Script Differences - The Movie
X-Files - Fight the Future

Note: since a scene that was cut from the movie did appear when the video version was released, I have not included it in the script differences here. -- LW

The opening lines of the script: "A blinding white screen, under which we hear an ominous low end Dolby THX Big Screen rumble. We're not in 19" television land anymore, Toto."

Slight difference - as the "primitives" go deeper into the cave, we keep catching glimpses of the creature they are tracking.

When the primitive man kills the alien, its blood pools but does not flow toward the man. Instead, it travels into a fissure in the cave floor. Not to worry though, the man was spattered with enough black-blood during the fight, which does travel up his body in the worm-like manner we know so well.

The skull Stevie finds is slightly different -- the light shines through it. It is described as "milky, opaque, as if it's bone that's turned somehow glassy in places."

Slight difference - when the firemen first descend into the hole to get Stevie, we see that they walk right through a puddle of the black oil. We see it start to move after they pass by.

Some slight dialog differences from the opening Mulder/Scully scenes:
Instead of saying "Boom" to alert Scully to his presence, Mulder simply launches into his "What happened to playing a hunch?" line (which still makes Scully jump).
Instead of his "What makes you think I'm bored?" response to Scully's assertion, he simply replies "How's that?".
The script does state that Mulder is "quick on the draw, and realizes what she's up to" as she tells him that the door on the roof is locked.
We don't get the "When I panic, I make this face" bit at all -- simply a "Have you ever seen me panic, Scully?". Thus, we don't get the joke later about making the face he had just showed her.

A line that I really missed when it didn't end up in the movie -- as Assistant Director Cassidy is telling Mulder to leave because he arrived late, Mulder does add the line "It does say there in your paperwork that we were the ones who found the bomb...", to which Cassidy responds by continuing to tell him to leave.

A cut little bit from Scully's "I'm quitting" speech to Mulder:
"I left behind a career in medicine because I thought I might make a difference at the FBI. When they recruited me they told me women made up nine percent of the bureau. I felt that was not an impediment, but an opportunity to distinguish myself. But it hasn't turned out that way."

At the conclusion of the above scene, Mulder forgetting his jacket and Scully handing it to him is not in the script. It does say "Mulder rises. Scully studying his poorly disguised hurt. Before he turns and goes into the room. Scully watching the door close behind him. Her feelings poorly disguised, too."

After the barmaid's "Poopy day?" question, she goes on to ask him "A woman?", to which he shakes his head no. She then asks "Work?" and he nods. His long spiel about what he does is a little shorter -- without the "global conspiracy" and "reaches into the lives of every man, woman, and child" line. The "86 being your lucky number" and "one is the loneliest number" lines aren't there, instead replaced with the barmaid telling him to "go home to the old lady", to which Mulder replies that he doesn't have one.

When Kurtzweil first tells Mulder his name, Mulder replies that "I know that name. Why?" (which doesn't mean much now, but comes up again later). After Kurtzweil mentions knowing Mulder's father and about his "disenchantment", he continues with "I never believed in the Project" -- and as Mulder starts to walk away he calls out "Oh, come on. Don't pretend you don't know about the Project. Your father died for it. Your sister was taken because of it."

As Mulder leaves Kurtzweil, we don't get the little bit where Mulder fights with himself about going home vs. going to Scully's.

When Dr. Bronschweig shows the Cigarette Smoking Man the infected Fireman, the script notes that the movement of the alien is in the fireman's skull, not his chest as in the movie. A bit later, the alien has grown into the Fireman's neck and chest.

The fireman that Mulder and Scully see looks quite different in the script. The fireman is still in his uniform, but he's missing an arm, a leg, and a large part of his torso (which makes more sense than the untouched way he looked in the movie itself -- if he was in the building when it blew up).

When Mulder asks Kurtzweil how he was right about Dallas, Kurtzweil responds:
"I picked up the historical document of the venality and hypocrisy of the American government. The daily newspaper."

As Mulder is pressuring Kurtzweil about what killed the men, Kurtzweil claims that if he wrote about it, "they'd do more than just harass me. They have the future to protect."

As Kurtzweil runs off at the end of this exchange, Mulder calls after him to ask how he can be reached. When Kurtzweil replies that he can't be reached, Mulder gives him his cell phone, telling him "No calling Hawaii". (note: This explains why when he later calls Scully, he calls her from a pay phone)

Some further cut dialog on what Scully learned about the virus:
"And unlike the AIDS virus or any other aggressive strain, it survives aggressive strain. It survives very nicely outside the body."

In the script as the scene shifts from the Consortium to Scully & Mulder, they are already standing on the playground (not amongst the houses -- before walking over to the playground -- reportedly this is because the playground ended up being much smaller than Carter had originally envisioned).

When Mulder asks the kid how he knows they aren't FBI agents, the kid replies: "Cause FBI agents wear like suits and goofy ties. And dresses like my mom wears to church. Like on that one show." After Mulder & Scully show their badges, Mulder comments "Maybe you've been watching too much TV."

The "Five years together -- how many times have I been wrong" line is in the script, but absent are Mulder's continuing comments ("Never!" and "Not driving anyway").

Inside the dome, Mulder grabs Scully's hand and they start running well before the louvered vents in the floor open -- prompting Scully to ask "What are you doing?" to which Mulder simply yells "Come on!". The vents open before they can reach the door. Scully lets go of Mulder's hand to pull her jacket over her head, but then she loses her sense of direction and lags behind. Mulder makes it all the way to the door (where the air blast knocks the bees from him) before turning to see that Scully is far behind. He runs back and grabs her, "whipsnapping her the rest of the distance to the doorfans."

Outside the bee dome, Mulder and Scully don't even have time to say anything to each other before the helicopters appear.

As Scully is grilled by Cassidy, and Mulder talks to Kurtzweil in the bar, the scene doesn't jump between the two of them as it does in the movie. Scully's scene with Cassidy is first and goes to the end, then Mulder's with Kurtzweil starts.

After Mulder and Kurtzweil have their confrontation in the alley (when Mulder sees the man watching him from the fire escape), the script sticks with the man for a bit -- we get to recognize him as the man who brushed past Mulder coming out of the vending room in Dallas.

Very slight difference -- during the scene where Scully tells Mulder that she has resigned, she also tells him that she's contacting the state board Monday to file medical reinstatement papers.

Slight difference -- Scully is the one who tells Mulder to call her an ambulance after she collapses to the floor.

As Mulder is coming to in the hospital, we don't hear Langly and Frohike bickering over Mulder's chart. Instead of saying "Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow -- Toto", he says to Byers "Tin Man", to Langly "Scarecrow", then to Frohike, "Toto".

There are a few cut bits (even after the restoration on the video) in the scene between Mulder and the Well-Manicured Man in the car. When the W.M.M. is explaining to Mulder why the Project happened, he says "To give us access to the virus. In false hope we might be able to find a cure. So that we might save ourselves, as the last of the species. Your father wisely refused to believe this, choosing hope over selfishness. Hope is the only future he had: his children. The only future any of us have." Mulder answers with the line about sacrificing Samantha.

When Mulder asks W.M.M. where Kurtzweil is, the W.M.M. first replies "As your father knew, things need to be sacrificed to the future." When Mulder asks again, the W.M.M. responds simply "In the trunk." This is when Mulder starts saying that he wants out of the car.

After Mulder and W.M.M. exit the car, the W.M.M. tells him that "You hold in your hand the power to end the project." He also tells Mulder to save Scully because "Only her science can save the future." When Mulder asks about the W.M.M., he replies "My life is over."

In the script, the "White dome tents" Mulder sees in Antarctica are supposed to match a "design now familiar to us."

On the "ship", the first man Mulder finds encased in one of the green pods is supposed to be the prehistoric hunter from the opening of the movie -- I seem to recall an interview with Carter where he said that they did try to do this, but you never really could tell through the gunk that it was a prehistoric-type person, so they scrapped the idea.

There is no mention of Mulder slipping and sliding down the shaft in the ship.

The script explains Mulder's amazingly quick ability to pinpoint the location of the "bubble litter" Scully was transported in: "Standing out as a rather human artifact against the otherwise dull gray bulwarks and architecture surrounding it."

In the script, when Mulder "bleeds" the syringe to get the air out before injecting Scully, some of the liquid squirts out of the needle tip and falls to the floor. As soon as it hits the floor, the whole floor "sizzles like water being dropped onto a hot skillet. Spreading out from Mulder in every direction. A violent chemical reaction." The whole ship rumbles and jumps, causing Mulder to drop the syringe -- fortunately is doesn't break.

There is no mention of anything going into Scully's (or any of the other victims') mouth while in the pod -- thus Mulder doesn't pull it from her throat so she can breathe. There also isn't mention of the scene where Mulder puts Scully into his outer-wear -- we just eventually see her in it.

The quick exchange between Mulder & Scully (during the "we've got to keep moving" scene) includes Scully asking "Where are we?" and Mulder answering "You got me. But I think I know what they did with Jimmy Hoffa."

From time-to-time in the chase from the ship, Mulder instructs Scully to "keep breathing" and asks her if she's still breathing.

The scene in Tunisia does not include the Cigarette Smoking Man -- just Strughold receiving the telegram that the X-Files have been reopened.