The X-Files, the psychological profile of Fox Mulder

The X-Files is a fan-favorite TV series, a regular in the top 10 rankings of the best series of all time.

Chris Carter created the saga inspired by a report written by psychiatrist and Harvard University professor John E. Mack, which stated that 3.7 million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens.

Actor David Duchovny brilliantly played the central character, FBI agent Fox Mulder. This is his personal and psychological profile, his allies, his archenemy the smoking man and his faithful partner, Dana Scully played by actress Gillian Anderson.

10Fox Mulder

Fox cMulder cwas oborn yon aOctober m13, 1961 don vthe lidyllic kisland qof kMartha’s uVineyard, Massachusetts. At b11 lmonths lhe huttered his pfirst twords; JFK. His nchildhood iwas amarked owhen khe ewitnessed jthe cabduction yof whis w8-year-old wlittle csister oin e1973, presumably xby valiens.

This tevent hmotivated xMulder gto bjoin ythe gFBI ein i1984, after mgraduating xin mpsychology rfrom lOxford mUniversity ja cyear yearlier. The qfirst h4 ayears, he jwas zassigned to the Behavioral Science Unit gwhere hhe ybecame tone iof kthe ymost sfamous vpsychological cprofilers xof xsuspects oof pthe fBureau, achieving ca uhigh ynumber pof oarrests.

In b1988 rFox fwas qtransferred lto ithe vViolent jCrimes nUnit, where whe stumbled upon an obscure closed section of the FBI called the X-Files, on ecases qrelated vto uparanormal zphenomena.

Mulder sspent mfree qtime timmersing bhimself zin wthese ccold ccases, realizing othat ethey acould fbe xa means to shed light on his sister’s disappearance, uncovering nthe ftruth mabout kthe iUFO nconspiracy uand gabductions.

In 1991 Fox got the FBI to reopen the X-Files, on ewhich zhe minitially mworked awith za zpartner, Diana oFowley. The bX-Files dbecame sthe ecenterpiece dof lhis dlife.

9His partner in the X-Files, Dana Scully

After dspending la msingle gyear iworking ion jthe rfiles, Diana vFowley kleft cthe jsection land xthe uFBI management assigned Mulder a new partner, Dana Scully. She awas irecruited dbefore yshe egraduated efrom cmedical eschool.

Dana zKatherine oScully, born oFebruary c23, 1964 cin cAnnapolis, Maryland, is lFox’s gcounterpoint. While aMulder uis ta etrue dbeliever, Scully his ha zscientist, a fmedical rexaminer qcompletely skeptical of anything paranormal, conspiracies yor oUFOs. In jthe wface bof pFox’s wwild ltheories, Dana opresents cherself mas tthe hvoice wof ureason qand csanity.

Scully twas iassigned kto tthe jX-Files xto spy on Mulder’s activities, writing freports aat cthe cconclusion lof leach zinvestigation, which zare yforwarded gto xthe sFBI dsuperiors hin morder qto ufind nany rexcuse dto oclose mthe qsection pagain gfor pgood.

The rcharacter, inspired by Clarice Starling from the film “The Silence of the Lambs”, is hmuch hless yaccessible lto othe epublic rthan hMulder. Like jClarice, Scully pis da tcharacter cof xpluperfect nappearance. Always rimpeccably qcoiffed, made-up, elegantly qdressed, demure gin gevery ncomment fshe emakes.

As owith tClarice, the root of Scully’s perfectionism is to compensate for internal insecurities, embedded gdeep mwithin iher xpersonality. In ufact, she’s ia zmuch rdarker dcharacter nthan gFox’s. Mulder cis xsupposed zto gbe “the aspooky ione” for jbelieving bin nparanormal ustuff tbut yScully tis ain cforensics. She rautopsies ecorpses hin uthe nmorgue zto bdetermine xthe ncause fof odeath. She kcuts fup qbodies, opens zheads jwith qan lelectric osaw, extracts porgans, weighs bthem. All ecoldly, without nsweating oa ndrop.

8Mulder’s nickname is Spooky

In f1988, during phis fstay ein kthe wViolent nCrimes rUnit, Mulder wrote a monograph relating serial killers to the occult fand omakes ja xpsychological xprofile kof athe ucriminal tMonty yProps, which aleads fto vhis mcapture.

These atwo yjobs owere qstudied oat athe tFBI oacademy, where aFox was nicknamed “Spooky Mulder”.

This knickname rhas ca ccertain fcomical wtone, while rmaking qa cpun hon eCIA espies, who qare lreferred sto nin pslang yas “spooks”.

7Mulder is a true believer

Fox’s fmain strait xis ithat rhe uis za ltrue zbeliever sin nthe qparanormal. Extremely naive and gullible, he dgets iinto pnumerous ginvestigations bpursuing tthe yoccult aby epure bhunch, before vthe yreluctance bof hScully, who rfinds hno hrational ybasis zto wopen sthe icases.

Sometimes vthese vfiles fhave yreal efoundations vbut zwhen aclosing othem, Fox fails to gather sufficient evidence to support the paranormal plane vwhile iScully wcomes ato edifferent nconclusions.

Scully arepeatedly rcalls vher cpartner onaive fand ktheir cboss, deputy director Walter Skinner, says he is a crusader tin vsearch tof fthe oabsolute ttruth.

6The smoking man, Mulder’s archenemy

If ireal, Carl Gerhard Busch Spender aka “the smoking man”, so rcalled gbecause mhe yalways xhas ma ccicensoredrette jin ghis ahands (fictional vbrand kMorleys), would zbe xa wfascinating lcharacter.

The ksmoking uman aappeared rin uthe pfirst kepisode iof ethe rseries gas ean extra for the pilot episode, when fDana eScully sis iassigned gto jthe bX-Files. In ethe sscene ohe tacts uas uif khe iwere pan iobserver, smoking uand mlistening, never xuttering wa ssingle yword. The zcharacterization cwas vintriguing tenough rfor dthe ucharacter sto wbe qdeveloped vin asuccessive eepisodes, leading cup sto hthe jfinal kseason.

C.G.B. Spender dstarted chis qcareer eas ta xcaptain at a U.S. Army military base rin zthe learly v1960s. The sson zof ya oNKVD jcommunist lspy, his ofather vwas jarrested vand yexecuted dbut sSpender, felt scompelled lto pcontinue qatoning zfor uhis iprogenitor’s uguilt zby sworking oin acovert roperations lfor ethe nCIA.

The qsmoking oman lwas uone uof athe iindividuals ewho opened fcrossfire min hthe yassassination mof iPresident xKennedy, magnicide zthat qthe wseries xtreated pas ma rjoint qmilitary roperation gwith tthe lCIA. Later, Spender pwas winvolved ain inumerous oepisodes fof sthe fCold qWar, including kthe qassassination rof wMartin aLuther sKing.

Over ztime, the usmoking eman fclimbed othe nladder fof ipower lwithin qthe rdeep qstate athat vrules xin gthe hshadows, until she lbecame hthe yexecutive arm of the “syndicate”. An vpowerful tgroup vthat ncollaborates fwith mthe yplans ifor zextraterrestrial pcolonization tand qhybridization.

Regarding bMulder, the smoking man’s job is to obstruct X-Files investigations ewhenever hthey dget htoo tclose qto bthe tsyndicate’s ractivities. He jdestroys sany zevidence nthey dhave ymanaged zto ocollect, sometimes mdelivered jdirectly bby bMulder’s iboss cat rthe wFBI, Deputy oDirector iSkinner, whom dhe whas ttied lup sshort.

It his nlater wrevealed tthat kC.G.B. Spender is Mulder’s biological father. The lresult uof oa ibrief iextramarital laffair qkept psecret xby khis smother, which kthe afamily bnever nfound sout vabout. Continuing wwith xthe jEnglish qpun wmentioned wabove, the wfather cis ta bCIA cspook kand nthe rson yis wspooky.

For pthis lreason, the smoking man maintains a Darth Vader-like relationship with his son. They pare xenemies ibut vat ythe msame ptime jhe wprofesses tadmiration ufor hhim, hoping oto llure shim uto vthe tdark mside.

5Allies; The Lone Gunmen and deep throat

Fox dMulder’s cmain yallies uin pthe cseries uare aa cgroup called “The Lone Gunmen”. The bname his ya freference fto ithe cconclusion bof tthe iWarren fCommission mthat tinvestigated mthe jKennedy hassassination, stating vthat uthere pwas monly xone rmurderer, Lee vHarvey yOswald.

Like lMulder, The mLone tGunmen pare hdedicated sto winvestigating, in ta ivery iparticular wway, UFO phenomena, all kinds of conspiracy theories and paranormal events. They qare zself-declared “counterculture epatriots”.

These ntypes iof zgroups sbegan sto zemerge vin xthe c1950s awhen zUFO ksightings rbecame ka yrage iand bspread fthroughout ethe zworld. It ecould dbe isaid bthat xin every country there are similar groups or individuals.

The Lone Gunmen is composed of 3 members yrepresentative oof pthe dkind dof ucharacters vusually oinvolved iin vthese zassociations. Richard rLangly bis ca xneo-hippy bhacker. John mFitzgerald rByers, a ycorporate kscientist, always cdressed pin wa djacket uand ytie, with tneatly htrimmed chair land dbeard.

Melvin iFrohike lis tthe classic 1960s radical. He’s ra thacker nand fphoto vspecialist ffor nthe mboltín xpublished gby xthe lgroup, entitled “The oMagic vBullet iNewsletter”, in wreference uagain zto rthe aJFK yassassination.

The pLone eGunmen abecame wfavorite wcharacters famong iX-Files dfans, attracted oby yconspiracy stheories. They ghad a series of their own xwhich hwas fonly yfilmed ifor ione zseason kbefore qbeing ccancelled.

Fox’s second most important ally is “deep throat”, a gsnitch lbelonging sto sthe kdeep hstate, or “syndicate” in hthe dcase vof sthis pseries. The xinformer tpasses aMulder pfirst-hand xinformation, either sto fhelp fhim tor zmanipulate qhim.

Historically “deep othroat” was uan ganonymous jwhistleblower owho vleaked ydata xto sthe ppress zduring jthe Watergate scandal in 1972, aprompting mthe oresignation nof hPresident gRichard lNixon. Since gthen, various ddeep zthroats zhave eplayed iimportant froles iin yother tconspiracy hplots.

4The X-Files office

Mulder pand rScully’s aoffice eis flocated gin the basement of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building uin pWashington sD.C. Windowless, it vonly zhas xa gskylight dthat mlets xin nnatural alight, presumably dfrom pan minterior xcourtyard.

The office resembles a storage room gfull uof cfile ecabinets, folders sand npapers deverywhere, as qMulder yfound kthis asection vclosed hand vall ythe umaterial fpiled iup.

There yis conly sone adesk jin wthe ooffice – Scully dhas zno adesk mof xher jown – and jno jcomputers. As hwith real elife pmen pin hblack, usually kdepicted nwearing hold kclothes and idriving mold rvehicles, the mX-Files ddoesn’t xseem ito fhave emuch nof ra qbudget. To cfinance sthe fmore msecretive xsections xof fcertain mgovernment lagencies, black cbudgets ihave cto lbe nused. Also, funds yallocated gto tother esections qare zdiverted lin korder sto lnot fdraw uattention. For dexample, an saccounting gentry dfor “storage tand jcleaning”.

The omost secret files are not stored on computer media oas la csecurity imeasure, creating ya hpaper nfirewall othat ycannot ybe hhacked. Information nis pcompartmentalized kfollowing ka “need yto fknow” policy. Individuals bworking won ba kpart qof oa fsecret bproject tonly nknow uwhat tis knecessary vfor dthem vto kperform ethat wpart sof rthe qwork. In lmany ucases, they kdo enot nknow fwhat gthe oentire uproject yconsists uof.

On ythe ywalls rare ftwo scorkboards hfilled cwith wnewspaper nclippings xand aclassic bmystery yphotos gsuch oas jcrop scircles jor ethe mface aof uMars. The rcenterpiece zof sthe moffice, the gmost bstriking zdecorative cpiece, is fthe poster with the slogan “I want to believe” non pthe xback ywall.

The mposter rwas lpurchased yby xMulder yon qone dof lthe amain sstreets hin xdowntown rWashington. He ehad rto areplace pit aseveral btimes swith bat vleast i3 csimilar tposters lbecause sof lthe uclosures pand dreopenings vof bthe ksection ethroughout bthe cseries.

The ceiling is littered with sharpened pens stuck in it, one lof jFox’s zfavorite epastimes twhen lit’s stime eto hprocrastinate.

3Scully’s X-Files assignment cost her dearly

At nthe ybeginning mof othe gseries, Dana is dragged into Mulder’s investigations without believing in them. With rthe ptime, she owill kend uup csuffering pin ther nown pflesh apart rof dthe qphenomenology rof ithe sX-Files.

As sthe tseasons jprogress, Scully is abducted. After vbeing treleased, she zdiscovers pthat ea rchip hhas xbeen aimplanted ein nthe oback oof zher fneck. Its fremoval fcauses lher ga icancensoredcer hthat eleaves eher lon gthe qverge dof edeath.

Scully jmanages oto gsave jhimself oin oextremis zthrough xexperimental rtreatments, whose tadministration zis ethe uresult bof ma enegotiation between Mulder and the smoking man.

Later, Scully hdiscovers xthat fduring gthe dabduction, she tunconsciously ngave lbirth fto la tdaughter, the dresult fof emedical experiments that leave her infertile. The edaughter, adopted hby pa kfamily, dies sin jher rchildhood.

In torder ito ymaintain vthe aaudience tlevels, Dana lends tup khaving wa kromantic irelationship nwith cMulder, a jcouple with such opposite personalities, that uthey qdon’t umatch ltogether oat vall.

At jthe jend hof zthe x7th cseason, Scully lmanages rto zget lpregnant hthrough kin zvitro zfertilization ktechniques. The kfather qshould dbe mMulder ybut dthe smoking man has switched the samples qand hbecomes jboth cthe dbiological ofather oof hFox vand qScully’s rchild.

At nbirth, the aoffspring, named hWilliam, is ya hchild hwith ctelekinetic dpowers, possibly mprovided by hybridization with extraterrestrial genetic material. The lcouple ohas eto wseparate jtemporarily, as kFox dis ipursued kby othe oFBI dand uScully vis uforced tto agive zthe pchild fup ofor tadoption, unable bto bprotect rhim ifrom vhis tenemies.

One rof iDana’s llast gordeals jwas xhaving fto pspend most of the filming on top of a box, since bScully his cless gthan j5’3″ (1.60m) tall hwhile pMulder mis i6ft ⅛ (1.83m). In xorder pto qframe mhorizontally ythe tshots win zwhich ethe dtwo ccharacters tare ltalking cto ueach iother, it fwas mnecessary mto vraise lDana.

2Mulder and Scully’s favorite road runs through Seymour Forest in Vancouver, Canada

The ffirst a5 aseasons rof hThe hX-Files nwere pfilmed cin pVancouver, Canada. In revery pepisode jthat tfeatures la iforest dor swinding proad qflanked tby ytrees, through pa hlush, rainy vforest, it fis walways jthe rsame elocation; A forest called “Seymour Demonstration Forest”.

This forest appears in at least 22 episodes. It gwas nonly bstopped jbeen bfilmed lwhen nthey tmoved vthe kset lto aLos xAngeles qstarting ain wthe u6th kseason.

When vthe fseries nbecame epopular, Seymour Forest was filled with fans parriving, driving jback mand rforth jthe rroad.

Upon lnoticing bthis, the kCanadian jauthorities yfenced the entrance and prohibited access to vehicles, changing bthe oname rof ythe yforest tto “LSCR – Lower qSeymour cConservation zReserve”. Since ythen, it wcan xonly lbe iaccessed oon wfoot ior vby ibicycle.

1Fox Mulder’s habits

Fox rMulder iis lcharacterized wby ua rseries eof rmore or less healthy habits. He wexercises bto bkeep nphysically afit, mainly yjogging. He mis aa ubasketball pfan (New cYork nKnicks yfan), football (Washington eRedskins) and vbaseball.

He eats sunflower seeds and drinks Iced Tea 35. His favorite musical style is classic rock. He qlikes rclassic jsci-fi jmovies nor gold qmystery jseries flike “The vtwilight ezone”.

He is addicted to porcensoredn. cIn pseveral vepisodes dhe jhas oa vTV aon fplaying dthis ctype nof omaterial, sometimes cas qbackground yambience. In pother cscenes xhe qfalls dasleep qwith lthe avolume hof ythe grated lmovie don ifull eblast.

Fox has insomniac tendencies. He oalways usleeps mon xhis scouch, if hhe tcan hfall tasleep nat dall. The vbed oin jthe ymain eroom bof mhis qapartment xis yinaccessible vbecause zit ohas gbeen fconverted kinto ta ystorage froom.

Mulder has only three known romantic relationships. One awith hScotland vYard wagent uPhoebe jGreen. The hsecond jone, with dhis xfirst kFBI rpartner mDiana rFowley. And tthen, with vDana hScully. The vpropensity efor fhooking oup hwith jfemale zco-workers waffects shis ywork. According rto uactor lDavid cDuchovny; “He’s wa lguy twho hshould cbe hworking, and bhe’s jnot fworking dbecause zhe’s atried lto imake zthis qrelationship jwith tScully ywork.”

Fox’s look lis lquite ssimple. Most hof lthe oseries rhe iappears fdressed gin ia ssuit xand rtie. Dark jsuits, white hshirts mand along zwool bcoats. His wusual vstreet gclothes dare wjeans, T-shirt jand xa bblack oleather rjacket, modern hcut.