The X-Files Page #6

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HARD CUT BACK:

TO:

EXT. PLAZA OUTSIDE BOMB BUILDING - DAY - CONTINUOUS

Mulder and Scully getting in the car. TRACKING BACKWARDS

with them now as the Agent driving pulls away, getting

only thirty, maybe forty yards when: the BOMB DETONATES

and the building EXPLODES. And this is no fatwa symbolic

little terror strike. This is Oklahoma City. Or do we

say, Independence Day.

REVERSE ANGLE ON CAR

As all the windows blow out and the car is lifted up,

slamming into the corner of a parked car. The air so

quickly full of debris that it would seem the whole city

has been destroyed.

RESUME BUILDING:

As the debris starts to clear somewhat, much of it still

floating to the ground, though. We see the fires raging

on every floor. That most of the front of the building

has been torn away and we can see right into many

floors.

RESUME ANGLE ON CAR

Where it sits half cocked against a parked car. The air

is full of debris, particulated matter. The rear door of

the squad car opens now and Mulder gets out, covered with

glass. Moving to the front passenger door, opening it

for Scully.

MULDER:

(with darkest irony)

Next time you're buying.

EXT. AERIAL SHOT OF WASHINGTON D.C. - DAY

HIGH ABOVE the U.S. capital, the entire beltway. With a

LEGEND, to establish.

LOWER AND TIGHTER NOW

On the J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI Headquarters.

Descending low on the three-sided monolith and its large

interior courtyard. As another LEGEND appears, under:

WOMAN'S VOICE (V.O.)

In light of Waco, and Ruby Ridge...

CUT TO:

INT. FBI OFFICE OF PROFESSIONAL REVIEW - DAY

A formal hearing. Several ASSISTANT DIRECTORS sit at a

head table, going over documents. NAME PLACECARDS in

front of them.

PANNING the group, the sound of papers shuffling, the

occasional clearing of a throat creating a stale air of

importance, under:

WOMAN'S VOICE (V.O.)

...there is a heightened need at the

Attorney General's office to place

responsibility as early as possible.

CAMERA LANDING ON ASSISTANT DIRECTOR JANA CASSIDY

A no-nonsense 40 year-old lawyer cum FBI Agent.

CASSIDY:

...for the catastrophic destruction of

public property and the loss of life

due to terrorist activities...

Next to Cassidy is Assistant Director WALTER SKINNER,

Mulder and Scully's former superior on the X-Files.

Looking ruefully at:

AGENT SCULLY:

At a small table, the chair next to her conspicuously

empty.

CASSIDY:

Many details are still unclear; some

agents' reports have not been filed,

or have come in sketchy, without a

satisfactory accounting of the events

that led to the destruction in Dallas.

But we're under some pressure to give

an accurate picture of what happened

to the Attorney General, so she can

issue a public statement.

The door to the room opens behind Scully now, and Mulder

enters, his manner that of a man who knows he's late to

a function.

RESUME A.D. CASSIDY

She looks up at Mulder and Scully with a stern glare.

CASSIDY:

We now know that five people died in

the explosion. Special Agent in Charge

Darius Michaud who was trying to

defuse the bomb that had been hidden

in a vending machine. Three firemen

from Dallas, and a young boy.

OVER MULDER AND SCULLY

Mulder pulls out his chair to sit down, but remains

standing. They trade a look. This is new news to them.

MULDER:

Excuse me -- the firemen and the boy

-- they were in the building?

CASSIDY:

Agent Mulder, since you weren't able

to be on time for this hearing, I'm

going to ask you to step outside so

that we can get Agent Scully's version

of the facts. So that she won't have

to be paid the same disrespect.

MULDER:

We were told the building was clear.

CASSIDY:

You'll get your turn, Agent Mulder.

Please step out.

Mulder trades looks with:

A.D. SKINNER

Who stares at him evenly, but not unsympathetically.

He's been here with Mulder on many occasions. Seen

Mulder run up against the Bureau and its stiff

conventions. Always in the middle.

MULDER:

It does say there in your paperwork

that we were the ones who found the

bomb...

CASSIDY:

Thank you, Agent Mulder. We'll call

you in shortly.

RESUME MULDER, SCULLY

As Mulder slides his chair in. Scully watching him

exit.

CUT TO:

INT. HALLWAY OUTSIDE OPR HEARING ROOM - DAY

Mulder sits by himself in a chair, head down. When the

door to the hearing room opens. Mulder rising as A.D.

Skinner exits.

SKINNER:

Sit down, they're still talking to

Agent Scully.

MULDER:

About what?

SKINNER:

-- They're asking her for a narrative.

They want to know why she was in the

wrong building.

MULDER:

She was with me.

Skinner studies Mulder, shaking his head.

SKINNER:

You don't see what's going on here, do

you?

(off Mulder's look)

There's four hundred million dollars

in damage to the city of Dallas. Lives

have been lost. No suspects have been

named. So the story being shaped is

this could have been prevented. That

the FBI didn't do its job.

MULDER:

And they want to blame us?

SKINNER:

Agent Mulder -- we both know that if

you and Agent Scully hadn't taken the

initiative to search the adjacent

building, you could have multiplied

the fatalities by a hundred --

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