The X-Files s01e20 Episode Script

You're supposed to be in charge, Perkins.
- I am in charge.
- These men want answers.
What's your plan? This thing could kill us all.
We should've been gone two days ago.
No one would listen to me.
Nobody knew what it was then.
Nobody knows now.
- Somebody has to go for help.
- What about the rest of us? What do we do? - Just wait here till help arrives? - One of us has to hike out! That person might not make it down to the road before nightfall! Then what? I say we make a run for it.
- Split up.
Take our chances.
- It's suicide, Dyer.
Fine.
You stay here, tell us how it turns out.
You're going the wrong way! - I think it's broken.
- Come on, you gotta get up! I don't think I can make it.
We gotta keep moving! We're not gonna make it! - Take a good look, Scully.
- What am I looking at? 30 loggers working a clear-cutting contract in Washington State.
Rugged, manly men in the full bloom of manhood.
But what am I looking for? Anything strange, unexplainable, unlikely Boyfriend? I don't know.
I give up, Mulder.
You give up? That's what the FederaI Forest Service has done.
- What happened to them? - They vanished.
Or so it would appear.
This is Doug Spinney and Steven Teague.
They're monkey-wrenchers, the guys who sabotage logging equipment and make life miserable for lumberjacks.
Eco-terrorists or militant environmentalists.
Two weeks ago, the loggers radioed a message that Spinney and Teague had gone on a spree sabotaging equipment, causing generaI mischief.
One week later, radio communication was cut off.
- Do they know why? - No.
The lumber company asked the FederaI Forest Service to look into it.
Two officials were sent in.
No one's heard from them.
The monkey-wrenchers are doing more than mischief-making.
That's what the FederaI Forest Service think.
They've asked the FBI to investigate.
I had to pull strings to get the case.
For an eco-terrorism case? Do I dare ask why? In 1934, long before anyone knew what an eco-terrorist was, a WPA crew working that area vanished without a trace.
Not one of those men was ever found or heard from again.
And you suspect - what? - Bigfoot? Not likely.
That's a lot of flanneI to choke down even for Bigfoot! Come on, Scully, it'll be a nice trip to the forest.
Hi.
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
We're with the FBI.
Larry Moore, FederaI Forest Service.
You can put your gear in the back.
Must be pretty rugged where we're going.
Yeah.
Is that a bullet hole in your windshield? - .
22 calibre.
- Somebody take a shot at you? That's what it would appear.
- Not much to hunt here, except Freddies.
- Freddies? The FederaI Forest Service.
It's what eco-terrorists call us.
Is that who you think took a shot at you? Let me get this outta the way.
I have no quarreI with eco-terrorists in principle.
I'm as concerned for this forest and the environment as anybody.
It's their methods I can't condone.
Would they go so far as to kill a man? There's 30 men up there unaccounted for, each with survivaI experience.
Something happened to 'em.
Sorry I'm late.
I was talking to Bob Perkins' wife.
He's one of our missing loggers.
Hello, Larry.
Steve Humphreys, head of security for Schiff-Immergut Lumber.
Mulder, Scully.
We've got a four-hour drive.
Plenty of time to get to know each other.
Get the impression we've walked into the middle of a war that's already started? Why do these men work so far up in the wilderness? - That's where the trees are.
- You're kidding, right? No, environmentalists have made sure the land is untouchable.
Force us to take timber where we can.
We plant saplings for every tree we take.
So why do the eco-terrorists target you? These tree-huggers are the same kinda boys who went up to Canada during the Vietnam war.
They're cowardly.
Dammit! Homemade tyre spike - clear through the sidewall.
It's unfixable.
- You got a spare, don't you? - Right tyre's history, too.
The monkey-wrenchers call it a caltrop.
The roads are littered with them.
Indiscriminate.
Imagine somebody spiking Washington DC's roads.
Like to see how much sympathy they'd get then! So how are we gonna get up to the camp? We're gonna have to hike.
Anybody here? Someone forgot to clean their plate.
It looks like they left in a hurry, too.
They forgot to pack.
- Find anything? - Party favours.
Vehicles have been monkey-wrenched.
Generator's busted.
Somebody turned this place upside down.
And they didn't want the fact broadcast.
The radiators are all full of rice.
Sugar or sand in all the crankcases.
They really did a number here.
The sun's going down in an hour and a half.
Better look around before dark.
I'll see if I can get that generator working.
- You were right about one thing.
- What's that? It definitely wasn't Bigfoot.
Look at that! What is it? It looks like a hive.
- Maybe a cocoon of some kind.
- Made by what? I don't know.
I've never seen anything like it.
Got it.
- Can you cut it down? - Yeah, I think so.
You all right, Scully? Oh, God! It feels it feels desiccated, hard and dry almost preserved.
Like it's been embalmed.
No, more like all the fluids have been bled from its body.
Almost like it's been cured.
I think it's a male.
Barely.
I'd say it's some kind of spider's nest or insect cocoon.
What kind of insect could have gotten a man all the way up into that tree? Itsy-bitsy spider.
Don't move! Who are you? Doug Spinney.
I ought to shoot you where you stand.
Might as well shoot yourself.
You're in a helluva spot to test me.
- What happened to my men? - What men? The men who were working this camp.
I don't know.
The same thing that'll happen to us when the sun goes down.
- What are you doing? - This animaI's Doug Spinney.
He's responsible for the monkey-wrenching.
- Probably a murderer.
- I'm no murderer.
- Liar! - Let's hear what he has to say.
If we stand around here talking, there'll be nothing left to say.
I'd get that generator started.
Darkness is our enemy.
What's he talking about? Someone wanna give me a hand? He's giving orders? I fixed the damn thing! Hey, it's all right.
Why did you say the darkness was our enemy? That's when they come.
- When who comes? - I don't know what it is.
They come from the sky.
They take a man off his feet and devour him alive.
- I saw it happen.
- Happen to who? I need to eat.
I haven't eaten in three days.
What kinda BS story is that, huh? You believe that? - We found something in the forest.
- What? A man caught in some kind of insect cocoon.
- What happened here? - We're camped two valleys over.
- Four of us, three now.
- More rats in the woodpile.
Our truck has a dead battery so we drew straws to see who'd hike here to steaI one from the loggers.
- Why notjust hike out? - It's more than a day's hike.
No way we'd want to be caught out after dark.
Not after what happened to Teague.
The man you said was devoured alive? Yeah.
- What are you guys doing out here? - Camping.
The kind of camping you do is a federaI offence.
- Hold off a second.
- He's right.
This man's a felon.
He could be placed under arrest.
What about your offence, my friend? The offence against nature! We operate within the law.
We pay for the right to take those trees.
Oh, yeah? Your logging crew is taking trees that nobody has a right to.
Trees that are marked! So don't talk to me about breaking the law, sir! - They've been taking marked trees? - Yes, sir.
Marked in orange.
Old-growth trees? Know anything about that, Steve? No.
Gonna take this man's word over mine? You don't wanna go out in the night.
Take my word on that.
It's out there.
If I go out, somebody will attack me, eat me alive and spin me in its web? Yes.
It's too polite to come in here and get me? For some reason, it's afraid of the light.
- It's afraid of the light! - There may be something to it.
He's a murderer and just clever enough to make up that story.
Even to whip up that cocoon to save a few trees.
And I'm gonna prove I'm right.
This is ridiculous! Where is it, Spinney? I thought it was gonna come and devour me! Hey, here I am! Come out, come out, wherever you are! Don't be shy.
Come on! It's just like I told you.
There's nothing out here but a bunch of trees.
Trees this man values more than human life.
I'm gonna see him tried on murder charges.
What do you think? I think I'm gonna suggest that we sleep with the lights on.
See this Douglas fir? It's been here since before time and your men cut it down.
- Who marks these trees? - FederaI Forest Service.
You're only supposed to cut trees marked with a blue X.
This tree must be hundreds of years old.
You must get a lot of lumber from a big tree.
Thousands of board feet.
Helluva lot easier than taking smaller trees.
Monkey-wrenchers like Spinney are not above marking trees.
This tree's 500 years old if it's a day, Steve.
Look at this.
What would this represent? I don't know.
I've never seen a ring like that before.
Those centre rings are the older rings? Every ring represents a season of growth.
You see these? These are 500, 600 years old.
They're a recorded history of rainfall and climate.
But this one I don't know.
I should take a core sample.
We finished this nature walk? I wanna know what happened to the loggers.
- We're determining that, sir.
- Looking at a tree stump? - Interrogate this man.
- I don't think he did it.
- I want him arrested.
- He's not going anywhere.
Not with a gun on him.
What happens if his three buddies show up and do to you what they did to those FederaI Forest officials? I just wanna take a core sample.
I got families who want answers about loved ones and so do you! Answers that won't be found in that tree! The only crime is the death of that tree.
We'll see about that.
- Where are you going? - Down to your truck.
I'll get on the horn and get people up here who'll take some action.
- Steve! - Let him go.
Let him find out for himself.
This is odd.
This yellow ring's got something living in it.
Some kind of tiny bug.
It doesn't make sense.
Why not? Well, parasites attack a tree in a variety of ways but they always attack the living parts.
The leaves, the roots, the new growth rings.
Even if they're borers of some kind they wouldn't work so deep.
They seem to be feeding on this ring's wood.
Can you identify them? It's a wood mite of some kind.
Nothing I've ever seen.
Can they have been there centuries? I don't see how.
These inner rings are essentially dead wood.
The tree's vascular system is limited to the outer few rings.
They need water to survive.
They appear to be hatching out of the porous wood.
Maybe when you drilled this core, you tapped into a larger nest.
Can they build a cocoon? Right after that tree was cut down was when Teague died.
It's about the same time when the loggers disappeared.
You think these mites killed them? Maybe they were dormant for hundreds of years.
Maybe they woke up hungry.
Dammit! All right, you monkey-wrenchers, come on out! I know what you're up to! Humphreys should've been back by now.
These bugs aren't moving any more.
They're either dead or they're asleep.
They don't like the light.
That's weird.
Usually bugs are attracted to light.
These obviously are not your ordinary bugs.
To say the least.
- What do you know about insects? - Just what I learned in biology courses.
That they're the foundation of our ecosystem that there are lots of them: 200 million per person on Earth.
- And they've been around a long time, right? - About 600 million years.
Even before the dinosaurs.
Why? And this tree is what? 5, 6, 700 years old? Yeah.
And these rings represent climatic changes.
So in this year or season in the life of the tree a strange event produced an abnormaI ring.
- Like what, exactly? - A volcanic eruption.
This chain of mountains running from Washington to Oregon is still active.
- Remember Mount St Helens? - How does that explain the bugs? After Mount St Helens erupted, radiation was unleashed from inside the Earth.
Strange things started to grow.
They discovered an amoeba that can suck a man's brains out.
A brain-sucking amoeba! It's true.
In Spirit Lake, there's cases of swimmers being infected.
A single-celled amoeba can be mutated.
But an insect is complex.
A mutation would take years and years to evolve.
Maybe what we're dealing with isn't a mutation at all.
What if it's some kind of extinct insect larvae in that ring deposited during volcanic activity, brought up through the root system? Ancient insect eggs thousands, maybe millions of years old, Iying dormant untiI UntiI those loggers cut down that tree.
That would be poetic justice, don't you think? Unleashing the thing that would end up killing them.
And your friend Humphreys.
And, who knows Maybe us.
Sweet dreams.
Humphreys might've just hiked outta here.
We don't know he didn't.
Maybe we're letting ourselves get carried away with this bug story.
Yeah, maybe.
Going somewhere? - No, I was - Doing an auto repair.
Looks like you're planning on cutting out.
I got to save my friends.
They could only keep their generator going 15, 20 hours max.
- They're gonna die.
- So why are you sneaking around? The Forest Service guy wouldn't go for it.
He'd never trust me.
He's got no reason to.
Neither do I.
I can save us all, man.
We've got ajeep just two valleys over.
All it needs is a battery.
I could be back in the morning.
We can all drive out tomorrow.
You gotta trust me, man.
Radio's back up.
It's working? I'm not getting any reception, so the receiver could be trashed.
And transmissions? Can you send a message? We could try.
This is a call for help.
Is there anyone at this frequency? This is SpeciaI Agent Mulder, FBI.
We have an emergency and a possible quarantine situation.
Our position is - What happened to the generator? - I turned it off.
Turn it back on.
I got the radio working.
- What happened to the gas can? - Spinney took it.
He took it? You mean he's gone? He took a battery and some gas.
He'll come back in the morning.
He gave you his personaI guarantee? He gave me his word, yeah.
The man who gave you his word has made an art out of sabotage and defying authority.
He's probably the same man who put a bullet through my windshield.
At least now we've got one chance of getting out alive.
One more chance than we had before.
- Or one less.
- What do you mean? Mulder let him leave with the last of the gas.
This generator's got a quarter tank left.
What about the trucks? Their tanks were ruptured or filled with sugar.
By the same man we are now trusting to keep his word.
Then we gotta get back on the radio, send out a Mayday.
Every drop of fueI we waste is fueI that'll keep this genny powered tonight.
I don't wanna be waiting around, hoping somebody heard that transmission when this thing quits running about two in the morning.
Do you? - Mulder, - Look, it's done.
I shouldn't have let him go.
Let's just move past it, OK? Fine.
What do you suggest? I don't know.
We'll think of something.
I think we have a pretty good idea what happened to those loggers and what happened to the group in 1934.
- They only found one cocoon.
- It's a very big forest.
What would you have done? Would I have made a decision alone that affected the group? Cut the sanctimonious crap! What do you want me to say? Let's face it, we might die up here.
They may find our bodies spun up in a tree or they may not find us at all! You're right.
And we're wasting time arguing about it.
- What are you gonna do? - Button this place up.
If we gotta spend the night in here we gotta do everything we can to make sure the bugs stay out there.
Be carefuI with that.
It's the only bulb that works.
I can see them.
You guys, look at this.
They're coming through the wall down where it's dark, you see them? - They're on me! - It's all right, Scully.
- Scully, Scully - Get them off me! - Get them off me! - Stand still! - Stop it, stop it! - Can you see them? - Get them off me! - They're notjust on you.
That's what that greasy residue is.
We were supposed to be safe in the light! We are! I think the light keeps them from swarming.
We'll be safe as long as we stay in the light.
How are you feeling? I'm OK.
They're oxidising enzymes.
Just like fireflies.
Maybe that's why they cocoon their prey.
So they can oxidise the proteins taken from the fluids in the body.
What if the generator goes? Are they gonna swarm in and drain the life out of us? We got an hour and a half till sunrise.
Then what? It's over a day's hike out of here.
We won't make it on foot by nightfall.
Maybe somebody heard our transmission.
Help could be on the way.
You sent that call hours ago.
I mean, help would've been here by now.
Well, I'm not gonna give up on Spinney.
He gave me his word he'd come back to get us.
And if he doesn't? We'll think of something.
You got a patch kit or an extra tube in your truck? Yeah.
Maybe we can patch this.
And with the spare in your truck maybe we can limp down the mountain.
If not, we can get on the radio and warn them what's out there.
- You see it? - Yeah.
Listen.
You hear that? It's a car.
No, it's ajeep! - We gotta move! Let's go, let's go! - Wait! What about Humphreys' body? Leave it.
I've radioed for help.
- What happened to your friends? - They didn't make it.
We're not gonna make it either unless we hauI ass! Let's go! Dammit! I don't believe it! And you talk about shooting yourself in the foot! Get outta there! Get back in the car! Emergency evacuation situation.
Requesting quarantine facility for two, possibly three victims with undiagnosed infection or exposure to unknown biologicaI vectors.
Repeat, emergency evacuation situation: two, possibly Attention all personnel.
High-level bio-clearance required on third floor.
- How are you feeling? - Better.
How did the tests come back? Your respiratory charts were good.
We were concerned about the extent of damage through inhalation.
There were large concentrations of the chemicaI luciferin.
Which is? The enzyme found in fireflies and bioluminescent insects.
Our entomologists are trying to determine the specific epithet of the insects you encountered.
Scully? How's she doing? She's still not out of the woods, so to speak.
She lost a lot of fluids.
Two or three more hours of exposure, she might not have made it.
I told her it was gonna be a nice trip to the forest.
How are you gonna contain it to the forest? What if the swarm migrates? The government has initiated eradication procedures.
By using a combination of controlled burns and pesticides they will be successfuI.
And if they're not? That is not an option, Mr Mulder.
I made this!