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By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
The X-Files is many things to many fans. For some, the show is a fun way to explore the possibilities of the unknown, probing for truths that have been hidden from us. For others, the show is a chance to bask in some utterly fantastic sci-fi and horror storytelling. Of course, for some people, the show is just a chance to stare at David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, arguably the absolute hottest people to grace ‘90s television. While I enjoy all those things, my favorite aspect of The X-Files is the paranoia at its core. This is a show that constantly reminds us that it’s downright dangerous to trust the government and the military.
Weirdly enough, a forgotten episode of The X-Files connects this show to one of the strangest and most famous anti-war movies of all time. In the Season 2 episode “Firewalker,” Mulder encounters a brilliant researcher who has been driven crazy by his horrific surroundings. Writer Howard Gordon later confirmed that Mulder’s relationship with this man was inspired by the relationship between Marlow and Kurtz in the Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness. Meanwhile, that book inspired one of the greatest movies ever made: the Francis Ford Coppola classic Apocalypse Now.
An Errand Boy, Sent By Grocery Clerks
“Firewalker” is a Season 2 X-Files episode about a volcanic research project gone wrong. A robot (the titular Firewalker) discovers evidence of a possible murder, and Mulder and Scully are sent to investigate. As it turns out, researchers on the project had discovered a creepy new form of silicon-based life that can infect and kill humans. Mulder spends some time with project leader Daniel Trepkos, a man who has been driven a little kooky by the horrors he has seen. At the end of the episodes, he chooses to stay behind and face almost certain death rather than return to civilization.
According to The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files“Firewalker” writer Howard Gordon compared Mulder’s interactions with Trepkos to the Joseph Conrad novel Heart of Darkness. In that book, a man named Marlow is hired by a Belgian trading company to find Kurtz, who has been exporting Ivory from the Congo. Kurtz is reportedly a brilliant man with ideas about how to improve the lives of the natives. But when Marlow finds him, Kurtz has gone completely native and enslaved the locals to his cult-like will. Kurtz is also sick and, while being reluctantly brought back to civilization, dies en route.
The Horror, The Horror
You may or may not have read or even heard of Heart of Darkness. But chances are that you are very familiar with the film it inspired: Apocalypse Now. This Coppola movie changes some of the particulars. Instead of being a hired gun, the Marlow character is Captain Willard, a soldier in the Army. Kurtz is transformed into a Colonel who has gone rogue, sending an army of sycophants who worship him against foes like the Viet Cong. Willard’s mission is to terminate Kurtz’s command “with extreme prejudice.”
Now, X-Files writer Howard Gordon was clear that “Firewalker” was inspired more by Heart of Darkness than Apocalypse Now. Accordingly, Mulder has a more sympathetic relationship with Trepkos, someone who (like Kurtz) was a brilliant man driven mad by the insanity of his surroundings. He intended Trepkos to be a kind of cautionary tale for Mulder, one that explained how “the natural endpoint of this quest for the truth is madness.” Mulder is, of course, characterized by his relentless search for the truth. This episode shows that this crusade, regardless of whether or not it’s successful, might very well drive the FBI agent crazy.
Still, the writer has effectively created a surprise link between The X-Files and Apocalypse Now. While both the show and the movie have offered some strident criticisms of the military and the government, most people have never clocked a real connection between these two very different projects. That connection is very fitting, though. After all, when I think about the X-Files revival, all I can do is utter the same iconic phrase Kurtz speaks in both the novel and the film: “the horror! The horror!”
