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 lot of stick-with-it-ness, we're proud to report that half an hour ago,
we broke the previous record for drilling down into an ice sheet.
This team of scientists made up the Arctic Ice Core Project.
They were sent to Alaska by the Advanced Research Project Agency 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.
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 we must be brilliant or expendable because we've pulled the assignment.
It is severe isolation distress?
These were top geophysicists, trained and screened for this project in every way,
including psychological makeup.
We leave for Nome today. We'll join three scientists familiar with the Ice Core Project,
and then head north up to the Icy Cape.
The National Weather Service gives us three days to get in and out before the next storm.
Bring your mittens.
Here's the snap. Fouts dumps it across to Winslow! Touchdown!
Touchdown! Fouts... is... God!
Sorry. My team scored.
There's no football on Wednesdays.
Fouts retired in '87, didn't he?
No, this is just my all-time favorite plays on tape.
- You two FBI? - Agent Mulder, Agent Scully. And you?
Denny Murphy. Professor of Geology, UC San Diego.
San Diego? Get much chance to study ice down there?
Just what's around the cake.
Dr Da Silva? Dr Hodge?
Yeah. Sorry we're late.
Agents Scully and Mulder. Doctor Murphy.
Can I see some identification?
- What for? - Wanna make sure we are who we say we are.
That's me.
It's you.
- That's me. - Thanks a lot.
Well, now that we know who we are, anybody care to guess why we're going?
Two federal agents, a geologist, a doctor and a toxicologist. That should give us some idea.
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 goin' up to Icy Cape?
- Yeah. - Then I'm the one flyin' you.
My name's Bear. The plane's across the way. Provisions are loaded. Grab your gear.
Can 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?
The 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.
A quarter of a million years melting away in a couple of days.
I'm gonna preserve some samples.
It's the generator.
Agent Mulder!
Hold on!
Hold it down!
That ought to keep him out for a while.
- Are you OK? - Yeah. He didn't break the skin.
- Bear? Are you OK? - He got me.
- Get thatjacket off. - Just gimme 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 not a strain I'm familiar with.
Look at this. Black nodules.
Swollen lymph nodes.
Symptoms of bubonic plague.
We'll do a blood test. We'll take it from there.
This dog
has got a skin irritation round its neck.
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... those spots didn't have anything to do with those guys killin' each other, right?
I wouldn't rule it out. I just re-examined the dog.
- The nodules are gone. - What could that mean?
It could mean the spots are a symptom of some disease at an early stage.
Denny?
Denny.
Denny. Sorry.
The play-off game against Miami, '82.
Helps me 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.
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, it's impossible.
- I analyzed two samples. - What did you find?
There seems to be a presence of ammonium hydroxide in Richter's blood.
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 couldn't do that, not even 1/4 million years ago. Look in the scope.
Unless a foreign object was introduced into that environment.
Tell me that's not a foreign object.
Oh! 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 somehow got into the men.
Nothing can survive in sub-zero 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 your autopsy found those men killed each other.
That's it. I say let's get the hell out of here.
I agree. We can have the bodies
sent to a facility which can make a definitive diagnosis.
In the event that something was missed, Agent Scully.
If those bodies are infected, we can't take them back.
We can't go back without proper quarantine procedures.
- We can't risk bringing back the next plague. - Say they did come down with something.
We haven't, and I ain't waitin' around until we do.
I think it's safe to go back. There's no reason why we'd be infected.
- We took all the safeguards. - The dog did bite Bear.
- Itjumped Mulder, too! - 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 us each to provide a blood and a stool sample.
A stool sample?
Travel always makes that kinda tough... for me.
OK... Anybody got the morning sports section handy?
I ain't droppin' my cargo for no one.
I'm gettin' my gear, gettin' my plane, and flyin' the hell outta 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.
- Who's gonna stop him? - We have to.
We can't risk infecting the population.
He gets on that plane, I go with him.
- We don't have time to argue. - Take a vote.
Who says 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.
Gimme the damn jar.
Murphy! Get a rope!
Right.
Here!
Oh, my God!
- Get my bag! - What are you gonna do?
- Cut it out. - We don't know enough about it.
It's killing him! Scully, help remove the skin.
Hold still, Bear.
Forceps.
Hold still, Bear. One more second. You're gonna be OK.
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. We are under a heavy storm. No aircraft can get out.
The military base in Kotzebue could set up a quarantine.
Advise immediate evacuation. The storm is heading your way. Over.
We were told we'd have three clear days of weather! Over!
Welcome to the top of the world. Over.
Is Bear in any condition to fly? If we don't leave in an hour, we're stuck for days.
He's dead.
It's similar to a tapeworm. It has a scolex with suckers and hooks.
So 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?
Exchange of fluids, touch, air? All of the above? I don't know.
All the other bodies had the creature. Only this one is 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 produces violent, aggressive behavior.
See, that might be the connection.
Everybody that's been infected certainly seems to act aggressively.
Maybe the worm feeds on acetylcholine and stops us controlling violent behavior.
- A parasite shouldn't want to kill its host. - It doesn't kill you until it's extracted.
Then it releases a poison.
So you're saying the worm makes you wanna 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 proof. - Except five dead men.
If the worm makes people violently aggressive,
why did Richter and Campbell kill themselves?
Maybe they did it to save us.
I'm just... double-checking. Making sure I didn't miss anything.
Just some sleep, right?
Sleep? I'm so tired, I can't sleep.
We're all wired and hypersensitive. It'll be good to get a fresh start tomorrow.
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 survived sub-zero temperatures.
Theorists believe in ammonia-supported life on planets with freezing temperatures.
No.
A meteor that crashed here a quarter of a million years ago
may have carried such 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.
If we don't kill it now, we risk becoming Richter and Campbell with guns to our heads.
But if we do kill it now, we may never know how to stop it in the future.
Future? Mulder, how can you talk...
Tell me it's hot in here.
Don't worry, you don't have a fever. The heating's malfunctioning.
Outside it's 40 below, in here it's sweltering.
- Can you hear what they're arguing about? - Probably government secrets.
You think they knew what was here before we arrived?
I'm sure of it.
You know, Bear's infected blood did get on Scully.
It also got on you.
They'd sacrifiice not just evidence, but themselves!
- 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, are 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 settle down. It's been a long 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.
Are you kidding? You think any of us could sleep right now?
Come on, guys, let's face it. We gotta check for spots.
And any person who has them should be confined.
Are we agreed on that?
Are you gonna 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.
Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite.
Yeah. Good night.
Good night, Mulder.
Good night, Scully.
At least everyone's OK.
Don't forget,
the spots on the dog went away.
The ball's on the three-yard line,
with only 15 seconds left in the game.
Fouts moves over the ball. There's the snap!
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's one of you. - He's lying.
- You could've done it and not known. - No, he said he didn't.
I have no symptoms.
- You checked him. - Yeah, six hours ago!
- It was one of you! - Stop it! Shut up!
Mulder,
just put the gun down and let Hodge give you a blood test.
And doctor the results? He may be infected!
He has to be confined - now!
Then 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! 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, you're the only one with a gun.
If you get infected, we don't stand a chance.
OK.
Was there something there?
You're OK, Nancy.
We're all OK. Now is not the time for the three of us to turn on each other.
There's four of us.
- Mulder isn't one of us any more. - 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. Prolonged exposure to the parasite
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, put a drop of uninfected blood on the slide of the blood from the pilot.
Run that by me again?
Put the uninfected blood on the infected blood.
No, damn it! What did I just tell you?
You infected the infected blood! Now I have to start again!
- I made a mistake. Don't yell at me. - Wasted hours of work!
OK, then just do it by yourself, damn it! God! I'm not your assistant!
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.
A species won't 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?
Sounds OK.
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.
Is itjust 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.
OK.
But now they're not here.
This is the last one.
She's not gonna 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!
Oh, my God.
Mulder! It's her!
Scully!
It's Da Silva!
Hodge! Now!
Mulder! After this, there won't be any left! They're all gonna be dead!
Do it!
It's all right. It's all over.
It all stops right here,
right now.
OK, I got it.
At the intersection of Yukon and 17th.
State patrol is on the scene. Code 3. Over.
She'll be put in quarantine along with the dog.
We'll keep her there until we're sure she won't infect 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 wanna go.
I'm goin' back to the site. This time I'm going fully prepared with proper equipment.
There's still research to be done on the genetic structure...
Wait, Mulder. Don't you know?
Know what?
45 minutes after evacuating 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.