The X-Files s11e02 Episode Script
This
1 One, two, three, four! ["CALIFORNIA SUN" BY THE RAMONES PLAYING.]
[CRICKETS CHIRPING.]
[SOUND MUTED.]
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder.
[STATIC CRACKLES.]
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder.
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Is this Mulder? [FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder.
Is this Mulder? Mulder.
Fox Mulder.
Mulder.
Fox Mulder.
- [WHISPERS.]
: Mulder.
- Hmm.
Well, I'm going out west where I belong [STATIC CRACKLES.]
Hmm.
- Is this Mulder? - Hmm? Fox Mulder.
Langly? Uh, I-I believe I believe you knew me as Langly.
Um, Richard Langly.
"Ringo" Langly.
MULDER: Lone Gunman Langly? And I'll walk and they'll walk I'll twist and they'll twist And I'll shimmy and they shimmy And I'll fly and they'll fly [MUSIC STOPS.]
Mulder, I-I need to know.
Am I dead? If I am they know that I know.
[WHISPERING.]
: Know that he knows what? [BOARD CREAKS.]
[CREAKING.]
Go.
Well, I'm going out west out on the coast Where the California girls are really the most And I'll walk and they'll walk I'll twist and they'll twist And I'll shimmy and they'll shimmy And I'll fly, and they shimmy And I'll fly, and they fly Where they're out there having fun In the warm California sun Where they're out there having fun Scully? You all right? There's one in the room.
Behind the couch.
[GUN SLIDES ON FLOOR.]
Two down, all clear.
[ENGINE STARTS.]
Mulder.
Mulder am I dead? If I am they know that I know.
Better call it in from a landline.
Yeah.
[DIALING.]
This is Special Agent Dana Scully.
XF072161.
Yes, Washington, D.
C.
field office.
[SIGHS.]
Yes, I'm calling in an incident where multiple gunshots were exchanged.
There are two suspects on the ground.
No, we weren't injured.
Agent Mulder's residence.
Yes.
Yeah.
Farrs Corner.
227700 Wallis Road.
[HANGS UP PHONE.]
You're careful not to taint that, but you're willing to conceal this? You said "taint.
" This may not be related to that.
Yes, but we're not gonna know unless it's properly investigated.
Scully, ten minutes ago, we received a message on this phone from a man who's been dead for 16 years, and now you want me to hand it over to evidence, where it's gonna sit in a locker for what, two, three years? I was gone back then.
Could-could Langly be alive? No.
I was at Langly's, at the Lone Gunmen's burial in Arlington Cemetery.
But did you ever see Langly's body? Well, nobody did.
They were exposed to a weaponized strain of the Marburg virus.
Their bodies were incinerated.
It's got to be connected, right? That-that whatever Langly message and this.
They know that he knows.
W-Who's they? I mean, it's-it's-it's too much of a coincidence.
Right? Well, I think that the Langly message was warning us that these guys were coming.
It wasn't warning us.
It-it asked if he were dead.
What do you think it was? I don't know what I think.
I don't know.
But I'll tell you what I do know.
[VEHICLES APPROACHING.]
- [DRAWS GUN.]
- We got to take a trip to IKEA.
Well, that was fast.
SCULLY: What is that? A Critical Incident Response Group maneuver? - I got 14 rounds.
- Eight.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Don't answer the phone.
If we use the phone, they may be able to pinpoint our exact location in the house.
[RINGING CONTINUES.]
Identify yourself! MAN: Can't hear you.
Answer your phone.
Should I call Skinner? We haven't talked to him in a couple weeks.
I don't know where he stands.
We are federal agents.
We are armed.
Identify yourselves.
MAN: Hold on, hold on.
See, the "we are armed" thing That is a problem for you.
Put down your guns.
- Come out.
- SKINNER: Hello? [WHISPERS.]
: Skinner, it's Scully.
I'm with Mulder.
- SKINNER: Listen to me, Scully.
- You don't have much time.
Surrender.
I can't explain on an open line, - but I can't help you right now.
- MAN: Waiting! The only chance you have is to put down your weapons and surrender to them.
[HANGS UP.]
You know what you did.
MULDER: We defended ourselves! MAN: Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say.
But, see, they were wearing body cams, so You know how that turns out for the ones who weren't.
[WHISPERING.]
: Skinner says surrender.
Why should we surrender? - To who? Why are we under suspicion? - I don't know.
Identify yourselves or we'll be forced to consider you hostile agents and respond with deadly action to any aggressive action.
Identify ourselves? No.
We don't need to identify ourselves.
What world are you living in? [GRUNTING.]
- [SPEAKING RUSSIAN.]
- [HANDCUFFS CLICKING.]
Where's your phone, bro? Easy for Orwell to say.
"I want to believe"? Here's what I believe.
We would've all saved lots of money and headaches if we only knew Americans would have been just fine losing the Cold War if they could only make a little money off of it.
You guys there, find his phone.
You two, watch these two.
Once we find his phone [MEN SPEAKING RUSSIAN.]
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder.
- Hold on, hold on.
Hold on! - Shh, shh.
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder? Mulder.
Mulder.
This is Richard Langly.
Richard Langly.
Ringo Langly.
I need to know.
- Well, well, well, Ringo.
- Am I dead? You're never going to know.
And neither will these two.
[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE.]
[SHOUTING IN RUSSIAN.]
[SHOUTING IN RUSSIAN.]
[SHOUTING IN RUSSIAN CONTINUING.]
[MEN SHOUTING.]
[VEHICLE APPROACHING.]
"Surrender"? "Give up"? SKINNER: I'm risking my own ass being out here.
Who are they? Why are you so afraid? They're not U.
S.
intelligence, I'll tell you that much.
Commander was Russian.
Skinner, tell us who they are.
It's Purlieu Services, an American security contractor with its headquarters in Moscow.
A private contractor has ascendancy over the FBI? Under a classified security directive from the Executive Branch.
[HANDCUFFS CLICKING.]
I thought they were just questioning you guys.
Why would they want to kill you? - You tell us.
- They're not supposed to kill any intelligence agents, but apparently, they will.
You need to come with me.
[SIGHS.]
You have any money? Take it.
It's all I have on me.
Is Langly alive? Lone Gunmen Langly? You and I buried him in Arlington along with Byers and Frohike.
You didn't answer my question.
[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING.]
I just did.
He's buried in Arlington.
[CAR DOOR OPENS, CLOSES.]
Hack Mulder's phone.
Find out how he contacted Mulder.
[ROBOTIC VOICE LAUGHING.]
[PHONE TRILLING.]
Kill switch.
Here's Byers.
Frohike.
What are we looking for, Mulder? Knowing Langly, bread crumbs.
Huh.
His birth date is wrong.
October 13.
We shared the same birthday.
Hmm.
Byers was born on the day Kennedy was assassinated, so, that's correct.
Frohike.
Frohike look 57 to you when he died? Frohike looked 57 the day he was born.
His birthday is the same day that FDR died.
So, Langly March 28, 1969.
Any president die that day? - Eisenhower.
- Who needs Google when you got Scully? - Right? - [LAUGHING.]
Well, JFK was the 35th president, Eisenhower was the 34th president, FDR Now you're just showing off, really.
- The - Thirty - 32nd president.
- two.
32.
34, 35.
32nd, 34th, 35th.
Anything in that? You mean, other than the fact that the 33rd is missing? 33rd? Three and three? Three up, three down, three over? Well, he's facing this way.
One two three.
I'll go this way.
All right.
[INSECTS CHIRPING.]
Scully.
This is it.
I watched his funeral from 1,000 yards away, over there, through binoculars.
Deep Throat.
I didn't know his real name till right now.
I never visited, out of respect, I guess.
I He's dead because the world was so dangerous and complex then.
Who'd have thought we'd look back with nostalgia and say, "That was a simpler time," Scully? Everything we feared came to pass.
How the hell did that happen? Mulder, Deep Throat was assassinated eight years before the Lone Gunmen died.
How and why would Langly leave bread crumbs at a grave in a graveyard that he didn't even know he was gonna be buried in? This cross is different from all the others.
It's not engraved.
It protrudes.
What is that? Wait.
Thank you, Skinner.
I think it's a memory medallion.
You scan it, and it links to a video of the pet or person.
But I don't have my phone to scan it.
Mulder, do gravediggers work at night? [GUNSHOT.]
[SCULLY GRUNTS.]
MULDER: I'm gonna open an X-File - on this bran muffin.
- Oh.
I got to get to the bottom of why it's so freaking good.
I don't care if it came out of an alien's butt.
I'm gonna eat the whole thing.
Mmm.
MULDER: All right.
New Yorkers call it "The Long Lines Building.
" Edward Snowden documents indicated the building code named "Titanpointe" was used as an NSA mass surveillance station in a program code named "Blarney.
" It was started in the '70s and expanded after 9/11.
Well, why? Why did he point us to an NSA program? Why didn't he just tell us if it was about a building? MULDER: I-I opened an X-File on this building in the, in the '90s.
In fact, Langly actually provided the initial information.
We should check it out.
It? An X-File? Mm-hmm.
You mean the X-Files that are in our office that we can't get into kind of X-File? Right.
Okay.
- [CAR ALARM CHIRPS.]
- [SIGHS.]
Don't get in.
I need you to put the weapon down, Mulder.
Cannot do that, sir.
You seem to be working with people who tried to kill us.
I don't work with them.
The world is different, Mulder.
When Scully started, it was just us.
Dark forces in the U.
S.
government.
There was barely a Russia.
Now there's 17 U.
S.
intelligence agencies.
Homeland Security, Russian FSB, Chinese MSS, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Blackwater.
Private companies launch to the Space Station, and all of them are in bed with one another, while trying to exterminate each other, and that includes each of us.
We need your help, Walter.
Even if we don't trust you.
[SIGHS.]
What is this? How did we get here? What about us? We were the ones who were just assaulted.
We can't go to our home.
They'll be waiting for us at our office.
We're not asking for you to get us out of this, but we do expect your help.
We need to see the X-Files.
If you want to see the X-Files, you don't have to go to the office.
After the X-Files were closed in 2002, the agency lobbied Director Mueller for jurisdiction over the files.
They were looking to cross-reference their own past research in telekinesis, MK-Ultra, remote viewing with your fieldwork.
The agency then contracted a private company to digitize and maintain the files online for any U.
S.
intelligence agencies to have classified access.
MULDER: A private contractor.
Purlieu? So the Russians who tried to kill us have had access to all of our work? So when the X-Files were reopened, why weren't we told? Why didn't you tell us? The X-Files belong to us.
SCULLY: Do you work with them? Do you work for them? You two were gone.
I was left here.
I didn't know if you were coming back, and the files were too important to sit in a basement gathering dust.
And what's in them belongs to everyone.
That's the point of 'em.
Control of the X-Files reverted back to the FBI after the files were reopened.
[PHONE VIBRATES.]
SKINNER: Yeah? All right.
[SIGHS.]
MULDER: All the files on NSA Project Blarney and the Titanpointe building are gone.
Langly has been bleached from the X-Files.
Not just the person, but any information Langly contributed to theoretical computer science.
Byers and Frohike are still in here.
MULDER: Cryptographic protocols, machine learning, quantum algorithms, all gone.
All right, thanks.
I had the director speak with the Executive Branch to call this off, but the, uh, the Bureau's not in good standing with the White House these days.
How do you like that? The FBI finally found out what it's like to be looked upon as a little spooky.
Okay, so complete the two problems, and e-mail me your solutions by Friday.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
We're old friends of Richard Langly.
I figured if I hadn't seen you in five years, then I never would and I could stop regretting.
We received a message on my cell.
Asking if he was alive.
You should go.
They're watching.
Who is watching? HAMBY: Purlieu Services.
They came to us 15 years ago, with the science and the math to prove that we could live forever.
The contract states we can live out our natural lives.
We could continue our work after we die.
And where is Richard now? They brought us to a facility, and over a two-week period, they scanned and copied the salient features of our biological brain.
They uploaded us into a simulation.
The two minds could never exist at once.
Our simulated selves would come into consciousness in that life once we died in this.
And so did he instruct you to to leave this for us? He entrusted me in case he discovered that they had lied about life in the simulation.
And if Richard is reaching out, then they must have.
We wanted a life eternal together.
So we took the deal.
But we theorized what to do if it was not what they had offered.
How would that life know it was a simulation? There would be cheats.
The stars and the moon, they wouldn't be fully realized.
The background people wouldn't be fully rendered.
They'd constrict the use of technology, of two-way contact to control them.
But Richard being Richard, hacked a way to reach out.
Why reach out to me if you're alive? Memory isn't erased, it's suppressed.
They've probably theorized, as we have, that their lives are a simulation, but perhaps Richard's subconscious must have recalled the two of you investigating this type of subject matter.
Maybe he saw Mulder in his dreams.
Who hasn't? [COUGHS.]
Purlieu is likely aware that Richard is reaching out to you to expose a simulation.
Is there anything we can do to help Langly get through? Do you have the cell? No, it was taken from us.
I phreaked my phone years ago, using video signal manipulation to my cell.
You'd have to help him by making this side easier to reach.
You're gonna have to edit the SIM card to your number, and follow these steps for the phone, so that you can contact [GROANING.]
Mulder, that's evidence.
He's evidence.
["CALIFORNIA SUN" BY THE RIVIERAS PLAYING.]
- Hey.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Sorry.
- MAN: Come on.
- It's been a, it's been a long day.
Tough day.
Thank you.
MAN: [GROANS.]
Chick's freaking out over here.
Scully, you looked so adorbs just there.
All curled up in a ball in the booth of a skanky bar with your fingers wrapped around the grip of an assassin's Glock.
Going out west where I belong I did what I could to follow Dr.
Hamby's algorithms, and I added what little I know about phreaking.
And we have to wait and see if we receive another transmission, but they knew Langly was trying to reach us, and they knew that Dr.
Hamby knew about Langly and the computer simulations.
The longer we leave the phone on, the sooner they're gonna find us.
So I got to turn it off, and we got to move to different spots.
Where they're out there having fun Oh.
- Mulder.
- Scully.
Out on the coast - [GARBLED.]
: Is this Mulder? - Yes, it's-it's Mulder.
It is Mulder.
Is that Langly? Richard Langly? Uh, it's Mulder and Scully.
Scully? Dana? - Dana Scully? - [MULDER CHUCKLES.]
Yeah.
But I'm not real, though.
That right? You are real and I'm not? Dr.
Hamby told us you were in a simulation.
Ah.
Hmm.
Mulder, it's like I designed heaven.
I eat hot dogs and donuts all day long.
No one here ever dies of cancer or Alzheimer's.
And the Ramones are here, and they don't fight.
And every night they get on stage and they play "California Sun," and I circle the mosh pit like they do on the west coast.
There's consensual sex without blame or judgment.
Oh, and the New England Patriots are here and they never, ever win.
Ever.
And I'm begging you destroy it.
We're living a lie here.
It's a work camp.
We're digital slaves.
They take our uploaded minds to develop science that only the elite will use to leave your world.
We turn theories of space colonization into realities for them.
We dream, but we're not allowed to have dreams, goals, nothing for ourselves.
No choice, no diversity.
[SIGHS.]
There's a there's a wall around this place.
The stars are fake.
The sunlight has no warmth.
And all the great minds that have died since they realized this place are here.
Steve Jobs.
Marvin Minsky.
Michael Crichton.
They all hate it here.
They don't even know who they are.
What we were in that life is completely opposite from what we are here.
Go to the Long Lines Building.
Titanpointe.
Please, for all of us.
Shut this down! MULDER: Travel guides for NSA personnel to Titanpointe for Blarney operations were included in the Snowden leaks.
NSA and FBI personnel could not carry identification to or in the building.
You'd have to arrange for a meeting a week prior, and confirm with the program director 24 hours before.
That's what we're sure of.
What we're not sure of is Whether they serve mimosas on the bus? - Ah.
- High-five, Scully.
- That was, uh, that was fun.
- Uh.
Are you kidding me? Langly believed there was a tunnel between Titanpointe and the FBI field office a few blocks away.
You think we can get in there looking like this without raising suspicion? You look good.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION.]
[SCULLY CLEARS THROAT.]
I'm a bit tied up here to, uh, flash you my ID, but Special Agent Scully, XF071261, Washington Field Office.
You taking him upstairs to holding? No, I'm taking him to Titanpointe.
The, uh, NSA guys want to question him.
It would help if you could get us in the tunnel.
[CHUCKLES.]
Well, after you drop him off, maybe you'll come back and repay the favor.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
[PANEL BEEPS.]
It's easier getting him through without cuffs.
I'm not uncuffing him.
This guy's like Hannibal Lecter-level psycho.
[MULDER CLICKS TONGUE, MIMICKING LECTER.]
So, hon what's your home office? Sorry, bro.
Married to the Bureau.
All right.
You know, if they're waiting outside the elevator doors when they open, that's it, so I'm guessing the computer simulation is housed on one of the upper floors by the exhaust opening, so But there are 29 floors.
- Mm-hmm.
- [SIGHS.]
26, 28.
What's after 28? 30.
32.
34, 36, 38.
- There they are! - Hold it there! [MAN SHOUTING.]
MAN: Down the stairs! [SPEAKING RUSSIAN.]
What are you running for? Ain't you heard, FBI Mulder? You're on our side now.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
[MULDER SIGHS.]
I'll confess.
After our last encounter, I was disappointed by you.
I didn't get your value to Mr.
Y, but he explained that, uh, we'd meet over and over, and then I'd change my opinion.
In the last few days, I've seen your instinct for survival.
Well, now that I've won you over, you'll stop sending assassins to kill us? We've really turned a corner.
Easy.
You have a way to go, Fox.
Or rather, you need to change how you look at all this.
You're still refusing to answer the question of your father.
[MULDER SIGHS.]
You don't understand what's about to happen.
Our world is a progression of one life being replaced by another, over and over.
This is what's really meant by evolution.
- [THUMPING, GROANING.]
- And this series of replacements isn't about this is black, and this white, this is male, and this female, this is rich, and this poor, - this is chaos, and this - Control.
[LAUGHS.]
Now that you understand that what you really need to know is this.
Life on this earth all human life, most animal life is about to be crushed.
Burned to the ground.
The computer simulator down the hall is necessary for our evolution as a species.
When we leave this planet, this life will have evolved into that.
Of the hundreds of extraordinary minds uploaded into that world, the only one that figured out it was living in a computer simulation had seven billion choices to contact in this world.
And the one person Langly reached out to was you.
Whoa.
And to think my company advised killing you.
But now that you are once again in front of me and aware of the simulation, I believe you won't want to destroy it, not when you understand the good it's doing.
Its reason for being is to advance life, not end it.
If I were to change my course of action and, um terminate my father, would I be able to upload to the simulation? And could Agent Scully be with me? PRICE: It won't be her and it won't be you.
We can upload a mind now through any smartphone.
No one's even aware we're doing it.
We can take a piece of your mind any time you make a call.
- Painless.
- [SCOFFS.]
Two hours.
Painless, except we have to die.
[LAUGHS.]
One of our best incentives here is that you and loved ones don't ever die.
So if you upload me through my phone, I don't really have a choice.
Sure you do.
You could not use your phone.
- [LAUGHS.]
- I mean, don't get me wrong.
I want to believe, but I would just like to to see it.
PRICE: Very few have ever seen it, and those that do don't realize what it is.
It's just a client-server.
Wires, lights.
Why do you need to see it? It's the closest I'll get to seeing God.
In this life or that.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
Stop.
Face to the wall.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
Inside.
[GRUNTING.]
Why do you operate so well with your hands cuffed behind your back? As if you didn't know.
[YELLS.]
[GRUNTING.]
[YELLING.]
[ALARM BLARING.]
Bye-bye, Ringo.
[POWERING DOWN.]
[POUNDING ON DOOR.]
[SCULLY GASPS.]
I'm armed! [SCULLY SIGHS.]
Hi.
What? [PANTING.]
: You okay? Got my phone back.
Oh.
The simulator's down.
Okay.
Let's bring him back through the tunnel to the FBI field office.
Come back with some cyber forensics agents and then start a case against Erika Price.
- Okay.
- Oh, I thought I was gonna throw up for a second, but I'm okay.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
They're gone.
[SCULLY SIGHS.]
LANGLY [STATICKY.]
: Mulder? Mulder! They know that we know! Destroy the backup! Mulder, I'm afraid.
Mulder [GASPS.]
[CRICKETS CHIRPING.]
[SOUND MUTED.]
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder.
[STATIC CRACKLES.]
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder.
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Is this Mulder? [FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder.
Is this Mulder? Mulder.
Fox Mulder.
Mulder.
Fox Mulder.
- [WHISPERS.]
: Mulder.
- Hmm.
Well, I'm going out west where I belong [STATIC CRACKLES.]
Hmm.
- Is this Mulder? - Hmm? Fox Mulder.
Langly? Uh, I-I believe I believe you knew me as Langly.
Um, Richard Langly.
"Ringo" Langly.
MULDER: Lone Gunman Langly? And I'll walk and they'll walk I'll twist and they'll twist And I'll shimmy and they shimmy And I'll fly and they'll fly [MUSIC STOPS.]
Mulder, I-I need to know.
Am I dead? If I am they know that I know.
[WHISPERING.]
: Know that he knows what? [BOARD CREAKS.]
[CREAKING.]
Go.
Well, I'm going out west out on the coast Where the California girls are really the most And I'll walk and they'll walk I'll twist and they'll twist And I'll shimmy and they'll shimmy And I'll fly, and they shimmy And I'll fly, and they fly Where they're out there having fun In the warm California sun Where they're out there having fun Scully? You all right? There's one in the room.
Behind the couch.
[GUN SLIDES ON FLOOR.]
Two down, all clear.
[ENGINE STARTS.]
Mulder.
Mulder am I dead? If I am they know that I know.
Better call it in from a landline.
Yeah.
[DIALING.]
This is Special Agent Dana Scully.
XF072161.
Yes, Washington, D.
C.
field office.
[SIGHS.]
Yes, I'm calling in an incident where multiple gunshots were exchanged.
There are two suspects on the ground.
No, we weren't injured.
Agent Mulder's residence.
Yes.
Yeah.
Farrs Corner.
227700 Wallis Road.
[HANGS UP PHONE.]
You're careful not to taint that, but you're willing to conceal this? You said "taint.
" This may not be related to that.
Yes, but we're not gonna know unless it's properly investigated.
Scully, ten minutes ago, we received a message on this phone from a man who's been dead for 16 years, and now you want me to hand it over to evidence, where it's gonna sit in a locker for what, two, three years? I was gone back then.
Could-could Langly be alive? No.
I was at Langly's, at the Lone Gunmen's burial in Arlington Cemetery.
But did you ever see Langly's body? Well, nobody did.
They were exposed to a weaponized strain of the Marburg virus.
Their bodies were incinerated.
It's got to be connected, right? That-that whatever Langly message and this.
They know that he knows.
W-Who's they? I mean, it's-it's-it's too much of a coincidence.
Right? Well, I think that the Langly message was warning us that these guys were coming.
It wasn't warning us.
It-it asked if he were dead.
What do you think it was? I don't know what I think.
I don't know.
But I'll tell you what I do know.
[VEHICLES APPROACHING.]
- [DRAWS GUN.]
- We got to take a trip to IKEA.
Well, that was fast.
SCULLY: What is that? A Critical Incident Response Group maneuver? - I got 14 rounds.
- Eight.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Don't answer the phone.
If we use the phone, they may be able to pinpoint our exact location in the house.
[RINGING CONTINUES.]
Identify yourself! MAN: Can't hear you.
Answer your phone.
Should I call Skinner? We haven't talked to him in a couple weeks.
I don't know where he stands.
We are federal agents.
We are armed.
Identify yourselves.
MAN: Hold on, hold on.
See, the "we are armed" thing That is a problem for you.
Put down your guns.
- Come out.
- SKINNER: Hello? [WHISPERS.]
: Skinner, it's Scully.
I'm with Mulder.
- SKINNER: Listen to me, Scully.
- You don't have much time.
Surrender.
I can't explain on an open line, - but I can't help you right now.
- MAN: Waiting! The only chance you have is to put down your weapons and surrender to them.
[HANGS UP.]
You know what you did.
MULDER: We defended ourselves! MAN: Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say.
But, see, they were wearing body cams, so You know how that turns out for the ones who weren't.
[WHISPERING.]
: Skinner says surrender.
Why should we surrender? - To who? Why are we under suspicion? - I don't know.
Identify yourselves or we'll be forced to consider you hostile agents and respond with deadly action to any aggressive action.
Identify ourselves? No.
We don't need to identify ourselves.
What world are you living in? [GRUNTING.]
- [SPEAKING RUSSIAN.]
- [HANDCUFFS CLICKING.]
Where's your phone, bro? Easy for Orwell to say.
"I want to believe"? Here's what I believe.
We would've all saved lots of money and headaches if we only knew Americans would have been just fine losing the Cold War if they could only make a little money off of it.
You guys there, find his phone.
You two, watch these two.
Once we find his phone [MEN SPEAKING RUSSIAN.]
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder.
- Hold on, hold on.
Hold on! - Shh, shh.
[FAINT, STATICKY VOICE.]
: Mulder.
Mulder? Mulder.
Mulder.
This is Richard Langly.
Richard Langly.
Ringo Langly.
I need to know.
- Well, well, well, Ringo.
- Am I dead? You're never going to know.
And neither will these two.
[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE.]
[SHOUTING IN RUSSIAN.]
[SHOUTING IN RUSSIAN.]
[SHOUTING IN RUSSIAN CONTINUING.]
[MEN SHOUTING.]
[VEHICLE APPROACHING.]
"Surrender"? "Give up"? SKINNER: I'm risking my own ass being out here.
Who are they? Why are you so afraid? They're not U.
S.
intelligence, I'll tell you that much.
Commander was Russian.
Skinner, tell us who they are.
It's Purlieu Services, an American security contractor with its headquarters in Moscow.
A private contractor has ascendancy over the FBI? Under a classified security directive from the Executive Branch.
[HANDCUFFS CLICKING.]
I thought they were just questioning you guys.
Why would they want to kill you? - You tell us.
- They're not supposed to kill any intelligence agents, but apparently, they will.
You need to come with me.
[SIGHS.]
You have any money? Take it.
It's all I have on me.
Is Langly alive? Lone Gunmen Langly? You and I buried him in Arlington along with Byers and Frohike.
You didn't answer my question.
[HELICOPTER BLADES WHIRRING.]
I just did.
He's buried in Arlington.
[CAR DOOR OPENS, CLOSES.]
Hack Mulder's phone.
Find out how he contacted Mulder.
[ROBOTIC VOICE LAUGHING.]
[PHONE TRILLING.]
Kill switch.
Here's Byers.
Frohike.
What are we looking for, Mulder? Knowing Langly, bread crumbs.
Huh.
His birth date is wrong.
October 13.
We shared the same birthday.
Hmm.
Byers was born on the day Kennedy was assassinated, so, that's correct.
Frohike.
Frohike look 57 to you when he died? Frohike looked 57 the day he was born.
His birthday is the same day that FDR died.
So, Langly March 28, 1969.
Any president die that day? - Eisenhower.
- Who needs Google when you got Scully? - Right? - [LAUGHING.]
Well, JFK was the 35th president, Eisenhower was the 34th president, FDR Now you're just showing off, really.
- The - Thirty - 32nd president.
- two.
32.
34, 35.
32nd, 34th, 35th.
Anything in that? You mean, other than the fact that the 33rd is missing? 33rd? Three and three? Three up, three down, three over? Well, he's facing this way.
One two three.
I'll go this way.
All right.
[INSECTS CHIRPING.]
Scully.
This is it.
I watched his funeral from 1,000 yards away, over there, through binoculars.
Deep Throat.
I didn't know his real name till right now.
I never visited, out of respect, I guess.
I He's dead because the world was so dangerous and complex then.
Who'd have thought we'd look back with nostalgia and say, "That was a simpler time," Scully? Everything we feared came to pass.
How the hell did that happen? Mulder, Deep Throat was assassinated eight years before the Lone Gunmen died.
How and why would Langly leave bread crumbs at a grave in a graveyard that he didn't even know he was gonna be buried in? This cross is different from all the others.
It's not engraved.
It protrudes.
What is that? Wait.
Thank you, Skinner.
I think it's a memory medallion.
You scan it, and it links to a video of the pet or person.
But I don't have my phone to scan it.
Mulder, do gravediggers work at night? [GUNSHOT.]
[SCULLY GRUNTS.]
MULDER: I'm gonna open an X-File - on this bran muffin.
- Oh.
I got to get to the bottom of why it's so freaking good.
I don't care if it came out of an alien's butt.
I'm gonna eat the whole thing.
Mmm.
MULDER: All right.
New Yorkers call it "The Long Lines Building.
" Edward Snowden documents indicated the building code named "Titanpointe" was used as an NSA mass surveillance station in a program code named "Blarney.
" It was started in the '70s and expanded after 9/11.
Well, why? Why did he point us to an NSA program? Why didn't he just tell us if it was about a building? MULDER: I-I opened an X-File on this building in the, in the '90s.
In fact, Langly actually provided the initial information.
We should check it out.
It? An X-File? Mm-hmm.
You mean the X-Files that are in our office that we can't get into kind of X-File? Right.
Okay.
- [CAR ALARM CHIRPS.]
- [SIGHS.]
Don't get in.
I need you to put the weapon down, Mulder.
Cannot do that, sir.
You seem to be working with people who tried to kill us.
I don't work with them.
The world is different, Mulder.
When Scully started, it was just us.
Dark forces in the U.
S.
government.
There was barely a Russia.
Now there's 17 U.
S.
intelligence agencies.
Homeland Security, Russian FSB, Chinese MSS, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Blackwater.
Private companies launch to the Space Station, and all of them are in bed with one another, while trying to exterminate each other, and that includes each of us.
We need your help, Walter.
Even if we don't trust you.
[SIGHS.]
What is this? How did we get here? What about us? We were the ones who were just assaulted.
We can't go to our home.
They'll be waiting for us at our office.
We're not asking for you to get us out of this, but we do expect your help.
We need to see the X-Files.
If you want to see the X-Files, you don't have to go to the office.
After the X-Files were closed in 2002, the agency lobbied Director Mueller for jurisdiction over the files.
They were looking to cross-reference their own past research in telekinesis, MK-Ultra, remote viewing with your fieldwork.
The agency then contracted a private company to digitize and maintain the files online for any U.
S.
intelligence agencies to have classified access.
MULDER: A private contractor.
Purlieu? So the Russians who tried to kill us have had access to all of our work? So when the X-Files were reopened, why weren't we told? Why didn't you tell us? The X-Files belong to us.
SCULLY: Do you work with them? Do you work for them? You two were gone.
I was left here.
I didn't know if you were coming back, and the files were too important to sit in a basement gathering dust.
And what's in them belongs to everyone.
That's the point of 'em.
Control of the X-Files reverted back to the FBI after the files were reopened.
[PHONE VIBRATES.]
SKINNER: Yeah? All right.
[SIGHS.]
MULDER: All the files on NSA Project Blarney and the Titanpointe building are gone.
Langly has been bleached from the X-Files.
Not just the person, but any information Langly contributed to theoretical computer science.
Byers and Frohike are still in here.
MULDER: Cryptographic protocols, machine learning, quantum algorithms, all gone.
All right, thanks.
I had the director speak with the Executive Branch to call this off, but the, uh, the Bureau's not in good standing with the White House these days.
How do you like that? The FBI finally found out what it's like to be looked upon as a little spooky.
Okay, so complete the two problems, and e-mail me your solutions by Friday.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER.]
We're old friends of Richard Langly.
I figured if I hadn't seen you in five years, then I never would and I could stop regretting.
We received a message on my cell.
Asking if he was alive.
You should go.
They're watching.
Who is watching? HAMBY: Purlieu Services.
They came to us 15 years ago, with the science and the math to prove that we could live forever.
The contract states we can live out our natural lives.
We could continue our work after we die.
And where is Richard now? They brought us to a facility, and over a two-week period, they scanned and copied the salient features of our biological brain.
They uploaded us into a simulation.
The two minds could never exist at once.
Our simulated selves would come into consciousness in that life once we died in this.
And so did he instruct you to to leave this for us? He entrusted me in case he discovered that they had lied about life in the simulation.
And if Richard is reaching out, then they must have.
We wanted a life eternal together.
So we took the deal.
But we theorized what to do if it was not what they had offered.
How would that life know it was a simulation? There would be cheats.
The stars and the moon, they wouldn't be fully realized.
The background people wouldn't be fully rendered.
They'd constrict the use of technology, of two-way contact to control them.
But Richard being Richard, hacked a way to reach out.
Why reach out to me if you're alive? Memory isn't erased, it's suppressed.
They've probably theorized, as we have, that their lives are a simulation, but perhaps Richard's subconscious must have recalled the two of you investigating this type of subject matter.
Maybe he saw Mulder in his dreams.
Who hasn't? [COUGHS.]
Purlieu is likely aware that Richard is reaching out to you to expose a simulation.
Is there anything we can do to help Langly get through? Do you have the cell? No, it was taken from us.
I phreaked my phone years ago, using video signal manipulation to my cell.
You'd have to help him by making this side easier to reach.
You're gonna have to edit the SIM card to your number, and follow these steps for the phone, so that you can contact [GROANING.]
Mulder, that's evidence.
He's evidence.
["CALIFORNIA SUN" BY THE RIVIERAS PLAYING.]
- Hey.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Sorry.
- MAN: Come on.
- It's been a, it's been a long day.
Tough day.
Thank you.
MAN: [GROANS.]
Chick's freaking out over here.
Scully, you looked so adorbs just there.
All curled up in a ball in the booth of a skanky bar with your fingers wrapped around the grip of an assassin's Glock.
Going out west where I belong I did what I could to follow Dr.
Hamby's algorithms, and I added what little I know about phreaking.
And we have to wait and see if we receive another transmission, but they knew Langly was trying to reach us, and they knew that Dr.
Hamby knew about Langly and the computer simulations.
The longer we leave the phone on, the sooner they're gonna find us.
So I got to turn it off, and we got to move to different spots.
Where they're out there having fun Oh.
- Mulder.
- Scully.
Out on the coast - [GARBLED.]
: Is this Mulder? - Yes, it's-it's Mulder.
It is Mulder.
Is that Langly? Richard Langly? Uh, it's Mulder and Scully.
Scully? Dana? - Dana Scully? - [MULDER CHUCKLES.]
Yeah.
But I'm not real, though.
That right? You are real and I'm not? Dr.
Hamby told us you were in a simulation.
Ah.
Hmm.
Mulder, it's like I designed heaven.
I eat hot dogs and donuts all day long.
No one here ever dies of cancer or Alzheimer's.
And the Ramones are here, and they don't fight.
And every night they get on stage and they play "California Sun," and I circle the mosh pit like they do on the west coast.
There's consensual sex without blame or judgment.
Oh, and the New England Patriots are here and they never, ever win.
Ever.
And I'm begging you destroy it.
We're living a lie here.
It's a work camp.
We're digital slaves.
They take our uploaded minds to develop science that only the elite will use to leave your world.
We turn theories of space colonization into realities for them.
We dream, but we're not allowed to have dreams, goals, nothing for ourselves.
No choice, no diversity.
[SIGHS.]
There's a there's a wall around this place.
The stars are fake.
The sunlight has no warmth.
And all the great minds that have died since they realized this place are here.
Steve Jobs.
Marvin Minsky.
Michael Crichton.
They all hate it here.
They don't even know who they are.
What we were in that life is completely opposite from what we are here.
Go to the Long Lines Building.
Titanpointe.
Please, for all of us.
Shut this down! MULDER: Travel guides for NSA personnel to Titanpointe for Blarney operations were included in the Snowden leaks.
NSA and FBI personnel could not carry identification to or in the building.
You'd have to arrange for a meeting a week prior, and confirm with the program director 24 hours before.
That's what we're sure of.
What we're not sure of is Whether they serve mimosas on the bus? - Ah.
- High-five, Scully.
- That was, uh, that was fun.
- Uh.
Are you kidding me? Langly believed there was a tunnel between Titanpointe and the FBI field office a few blocks away.
You think we can get in there looking like this without raising suspicion? You look good.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION.]
[SCULLY CLEARS THROAT.]
I'm a bit tied up here to, uh, flash you my ID, but Special Agent Scully, XF071261, Washington Field Office.
You taking him upstairs to holding? No, I'm taking him to Titanpointe.
The, uh, NSA guys want to question him.
It would help if you could get us in the tunnel.
[CHUCKLES.]
Well, after you drop him off, maybe you'll come back and repay the favor.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
[PANEL BEEPS.]
It's easier getting him through without cuffs.
I'm not uncuffing him.
This guy's like Hannibal Lecter-level psycho.
[MULDER CLICKS TONGUE, MIMICKING LECTER.]
So, hon what's your home office? Sorry, bro.
Married to the Bureau.
All right.
You know, if they're waiting outside the elevator doors when they open, that's it, so I'm guessing the computer simulation is housed on one of the upper floors by the exhaust opening, so But there are 29 floors.
- Mm-hmm.
- [SIGHS.]
26, 28.
What's after 28? 30.
32.
34, 36, 38.
- There they are! - Hold it there! [MAN SHOUTING.]
MAN: Down the stairs! [SPEAKING RUSSIAN.]
What are you running for? Ain't you heard, FBI Mulder? You're on our side now.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
[MULDER SIGHS.]
I'll confess.
After our last encounter, I was disappointed by you.
I didn't get your value to Mr.
Y, but he explained that, uh, we'd meet over and over, and then I'd change my opinion.
In the last few days, I've seen your instinct for survival.
Well, now that I've won you over, you'll stop sending assassins to kill us? We've really turned a corner.
Easy.
You have a way to go, Fox.
Or rather, you need to change how you look at all this.
You're still refusing to answer the question of your father.
[MULDER SIGHS.]
You don't understand what's about to happen.
Our world is a progression of one life being replaced by another, over and over.
This is what's really meant by evolution.
- [THUMPING, GROANING.]
- And this series of replacements isn't about this is black, and this white, this is male, and this female, this is rich, and this poor, - this is chaos, and this - Control.
[LAUGHS.]
Now that you understand that what you really need to know is this.
Life on this earth all human life, most animal life is about to be crushed.
Burned to the ground.
The computer simulator down the hall is necessary for our evolution as a species.
When we leave this planet, this life will have evolved into that.
Of the hundreds of extraordinary minds uploaded into that world, the only one that figured out it was living in a computer simulation had seven billion choices to contact in this world.
And the one person Langly reached out to was you.
Whoa.
And to think my company advised killing you.
But now that you are once again in front of me and aware of the simulation, I believe you won't want to destroy it, not when you understand the good it's doing.
Its reason for being is to advance life, not end it.
If I were to change my course of action and, um terminate my father, would I be able to upload to the simulation? And could Agent Scully be with me? PRICE: It won't be her and it won't be you.
We can upload a mind now through any smartphone.
No one's even aware we're doing it.
We can take a piece of your mind any time you make a call.
- Painless.
- [SCOFFS.]
Two hours.
Painless, except we have to die.
[LAUGHS.]
One of our best incentives here is that you and loved ones don't ever die.
So if you upload me through my phone, I don't really have a choice.
Sure you do.
You could not use your phone.
- [LAUGHS.]
- I mean, don't get me wrong.
I want to believe, but I would just like to to see it.
PRICE: Very few have ever seen it, and those that do don't realize what it is.
It's just a client-server.
Wires, lights.
Why do you need to see it? It's the closest I'll get to seeing God.
In this life or that.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
Stop.
Face to the wall.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
Inside.
[GRUNTING.]
Why do you operate so well with your hands cuffed behind your back? As if you didn't know.
[YELLS.]
[GRUNTING.]
[YELLING.]
[ALARM BLARING.]
Bye-bye, Ringo.
[POWERING DOWN.]
[POUNDING ON DOOR.]
[SCULLY GASPS.]
I'm armed! [SCULLY SIGHS.]
Hi.
What? [PANTING.]
: You okay? Got my phone back.
Oh.
The simulator's down.
Okay.
Let's bring him back through the tunnel to the FBI field office.
Come back with some cyber forensics agents and then start a case against Erika Price.
- Okay.
- Oh, I thought I was gonna throw up for a second, but I'm okay.
[PANEL BEEPS.]
They're gone.
[SCULLY SIGHS.]
LANGLY [STATICKY.]
: Mulder? Mulder! They know that we know! Destroy the backup! Mulder, I'm afraid.
Mulder [GASPS.]