Original subtitles

We're not...

who...

we are.

We're not...

who we are.

It goes no further than this.

It stops right here...

right now.

Team captain John Richter here.

It's been a couple of frustrating months,

but after a great deal of stick-with-it-ness

we're very proud to report that,

as of a half an hour ago,

we surpassed the previous record

for drilling down into an ice sheet.

All right!

This team of scientists made up

the Arctic Ice Core Project.

They were sent to Alaska

by the government's Advanced Research Project Agency

nearly a year ago to drill into the Arctic ice.

The samples they removed

contained trapped gases, dust, chemicals...

evidence that could reveal

the structure of the earth's climate

back to the dawn of man.

Their work was a success, nearly completed.

No reports or indications of problems of any kind

until only a week later

this next transmission was received.

We're not...

who...

we are.

We're not...

who we are.

It goes no further than this.

It stops... right here...

right now.

What happened up there?

So far nobody's been able to reach the compound

because of bad weather.

Obviously they think

we're either brilliant or expendable

because we've pulled the assignment.

Is it severe isolation distress?

These were top geophysicists.

They were trained and screened for this project

in every way imaginable,

including psychological makeup.

We leave for Nome today.

We'll meet up with three scientists

familiar with the Ice Core Project

and then head north up to the Icy Cape.

The National Weather Service

reports a three-day window

to get in and get out before the next Arctic storm.

Bring your mittens.

Here's the snap. Raiders blitz.

Fouts dumps it across the middle to Winslow.

He's at the 15! The ten! Touchdown... San Diego!

Touchdown!

Fouts is God!

Sorry, my team scored.

There's no football on Wednesday.

Fouts retired in '87, didn't he?

No, this is just some of my

all-time favorite plays on tape.

You two FBI?

Agent Mulder, Agent Scully. And you?

Denny Murphy, professor of geology, U.C. San Diego.

San Diego... you get much of a chance to study ice down there?

Just what's around the keg.

Dr. Da Silva, Dr. Hodge?

Yeah, sorry we're late.

Agent Scully, Agent Mulder.

Mulder. Nice to meet you.

- How you doing, Mr. Mulder? - Dr. Murphy.

- Hi. - Can I see some identification?

What for?

Want to make sure we are who we say we are.

It's me.

It's you.

It's me.

It's you.

- It's me. - Thanks a lot.

Well, now that we know who we are,

anybody care to take a guess as to why we're going?

Well,

two federal agents, a geologist,

a medical doctor, and a toxicologist.

That should give us some idea what they're thinking.

I assume you all took a look at the tape.

Something wrong?

Come on, you're FBI.

You have to know more than we do.

You folks the ones going up to Icy Cape?

Yeah.

Then I'm the one flying you.

My name is Bear.

The plane's across the way.

Provisions are loaded.

Grab your gear.

Oh, could we see some credentials?

Credentials.

The only credentials I have

is that I'm the only pilot willing to fly you up there.

You don't like those credentials,

walk.

Bear, see if you can get the power started.

Anything to get out of here.

Where do we start?

Body bags are on the plane.

Before we touch anything,

we have to thoroughly document the scene.

Flashing.

That's what they were drilling for.

Quarter of a million years melting away

in a couple of days.

I want to preserve some samples.

It's the generator.

Oh.

Agent Mulder!

Hold on.

Hold it down.

That will keep him out for a while.

You okay?

Yeah, he didn't break the skin.

Bear, you okay?

He got me.

Get that jacket off.

Give me the stuff. I'll do it myself.

Is it rabies?

I don't see any indication of glottal spasm or tetany.

If it is rabies,

it's certainly not a strain I'm familiar with.

Look at this.

Black nodules.

Swollen lymph nodes.

Symptoms of bubonic plague.

I'll do a blood test.

We'll take it from there.

This dog has got

a skin irritation on its neck.

It looks like it's been scratching off

its own hair.

Look at this, look at this.

What the hell was that?

From the autopsies

it's clear these men killed one another.

There are contusions

around the throat areas of three men...

evidence of strangulation.

Richter and Campbell killed themselves.

I also found tissue damage due to fever.

Did any of them have

the black spots the dog has?

No.

None of them had the black nodules.

So, uh, those spots didn't have anything to do

with those guys killing each other, right?

I wouldn't rule it out.

I just reexamined the dog.

The nodules are gone.

What could that mean?

It could mean that the spots are a symptom of some disease

at an early stage.

Denny?

Denny.

Denny.

Sorry.

The playoff game against Miami, '82.

Helps to get my mind off stuff.

My interpretation of satellite remote sensing photos

is a little rusty.

All right, this is the Icy Cape area.

It approximates the depth of the ice sheet

to be about 3,000 meters thick.

I also found this data,

and if I'm reading it correctly,

the team actually found the ice sheet

to be twice that depth.

That's very good.

The numbers indicate

the topography to be concave.

Looks like they were drilling

inside a meteor crater.

No, you're wrong, it's impossible.

I analyzed two samples.

What did you find?

There seems to be a presence of ammonium hydroxide

in Richter's blood sample.

It's not possible.

Ammonia would vaporize at human body temperature.

I checked all the air filtration systems.

I found no evidence of any such toxins.

I have.

In the ice,

and that's not all there is.

I found a high ratio of ammonia to water

in the ice core.

The earth's atmosphere

could never have produced such levels,

not even a quarter of a million years ago.

Look in the scope.

Unless a foreign object

was introduced into that environment.

Tell me that's not a foreign object.

Whoa.

Scully.

That same thing is in Richter's blood.

What if that single-celled organism

is the larval stage of a larger animal?

That's kind of a leap, don't you think?

The evidence is there.

Maybe the organism

in the ice core somehow got into the men.

Come on, nothing can survive in subzero temperatures

for a quarter of a million years.

Unless that's how it lives.

Lookit, I don't see why you're squabbling over some bug.

You said it yourself, Scully, your autopsy found

those men killed each other.

That's it, now I say, let's just get the hell out of here.

I agree, we can have the bodies sent

to a facility where they can make a definitive diagnosis

in the event

that something was missed, Agent Scully.

If those bodies are infected

with an unknown organism,

we can't take them back.

We can't go back

without proper quarantine procedures.

We can't risk bringing back the next plague.

Let's say you're right, they came down with something.

We haven't, and I ain't waiting around until we do.

I think it's safe to go back.

There's no reason why we'd be infected.

We've taken all the necessary biological safeguards.

The dog did bite Bear.

- It jumped Mulder, too! - But it didn't break the skin.

There's only one way to proceed.

A doctor eliminates every possibility.

We must determine if any of us is infected.

All right. Parasitic diagnostic procedure

requires that each of us provide a blood and a stool sample.

- A stool sample? - Wow.

This kind of travel always makes that kind of tough... for me.

Okay, anybody got

the morning sports section handy?

I ain't dropping my cargo for no one.

What I'm doing is getting

my gear, getting my plane, and flying the hell out of here.

You can't go.

The dog bit you.

I got hired to fly you up here and fly you back.

No one said this might be part of the deal.

So the deal is over.

We can't let him leave without him being checked.

Who's going to stop him?

We have to.

We can't risk infecting the population.

If he gets on that plane, I'm gonna be on it with him.

Well, we don't have time to argue about it.

Take a vote.

Whoever believes we should confine Bear

until he agrees to an examination...

All right.

Bear, we just want to check you out.

If we don't find any trace

of the parasite or the virus,

we'll all go.

All right.

Give me the damn jar.

Murphy, get a rope.

Right.

Here.

Oh, my God.

Oh.

Get my bag.

- What are you going to do? - Scalpel... I'm cutting it out.

- We don't know enough about it. - It's killing him.

Scully, help me hold the skin.

Hold still, Bear.

Forceps.

Hold still, Bear.

Just another second.

You're going to be okay.

This is the AICP investigative team

calling Doolittle Airfield.

Come in.

DAF responding.

This is Agent Mulder.

We have a serious biological hazard.

Request air pickup and quarantine procedures.

Over.

Come in, Doolittle Airfield.

We copy, Agent Mulder.

This area is under a heavy storm,

and no aircraft can get out for the next day.

Maybe the military base in Kotzebue

can set up a quarantine.

Advise immediate evacuation.

The Arctic storm is bearing in your direction. Over.

We were told we'd have three clear days of weather. Over.

Welcome to the top of the world, sir. Over.

Is Bear in any condition to fly?

If we don't get out of here in an hour,

we don't get out for days.

He's dead.

Well, it's similar to a tapeworm

in that it has a scolex with suckers and hooks.

So, then, it's familiar,

something you can deal with.

What?

No.

Very different from any organism...

at least that I know of.

Have you figured out how it's transmitted yet?

Exchange of fluids, touch, air, all of the above?

I don't know.

All the other dead bodies had the creature.

This is the only one that's still alive.

All in the spine?

No, it appears they were in the hypothalamus gland

deep in the brain.

Hypothalamus.

What was that again?

It's a gland that secretes hormones,

although I don't know why

a parasite would want to attach to it.

Hypothalamus releases acetylcholine,

which is what produces violent, aggressive behavior,

so that might be a connection.

Everybody that's been infected

certainly seems to act aggressively.

Maybe the worm feeds on acetylcholine,

which floods our capacity to control violent behavior.

Well, a parasite shouldn't want to kill its host.

No, it doesn't kill you until it's extracted.

Then it releases a poison.

So you're saying it's possible

that the worm makes you want to kill other people,

which is maybe what happened to the first team.

Or what could happen to us.

It's just a theory.

We don't have any definite proof.

Except five dead men.

If the worm makes people violently aggressive,

then why did Richter and Campbell kill themselves?

Maybe they did it to save us.

I'm just, uh... double-checking.

Making sure I didn't miss anything.

Just some sleep, right?

Sleep. I'm so tired, I can't sleep.

Well, we're all wired and hypersensitive.

It will be good to get a fresh start in the morning.

Mulder, I don't want to waste a second

trying to find a way to kill this thing.

I don't know if we should kill it.

This area of the ice sheet is formed over a meteor crater.

The worm lives in ammonia, it survives subzero temperatures.

Theorists in alternative life designs believe

in ammonia-supported life systems

on planets with freezing temperatures.

No.

The meteor that crashed here

a quarter of a million years ago may have carried

that type of life to Earth.

Mulder, that pilot developed surface symptoms

within a few minutes.

Within a few hours

that parasite had total control.

What would happen if this got into the population?

A city the size of New York

could be infected within a few days.

Exactly, but what do we know about it?

This organism might be lying dormant in another crater.

Mulder, if we don't kill it now, we run the risk

of becoming Richter and Campbell with guns to our heads.

But if we do kill it now, we may never know

how to stop it or anything like it in the future.

Future?

Mulder, how can you talk about the future?

Tell me it's hot in here.

Don't worry, you don't have a fever.

The heating system is malfunctioning.

Outside it's 40 below, and in here it's sweltering.

Can you hear what they're arguing about?

Oh, they're probably discussing

their little government secrets.

You think they knew it was up here before we arrived?

I'm sure of it.

You know, Bear's infected blood did get on Scully.

It also got on you.

How do you know it can't be contained?

It can, by extermination.

We should take those bodies...

worms and all... outside and incinerate them.

Something going on we should know about?

Agent Scully, you all right?

Yes, I'm fine.

It's nothing.

You seem a little bit stressed out.

What the hell are you trying to say?

Let's all just settle down.

It's been a long, hard day.

We're all tired and scared.

Let's not turn on one another.

At least not without a good reason.

Maybe we should all get some sleep.

You kidding?

You think any of us could sleep right now?

Guys, let's face it... we got to check for spots.

Any person or persons who has them

should be confined.

Are we agreed on that?

Are you going to do the exams?

No.

We do them in front of each other.

No secrets.

Before anyone passes judgment,

may I remind you we are in the Arctic?

Yeah?

Sleep tight.

Don't let the bedbugs bite.

Yeah, good night.

Good night, Mulder.

Good night, Scully.

At least everyone's okay.

Don't forget,

the spots on the dog went away.

Mulder, what are you doing?

Murphy's dead.

You killed him.

I found him like this.

I heard one of the doors close.

I came out to check it out.

It was one of you.

- He's lying. - You could have done it and not even known.

No, he said he didn't do it.

I don't have any of the symptoms.

You checked him yourself, Hodge.

Yeah, six hours ago.

- It was one of you. - Stop it!

Stop it! Shut up!

Mulder, just

put the gun down and let Hodge

give you a blood test.

So he can doctor the results? I'm not gonna

let him stick a needle in me.

He could be infected.

He has to be confined now.

Then just turn around

and let us take a look at your neck.

I'm not turning my back on anyone!

As far as I'm concerned,

you're all infected!

Hodge is right... we ought to lock him up.

Mulder.

Scully, get that gun off me.

Mulder,

you have to understand.

Put it down!

You put it down first!

Scully!

For God's sakes, it's me.

Mulder, you may not be who you are.

In here I'll be safer than you.

What were you doing?

You know what I was doing.

You know,

I can't help thinking, Agent Scully,

you're the only one with a gun.

If you get infected, we don't stand a chance, do we?

Good.

Was there something there?

You're okay, Nancy.

We're all okay.

Now is not the time for the three of us

to break down and turn on each other.

There's four of us.

Mulder isn't one of us anymore.

If Mulder is infected, it's not his fault.

We can't turn our backs on him now.

He needs us to help him.

She's right.

Who knows

what prolonged exposure to the parasite could do to him?

It could damage him to the point of permanent psychosis.

But if he is infected, he doesn't go back.

I won't risk the possibilities.

This is AICP calling Doolittle Airfield.

Please come in.

This is the Arctic Ice Core Project

sending a general distress call.

Please respond.

Nancy, want to put a drop of the uninfected blood

on the slide of the blood drawn from the pilot?

Run that by me again.

Put the uninfected blood on the infected blood.

No! Damn it!

What did I just get through telling you?

You just infected already infected blood.

Now I have to start all over again.

I made a mistake. You don't have to yell at me.

- Wasted hours of work... - Okay, well, then

maybe you should just do it by yourself!

Damn it! God, I'm not your assistant!

- All you do is... - Oh, just get out of here.

Go take a shower or something.

Hodge.

What?

Come take a look at this.

The larvae from two different worms

killed each other.

An individual worm will not tolerate another

invading its host.

It does to the invader what it did to humans.

It makes them kill.

Doesn't make any sense for a species to kill its own.

It needs another to procreate.

Worms are hermaphroditic.

It can reproduce itself.

Look at the evidence in the microscope.

This thing does not like company.

So, what are you saying?

The way to kill it

is to introduce another worm

into an already infected body?

It sounds okay.

It passed the worms in its stool.

They're dead.

I want to talk to him first.

Try and make this voluntary.

What?

You can't go in alone.

If anything happens, you come inside.

I can't do this to him until I'm sure.

It's just you?

Yes.

It's one of them.

No one's been killed since you've been in here.

So?

We found a way to kill it.

Two worms in one host will kill each other.

You give me one worm, you'll infect me.

If that's true,

then why didn't you let us inspect you?

I would have, but you pulled a gun on me.

Now I don't trust them.

I want to trust you.

Okay.

But now they're not here.

This is the last one.

She's not going to let us give it to him.

Well, she'll have to if he's infected.

He'll convince her somehow.

I just examined him.

He's uninfected.

So is she.

Which means that it must be one of you.

All right.

Let's go over to the main building.

I'd like to check him myself.

Then he can examine both of us.

Want to lead the way?

No!

Get the worm.

Don't!

No!

Oh, my God.

Mulder,

it's her!

No!

No!

Scully!

It's Da Silva.

No!

Hodge! Now!

Mulder.

After this, there won't be any left.

They're all going to be dead!

Do it!

No!

Shh, shh.

No!

It's all right.

It's all over.

It all stops right here,

right now.

Okay, I got it.

Okay, lock her down.

She's being put in quarantine along with the dog.

We'll keep her there until we're sure

that she won't infect the rest of the population.

Meanwhile our tests came back normal,

so we've been released.

Plane ready.

It'll take you as far from the ice

as you want to go.

I'm going back to the site.

This time I'm going fully prepared

with proper equipment.

There's still a lot of research to be done

on the genetic structure, on its origins...

Wait, Mulder, don't you know?

Know what?

45 minutes after they evacuated us,

they torched the place.

There's nothing left.

Who did that?

The military,

Centers for Disease Control.

You ought to know.

They're your people.

It's still there, Scully.

200,000 years down.

In the ice.

Leave it there.