X-Files 2016 Full Trailer Breakdown

So, as the 2010s hit their middle years the trend of ‘90s nostalgia has emerged from a simple curiosity to a full on cultural force.  These days our TV, movies, comics, and games all must live in a world where people are generally nostalgic for the cultural malaise of the 1990s as signified by the massive success heaped upon ‘90s revivals like Jurassic World as well as major fan interest in upcoming revivals like Power Rangers.  At the forefront of this cultural redefinition is the X-Files, who will be enjoying a revival of their own in 2016.  This is a big moment, the X-Files defined television in the ‘90s in a big way and are one of the most influential and successful genre shows to ever broadcast.  Even if you don’t like the show or feel some of its conspiratorial elements are now dated or less charming there’s no denying that it changed the television landscape over the course of its 9-season run.  I already looked at the first teaser trailer for the January 2016 revival series but now a full 2 minute trailer has been released, so let’s break it down.

Firstly let me say I love this trailer, it hits all the right buttons for me as an X-Files fan.  The tone is spot on for an update of the conspiratorial elements of the original series for the modern age, especially given the rise of government invasiveness through things like the Snowden NSA leaks.  I especially like that this seems to be acknowledging series continuity in a very interesting way.  See the big central conspiracy of the X-Files show was actually dealt with in the season 5 episode ‘The Red and the Black’ as well as the first X-Files film Fight the Future. 

I won’t give too much away but the central idea of a shadowy syndicate being forced into collusion with an alien force was more or less brought to conclusion, with the aliens basically taken out of the picture.  This new mini-series seems based around the idea that even though the aliens are gone the technology the Syndicate developed alongside them and counter to their agenda remains.  That opening monologue by Joel McHale is absolutely killer, the kind of evocative exposition that Chris Carter can absolutely master. 

These first few images we see more or less confirm the alien technology on hand is drawn from the most well known episodes of the show like the Black Oil substance and the alien/human hybrid that Scully was impregnated with.  I’m not sure exactly how these elements will be used by an elite paramilitary organization to stage an attack on America but I like that not knowing, it wouldn’t be any fun if they gave it all away in the trailer.  

I’m not exactly what’s going on in these two shots but I’ve got a haunch the silhouetted figure is part of the mini-series period sections.  It’s become more and more clear that part of the series will be taking place in or around the Roswell crash and I wouldn’t be surprised if this mysterious figure has something to do with. 

As for the old man I actually don’t recognize him.  Mulder had multiple sources throughout the X-Files that he worked alongside but this isn’t any of them, at least not from the earlier seasons.  He could be from the later period of the show, as well see some of the very late characters are making returns.

I’m not going to lie; seeing the old X-Files subbasement office was pretty great, especially the hilarious detail of leaving all Mulder’s pencils stuck in the ceiling.  However, this scene is also pretty telling about the role Mulder will be playing within the context of this adventure.  When the series ended he was wanted for murder, a crime he was quasi-cleared of in X-Files: I Want To Believe.  I’m not completely convinced he’s rejoined the FBI or is even working in an official capacity in the revival but this at least confirms his more “live and let live” relationship with law enforcement in this new series.  What’s more this actually raises a big question; where are the X-Files.  X-Files isn’t just the name of the show they were a subset of FBI cases designated unsolved by orders from above and they were all stored in Mulder’s office.  Many of them were destroyed when the Cancer Man burned down Mulder’s office but some survived and were digitized on Mulder’s computer system so where did those files go?

 It’s good to see Scully again, and it’s obvious she’s lived much better than Mulder has since the end of their joint adventures.  She looks decidedly professional here, to the point I could honestly believe she’s working in this hospital though I’d also buy less pleasant circumstances.  Scully’s mom is slated to make an appearance in this mini-series so it’s more than possible this sequence is Scully visiting her in the hospital.  The malevolent forces of the Syndicate were always more than willing to go after the agents loved ones during the show’s initial run and this would actually mark the 2^nd time they’d target Scully’s family and 3^rd attack on her overall.  Regardless Gillian Anderson is looking great in the role bringing a kind of distinguished age to the Scully character.  The series ended with Scully as a more accepting voice for the strange and surreal after her many experiences so I wonder if she’ll stay in that role during the revival, though additional footage suggests she and Mulder might not be working that closely. 

No real reason to actually dwell on this scene, I just really love this drone shot.  Drones are the best friend of contemporary set science fiction.  They’re essentially flying murder robots but they totally exist in real life, forcing us to actually confront complex issues about distance through technology and robotic ethics in a completely realistic setting.  They’re the kind of junky sci-fi topic you’d expect to be relegated to the realms of schlock pulp if it didn’t actually exist and roam the skies today.  I like that the new X-Files is embracing this kind of thing.  A big part of the fun of seeing a revival like this is seeing how the agents actually adapt to having such insane new technology to work with like smart phones and the Internet.  I do wonder how they’ll work with the fact the world is now blanketed with cameras so there’s far less of a chance for X-Files shenanigans to stay secret but I’d bet you it’s gonna turn out smart phones are actually reverse engineered alien technology. 

It’s good to see Mitch Pileggi back as AD Skinner.  He’s always been a favorite part of the show for me, an impressive neutral force who was always caught between his desire to help and protect the agents and his obligation to his superiors.  We knew he was still at the FBI after he got to appear in X-Files: I Want To Believe in the third act but it’ll be interesting to see more of where he’s landed after the past 20 years.  I’d like to believe at this point he’s managed to rise to a more senior position but there’s every chance his relationship with the agents has stained his reputation.  Speaking of I Want To Believe it’s kind of odd that Amanda Peet isn’t scheduled t return as Dakota Whitney, the investigator who brought Mulder on during that particular case.

Speaking of returning agents  I believe we’re seeing Monica Reyes and Eric Hosteen though I might be mistaken.  The revival is slated to bring back Agent Miller and Agent Einstein from the later seasons of the show but the two characters flanking Mulder here don’t look like either of those actors.  The fact that Mulder isn’t being accompanied by FBI agents only raises my suspicions about his tenuous relationship with the bureau in this revival.  I also note the tent city present in the background of this shot, another key indicator of the productions attempts to move the revival more into the iconography of the modern era. 

Throughout the entire trailer there’s been a mysterious figure in the background of a lot of shots, usually in the form of creepy suited individual in the period shots of the ‘40s and ‘50s.  This is the first time we’ve seen this follower character in the present, looking a lot like that freaky silhouetted figure from the hangar earlier in the trailer.  I’m not exactly sure who this is but my best guess is Gibson Praise, a supporting character who’s been confirmed to return.  Gibson has become a big part of IDW’s excellent X-Files extended universe comics and for good reason, he’s a great character concept to revive.  He’s essentially a perfect human/alien hybrid in that he was born with the psychic genes of an alien successfully implanted into a human genome.  If this is Gibson I don’t expect much good because the last time we saw him in the show he was under the thumb of the Syndicate and it’s possible he’s at the heart of the upcoming attack on America. 

These shots of the ‘40s and ‘50s are really some of my favorite parts of the trailer.  Some of the best latter day episodes of the show revolved around the origins of the X-Files and the government’s alien program as it blossomed out of first contact with the grays and the brewing cold war.  Returning to that period is a good idea and plays well with Mulder’s familial connection to these events as his father had been involved in several of the government’s shading dealings back in the day.

 I’ve also included a clip here that seems to be of excavation on a site and features the mysterious suited man.  I get the sense this revival is trying to do something along the line of Fringe’s observer with this character but I hope that’s not the case.  We’ll have to wait and see.

And as always- end with the money shot.  This building reveal, first seeing the cigarette, the voice, then the theme music really was the moment that pushed this trailer over the edge from “pretty good” to “oh my god when is this coming out and how can I bring that date up.”  The Cancer Man stands tall as the X-Files’ most well written and well developed villain who went through a whole huge engaging arc all his own in the background of the series.  He has a rich and storied history beyond his interactions with the agents as well as a personal conspiratory streak that always seems to run parallel and even sometimes counter to that of his Syndicate masters.   Forever the man trapped by the belief his choices are all life offers him it’s great to see him making a return for one last hurrah.