FAQ for
The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags are used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.

The movie's events take place in the present time, six years after the end of the TV series, according to Frank Spotnitz in an interview with Movieweb.

Unlike the first X-Files movie, this one will not follow the alien conspiracy (aka "mythology") storyline. The movie is a supernatural thriller in the tradition of many of the show's "standalone" episodes.

The studio's news release said only that "the supernatural thriller is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show's most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the always-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions." The movie is being shepherded by Vice President Steve Asbell.

104 minutes.

There's a possibility of a third movie, largely dependant on the financial success of this one. Chris Carter has said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he would like to make a third movie, one that would "fare better with those who have been long term devotees of the show" (http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/04/chris-carter-wa.html) with rumour being that it would follow the X Files mythology rather than the standalone nature of "I Want To Believe."

Yes, Chris Carter announced in an interview with German fans that the DVD release will include an extended cut of the film.

******Spoilers*********

The original X-Files series was largely based on real (even if disproven or widely disputed) documented claims of paranormal events (i.e. the Roswell UFO crash, Bigfoot, etc.) This movie is partly inspired by a Russian documentary titled, "Experiments in the Revival of Organisms", in which an actual scientist claimed to keep a severed dog's head alive by using a machine called an, "Autojector".

In the X-Files movie, Scully discovers this while doing an online search and the dog's head is briefly shown. The original documentary can be seen in its entirety at the Prelinger Archives: http://www.archive.org/details/Experime1940

More detailed information can be found on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiments_in_the_Revival_of_Organisms

Further information about whole-body & head transplantation can be found on the following websites:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A01EEDE1F3EF936A35756C0A96E958260

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole-body_transplant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_transplant