MovieChat Forums > The X Files (1998) Discussion > How did Mulder and Scully get out of Ant...

How did Mulder and Scully get out of Antarctica?


Mulder's snow cat was out of gas, everyone else left in a big hurry and I don't think there was a radio available. I'm also pretty sure it was too far to walk to safety. So how did they get back home?


Wait, you have an iPhone? Aren't you homeless?

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[deleted]

Okay, that makes sense. Thanks!


Wait, you have an iPhone? Aren't you homeless?

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[deleted]

LOL. There was a kind of joke made about that in a later episode. Someone asked how they got back and the glossed over it. I don't remember which episode it was, but I laughed.

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The episode was "Alone", season 8. Here is the transcript of that scene:

HARRISON: Can I ask you something?

(SCULLY looks impassive, perhaps not sure what's coming.)

MULDER: Sure.

HARRISON: When you went to Antarctica to save Agent Scully from being taken by that spaceship and you ran out of gas in your Sno-cat. How did you get back?

(SCULLY looks enquiringly at MULDER, who is looking perplexed. Throughout the following dialogue, MULDER and SCULLY talk across each other, SCULLY is being scientific, MULDER is being MULDER, HARRISON is enjoying the banter. The whole scene is *very* enjoyable to watch.)

SCULLY: Um, well, first of all, it was never (coughs) actually proven that it was a spaceship ...

MULDER: It wasn't?

SCULLY: Well, no, what happened was that we fell off of something that ...

MULDER: Something?

SCULLY: ... that rose out of the ice.

MULDER: Well what do you think that was?

SCULLY: Well, I don't know what it was. But we never got, we didn't actually get to see a spaceship.

MULDER: I can't believe that you're saying it's not a spaceship.

SCULLY: Well, it couldn't have been a spaceship.

MULDER: Course it was a spaceship.

SCULLY: Well, we don't know it was a spaceship. But you don't have a picture of it or anything.

MULDER: You know it was a spaceship. You saw it.

SCULLY: No, no, no, no, remember, I was unconscious and when I woke up there was no spaceship.

MULDER: Now, come on, Scully. It was a spaceship.

SCULLY: Mulder, n-n-n-no.

SCULLY: And you were frozen, and I hugged you .... (Their voices trail off.)

(Camera pans out to corridor. DOGGETT is standing looking in as MULDER and SCULLY continue their debate. He looks sad and walks away down the corridor. Alone.)

[THE END]

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That's a good explanation. I once read a fanfic that had seismologists and other scientists chopper out to the site to investigate. I thought that seemed believable, too.

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Mulder's snow cat was out of gas, everyone else left in a big hurry and I don't think there was a radio available. I'm also pretty sure it was too far to walk to safety. So how did they get back home?

There are a lot of research stations located there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_stations_in_Antarctica
If you happen to remember the coordinates of where the spacecraft was located, find the research station on the list who is the closest.

One who is not on that list though, is the American McMurdo station, located at 77 degrees 51 minutes S, 166 degrees 40 minutes E.

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then why didn't he gas and drove it up to the hill where he spotted the ice stations?
he had to walk/run over there. you can see his footsteps behind just before he climbed that hill.

just sayin'...






things are worse than ever...

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If what the other poster says is true, then he's still looking for Scully without using any of his reserve gas. He knows that, even if he finds her, it would be for naught if they both freeze to death trying to get back without enough gas to do so. Plus, his vehicle would have alerted the people at the research station that he was there likely leading to his capture so he lucked out on that part.

But, like I said, that's if what the other poster said were true. As we all know, it's not made clear in the movie and, even when having the opportunity to let us in on that info in the show, they instead gloss it over(as another poster said).

I have learned from experience... that a modicum of snuff can be most efficacious.

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[deleted]


That's a good point.

I wondered about that even when he actually ran out of gas. I thought that Mulder really didn't prepare for this trip very well - even a kid would realize to bring extra gas, or at least enough gas for a 'round trip', there and back. But not our smart FBI agent named Mulder. What? How come he didn't bring enough gas to get back? What was he going to do? Teleport?

But since this movie had these weird scenes peppered throughout, I had stopped -seriously- wondering how everything happened, when they suddenly show Mulder/Scully (or both) safely away from danger, when they were in danger just a few seconds ago.

How did Scully get away from her sticky situation after the autopsy she performed? This was just shrugged off by mentioning that she spend half an hour under a table that morning, and no further mention happens (I am only trusting my weak-ish memory here, because I don't want to watch that again).

It's a military-controlled area with lots of security, and with an intruder alert - and she just .. walks out? What? How?

A lot of the movie was like that. So by the time they were in the arctic (or was it antarctic? I get those confused), I was already numbed to all this and took it as granted that this movie seems to be like this.

Bad writing, but that's what I expect of hollywtf nowadays, so this movie really fulfilled my expectations perfectly.

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They probably asked CSM and cie. for a ride. After all, what's a father for? It can't be any spookier than that city-size spaceship...

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How he got to Antarctica in time is a bigger question. There are no commercial flights to Antarctica. Most people get there by boat, which takes a while. There are private charter flights, such as from South Africa and Chile, that can get you there, but first you have to get to those places which aren't exactly short plane trips from Washington, D.C., and even if you can arrange for them to drop everything they're doing and fly you to Antarctica the moment you arrive, you're still looking at a long travel time overall.

Then, once you get to Antarctica, where do you get a snowcat? Do they have convenient snowcat rental places in Antarctica? There are tourist guide services there, but even if he can beg, borrow, or steal a snowcat from them, they obviously won't be located anywhere near the target coordinates; the "powers that be" would never allow public activity near their top secret site. No small aircraft is going to be transporting one of those snowcats anywhere either. So he'd be driving a long way in the snowcat, and they don't go very fast. Those big truck type snowcats like Mulder was driving only go about 10 MPH, and the fastest snowcats go about 25 MPH.

I don't dance, tell jokes or wear my pants too tight, but I do know about a thousand songs.

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