The X-Files 4x17

1. Here you are, Mr. Rebhun— another scotch and soda.

2. (chuckles): The only way to fly.

3. Used to be just like you.

4. Used to hate flying.

5. Used to hate flying.

6. I mean, the moment I got on a plane,

7. I'd be gripping those armrests

8. like my teeth were being drilled.

9. Truth is, statistically, you can fly every day

10. for the next 26,000 years

11. before you'd have an accident.

12. You believe that?

13. Of course, statistics don't matter.

14. They're just afraid of things they don't understand.

15. Like how a 700-ton piece of machinery could float

16. 29,000 feet in the air.

17. Whoa, baby.

18. Settle down.

19. What the hell is this?

20. I didn't know it was your birthday, Scully.

21. Mulder... you have never remembered my birthday

22. in the four years I've known you.

23. That's the way I like to celebrate them

24. is every four years.

25. It's like dog years that way.

26. Dog years? Yeah.

27. Thank you.

28. You're welcome.

29. Oh, I got something for you.

30. Oh, you've got to be kidding me.

31. It's just something that reminded me of you.

32. What, an alien implant?

33. Two, actually. I made them into earrings.

34. Hmm.

35. (whispers): Apollo 11.

36. Read the back.

37. "Commemorating Apollo 11 and the mission to the Moon—

38. July 1969."

39. I'm touched. It's, um...

40. Excuse me, are you Scully and Mulder?

41. Oh, promise me this isn't leading

42. to something really embarrassing.

43. My name is

44. Sharon Graffia.

45. I'm sorry to approach you like this, but I followed you.

46. I was asked to find you if something happened.

47. I was asked to find you if something happened.

48. Excuse me?

49. You have no good reason to believe me,

50. but my brother— who I believe you know—

51. he said you'd understand what to do.

52. About what?

53. If he didn't make it.

54. Excuse me, who are you talking about?

55. Max. Max Fenig.

56. He was on his way here

57. to deliver something that made him

58. fear for his life—

59. something he said the government would kill for.

60. But his plane— it went down two hours ago.

61. What we know right now

62. What we know right now

63. is that the plane designated as Flight 549

64. lost radio contact tonight at 1900 hours EDT

65. and subsequently crashed into a wooded area

66. approximately 30 miles from Albany, New York.

67. Local law enforcement and EMTs

68. have been on the scene for just under two hours.

69. But initial reports are they've found no survivors yet

70. of the 134 passengers and crew listed on the manifest.

71. I wish I could tell you

72. that we had more information about the crash site, but...

73. that we had more information about the crash site, but...

74. darkness and the terrain are going to make it

75. pretty slow going until morning.

76. We have a tape of the last radio exchange before 549 went down,

77. which we're going to play,

78. but I want to stress the need to keep everything

79. you know or learn within the go team

80. so that all information to the press

81. comes from the I.I.C.

82. You cued up, John?

83. Ready.

84. Copy, tower. Please advise.

85. Do you see a need to adjust?

86. Negative, 549.

87. Negative, 549.

88. Steady air speed of two-niner-six nauts.

89. Maintain heading 1-0-0 and two-niner-thousand feet.

90. Go ahead 549.

91. What the hell is this?

92. 549, do you read?

93. We got something...

94. It's on the intercept.

95. My God! My God!

96. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

97. And that's all she wrote.

98. The controllers tried to raise 549

99. on all available frequencies,

100. but the pilots did not respond.

101. but the pilots did not respond.

102. Okay, we've got an F.A.A. charter leaving in one hour.

103. Accommodations... Excuse me, sir.

104. I'm Special Agent Mulder with the FBI.

105. Is there any indication

106. or suspicion that Flight 549

107. may have been forced down?

108. Forced down?

109. You can clearly hear

110. the pilot say "intercept" on the recording.

111. We have absolutely no data to support that—

112. no confirmation of other aircraft in the area.

113. Unless you have something.

114. No, no.

115. But there was a passenger on that plane

116. who is well-known to our government as an alien abductee.

117. who is well-known to our government as an alien abductee.

118. An alien abductee?

119. A man named Max Fenig, a multiple-abduction victim—

120. what's known as a repeater.

121. (murmuring) Hold on a second.

122. Please, please, can I have some quiet?

123. He'd predicted the accident, and from the sound of the tape,

124. the plane may have been forced down.

125. Forced down by who or what?

126. I'm hesitant to speculate.

127. Mulder. Your name's Mulder?

128. Yes, sir. Let me tell you something.

129. I've been doing this for 18 years.

130. I thought I heard everything.

131. I'm looking through the manifest here,

132. I'm looking through the manifest here,

133. and there was no one named Max Fe-nig

134. on Flight 549.

135. Fenig— and there may be people

136. who want to cover up this evidence.

137. Agent Mulder, is this an official

138. FBI position?

139. No, sir.

140. Because what you're suggesting

141. trivializes this tragedy

142. and casts these fine people and the work they have to do

143. in a light that I think you would be well-advised to avoid.

144. I think we all share the same goal here, sir,

145. and that's to find out what caused that plane to crash.

146. And if any of the capable men and women in this room

147. And if any of the capable men and women in this room

148. find Dr. Spock's phaser or any green alien goo,

149. be sure to give you all the credit.

150. All right, then.

151. Sure know how to make a girl feel special

152. on her birthday.

153. Get a good shot of it.

154. You ever seen anything like this?

155. Where's the plane?

156. They think it hit the ground at over 300 miles an hour

157. on an almost vertical descent.

158. Meteorological data is being collected and analyzed,

159. and so far they are attributing the crash to weather phenomena,

160. to a rapid depressurization caused by a lightning strike,

161. or by something called a wind rotor

162. or by something called a wind rotor

163. coming off the Adirondacks.

164. But not to Max Fenig.

165. Mulder, even if he was on this flight,

166. looking at this, he'd be in a hundred pieces.

167. I mean, they're going to be lucky

168. if they can I.D. half the bodies they find here.

169. He was on this flight, Scully.

170. I'm sure of that.

171. Well, say we do find him.

172. What's that going to prove?

173. I don't know.

174. But maybe that one man's life

175. was worth sacrificing 133 others.

176. Is that a hand?

177. Is that a watch? Yeah.

178. What does it read?

179. 8:01.

180. So does this one.

181. What are they listing as the time of the crash?

182. Uh, 7:52 p.m.

183. That's nine minutes difference.

184. It's got to be a mistake. Nine minutes, Scully.

185. Do you remember the last time you were missing nine minutes?

186. Mulder, no one even reported the plane on radar.

187. Mulder, no one even reported the plane on radar.

188. These guys are just going off of estimates

189. until they can recover the data recorder.

190. You know, something just occurred to me.

191. What?

192. I don't think we're going to find Max Fenig after all.

193. Just a few minutes ago, you were absolutely certain

194. he was on this flight.

195. Yeah, but I'm beginning to doubt

196. whether he finished this flight with the rest of the passengers.

197. Hey! Get me a medic over here!

198. This man's alive! This man's alive!

199. Get me a medic over here!

200. Somebody!

201. We need an airlift to a burn unit

202. as soon as possible!

203. as soon as possible!

204. This man needs oxygen and a saline I.V.

205. Sir... can you hear me?

206. Sir?

207. I got what you asked for.

208. All of those are from Max?

209. Every letter he ever wrote me.

210. You said to bring everything I had.

211. I'm still not sure why.

212. Sharon, we believe that there are things

213. that you haven't told us.

214. We need to know everything that you know.

215. About what?

216. About Max.

217. About where he's been, about where he's traveled,

218. about exactly what it was he was carrying on that flight.

219. Did you find Max?

220. Did you find Max?

221. No. But we found a passenger with severe burns,

222. severe cellular damage.

223. Burns that we wouldn't see

224. unless the victim was exposed to a high level of radiation.

225. Something Max was carrying?

226. We need to know what that was, Sharon.

227. If you're withholding any information,

228. there could be severe consequences.

229. Mulder.

230. Man's name was Larold Rebhun.

231. The manifest has him listed in seat 13D,

232. which is the aisle seat right here.

233. My guess is that Max Fenig was in 13F, window seat.

234. My guess is that Max Fenig was in 13F, window seat.

235. But the manifest has the passenger in that seat as a...

236. Paul Gidney. It's an alias that Max Fenig used

237. in his letters when he went underground.

238. He had many aliases, in fact, one of which he used

239. to get a job at the Rocky Flats

240. Environmental Energy Site in Colorado,

241. where they handle and store uranium 235

242. and weapons grade plutonium.

243. You think Max was carrying plutonium?

244. Mulder, the burns on that passenger's face

245. were deep-tissue radiation burns.

246. I don't know how else he might have gotten them.

247. What would Max be doing with that?

248. What would Max be doing with that?

249. I don't know.

250. I mean, he wrote hundreds, maybe even a thousand letters

251. describing his abduction experiences,

252. but beginning in January,

253. he started making vague references to a theft.

254. Now, it seems to me, from reading it,

255. that he started to get the idea

256. that he'd come on to something that was very dangerous.

257. So, what caused this crash?

258. If he was carrying fissile plutonium, Mulder,

259. and it became exposed in the cabin,

260. it very conceivably could have caused the crash.

261. You want to know what I think, Scully?

262. You want to know what I think, Scully?

263. I'm going to tell you.

264. I think Max was abducted— sucked right out of this door

265. at 29,000 feet— and the burns we're seeing

266. are the result of that abduction. Mulder...

267. And all the evidence will point to this conclusion,

268. but it will be dismissed because of

269. its improbability, it's unthinkability.

270. Mulder...

271. And the crash of Flight 549 will go unsolved

272. unless we find a way to prove it.

273. And when Max is returned, he's going to tell us

274. exactly the same story, unless someone gets to him first.

275. Mulder, Max is returned.

276. I found out a few minutes ago.

277. I found out a few minutes ago.

278. They found his body

279. a short way from the wreckage earlier today.

280. You're positive of this?

281. Traveling under the name Paul Gidney, seat 13F,

282. with the same burns as his seat mate.

283. Still no explanation for this crash.

284. Would you guys be willing to make a determination

285. as to whether there was an explosion pre-impact,

286. or as we can see from the fuel tank...

287. whether the data only points to an explosion

288. after the aircraft had landed.

289. Did you make a positive I.D. on Max Fenig?

290. Did you make a positive I.D. on Max Fenig?

291. Well, they've located the cockpit voice recorder

292. and the flight data recorder.

293. And? And the I.I.C.

294. is making a statement to the press saying that

295. there was a complete systems malfunction on the plane.

296. In other words, there's still no explanation

297. for what brought this plane down.

298. No, not yet, but they are taking a careful look

299. at the emergency exit door.

300. And while they cannot explain the radiation readings,

301. they are not ready to attribute it as the direct cause.

302. They're not able to, or they're not willing to?

303. Mulder, why can't you just accept the facts?

304. Because there are no facts, Scully.

305. Because there are no facts, Scully.

306. What they're telling you, what they're going to report,

307. they're the opposite of facts—

308. a claim to ignorance of the facts.

309. Claimed steadfastly,

310. ignorance becomes as acceptable as the truth.

311. What would you like them to report?

312. That there is not

313. one wristwatch on any of those bagged bodies.

314. All the wristwatches have been stolen.

315. Are you accusing these men of covering evidence?

316. These men, no.

317. These men are trained to identify moving parts—

318. hydraulics, electronics.

319. They're trained to reconstruct those parts in the past

320. and arrive at the present.

321. But they can't do that

322. because somebody has stolen the past from them—

323. because somebody has stolen the past from them—

324. nine minutes of it.

325. Nine minutes that became a lifetime

326. for those passengers, and now for their families.

327. Someone has got to figure out

328. what happened in those nine minutes.

329. Somehow, we've got to get that back.

330. Louis Frish?

331. Yes, sir. I just got the call from the C.O.

332. said you were coming out with some questions.

333. I'm Agent Mulder. This is Agent Scully.

334. If you're here about the crash the other night,

335. I already told the NTSB guys exactly what I know about that.

336. They were already out here?

337. Yes, ma'am. Night of the crash.

338. Were you in the tower

339. that night?

340. Yes, sir. Me and Sergeant Armando Gonzales.

341. Yes, sir. Me and Sergeant Armando Gonzales.

342. Did Flight 549 show up on your radar?

343. Yes, sir, it did.

344. Did you establish

345. radio contact with them? No, sir.

346. We would have no reason to contact

347. a commercial or a civilian airliner

348. unless it crossed into military airspace.

349. Would there be a record of 549 on your log?

350. Yes, sir.

351. I know it by heart.

352. At 1952, Flight 549

353. dropped from an altitude of 29,000 feet.

354. About 45 seconds later,

355. we got an altitude reading of triple X.

356. I've never seen anything like it.

357. I've never seen anything like it.

358. Hope to never again.

359. Then what did you do?

360. We called 549, and got no response.

361. Then we called ATC in Albany.

362. What was their response?

363. We just gave them the information— last we'd heard.

364. There something else you're looking for?

365. About nine minutes.

366. We've been traveling a long way.

367. Wasn't the initial report

368. that there was no radar confirmation of the crash?

369. Yeah, that must have come after our briefing.

370. What did you tell them?

371. What I was supposed to say.

372. What I was supposed to say.

373. Somebody's going to figure out what's going on.

374. I don't ask. I don't know.

375. I don't want to know.

376. They find out the truth,

377. you think anybody's going to take the heat for us?

378. I'm not the only liar here.

379. They come back here to talk to me,

380. I'm telling the truth.

381. I'm not going to have no blood on me.

382. Then you make me the liar.

383. Roger.

384. Did they find her? No, ma'am.

385. We need some answers.

386. The place is a mess. We'll do our best, ma'am.

387. Hey, you're going to have to take care of this.

388. Hey, you're going to have to take care of this.

389. You're going to have to pay.

390. Excuse me?

391. The room you rented for the woman—

392. well, she trashed it and split.

393. Sharon Graffia?

394. It was under your name.

395. Yeah.

396. Look at this.

397. I don't know what kind of game

398. she was playing in here.

399. She blew the door right out of the jamb.

400. I doubt insurance

401. will cover it.

402. Does your policy cover the acts of extraterrestrials?

403. We'll take care of it.

404. We'll take care of it.

405. Right.

406. Okay, Scully, hit me with your best shot.

407. What do you think happened here?

408. I haven't a clue.

409. Looks an awful lot to me like

410. this place fell from 29,000 feet.

411. You think Max's sister...

412. Was abducted, just like Max.

413. Maybe it runs in the family.

414. What happened here?

415. You're the experts.

416. Why don't you bring your team down here and work it out.

417. They've got their hands full.

418. Yeah, coming up with all that inconclusive evidence.

419. I've come to tell you we've found some evidence—

420. good evidence.

421. About what caused the crash?

422. About what caused the crash?

423. Quite possibly, though I'm not ready to make an announcement.

424. Why not?

425. I'm afraid I'd sound as crazy as you.

426. There someplace I can show you these?

427. Someplace with a door?

428. These lines you see here running outward from center—

429. those are what we call fatigue cracks,

430. caused by cyclic stress on the fuselage structure.

431. From what?

432. Wear and tear.

433. Most commercial planes

434. have an average 20,000, 30,000 hours' flight time.

435. Except 549 was a new plane.

436. 549 had no wear and tear.

437. 549 had no wear and tear.

438. Then what caused that?

439. I can't tell you that.

440. But I can tell you this—

441. the way all these cracks radiate from a central point

442. looks like the door's been shaken and blown

443. outward straight off its frame, right off the plane.

444. Hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have known what to look for.

445. Sounds like what you're describing

446. is physically impossible.

447. In normal operation, it could never happen,

448. not this way.

449. But it did.

450. Hey, man.

451. How you doing?

452. Sorry about before.

453. It's, uh... I was way out of line.

454. I just...

455. I've just been letting this thing get to me, I guess.

456. Hey, Gonzales.

457. You find him, the sergeant?

458. You find him, the sergeant?

459. He's not up there.

460. 35,000 feet.

461. It's negligible— nothing to be concerned about.

462. Copy, tower.

463. Please advise.

464. Do you see a need to adjust?

465. Do you see a need to adjust?

466. Negative, 549.

467. Steady air speed at two-niner-six nauts.

468. Maintain heading 1-0-0 and two-niner-thousand feet.

469. Go ahead, 549.

470. What the hell is this?

471. 549, do you read?

472. We got something...

473. It's on the intercept.

474. My God! My God!

475. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!

476. Scully.

477. Hey, Scully, it's me. I just realized something.

478. The voice of the air traffic controller—

479. The voice of the air traffic controller—

480. I've heard it before.

481. Mulder, we've been up for over 36 hours.

482. Can it wait till... No, I know, I know, I know.

483. I just need you to come over here

484. and listen to this right now, okay?

485. I'm on my way.

486. Just don't scream.

487. Just listen to me.

488. Listen to me.

489. I'm the man responsible.

490. I'm the man responsible.

491. I'm the one that caused that plane crash.

492. Give me a second.

493. You said you had someone who had some information.

494. This is Louis Frish—

495. Sergeant Frish.

496. He's the air-traffic controller

497. you heard on the recording that you played

498. for us the other night.

499. That was from the Albany Control Center.

500. It was the voice of a civilian air traffic controller.

501. No, sir.

502. No, sir.

503. There seems to be more than a little discrepancy.

504. What you've been told, what you've been led to believe

505. was built upon a lie

506. that Sergeant Frish was asked to perpetuate—

507. along with Sergeant Gonzales, who is now dead.

508. I was asked to lie.

509. I was ordered to lie about what happened to Flight 549.

510. By whom?

511. My C.O.

512. Flight 549 appeared on my radar at 1900 hours

513. when we were asked to give its coordinates

514. at 15-second intervals.

515. About two minutes past 30 degrees north,

516. we saw a second aircraft enter 549's airspace

517. we saw a second aircraft enter 549's airspace

518. in an intercept pattern.

519. It shadowed 549 for another ten minutes

520. before we were asked to give a new set of coordinates.

521. A few seconds later, there was an explosion,

522. and 549 disappeared from my radar screen.

523. I don't believe this man.

524. There's not one speck

525. of forensic detail to support it.

526. No sign of an explosion, no flashing, no residues,

527. no nitrates or oxidation, nothing.

528. I'm telling you what I saw—

529. that we shot down a civilian jet

530. that we shot down a civilian jet

531. knowingly and willingly.

532. I'm going to tell you two something.

533. I have a responsibility to the truth here.

534. And so do we.

535. This man can't testify to this story—

536. not without evidence.

537. The military is working to cover up that evidence.

538. The sergeant's story makes no sense.

539. Unless the aircraft that was fired on

540. never appeared on his radar screen.

541. A third unidentified aircraft that engaged

542. the civilian jet which the sergeant never saw.

543. A stealth aircraft?

544. Shot down by the intercept aircraft,

545. which, in turn, may have caused the crash of Flight 549,

546. which means that the cause of this crash

547. is not here in this hangar,

548. but it's out there somewhere at a second crash site.

549. Somebody would have spotted it.

550. No, they didn't know to look for that.

551. They didn't know about a second aircraft,

552. except the military.

553. Which means that this man's life is in danger

554. because he can put the pieces together.

555. Then somebody has to get him someplace safe.

556. If there's a second crash site...

557. let's find it.

558. let's find it.

559. Mulder.

560. Hold on.

561. Mulder.

562. Louis, help me out.

563. Don't take your foot off the gas.

564. Is he going to see us?

565. Is he going to see us?

566. No. We got to get under him.

567. We're not going to make it.

568. Somebody

569. help me!

570. Please!

571. Who's there?

572. Oh, don't...

573. Oh, don't...

574. don't let them take me again!

575. Louis!

576. Louis, I want to ask you something.

577. This is where Flight 549 went down.

578. As far as you know, there's been no substantiation

579. of a second crash site?

580. Right.

581. What if that's because there is no second crash site,

582. because that second aircraft never fell to the ground?

583. It came down somewhere around here.

584. It came down somewhere around here.

585. In Great Sacandaga Lake?

586. Yeah.

587. Traveling north to south at 15 degrees...

588. it's a shallower descent.

589. Yeah, that's very possible.

590. Possible?

591. Are you okay taking Sergeant Frish back to D.C.?

592. By myself?

593. Yeah.

594. You just let me know what's going on, Mulder.

595. As soon as I know.

596. I saw the sign.

597. Are you Bearfeld?

598. Yeah.

599. I stopped by your place.

600. Nobody was home.

601. Who are you?

602. Fox Mulder. I'm with the FBI.

603. You got anything to do with what's going on out there?

604. What's going on out there?

605. Some kind of search- and-rescue operation,

606. or some damn thing, I don't know.

607. Where?

608. Out over Democrat Point.

609. Out over Democrat Point.

610. Some kind of hovering lights, just there and then gone.

611. Can you show me?

612. No, no, I need you to take me there.

613. I'm just going to get some things.

614. Where then?

615. I'm going to ask for some kind of protective arrangement.

616. I need to talk to my agent in charge

617. to get a feel for how to go on this,

618. but, uh, I think it's pretty clear

619. you're going to want to talk to the right people.

620. you're going to want to talk to the right people.

621. You think I'll be prosecuted?

622. For what?

623. I gave the coordinates.

624. You didn't bring that plane down, Louis.

625. I lied.

626. I misled a federal investigator.

627. I misled you.

628. 134 people, Sergeant Gonzales—

629. they're all dead.

630. It wasn't your fault.

631. But I'm going to have to live with it.

632. I watched that plane fall out of the sky.

633. I watched that plane fall out of the sky.

634. It was just a dot on the screen, just a... set of numbers.

635. That wreckage... I can't get that out of my mind.

636. How those people died, how easy it is to lie,

637. just to say it was a dot on the screen...

638. until you see it.

639. Look, I can't tell you how to feel, Louis,

640. but I can tell you that I will do everything I can

641. to make sure you tell your story

642. to make sure you tell your story

643. to somebody who will do the right thing.

644. Yeah.

645. Thank you.

646. You think it's safe

647. to make a phone call?

648. I'd like to tell my girlfriend that I'm... whatever.

649. Yeah. Um...

650. Just tell her you're okay.

651. Over there.

652. Over there.

653. How deep is it here?

654. 50, 60, maybe.

655. Have you worked at this depth before?

656. Not exactly.

657. What exactly is your experience?

658. Once, I, uh, I got a quarter

659. off of the deep end at the "Y" pool.

660. Last call, folks!

661. Cocktail?

662. We'll be met here by a federal marshal.

663. You're probably going to end up

664. sleeping in somebody's office.

665. You want a drink?

666. You need a drink. Yes.

667. Hey!

668. Birthday girl!

669. Agent Pendrell, how you doing?

670. Agent Pendrell, how you doing?

671. I have something for you.

672. Where have you been?

673. I've been, uh, gone.

674. Oh. Can I buy you a drink?

675. No. You know, it's okay.

676. Uh, I'm with somebody.

677. Oh.

678. Let me buy him a drink, too.

679. No. You know what? It's okay.

680. No, no, no. I insist, I insist.

681. Bartender, bartender. Yeah.

682. Set me up with a couple of, uh,

683. birthday girl drinks here.

684. Can I have a couple of your finest...

685. Get down!

686. You're going to keep breathing, Pendrell.

687. Do you hear me?

688. I made this!