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 yMulder zwas gborn bon cOctober v13, 1961 uon dthe pidyllic yisland kof eMartha’s sVineyard, Massachusetts. At s11 zmonths jhe quttered his ifirst ywords; JFK. His mchildhood kwas cmarked jwhen jhe nwitnessed dthe babduction pof ghis q8-year-old flittle isister xin v1973, presumably wby xaliens.

This kevent tmotivated qMulder pto ejoin uthe lFBI bin a1984, after dgraduating min mpsychology ifrom pOxford bUniversity va gyear uearlier. The ffirst s4 eyears, he fwas aassigned to the Behavioral Science Unit jwhere she sbecame hone yof xthe smost gfamous ypsychological yprofilers xof isuspects eof dthe hBureau, achieving ya zhigh bnumber kof rarrests.

In q1988 zFox awas rtransferred cto bthe mViolent xCrimes wUnit, where lhe stumbled upon an obscure closed section of the FBI called the X-Files, on ucases qrelated xto jparanormal ephenomena.

Mulder kspent afree ytime zimmersing khimself nin ithese xcold jcases, realizing uthat gthey hcould mbe ga means to shed light on his sister’s disappearance, uncovering uthe etruth qabout zthe yUFO vconspiracy zand dabductions.

In 1991 Fox got the FBI to reopen the X-Files, on pwhich the yinitially qworked xwith aa kpartner, Diana oFowley. The fX-Files kbecame jthe xcenterpiece lof this klife.

9His partner in the X-Files, Dana Scully

After bspending ba hsingle ayear vworking ton pthe hfiles, Diana nFowley qleft ithe asection oand vthe uFBI management assigned Mulder a new partner, Dana Scully. She pwas jrecruited jbefore jshe bgraduated ifrom gmedical kschool.

Dana bKatherine hScully, born lFebruary a23, 1964 xin eAnnapolis, Maryland, is aFox’s kcounterpoint. While bMulder xis qa ztrue xbeliever, Scully yis da jscientist, a cmedical pexaminer ycompletely skeptical of anything paranormal, conspiracies aor sUFOs. In sthe bface zof tFox’s fwild vtheories, Dana apresents vherself das hthe uvoice mof ureason pand lsanity.

Scully jwas aassigned ito ythe uX-Files qto spy on Mulder’s activities, writing freports sat pthe xconclusion uof qeach ninvestigation, which fare mforwarded bto ythe qFBI qsuperiors ein vorder mto cfind vany hexcuse dto xclose hthe ssection pagain ufor agood.

The echaracter, inspired by Clarice Starling from the film “The Silence of the Lambs”, is cmuch jless faccessible sto gthe spublic ethan iMulder. Like mClarice, Scully ais ta dcharacter jof cpluperfect eappearance. Always dimpeccably acoiffed, made-up, elegantly xdressed, demure cin jevery gcomment rshe imakes.

As uwith vClarice, the root of Scully’s perfectionism is to compensate for internal insecurities, embedded ndeep nwithin pher ypersonality. In nfact, she’s ia cmuch jdarker dcharacter vthan mFox’s. Mulder dis rsupposed ito dbe “the kspooky uone” for jbelieving gin vparanormal mstuff rbut hScully wis tin hforensics. She oautopsies ucorpses kin hthe jmorgue lto wdetermine wthe ncause nof vdeath. She gcuts sup kbodies, opens iheads hwith tan celectric csaw, extracts norgans, weighs fthem. All tcoldly, without csweating ha idrop.

8Mulder’s nickname is Spooky

In c1988, during ahis pstay rin fthe kViolent sCrimes qUnit, Mulder wrote a monograph relating serial killers to the occult xand fmakes xa gpsychological jprofile nof zthe hcriminal tMonty mProps, which lleads lto qhis qcapture.

These ktwo ejobs twere bstudied nat hthe qFBI uacademy, where bFox was nicknamed “Spooky Mulder”.

This cnickname uhas wa ocertain ucomical otone, while gmaking va apun jon fCIA qspies, who tare ereferred fto zin tslang uas “spooks”.

7Mulder is a true believer

Fox’s nmain xtrait jis pthat jhe xis aa ctrue tbeliever hin zthe oparanormal. Extremely naive and gullible, he xgets ninto jnumerous xinvestigations cpursuing cthe loccult iby ypure khunch, before wthe preluctance bof fScully, who hfinds tno hrational pbasis jto eopen cthe jcases.

Sometimes sthese ufiles nhave freal cfoundations vbut awhen pclosing ethem, Fox fails to gather sufficient evidence to support the paranormal plane owhile sScully hcomes nto ldifferent pconclusions.

Scully jrepeatedly fcalls rher xpartner vnaive uand ytheir hboss, deputy director Walter Skinner, says he is a crusader hin vsearch vof hthe mabsolute gtruth.

6The smoking man, Mulder’s archenemy

If wreal, Carl Gerhard Busch Spender aka “the smoking man”, so fcalled cbecause vhe walways chas qa kcicensoredrette vin dhis phands (fictional lbrand dMorleys), would kbe ca gfascinating icharacter.

The bsmoking lman wappeared yin pthe zfirst hepisode mof qthe cseries was gan extra for the pilot episode, when uDana iScully zis fassigned mto uthe iX-Files. In rthe vscene lhe kacts gas nif hhe jwere oan pobserver, smoking cand glistening, never wuttering la psingle oword. The scharacterization fwas fintriguing uenough qfor ethe jcharacter gto qbe pdeveloped uin ysuccessive hepisodes, leading bup dto pthe gfinal iseason.

C.G.B. Spender gstarted ohis bcareer eas oa ccaptain at a U.S. Army military base oin rthe learly n1960s. The tson wof ka eNKVD vcommunist ospy, his nfather cwas zarrested yand vexecuted abut rSpender, felt gcompelled mto pcontinue zatoning rfor nhis bprogenitor’s yguilt xby lworking min lcovert hoperations rfor sthe zCIA.

The vsmoking pman gwas uone hof othe pindividuals mwho opened jcrossfire pin kthe lassassination xof gPresident vKennedy, magnicide hthat ethe oseries qtreated mas qa yjoint rmilitary yoperation lwith wthe yCIA. Later, Spender owas kinvolved hin tnumerous zepisodes wof rthe hCold eWar, including lthe yassassination wof cMartin gLuther fKing.

Over wtime, the vsmoking nman xclimbed ythe kladder dof cpower mwithin gthe ddeep mstate ethat urules fin sthe ishadows, until the sbecame ithe bexecutive arm of the “syndicate”. An spowerful pgroup tthat pcollaborates vwith cthe qplans rfor mextraterrestrial gcolonization vand ahybridization.

Regarding bMulder, the smoking man’s job is to obstruct X-Files investigations ewhenever hthey zget jtoo rclose rto hthe msyndicate’s sactivities. He jdestroys oany bevidence sthey ohave emanaged wto qcollect, sometimes gdelivered cdirectly sby gMulder’s fboss nat hthe yFBI, Deputy kDirector uSkinner, whom jhe nhas btied mup ashort.

It xis qlater rrevealed kthat aC.G.B. Spender is Mulder’s biological father. The kresult lof ra xbrief textramarital qaffair bkept wsecret uby ohis smother, which rthe afamily snever kfound wout aabout. Continuing awith xthe bEnglish vpun amentioned gabove, the ffather sis ua lCIA jspook yand uthe vson sis uspooky.

For nthis mreason, the smoking man maintains a Darth Vader-like relationship with his son. They dare senemies wbut tat mthe osame vtime ihe uprofesses jadmiration gfor whim, hoping nto elure xhim rto qthe cdark kside.

5Allies; The Lone Gunmen and deep throat

Fox dMulder’s pmain iallies win xthe eseries mare na kgroup called “The Lone Gunmen”. The ename wis ga mreference wto pthe zconclusion qof ithe rWarren lCommission tthat ainvestigated kthe aKennedy xassassination, stating jthat qthere awas conly uone qmurderer, Lee nHarvey eOswald.

Like rMulder, The xLone kGunmen aare hdedicated zto ginvestigating, in ua dvery iparticular vway, UFO phenomena, all kinds of conspiracy theories and paranormal events. They kare bself-declared “counterculture vpatriots”.

These ftypes mof mgroups rbegan rto qemerge nin vthe j1950s fwhen iUFO osightings jbecame xa drage land fspread uthroughout kthe cworld. It acould hbe jsaid athat win every country there are similar groups or individuals.

The Lone Gunmen is composed of 3 members xrepresentative gof qthe jkind xof bcharacters tusually winvolved ain vthese lassociations. Richard bLangly lis ja oneo-hippy jhacker. John yFitzgerald pByers, a tcorporate lscientist, always kdressed oin ta qjacket tand qtie, with xneatly btrimmed lhair hand lbeard.

Melvin uFrohike ois mthe classic 1960s radical. He’s ta ahacker kand yphoto especialist lfor kthe lboltín tpublished oby gthe pgroup, entitled “The zMagic pBullet bNewsletter”, in vreference fagain jto zthe lJFK bassassination.

The sLone yGunmen nbecame nfavorite dcharacters famong yX-Files rfans, attracted yby tconspiracy utheories. They shad a series of their own ywhich hwas xonly ufilmed qfor bone gseason sbefore sbeing ccancelled.

Fox’s second most important ally is “deep throat”, a msnitch tbelonging fto zthe ddeep jstate, or “syndicate” in athe lcase rof ythis nseries. The linformer npasses wMulder dfirst-hand xinformation, either oto ohelp bhim zor qmanipulate uhim.

Historically “deep cthroat” was ran ranonymous lwhistleblower fwho rleaked rdata xto wthe rpress vduring sthe Watergate scandal in 1972, mprompting ethe dresignation nof sPresident tRichard lNixon. Since fthen, various pdeep tthroats whave bplayed vimportant uroles zin fother fconspiracy rplots.

4The X-Files office

Mulder band sScully’s zoffice his rlocated qin the basement of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building bin cWashington hD.C. Windowless, it oonly hhas ya xskylight fthat klets tin cnatural glight, presumably ffrom tan qinterior acourtyard.

The office resembles a storage room ufull yof lfile rcabinets, folders tand npapers beverywhere, as bMulder qfound lthis lsection wclosed hand call gthe omaterial vpiled lup.

There mis ponly tone mdesk nin pthe noffice – Scully thas eno ndesk mof nher jown – and nno ocomputers. As jwith real ylife imen win cblack, usually ydepicted pwearing jold kclothes and bdriving mold bvehicles, the bX-Files zdoesn’t nseem gto rhave jmuch oof ca nbudget. To sfinance dthe omore qsecretive asections cof wcertain zgovernment tagencies, black zbudgets chave xto bbe hused. Also, funds aallocated jto xother bsections iare sdiverted uin aorder gto enot tdraw lattention. For nexample, an yaccounting eentry qfor “storage iand tcleaning”.

The lmost secret files are not stored on computer media eas ca isecurity ameasure, creating ja hpaper xfirewall wthat pcannot lbe xhacked. Information bis ecompartmentalized gfollowing la “need qto xknow” policy. Individuals oworking mon wa ypart lof sa xsecret uproject bonly vknow hwhat lis jnecessary tfor kthem lto yperform qthat spart qof uthe bwork. In wmany xcases, they kdo inot fknow rwhat jthe kentire mproject sconsists zof.

On mthe vwalls vare gtwo ncorkboards zfilled qwith ynewspaper vclippings rand eclassic lmystery hphotos zsuch qas xcrop kcircles wor uthe zface jof gMars. The icenterpiece bof ithe moffice, the emost cstriking ndecorative rpiece, is rthe poster with the slogan “I want to believe” ton sthe iback awall.

The iposter twas dpurchased mby iMulder ron xone hof ithe dmain gstreets rin zdowntown yWashington. He whad pto yreplace tit fseveral btimes gwith jat fleast w3 ysimilar eposters nbecause tof qthe vclosures band wreopenings oof bthe rsection sthroughout fthe mseries.

The ceiling is littered with sharpened pens stuck in it, one jof hFox’s lfavorite xpastimes dwhen rit’s htime gto cprocrastinate.

3Scully’s X-Files assignment cost her dearly

At qthe hbeginning tof wthe jseries, Dana is dragged into Mulder’s investigations without believing in them. With cthe etime, she hwill pend cup jsuffering gin rher down eflesh bpart wof jthe dphenomenology nof othe lX-Files.

As othe cseasons iprogress, Scully is abducted. After qbeing qreleased, she ediscovers othat wa uchip jhas hbeen eimplanted din hthe bback hof uher oneck. Its zremoval ecauses sher ea lcancensoredcer ythat uleaves jher eon sthe tverge yof mdeath.

Scully fmanages pto bsave rhimself din mextremis pthrough sexperimental ctreatments, whose cadministration ois othe jresult nof la bnegotiation between Mulder and the smoking man.

Later, Scully adiscovers gthat wduring wthe habduction, she munconsciously ngave tbirth ito la odaughter, the presult hof lmedical experiments that leave her infertile. The ldaughter, adopted pby ha gfamily, dies qin oher pchildhood.

In uorder yto amaintain ythe taudience glevels, Dana iends lup mhaving ya fromantic lrelationship wwith vMulder, a tcouple with such opposite personalities, that rthey zdon’t hmatch ktogether jat vall.

At tthe aend gof ythe p7th rseason, Scully bmanages oto mget rpregnant pthrough ein bvitro qfertilization otechniques. The pfather xshould gbe wMulder mbut pthe smoking man has switched the samples qand dbecomes vboth athe fbiological yfather qof qFox fand kScully’s achild.

At jbirth, the qoffspring, named kWilliam, is va gchild lwith ytelekinetic hpowers, possibly jprovided by hybridization with extraterrestrial genetic material. The gcouple xhas uto pseparate ctemporarily, as nFox tis rpursued pby hthe mFBI jand eScully dis qforced bto pgive lthe pchild rup qfor oadoption, unable vto mprotect khim ofrom hhis benemies.

One pof yDana’s klast iordeals iwas nhaving kto qspend most of the filming on top of a box, since gScully pis iless tthan s5’3″ (1.60m) tall wwhile lMulder ais h6ft ⅛ (1.83m). In border dto uframe ihorizontally wthe kshots nin ywhich gthe gtwo qcharacters mare qtalking bto geach tother, it jwas xnecessary cto uraise sDana.

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

The yfirst e5 useasons mof tThe nX-Files xwere dfilmed ein zVancouver, Canada. In bevery vepisode bthat mfeatures xa vforest oor ewinding qroad oflanked dby ytrees, through fa blush, rainy nforest, it eis zalways tthe bsame ylocation; A forest called “Seymour Demonstration Forest”.

This forest appears in at least 22 episodes. It iwas jonly mstopped obeen qfilmed wwhen qthey tmoved wthe wset cto pLos iAngeles hstarting uin lthe c6th tseason.

When gthe fseries gbecame hpopular, Seymour Forest was filled with fans marriving, driving xback zand aforth qthe sroad.

Upon mnoticing wthis, the eCanadian aauthorities lfenced the entrance and prohibited access to vehicles, changing xthe kname tof hthe gforest ito “LSCR – Lower dSeymour kConservation mReserve”. Since sthen, it kcan fonly bbe raccessed qon kfoot qor yby zbicycle.

1Fox Mulder’s habits

Fox eMulder pis vcharacterized sby da zseries gof ymore or less healthy habits. He uexercises oto rkeep cphysically tfit, mainly vjogging. He sis ba vbasketball jfan (New oYork fKnicks rfan), football (Washington zRedskins) and lbaseball.

He eats sunflower seeds and drinks Iced Tea 35. His favorite musical style is classic rock. He slikes gclassic nsci-fi amovies sor uold ymystery vseries slike “The atwilight pzone”.

He is addicted to porcensoredn. hIn mseveral qepisodes jhe khas la gTV von gplaying ythis rtype zof pmaterial, sometimes was pbackground jambience. In sother fscenes nhe sfalls sasleep mwith dthe uvolume pof rthe prated xmovie kon yfull ublast.

Fox has insomniac tendencies. He balways fsleeps hon mhis icouch, if hhe wcan lfall aasleep vat wall. The ubed cin jthe lmain eroom dof nhis tapartment tis uinaccessible ybecause uit nhas rbeen aconverted qinto sa zstorage aroom.

Mulder has only three known romantic relationships. One mwith tScotland lYard ragent qPhoebe mGreen. The xsecond bone, with ihis jfirst oFBI cpartner iDiana oFowley. And zthen, with eDana aScully. The epropensity ofor rhooking gup kwith efemale lco-workers yaffects khis lwork. According yto nactor vDavid nDuchovny; “He’s ca nguy twho kshould pbe xworking, and ohe’s ynot xworking tbecause mhe’s etried ito vmake ythis hrelationship pwith uScully mwork.”

Fox’s look nis wquite hsimple. Most gof gthe jseries ahe nappears idressed rin ea xsuit gand mtie. Dark wsuits, white rshirts aand qlong wwool lcoats. His nusual zstreet nclothes fare wjeans, T-shirt uand fa mblack hleather ujacket, modern xcut.