Original subtitles

All right, let's shoot this, Marty.

Hold it still.

Hold it still, Sloan.

I'd like to see you hold it still.

The sooner they pave over this swamp, the better.

It's not a swamp.

You're standing in a forest

with indigenous plant and animal species

you're obviously too ignorant to appreciate.

Mark it and give me another position.

All right, let's shoot this next one

real carefully, Marty, 'cause this is where

they're going to put the Blockbuster.

You're a real moron, Sloan, you know that?

Tree hugger.

You should be sad

to see the demise of an ecosystem

that's lasted a thousand years.

We all should be.

Give me four feet to your left.

I can't.

What do you mean, you can't?

I mean, I can't because it's stuck.

Then un-stick it.

This is weird.

Sloan!

Sloan!

Louis.

Let Bo do the work.

How's he know how to find a possum?

Shh.

Animals sense things that we can't.

It's how they survive.

So, is that how Bo knows how to hunt?

Yeah. Our ancestors were hunters, too,

but most of us have lost those instincts.

That's why we need a little help.

Dad, what's that?

Surveyor's equipment.

Someone left his stuff out here.

Stay close, Louis.

What is it, Dad?

Dad?

Bo, come here, Bo.

What...

Quiet.

Listen to me.

I want you to take Bo,

and I want you to run straight home.

- What's the matter? - I want you to run straight home

and I don't want you to stop for anything.

Louis.

- I just... - You understand?

All right, go.

Come on, Bo, come on!

Bo, no, no!

Come on, Bo, come on!

Come on, come on!

Last year was something of a personal revelation.

We were doing an exercise called "team builders"

where we were given

two minutes to build a tower

out of ordinary office furniture.

When I stood on Mike's shoulders

and I put that electric pencil sharpener on top of the pile,

we both knew we could never have done it alone.

Kill me now.

You ever been to

one of these team seminars, Agent Scully?

Um... I think I went

to a constructive problem solving course

when I first joined the Bureau.

Oh, did you play that game

where, um, you can't use any negative words?

I couldn't believe how hard it was

not to use the word "but."

I'm having that same problem right now.

Have you ever been to a team seminar, Agent Mulder?

No. You know, unfortunately around this time of year,

I always develop a severe hemorrhoidal condition.

Well, it builds muscles you didn't even know you had.

Communication.

That's the key.

Sorry, folks, it'll be a few minutes.

What's going on, Officer?

Got a little situation, is all.

Thank you, Jesus.

Where's he going?

Oh, excuse me.

A-Are you from search and rescue?

No, I'm sorry, I'm not. I'm just stretching my legs.

They said they'd have word for us

about what happened to my husband.

I need somebody to tell me what's going on.

Well, just slow down.

I-I don't know what you're talking about.

My husband, Michael... he was teaching our son to shoot

and he said the dog got spooked, and then he heard gunshots,

and now they said they've found a jacket

with blood on it, but they won't tell me

- anything about my husband. - Okay, I'll try to find out

who's in charge, all right?

Oh, thank you.

Now where's he going?

Hey, Stonecypher!

Take a look at this.

One, two, three, four,

five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten...

This tree was here 20 years before Ponce de León landed.

We're going to be late

for the wine and cheese reception.

Officer Fazekas?

Yes?

Can I help you?

My name is Fox Mulder.

I'm an agent with the FBI.

FBI? Who called you guys out?

Nobody. We just got stopped at your roadblock.

It sounds like you had a shooting.

Shots were reported, but we have no evidence

of anyone being shot.

Well, what do you have evidence of?

A survey team working these woods

didn't report in last night.

We found one man's bloody jacket pretty torn up,

and this morning, a boy got separated from his father.

Separated by what?

It looks, maybe, like some kind of animal attack.

What kind of animal?

I'm not sure yet.

I followed good tracks

for the two surveyors, but the trails became confused

as they moved into the brush.

There was a third set of tracks leading away I...

I couldn't identify.

Couldn't identify as the surveyors?

As man or animal.

Mulder?

Oh, just, uh...

H-Hold on a second.

What about the boy's father?

I tracked him all the way down to where he fired the shots.

The ground's rocky, but from the depressions

in the underlying soil, I can tell you

that he entered the bushes from over there

where I pick up another set of tracks...

two distinctly different set of tracks

that from the way the ground's upset

is probably where the man was attacked.

But no other sign of him?

You have panther in these woods?

There's panther, bear.

But these tracks look like neither of those?

No, sir.

You know of a good motel in the area?

Excuse me.

I think we can handle this very well on our own. Thanks.

Mulder?

We've got this conference.

- They're waiting. - Yeah.

How do I say this without using any negative words, Scully?

You want me to tell them that you're not going to make it

- to this year's teamwork seminar? - Yeah.

You see that? We don't need that conference.

We have communication like that unspoken.

You know what I'm thinking.

Look. He's all eaten away.

How do you like that, eh?

He's not coming back, is he?

Why would you say that?

Dad's a good shot...

and if he hit what he was aiming at,

he'd be home by now.

You got to be brave, Louis.

We both got to be brave.

We'll find out more about it in the morning.

Get some sleep now.

It's open.

Who cut the cheese?

Since you won't be making it to the conference.

Mmm.

Par-tay.

However, I must remind you

this goes against the Bureau's policy

of male and female agents

consorting in the same motel room while on assignment.

Try any of that Tailhook crap on me, Scully,

I'll kick your ass.

Pop quiz.

What animal will attack the strongest,

leaving the weakest to escape?

The answer is none.

Not one of the over 4,000 species

native to North America will attack the strongest

when the weak is vulnerable.

And what does that have to do with anything?

It makes me think that what we're dealing with here

is no ordinary predator.

I thought this was just a ploy to get out of the conference.

I think what we've stumbled upon here

is something more than local authorities realize.

The scenario described by that boy

sounds to me like a primitive culling technique.

Mulder, we're in Western Florida.

The closest thing to primitive down here

is living in a beachfront retirement condo.

Those woods are as old

as anything in the South,

and there's 800 square miles of them.

There's no telling what's alive out there.

Where are you going?

I got to check something out.

You know, Mulder, sometimes I think

some work on your communications skills

wouldn't be such a bad idea.

I'll be back soon,

and we can build a tower of furniture.

Okay?

What is it, Bo?

Mom?

It's all right, Louis.

You go back to sleep now.

Bo?

Bo?

Bo, where'd you get to?

Bo, is that you?

Come on, boy.

Let's go back in.

All right, all right, you...

stay there the night.

Louis?

Louis?!

Louis! Louis!

Louis!

Louis!

Mom!

Louis!

What is it, Louis?

It's in the house.

I'll be right back.

How's the boy?

He's still freaked out.

I think I might have

some insight into this invisible creature

he said was chasing him.

The Invisible Man was invisible.

Right.

Yeah, he said he was chased by a creature

with glowing red eyes.

Let me show you something.

Mrs. Asekoff said she went outside with the dog,

but when she came back,

the door was locked from the inside.

And?

Look at this.

We got some tracks here.

Where?

Here...

and here... dried mud against the tile

tracked in from the outside.

That could have been brought in by the dog.

No, no. You see the ball of a foot here?

A large foot,

and I count five toes.

Wait a minute.

I thought you said it wasn't human.

Well, I'm not saying it is.

The weight distribution is all wrong.

People walk heel to toe.

Whatever this thing is,

it walks on the ball of its foot.

You're putting me on.

No. My dad and I were Indian guides.

I know these things.

So, if it's not man and it's not animal,

what the hell is it?

Guess I'm a little late to this dance.

I found some tracks... right here.

Same as I saw before.

Where was that?

In the woods.

Weight distribution is strange.

They appear to be human, but whoever left these

uses the balls

of his feet, more like an animal.

Well, whatever it is... it's attacked three grown men

presumably in broad daylight,

disposing of its prey without detection.

And it wasn't shy last night

about coming out of the woods to try again.

What we've got here is a predator

with low visibility and a high degree of motivation.

And it's got one advantage we don't have:

the entire Apalachicola National Forest.

Then how do you stop it?

By identifying it...

finding it before it finds somebody else.

It's called a FLIR, for Forward-Looking Infrared.

It was developed for chopper pilots in Vietnam...

detects body heat at 300 yards.

That's pretty sophisticated

for government issue.

I see you two have met.

Jeff's our local tech head.

Some people prefer searching with dogs.

I prefer an extra pair of hands

if I get in trouble.

Are we ready to go here?

Once we start in,

you can put away your cell phones.

The only communication in these woods

is with short-wave radios, so stay close.

Maintain visual contact.

If you get lost, initiate oral contact.

That means holler.

If nobody responds, sit down, don't move.

I will find you. Don't go looking for me.

I know it sounds obvious, but folks still get lost.

Okay.

I get you. Thank you.

All right.

Local PD has all their resources

looking out for a transient...

a drifter who's wanted for a double homicide

in Gadsden, Alabama.

They were amused when I told them what we were doing.

I don't think it's a drifter, Scully,

and we may be looking for two individuals.

Why do you say that?

Well, that thing lured that woman

out of the house last night to separate her from her son.

But for what purpose?

Divide and conquer.

If your enemy has greater numbers than you,

you divide and conquer to diminish those numbers.

What enemy would that be?

Encroaching development.

That's what I suspected

when I went to check on Louis and his mother.

You think this is about a housing tract?

That survey team was staking out a new 100,000-acre plot.

Civilization is pushing very hard into these woods.

Maybe something in these woods is pushing back.

Anything?

No.

No, nothing at all, not even wildlife.

Isn't that a little strange?

Yeah.

This forest is usually alive with sound.

I'm not, like, an expert,

but I've never seen it like this before.

It sure is beautiful though.

That's what happens... people get to looking around,

next thing they know, something eats them.

What do you think killed those men?

Nature is populated

by creatures either trying

to kill something they need to survive

or trying to avoid being killed

by something that needs them to survive.

If we become blinded by the beauty of nature,

we may fail to see

its cruelty and violence.

- Walt Whitman? - No.

When Animals Attack on the Fox network.

Wait. I've got something.

It's about 20 yards ahead.

Where? I don't see it.

It's just sitting there.

It's on the move!

It's moving fast!

It's going to the right!

Wait, wait! There's two of them now.

They're moving in opposite directions.

There and there.

Where is it?!

It's about 40 yards ahead of you!

I don't see it.

Now it's gone.

I don't know where it went.

What is it?

I don't know.

They're trying to separate us...

pull us away from the others.

Let's go back.

Michele?!

Michele?!

Geez.

Mulder, I need help!

Mulder!

Scully!

Over here!

Scully?!

Over here!

What happened?

I don't know.

Where's Fazekas?

She was walking right ahead of me.

She was right here, and then she was just gone.

I'm getting no reading.

What the hell's happening here?

They separated us. That was on purpose.

They divided us so they could go after her.

She was in the lead and presumably the strongest.

They take the strongest first.

Take them where? That doesn't make any sense.

- You can't just disappear out here. - You're right.

- We got to find her. - How we gonna do that?

I don't know. We'll form a line and beat the bushes.

Maybe you'll pick up a signal.

No, we need help.

We need manpower.

That's not going to work out here.

We need to get out of here.

Listen to me!

The longer we wait, the less chance we have of finding her.

This is nuts.

This is loony tune, man.

We got to go back out of these woods before it gets dark.

Okay, you're right.

You go back.

You leave me the FLIR,

and you go back.

We got to go together.

We have to find her.

Yeah, but if we stay here, they may not find any of us.

Mulder, he's right.

We weren't prepared for this.

We have no way of telling them where we are.

We don't have any food, Michele had our only water.

Look, I'd like to find her, too,

but I think the risks of that are just way too foolish.

All right, we all go then.

You lead the way.

I don't have much faith

that this device will do us any good.

So far, all it's done is split us up.

Whatever it is that we were chasing

did show up on the screen at first.

What does that tell you?

- Nothing. - Mm-hmm.

Except that we're going in the right direction.

Maybe it can regulate its temperature.

Do you know of any animal that can?

Ticks.

I've heard that they can halt their metabolism

for up to 18 years,

essentially going into suspended animation

until something warm-blooded comes along.

That's interesting.

Why is that interesting?

30 years ago,

the, uh, the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia,

was terrorized for over a year by something...

killing livestock, terrorizing the people.

Witnesses described them as primitive-looking men

with red, piercing eyes.

Became known as the "Moth Men."

I've got an X File dating back to 1952 on it.

What would that be filed next to...

"The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati?"

No, "The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati" is in the C's.

"Moth Men's" over in the M's.

This isn't the way.

What do you mean?

Michele always marks her route with little white stones.

This is the same path. This is the way we came.

I haven't seen one of her stones for 20 minutes.

That's because you've had your nose

glued to that screen the whole time!

I'm telling you, we're on the wrong trail!

Somehow, we got off track.

Oh, man, this is not happening.

This is not happening.

Everybody stand still.

There's something out there.

Where?

About 40 or 50 yards out.

Jeff?

Nothing.

I saw it.

The woods have gone silent again.

- I got it. - Where?

- I got it on my screen. - Where?

About 30 yards ahead.

It's just sitting there.

What is he doing?

Talk to him.

This is not a good idea.

Talk to him, Jeff!

Uh, go to your right.

It just disappeared.

Mulder, it's not on the screen.

Scully, I lost it!

I got it.

Did you hit it?

I don't know.

It just stopped.

Where's Glaser?

How many shots did you fire?

Six, maybe seven.

Is that your only clip?

Yep.

Don't fire again unless you're sure you're going to hit it.

It may be trying to spend our advantage.

What the hell is it, Mulder?

I don't know.

But whatever it is,

it's smarter than us...

at least out here.

Mulder? Mulder!

Scully!

Scully!

Mulder!

Scully!

You okay?

You were an Indian guide.

Help me out here.

Indian guide says maybe you should

run to the store and get some matches.

I would, but I left my wallet in the car.

What are you doing?

I'm trying to open my gun.

If I can separate the shell from the casing,

maybe I can get the powder to ignite.

Oh.

And maybe it'll start raining weenies and marshmallows.

Do I detect a hint of negativity?

No.

Yes... actually.

Yeah.

Mulder, you need to keep warm. Your body's still in shock.

I was told once that the best way

to regenerate body heat

is to crawl naked into a sleeping bag

with somebody else who's already naked.

Maybe if it rains sleeping bags, you'll get lucky.

You ever thought seriously about dying?

Yeah, once. When I was at the Ice Capades.

When I was fighting my cancer...

I was angry at the injustice of it.

And it's meaninglessness.

And then I realized that that was the struggle.

To give it meaning.

To make sense of it.

It's like life.

I think nature

is supremely indifferent to whether we live or die.

I mean, if you're lucky, you get 75 years.

If you're really lucky, you get 80 years,

and if you're extraordinarily lucky,

you get to have 50 of those years

with a decent head of hair.

I guess it's like Las Vegas.

The house always wins.

Oh!

Go, girl.

Hey, who did you identify with

when you were a kid?

Wilma or Betty?

I identified with Betty's bustline.

Yes. I did, too.

Could never have been married to Barney though.

The kids were cute.

Yeah. But where are they today?

Moth Men?

Really?

Yeah.

But there seem to be only two of them.

I don't want to wrestle.

Get over here.

I'm going to try and keep you warm.

Sorry.

One of us has got to stay awake, Scully.

You sleep, Mulder.

If you get tired, you wake me.

I'm not going to get tired.

Why don't you sing something.

No, Mulder.

If you sing something, I'll know you're awake.

Mulder, you don't want me to sing.

I can't carry a tune.

Doesn't matter. Just sing anything.

Chorus.

Scully?!

Mm... over here!

What are you doing?

I'm looking for food.

I found some wild berries.

I wouldn't go far.

Mulder, you never left my sight.

Scully?

Scully? Scully?

Scully!

I'm down here.

Where?

I fell down a hole!

You all right?

Yeah.

I landed on soft dirt... kind of.

What's down there?

I don't know.

It's pretty dark.

Oh!

Scully, what's going on?

You okay?

I found Michele.

Is she alive?

Not for much longer.

Mulder, we have to get her out of here.

Is there a way out?

I don't know. I...

I'm in some kind of a chamber.

There's...

It's like...

some kind of network.

Mulder?

Yeah?

I'm not alone.

I don't have my weapon!

Mulder?!

Hold on, I'm going to drop my gun down.

Geez!

Mulder, are you okay?

Don't mind me.

Scully!

Mulder, look.

There has to be a scientific explanation for this.

Too bad we don't have any office furniture.

If they could see us now.

Go, team.

20 more bodies and we'll win the honey-baked ham.

Agent Mulder!

We're down here!

We're down here!

What are you doing down there?

We've got injured people down here.

We need a ladder.

Right away.

Hey, over here!

I love you.

Dad's going to be okay.

He's going to be okay.

He's going to be fine.

I'm just going to say good-bye.

Well, we just got all the thanks when you did all the work.

No, on the contrary, Agent Kinsley.

We would've never gotten involved in this

if not for you.

Really?

Yeah. You see this?

Oh, yeah, I pointed that out

to Agent Stonecypher on the drive down.

There was something in the cave that Scully fell into,

an inscription: ad noctum.

That's Latin...

Yeah, it means "into darkness."

The Spanish conquistadors used to carve it on the posts

that they would lash the natives to as a warning.

So, who are you saying wrote this?

Ponce de León came here 450 years ago

looking for the Fountain of Youth.

You mean, you think that these...

that-that body, the one that Agent Scully shot...?

No.

After 400 years in the woods, don't you think

they might have adapted perfectly to their environment?

You're just making this up.

Why do you say that?

'Cause you work on the X Files,

and you just want to write off your motel.

Search and rescue are still unable to find Jeff Glaser

or the second predator that you reported.

I wouldn't be surprised

if they couldn't find either one of them.

Agent Mulder, I'm confused.

Why would they come after the boy in the house that night?

These predators have been in these woods

for a long, long time.

They would've perceived any encroachment on their territory

as an enemy, even a little kid like that.

But that would mean that

they'd come after any one of us that had gone

into the woods, wouldn't it?

Where's Agent Scully?

Oh, she got a lift back to the motel

to pack up both your things.

She did? Excuse me.

My jacket's in that car.

Scully?!

Scully!

Mulder, what's going on?

Let's get out of here.

Okay.

You pack everything?

Yeah.

I made this!