That's why they put the "I" in FBI.
See you tomorrow morning, Scully.
Bright and early.
We leave for the very plausible state of Oregon at 8am.
Would all passengers fasten their seat belts as we're about to make This must be the place.
You didn't mention yesterday this case has already been investigated.
The FBI got involved after the first three deaths when locaI authorities failed to turn up any evidence.
Our boys came out here, enjoyed the locaI salmon which, with a little lemon twist, is just to die for.
Without explanation they were called back in the case was reclassified and buried in the X-Files untiI I dug it up.
And you found something they didn't? The autopsy reports of the first three victims show no unidentified marks.
But those reports were signed by a different medicaI examiner than the latest victim.
That's good, Scully.
Better than you expected or better than you hoped? I'll let you know when we get past the easy part.
Is the medicaI examiner a suspect? We don't know yet.
I've arranged to exhume one of the other victims' bodies to see if we can get a tissue sample to match the girI's.
- You're not squeamish, are you? - I don't know.
I've never had the pleasure.
What's going on? - What the hell was that about? - Oh, you know.
Probably nothing.
Mr Mulder, John Truitt, County Coroner's Office.
Yeah, hi.
This is Agent Scully.
How soon can we get started? - We're ready to go.
- Oh, great! Were you able to arrange for an examination facility? - We got something for ya.
- Excuse me! Excuse me.
No.
Please! Please stay in the car! I just don't know who you people think you are.
You think you can come up here and do whatever you please! I'm sorry.
You are? I'm Dr Jay Nemman, County MedicaI Examiner.
Surely you were told of our intentions? No.
No, we've been away.
Oh! Well, that answers a question that we had.
Why you hadn't done the recent autopsy on Karen Swenson.
You're aware of the tissue sample taken from her? What is the insinuation here? That I missed something in those other kids? - We're not insinuating anything, sir.
- Wait a minute! See, I think you are! And you'd better have something to back it up.
Daddy, please! Let's just go home.
Let's go home! Please! The guy obviously needed a longer vacation.
Ray Soames was the third victim.
He spent time in a state mentaI hospitaI, treated for post-adolescent schizophrenia.
Soames confessed to the first two murders but couldn't produce any evidence that he committed the crimes.
Did you read the cause of death? Exposure.
His body was found in the woods after escaping the hospitaI.
Missing for only seven hours in July.
How does a 20-year-old boy die of exposure on a warm, summer night in Oregon, Dr Scully? I got it.
- This isn't officiaI procedure.
- Really? It's probably a safe bet Ray Soames never made the varsity basketball team.
SeaI this up now! Nobody sees or touches this.
Nobody! This is amazing! Do you know what this could mean? It's almost too big to comprehend.
The subject is 156cms in length, weighing 52Ibs in extremis.
Corpse is in advanced stages of decay and desiccation.
Distinguishing features include large ocular cavities.
Oblate cranium indicates subject is not human.
Could you point that flash away from me, please? If it's not human, what is it? It's familian.
A chimpanzee or something from the ape family.
Possibly an orang-utan.
Buried in the city cemetery in Ray Soames's grave.
Try telling that to Ray Soames's family! I want tissue samples, X-rays blood typing, toxicology and a full genetic work-up.
- You're serious? - What we can't do here, we'll order to go.
You don't honestly believe this is some kind of an extraterrestriaI? - This is somebody's sickjoke.
- We can do those X-rays here? Can't we do them right now? I'm not crazy, Scully.
I have the same doubts you do.
Visual inspection of the body and X-ray analysis confirms homologous but possibly mutated mammalian physiology.
However, does not account for small unidentifiied object found in subject's nasal cavity.
A grey metallic implant Who is it? Steven Spielberg! I'm going for a run.
You wanna come? Pass.
You figure out what was up Ray Soames's nose yet? No.
And I'm not losing sleep over it.
Good night.
Ray Soames was a patient of mine, yes.
I oversaw his treatment for a year for clinical schizophrenia.
He couldn't grasp reality.
He suffered from some kind of post-traumatic stress.
- Have you seen it before? - I've treated similar cases.
Were any of those Ray Soames's classmates? Yes.
We're trying to find a connection in these deaths.
Did you treat any of these kids with hypnosis? No, I did not.
- Are you treating any of these kids now? - Currently? Yes, I'm treating Billy Miles and Peggy O'Dell.
Both long-term live-in patients.
- They're here at this hospitaI? - That's right.
Going on four years now.
Can we talk to them? Well, you might find it difficult certainly in Billy Miles' case.
Billy's experiencing a waking coma.
His brain waves are flat and he's persistent vegetative.
How did it happen? He and Peggy were involved in an automobile accident on State Road.
Peggy? We have some visitors.
Would you like to talk with them? Billy wants me to read now.
- Does he like it when you read to him? - Yes.
Billy needs me close.
Doctor? I'm wondering if we can do a cursory medicaI exam on Peggy.
Peggy, what are you doing? No one is going to hurt you! Get an orderly! Nobody's going to hurt you.
The nurse is here.
It's all right.
It's all right.
Peggy, you're going to be fine.
You've had these nosebleeds before.
Now calm down.
Whatshisname Billy said he was sorry he didn't get to say goodbye.
How did you know she'd have the marks? I don't know.
Lucky guess? Dammit, Mulder, cut the crap.
What do you know about those marks? What are they? Why? So you can put it in your report? You're not ready for what I think.
I'm here to solve this case.
I want the truth.
The truth? I think those kids have been abducted.
By who? By what? - You don't really believe that? - Do you have a better explanation? I'll buy that girI is suffering some kind of pronounced psychosis.
Whether it's organic or the result of those marks, I can't say.
But to say that they've been riding around in flying saucers is crazy! - There is nothing to support that.
- Nothing scientifiic.
There has got to be an explanation.
You've got four victims.
All of them died in or near the woods.
They found Karen Swenson's body in the forest in her pyjamas ten miles from her house.
How did she get there? What were those kids doing out there in the forest? Mulder? Mulder, is that you? Mulder? Special Agent Dana Scully, FBI.
Drop your weapon.
I'm with the County Sheriffs Department.
- You're trespassing on private property here.
- We are conducting an investigation.
Get in your car and leave! Or I'll have to arrest you.
I don't care who you are.
Hold on! This is a crime scene.
Did you hear what I said? You are on private property without legaI permission.
Now I'm only gonna say it one more time - get in your car and leave! What's he doing out here all by himself? Maybe it has something to do with this.
What do you think it is? I don't know.
- Is it a campfire? - It was all over the ground.
I think something's going on out here.
Some kind of a sacrifice, maybe.
What if these kids are involved in some kind of a cult and that man knows something about it? I wanna come back here.
You OK, Mulder? - Yeah, I'm just - What are you looking for? - What happened? - We lost power.
Brakes, steering, everything.
We lost nine minutes! We lost what? Nine minutes! I looked at my watch just before the flash, it was 9:03- itjust turned 9:13.
Look! Oh, yes! Abductees! People that have sighted UFOs reported unexplained time loss.
- Come on! - Gone! Just like that! No, wait a minute.
You're saying that time disappeared? Time can'tjust disappear! It's a universaI invariance! Not in this zip code.
Great! Hi! - I want you to look at something.
- Come on in.
What are they? Mulder, what are they? Mosquito bites.
- Are you sure? - Yeah.
I got eaten up alive myself out there.
You OK? Yes.
- You're shaking.
- I need to sit down.
Take your time.
I was 12 when it happened.
My sister was eight.
She just disappeared out of her bed one night.
Just gone.
Vanished.
No note.
No phone calls.
No evidence of anything.
You never found her? It tore the family apart.
No one would talk about it.
There were no facts to confront.
Nothing to offer any hope.
What did you do? I went off to schooI in England.
I came back, got recruited by the Bureau.
It seems I had a natural aptitude for applying behavioural models to criminaI cases.
My success allowed me a certain freedom to pursue my own interests.
And that's when I came across the X-Files.
By accident? At first it looked like a garbage dump for UFO sightings, alien abduction reports the kind of stuff most people laugh at.
But I was fascinated.
I read all the cases I could get my hands on.
I read everything about paranormaI phenomena, about the occult and What? There's classified government information I've been trying to access but someone has been blocking me.
- Who? I don't understand.
- Someone at a higher leveI of power.
I'm allowed to continue my work because I've made connections in Congress.
And they're afraid you'll leak this information? You're part of that agenda.
You know that.
I'm not a part of any agenda.
You've got to trust me.
I'm here just like you, to solve this.
I'm telling you this, Scully, because you need to know.
Because of what you've seen.
In my research I've worked very closely with a man named Dr Heitz Werber.
He's taken me through deep-regression hypnosis.
I've been able to go into my own repressed memories to the night my sister disappeared.
I can recall a bright light outside and a presence in the room.
I was paralysed unable to respond to my sister's calls for help.
Listen to me, Scully! This thing exists.
- But how do you know - The government knows about it.
And I gotta know what they're protecting.
Nothing else matters to me.
And this is as close as I've ever gotten to it.
Hello? What? Who is this? Who is th That was some woman who just said Peggy O'Dell was dead.
The girI in the wheelchair? - What happened? - She ran out in front of me.
- Who are you? - She was running? On foot? - That's just Let's go! - We need to ask a few questions.
Someone trashed the lab and they stole the body.
- We're going back to the moteI.
- What? They stole the corpse? FBI.
There goes my computer! Dammit! The X-rays and pictures! My name is Teresa Nemman.
You've got to protect me! Come with us.
This is the way it happens.
I don't know how I get out there.
I'll just find myself out in the woods.
- How long has it been happening? - Ever since the summer we graduated.
It's happened to my friends, too.
That's why I need you to protect me.
I'm scared I might Die, like the others.
Like Peggy did tonight.
Your father's the medicaI examiner.
You were the one on the phone.
You told me Peggy O'Dell had been killed.
Teresa, your father knows about this, doesn't he? About what happens? Yes.
But he said never to tell anyone about any of it.
- Why? - He wants to protect me.
He thinks he can protect me.
But I don't think he can.
Do you have the marks, Teresa? Yes.
I'm going to die, aren't I? I'm gonna be next! No, you're not going to die.
Oh, God! Let's go home, Teresa.
Teresa, come on.
Come on, honey.
- I don't think she wants to leave.
- I don't care what you think! She's sick.
Your father wants to take you home.
He'll clean you up.
I'll take you where you'll be safe.
Detective Miles and I won't let anything happen to you.
You're Billy Miles's father? That's right.
And you stay away from that boy.
Ah, you gotta love this place.
Every day is like Halloween.
They know, Mulder.
They know who's responsible for the murders.
They know something.
Dr Nemman's been hiding medicaI evidence from the beginning.
He lied on the autopsy.
And now we find out about the detective.
Who else would have reason to trash the lab and our rooms? Why would they destroy evidence? What would they want with that corpse? I don't know.
Makes you wonder what's in those other two graves.
- They're both empty.
- What is going on here? I think I know who did it.
I think I know who killed Karen Swenson.
Who? The detective? The detective's son.
Billy Miles.
The boy in the hospitaI? The vegetable? Billy Miles? A boy who's been in a coma for four years came here and dug up these graves? Peggy O'Dell was in a wheelchair but she ran in front of a truck.
Look, it all fits a profile of alien abduction.
This fits a profile? Peggy O'Dell was killed around nine.
The same time we lost nine minutes.
Something happened then.
I think that time, as we know it, stopped.
And something took controI over it.
You think I'm crazy.
What? Peggy O'Dell's watch stopped a couple of minutes after nine.
I made a note of it when I saw the body.
That's why the kids come to the forest.
It controls them.
It summons them.
And the marks are from some kind of tests being done on them.
And that maybe causes some kind of genetic mutation which explains the body we dug up.
And the force summoned Teresa Nemman's body into the woods tonight.
Yes! But Billy Miles took her there.
Summoned by some alien impulse.
That's it! Come on, let's get out of here.
- Where are we going? - We're gonna visit Billy Miles.
We could be here untiI the Second Coming waiting for Billy to get out of this bed.
It ain't gonna happen.
He blinks and I know about it.
- I guess you changed his bedpan last night.
- Nobody else here's gonna do it.
You noticed nothing unusuaI? Do you remember what you were doing last night around nine o'clock? Probably watching TV.
Yeah.
Do you remember what you were watching? Let's see.
I don't really remember what I watched.
Miss? What is she looking for? Mulder, take a look at this.
- Who took care of Peggy last night? - Not me.
It's not my ward.
Not my aisle of the produce section.
I do have ajob of my own to do.
What is she doing now? Thank you for your time.
- OK.
- Good day.
That kid may have killed Peggy O'Dell! - Scully - It's crazy! - He was in the woods! - You're sure? This is the same stuff I took a handfuI of in the forest.
- We should run a test on it.
- We lost the originaI sample in the fire.
I want you to understand what it is you're saying.
- You said it yourself.
- You have to write it in your report.
You're right.
We'll take another sample from the forest and run a comparison before we do anything.
The detective's here.
What do you think? You wouldn't listen to me.
I told you to stay out of this.
Hold it! Hold it right there! You got no business out here.
- There were screams.
- Down on the ground.
Now! You know it's Billy.
You've known it all along.
- I said down on the ground.
- How long are you gonna let it happen? He's gonna kill her! Billy, no! Let her go! Leave her alone! Dad? Billy Oh, God! Scully! - Scully! - Mulder, what happened? There was a light It was incredible.
If you can hear me, raise your right hand.
Tell me about the light, Billy.
When did you first see the light? In the forest.
We were all in the forest having a party.
All my friends.
We were celebrating.
- What were you celebrating? - Graduation.
And then the light came.
It took me away To the testing place.
They would tell me to gather the others so that they could do tests.
They put something in my head.
Here.
I would wait for their orders.
Billy, who gave the orders? The light.
They said it would be OK.
No one would know.
But the tests didn't work.
They wanted everything destroyed.
They said they were leaving.
I'm afraid.
I'm afraid they're coming back.
Don't be afraid, Billy.
We're here to help you.
What we've just witnessed, what we've read in your field reports the scientific basis and credibility just seem wholly unsupportable.
- You're aware of that? - Yes, sir.
My reports are personaI and subjective.
I haven't drawn any conclusion about what I've seen.
Or haven't seen, as seems to be the case.
This Time loss.
You did or did not experience it? I can't substantiate it.
No.
What exactly can you substantiate, Agent Scully? I see no evidence thatjustifies the legitimacy of these investigations.
There were, of course, crimes committed.
Yes, but how do you prosecute a case like this? With testimony given under hypnosis from a boy who claims he was given orders from an alien force through an implant in his nose.
You have no physical evidence.
This is the object described by Billy Miles as a communication device.
I removed it from the exhumed body.
I kept it in my pocket.
It was the only piece of evidence not destroyed in the fire.
I ran a lab test on it.
The materiaI could not be identified.
Agent Mulder.
What are his thoughts? Agent Mulder believes we are not alone.
Thank you, Agent Scully.
That'll be all.
Hello? Scully, it's me.
I haven't been able to sleep.
I talked to the DA's office in Raymon County, Oregon.
There's no case file on Billy Miles.
The paperwork we filed is gone.
We need to talk, Scully.
Yes Tomorrow.

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