The X Files film I Want to Believe

I Want to Believe

starring Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny.

Writers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Chris Carter, Produced by Frank Spotnitz

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X Files :

I Want to Believe

guest stars: Amanda Peet (ASAC Dakota Whitney) Billy Connolly (Father Joseph Crissman) Xzibit (Agent Mosley Drummy) Callum Keith Rennie (Janke Dacyshyn) Adam Godley (Father Ybarra) Alex Diakun (Gaunt Man) Nicki Lynn Aycox (Second Victim) Fagin Woodcock (Franz Tomczeszyn) Marco Niccoli (Christian Fearon) Carrie Ruscheinsky (Margaret Fearon)

Co Stars: Spencer Maybee (Blair Fearon) Veronika Hadrava (Female Assistant) Denis Krasnogolov (Male Assistant) Patrick Keating (Slight Man) Roger Horchow (Elderly Gent) Stephen E. Miller (Feed Store Propietor) Xantha Radley (Monica Bannan) Lorena Gale (On Screen Doctor) Donavon Stinson (Suited Man) Dion Johnstone (First Cop) Sarah-Jane Redmond (Special Agent in Charge)

I Want To Believe finds Mulder and Scully seven years older and a million miles away from their previous occupations. Scully (Anderson) is now a doctor in a church-run hospital, fighting to save a boy with Sandhoff disease, a terminal brain condition, the Administration wants to give up on him. Scully, who feels a special bond with the boy, does not. FBI agent Drummy arrives to ask Scully's help in locating Fox Mulder, the fugitive former head of the X-Files division, and says they will call off its manhunt for him if he will help investigate the disappearances of several women, including young FBI agent Monica Banan. Scully agrees. Mulder (Duchovny) is a bearded recluse, living in the middle of nowhere cutting newspaper articles, and throwing pencils into his ceiling, is still searching for ‘the truth’. He gets his chance, however, when the FBI ask him back to help find a missing agent. The duo are taken to Washington, D.C., where Agent Dakota Whitney wants Mulder's expertise with the paranormal as their only link to the victims is a psychic priest (Billy Connolly) who has visions of the missing agent, and Mulder must determine whether he is the real deal before it’s too late, but their investigation leads both Mulder and Scully straight to a bizarre secret medical experiment that may or may not be connected to the Agents disappearance.

NOTE: Mulder visits the Nutter feed store; David Nutter directed many episodes of the series.

When Mulder tries to call Scully from his cell phone, the display shows two names above hers and one name below. The two names above are Bowman and Gilligan, which can only be references to Rob Bowman (director of the first movie and several episodes) and Vince Gilligan (writer-producer of the show). The name below is Shiban, a reference to John Shiban (another writer-producer).

When Scully is on her way to her office, Chris Carter (director) is seen sitting on a bench outside it. He is holding and urn containing the ashes of his dog, Frankie, who died during the filming of the movie.

The character named "Franz Tomczeszyn" shares the same surname as the movie's costume designer Lisa Tomczeszyn.

Joseph Patrick Finn, Producer of many X-files episodes, can be seen as the whispering priest seated next to Father Ybarra during the staff meeting where Scully first mentions using Stem Cell therapy.

When Mulder and Scully first walk back into the FBI offices right before they walk into the bullpen, a female agent walks by that catches Mulder's attention and he watches her walk away. The woman is Vanessa Morley, who throughout the series played the young Samantha Mulder, and is the same Samantha in the photo Mulder has taped to the back of his home office door.

This movie is dedicated to Randy Stone, the casting agent who cast the pilot of "The X Files" (1993) (and therefore found David Duchovny to play Mulder and Gillian Anderson to play Scully). Stone died in 2007.

When Scully first visits Mulder in his rural home, Mulder is seen tacking up a story about "Princeton closes ESP Lab after 40 years of paranormal study" This is referencing a real-life event and place, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research facility, which was closed in 2007 after school administrators felt it unjustified to continue funding it. Originally the lab was tasked to investigate possible phenomena for the defense industry, such as if the minor electrical field present in the human body could interfere with sensitive electrical equipment when the body was placed under extreme stress, such as a fighter pilot involved in a dogfight causing his controls to malfunction. While the lab in its time failed to provide conclusive evidence that such things could occur, they did find in large-scale experiments that there was a statistically detectable influence. This was however at the tamer end of PEAR's experiments which included such things as remote perception.

At the end of the scene where Scully is discussing the options for her patient with the hospital administrators, on the wall behind her are several photographs of priests. The last one is a photograph of actor Bruce Harwood who played John Fitzgerald Byers, one of the three Lone Gunmen from both "The X Files" (1993) and its spin-off series, "The Lone Gunmen" (2001).

When Mulder and Scully are talking in bed, Scully has a book lying next to her pillow. The book is, "Beautiful WASPs Having Sex" by Dori Carter - Chris Carter's wife.

Chris Carter originally planned to make this movie right after the end of the TV series, and use it to end the alien invasion storyline. Since the start of production was delayed for over five years, Carter changed his mind and decided to focus on a standalone mystery story in order to make the movie appealing to people who weren't familiar with the show's mythology, leaving the invasion subplot for a possible third film.

Alex Diakun (Gaunt Man) appeared as different characters in three episodes, Dr. Fingers in "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space" Tarot Dealer in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" Curator in "Humbug".

Lorena Gale (On Screen Doctor) appeared as different characters in three episodes; Ellen Bledsoe in "Shadows" Nurse Wilkins in "One Breath" The Attorney in " Elegy".

Stephen E. Miller (Feed Store Proprietor) appeared as different characters in three episodes including the pilot as Coroner John Truitt, Tactical Commander in "Duane Barry" Wayne Morgan in "Piper Maru"

Sarah-Jane Redmond (Special Agent In Charge) appeared as different characters in two episodes; A young Mother in "Aubrey" Karin Matthews in "Schizogeny".

Callum Keith Rennie (2nd Abductor - Janke Dacyshyn) appeared as different characters in two episodes and was the original choice to play the long-running character Alex Krycek. Tommy in "Lazarus" The Groundskeeper in "Fresh Bones".

What is an X File?

An X File is any case that can't be explained. It covers every aspect of the strange including UFO sightings, landings, alien encounters, government cover ups, psychic crime solving, faith healing, spontaneous combustion, feral humans, freaks of nature, ghosts and moden threats and much much more.