The X-Files Page #27

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The vehicle reverses now, transporting the CSM back

away from the ice station.

CLOSE ON MULDER:

Taking the field glasses away from his eyes. The

excitement he feels expressed now in his breathing,

which has become harder and shallower. Mulder rises,

beginning to move the still great distance between

himself and the ice station.

CUT TO:

WIDE ON SCREEN:

Mulder moving slowly across the white horizon toward the

domed tents.

LOW ANGLE ON MULDER'S FEET

Moving cautiously, and with effort on the snowscape

crust. CAMERA RISING up to Mulder's face, determined and

watchful.

FOLLOWING MULDER

The ice station still several hundred yards in the

distance, when MULDER SUDDENLY FALLS OUT OF FRAME,

disappearing into a hole in the snowscape crust that

just moments earlier had been stable footing.

HARD CUT TO:

INT. SNOW ICE BUBBLE - CONTINUOUS

Where Mulder's body falls through a ceiling of snowscape

crust, landing on his back with a THUD on a hard

surface. It takes him a moment to catch his breath,

somewhat reminiscent of Stevie at the beginning of the

picture. Wincing through the pain. Until he turns over,

regaining his wits, and his bearings.

NEW ANGLE:

Mulder has fallen on a hard, narrow metallic structure.

Its dull black color a stark contrast to the white ice

it's encased in. The bubble has been created by air

coming out of vents in the structure, carving out

corresponding patterns in the ceiling; softening the ice

and snow above.

CLOSER ON MULDER

rising to his knees, the AIR from one of these vents

blowing onto his face. Pulling off the hood of his

jacket, looking deep into the vent which is open,

ungrated.

And big enough for a man to crawl into. Which, after

considering the hole he's fallen through high above him,

is really Mulder's only choice.

CUT TO:

INT. RIBBED CORRIDOR DUCT - CONTINUOUS

Mulder pulls himself forward through the ribbed corridor

duct with his elbows, moving lizard-like into the

constricted darkness.

CUT TO:

INT. UPPER RIBBED CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS

Above a frozen ice lith, Mulder's head appears,

squeezing his shoulders and body out of a venting. With

effort, Mulder slides out of the small space, using some

architecture above as a handhold. Pulling his legs free

and dropping onto the floor.

MULDER'S POV

It is dark in here, the features of the corridor

ill-defined.

RESUME MULDER - WIDER

Mulder pulls a flashlight from a pocket in his parka,

snicks it on. Its beam reflecting off tall frozen liths

of ice regularly spaced on both sides of the corridor.

NEW ANGLE ON MULDER

Training the light down the corridor, which curves away

in both directions. Then pointing it at something right

in front of his nose: something that gives him a start.

Reaching up with his hand to brush away frost from the

lith. Finding A MAN FROZEN IN ICE. Naked, his eyes

staring into some long-forgotten distance. His hair is

dark, his flat features familiar to us. He is the

prehistoric hunter from the opening scenes of the movie.

His flesh has the opaque, see-through quality that we've

seen before. Inside of which, frozen along with the man,

is an EMBRYONIC CREATURE.

REVERSE ON MULDER

Reacting to this sight, then moving off down the

corridor, his pace quickened.

CUT TO:

EXT. POLE OF INACCESSIBILITY - ANTARCTICA

LOW ANGLE on the great white expanse. Across which a

snow tractor is moving. PANNING with the vehicle to...

Mulder's snow tractor, where the first tractor stops,

its headlights trained on Mulder's ride.

A beat, then the discovering machine moves out again,

following the tracks that Mulder has left, which brings

it STRAIGHT TOWARD CAMERA. As it passes us, we can see

the DRIVER and the Cigarette Smoking Man sitting in the

cabin. As we:

CUT BACK TO:

INT. UPPER RIBBED CORRIDOR - CONTINUOUS

MULDER comes to the end of the dim ice corridor where

soft light is penetrating through several low, arched

openings.

Mulder has to drop down to his knees to see into the

openings.

ANGLE FROM OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE BALCONY PASSAGEWAY

Where Mulder is seen looking TOWARD CAMERA. The Balcony

passageway is short. Mulder drops to his stomach again,

pulling himself through, toward us. When he reaches the

opposite end, Mulder pokes his head out, looking up in

wonder at:

INT. CENTRAL THEATER - BALCONY - CONTINUOUS - WIDE ON

A STADIUM-SIZED DOME -- (CGI SET EXTENSION)

Imagine a domed sports arena -- this is the scope and

scale of the space that Mulder has penetrated. We see

him as only a small speck on a balcony midway between

floor and ceiling. Pulling himself out of the balcony

passageway, which is like countless other passageways.

Which are actually ventilation ports.

ANGLE OVER MULDER

Pulling himself to his feet. Beholding the space before

him. Looking down to the center floor where a large

central theater gives off a light different from

elsewhere in the dome. An icy, bright glow. Leading down

to the central theater far below are several LARGE

TUBULAR SPOKES. (One of which leads up right next to

Mulder's position.)

ANGLE ON MULDER:

Reacting to this. Then something captures his

attention.

MULDER'S POV

There on the floor, far down below, is THE BUBBLE LITTER

Scully was transported in. (NOTE* Scully's clothes are

still in the bubble litter.) Standing out as a rather

human artifact against the otherwise dull gray bulwarks

and architecture surrounding it.

INT. CENTRAL THEATER - BALCONY - CONTINUOUS - WIDE ON

MULDER:

looks beside him where the joint that connects two

sections of one of the long tube spokes is designed with

an allowance -- a separation that might allow a man to

slip through the joint into the tube. Which is what

Mulder does here.

CUT TO:

INT. TUBULAR SPOKE - CONTINUOUS

WIDE ANGLE FROM INSIDE TUBE TERMINUS

Mulder squeezing through into the tube, looking down

past what looks like a chair lift-like track, on which

the chairs are actually empty cryopod mechanisms; the

same structures Mulder saw in the ribbed corridor in

which bodies were encased in ice. Except these cryopods

are empty.

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