#3 Midwinter Break Reading

Reading Log:
The X-Files (1998) INT. WHITE DOME TENT - NIGHT – End.

Plot Summary:
After being attacked by a huge swarm of bees, which turned out to be the contents of the strange white domes in Texas, Scully returns to Washington for a hearing on the Dallas bombing. She brings with her evidence of an extraterrestrial virus, which came from a FEMA field office in Texas. However, Scully learns that she is being reassigned to an FBI field office in Utah.

Later, outside Mulder's apartment in Washington, Scully is stung by one of the bees from the white domes that had stowed away in her shirt collar. A team of "paramedics" picks her up, but shoots Mulder in the head. When the actual paramedics arrive, they take Mulder to the hospital where he recovers. We come to realize the first set of paramedics were sent by the Conspiracy.

Mulder learns from a man the script refers to as the Well Manicured Man (W.M.M.), that Scully has been taken to an underground facility in Antarctica. The W.M.M. gives Mulder a coordinate and an ampule of vaccine. Mulder heads down to Antarctica and discovers a small facility on the surface. He falls into a fissure in the ice, taking him into the heart of some kind of cryogenic facility underground. He soon finds Scully, preserved in some kind of stasis pod that looks very otherworldly. Mulder breaks the icy capsule, and injects Scully with the vaccine. She comes to life almost immediately, and the vaccine apparently spreads to the whole facility, causing an apparent breakdown of all operations there. The whole thing begins to melt, and Mulder and Scully just barely get out before the whole facility rises up out of the snowscape and takes off; a giant flying saucer.

Paper Topics & Theme/Style Analysis:
- The psychology behind why government conspiracy stories are compelling
- The societal issues that the idea of the Conspiracy raises, and the possible social commentaries therein.

In this second half of the script, Carter has continued the same style in the scene descriptions. Throughout the script, he maintains an aura of mystery around the Conspiracy, and gives us enough information to follow the story, but not enough to completely understand the intricacies of the plan. For example, we do not know any of the names of the men in the Conspiracy. We feel the same frustration and uneasiness at not knowing the details that Mulder feels, which allows us to connect with him more easily.