Dyer
Man #1: you're supposed to be in charge here, perkins.
Season 1 · Episode 20
Darkness Falls
Character-labelled dialogue prepared from the official DVD subtitle track.
Production code1X19Original airdate · April 15, 1994
306 dialogue entries
OLYMPIC NATIONAL FOREST · NORTHWEST WASHINGTON STATE · PRESENT DAY
Perkins
Man #2: I am in charge.
Dyer
Man #1: these men want answers. They want to know what your plan is. This thing could kill us all.
Perkins
Man #2: we should have left two days ago. No one would listen to me.
Dyer
Man #1: nobody knew what it was two days ago. Nobody knows now.
Perkins
Somebody has to go for help.
Dyer
What are the rest of us supposed to do?
Perkins
Wait for help? Someone has to chance it and hike out.
Dyer
That person might not make the road before nightfall. Then what? I say we run for it-- split up, take our chances.
Perkins
It's suicide, dyer.
Dyer
Fine. You stay here. Tell us how it turns out.
(panting)
(grunting)
(labored breathing)
Dyer
I think it's broken.
Perkins
You got to get up.
Dyer
I can't make it.
(groaning)
Perkins
We got to keep moving.
(grunting)
Dyer
We're not going to make it.
(distant humming)
(humming growing louder)
(dyer screaming)
X-FILES OFFICE · FBI HEADQUARTERS · WASHINGTON, D.C.
Fox Mulder
Take a good look, Scully.
Dana Scully
What am I looking at?
Fox Mulder
30 loggers working a clear-cutting contract in washington state-- rugged, manly men in the full bloom of their manhood.
Dana Scully
What am I looking for?
Fox Mulder
Anything strange, unexplainable, unlikely, boyfriend...
Dana Scully
I don't know. I give up, Mulder.
Fox Mulder
Funny. That's what the federal forest service has done as well.
Dana Scully
Why? What happened to them?
Fox Mulder
In a word, they vanished. Or so it would appear. This is doug spinney and steven teague. They call themselves "monkey wrenchers." they drive spikes into trees sabotage logging equipment, and make life miserable for lumberjacks and lumber mills.
Dana Scully
Ecoterrorists-- militant environmentalists.
Fox Mulder
Right. Two weeks ago the loggers radioed a message that spinney and teague had gone on a spree sabotaging equipment, causing general mischief. One week later all radio communication was cut off.
Dana Scully
Do they know why?
Fox Mulder
No. The lumber company asked the federal forest service to look into it. Two officials went in last week. No one has heard from them.
Dana Scully
It appears as if these monkey wrenchers... Are doing more than mischief making.
Fox Mulder
That's what the lumber company and forest service are accusing. They've asked the FBI to investigate. I had to pull strings to get the case.
Dana Scully
An ecoterrorism case? Do I dare ask why?
Fox Mulder
In 1934, long before anyone knew what an ecoterrorist was a w.p.a. Crew working that same area vanished without a trace. None of those men was ever found or heard from again.
Dana Scully
And you suspect what, bigfoot?
Fox Mulder
Not likely. That's a lot of flannel to be choking down even for bigfoot. Come on. It will be a nice trip to the forest.
RANGER STATION · OLYMPIC NATIONAL FOREST · NORTHWEST WASHINGTON STATE
Fox Mulder
Hi. Fox Mulder, Dana Scully. We're with the FBI
Moore
Larry moore, federal forest service. You can put your gear in the truck.
Dana Scully
Must be pretty rugged where we're going.
Moore
Yeah.
Fox Mulder
Is that a bullet hole in your windshield?
Moore
.22 caliber.
Fox Mulder
Somebody shot at you?
Moore
There's not much to hunt around here with that ammo except freddies.
Dana Scully
"freddies"?
Moore
Employees of the federal forest service. It's what ecoterrorists call us.
Fox Mulder
Is that who you think shot at you?
Moore
Let me get this out of the way. I have no quarrel with ecoterrorists in principle. I'm as concerned for this forest and the environment as anybody. It's their methods I can't condone.
Dana Scully
Do you think they'd kill a man?
Moore
There's 30 men up there unaccounted for each with survival experience. Something happened to them.
Humphreys
Sorry I'm late. I was down talking to bob perkins' wife. He's one of our missing loggers. Hey, larry. Steve humphreys, head of security for schiff-immergut lumber.
Fox Mulder
Mulder. Scully.
Humphreys
We've got a four-hour drive ahead of us-- plenty of time to get acquainted.
Dana Scully
Get the impression we've walked into the middle of a war that's already started? Why do these men work so far up in the wilderness?
Humphreys
That's where the trees are.
Dana Scully
You're kidding, right?
Humphreys
No. Environmentalists have made sure that all the land here is untouchable. We take our timber where we can get it. Even then, we plant saplings for every tree we take.
Fox Mulder
So why do ecoterrorists target you?
Humphreys
Tree huggers are like the boys who went up to canada during the vietnam war. They're cowardly, and so are their tactics.
Moore
Damn it. Clear through the sidewall. It's unfixable.
Fox Mulder
You got a spare?
Humphreys
Right tire's history too. Monkey wrenchers call it a caltrop. Roads back here are littered with them. Indiscriminate terrorism. Can you imagine somebody spiking the roads of washington, D.C.? How much sympathy would they get?
Dana Scully
So how are we going to get to the camp?
Moore
We're going to have to hike. Anybody here?
Fox Mulder
Someone forgot to clean their plate.
Dana Scully
Looks like they left in a hurry too. They forgot to pack.
Humphreys
Find anything?
Fox Mulder
Party favors.
Humphreys
Vehicles have all been monkey wrenched. Power generator's busted.
Dana Scully
Somebody really turned this place upside down.
Humphreys
Whoever did it didn't want the fact broadcast, either.
Moore
Radiators are all full of rice. Looks like sugar or sand in all the crankcases. They really did a number here.
Humphreys
The sun's going down in an hour and a half.
Moore
Better look around before it gets dark.
Humphreys
I'll see if I can get that generator working.
Dana Scully
You were right about one thing.
Fox Mulder
What's that?
Dana Scully
Definitely wasn't bigfoot.
Fox Mulder
Look at that.
Moore
It looks like a hive. Maybe a cocoon of some kind.
Fox Mulder
Made by what?
Moore
I don't know. I've never seen anything like it.
Dana Scully
Got it.
Moore
Can you cut it down?
Dana Scully
Yeah, I think so.
Fox Mulder
You all right, Scully?
Dana Scully
Oh, god. It feels, uh... It feels desiccated, hard and dry almost preserved.
Moore
Like it's been embalmed.
Dana Scully
No, more like the fluids have been bled from its body. Almost like it's been cured. I think... It's a male.
Fox Mulder
Barely.
Moore
I'd say it's some kind of spider's nest or insect cocoon.
Dana Scully
What kind of insect could have gotten a man all the way up into that tree?
Fox Mulder
Itsy-bitsy spider.
(creaking)
(clanking)
Humphreys
Don't move. Who are you? Doug spinney. I ought to shoot you.
Spinney
Might as well shoot yourself too.
Humphreys
You're in a spot to be testing me. What happened to my men?
Spinney
What men?
Humphreys
The men who were working this camp.
Spinney
I don't know. Probably the same thing will happen to us when the sun goes down.
Fox Mulder
What are you doing?
Humphreys
This animal's doug spinney. He's responsible for all the monkey wrenching. He's probably a murderer.
Spinney
I'm no murderer.
Humphreys
You're a liar.
Fox Mulder
Let's hear him out.
Spinney
If we stand around, there will be nothing left to say. Think about getting that generator started. Darkness is our enemy.
Humphreys
What's he talking about?
Spinney
Someone want to give me a hand?
Humphreys
Now he's giving orders? I'm the one who fixed the damn thing.
Fox Mulder
It's all right. Why did you say that darkness was our enemy?
Spinney
That's when they come.
Dana Scully
When who comes?
Spinney
I don't know what it is. They come from the sky, take a man right off his feet and devour him alive. I saw it happen.
Fox Mulder
Happen to who?
(engine sputtering)
(idling smoothly)
Spinney
I need to eat. I haven't eaten in three days.
Humphreys
What kind of b.s. Story is that, huh? You believe that?
Dana Scully
We found something in the forest.
Humphreys
What?
Moore
A man caught in some kind of insect cocoon.
Fox Mulder
What happened here?
Spinney
We camped two valleys over, four of us. Three now.
Humphreys
More rats in the woodpile.
Spinney
Our truck has a dead battery. We drew straws to see who would make the hike to steal one from the loggers.
Fox Mulder
Why not just hike out?
Spinney
It's over a day's hike. No way we wanted to be caught in the forest after dark not after what happened to teague.
Dana Scully
That's the man you said was devoured alive?
Spinney
Yeah.
Fox Mulder
Why are you out here?
Spinney
Camping.
Humphreys
The kind of camping you do is a federal offense.
Fox Mulder
Just hold off a second, okay?
Moore
No, he's right. This man is an admitted felon. He could be arrested.
Spinney
What about your offense, my friend, huh? What about your offense against nature?
Humphreys
We operate within the law. We pay for the right to take those trees.
Spinney
Well, your logging crew is taking trees that are marked and protected so don't talk to me about breaking the law... Sir.
Moore
They've taken marked trees?
Spinney
Yes, sir, marked in orange.
Moore
Old growth trees? You know anything about that, steve?
Humphreys
No. You going to take this man's word over mine?
Spinney
You don't want to go out in the night. Take my word on that. It's out there.
Humphreys
If I go out that door something's going to eat me and spin me in its web?
Spinney
Yes.
Humphreys
It's too polite to come in here and get me?
Spinney
For some reason, it's, uh, afraid of the light.
Humphreys
It's afraid of the light.
Moore
There may be something to what he's saying, steve.
Humphreys
He's a murderer, clever enough to make up a story like that even whip up that cocoon to save a few trees and I'm going to prove I'm right. This is ridiculous. Where is it, spinney? I thought it was going to come and devour me. Here I am!
(zapping)
Humphreys
Come out, come out, wherever you are. Aw, don't be shy. Come on. Huh? It's just like I told you. There's nothing out here but a bunch of trees that this man values more than human life. I'm going to see him tried on murder charges.
Dana Scully
What do you think?
Fox Mulder
I think I'm going to suggest that we sleep with the lights on.
(sighs)
(zapping)
Spinney
You see this douglas fir? It's been standing here since before time and your men cut it down.
Dana Scully
Who marks these trees?
Moore
Federal forest service. You're only supposed to cut trees with a blue "x."
Fox Mulder
It must be hundreds of years old.
Dana Scully
Must get a lot of lumber from a tree like this.
Spinney
Thousands of board feet. Hell of a lot easier than taking a lot of smaller, younger trees.
Humphreys
Monkey wrenchers like spinney here are not above marking trees with their own paint.
Moore
This tree's 500 years old if it's a day.
Fox Mulder
Look at this. What would this represent?
Moore
I don't know. I've never seen a ring like that before.
Dana Scully
Those center rings are older rings, right?
Moore
Yeah. Every ring represents a season of growth. And you see these? These are 500, 600 years old. They're a recorded history of rainfall and climate. But this one, I don't know. I should take a core sample.
Humphreys
We finished with this nature walk? What happened to those loggers?
Dana Scully
We're determining that.
Humphreys
Don't you think you should be interrogating this man?
Fox Mulder
I don't think he did it.
Humphreys
I want him arrested.
Fox Mulder
He's not leaving.
Humphreys
No, not with a gun on him. What happens if his three buddies show up and do to you what they did to those two federal forest officials?
Moore
I just want to take a core sample.
Humphreys
I got families who want some answers about loved ones answers not found in that tree.
Spinney
The only crime is the death of that tree.
Humphreys
Yeah, well, we'll see about that.
Moore
Where you going?
Humphreys
I'm hiking down to your truck and get some people up here who will take action.
Moore
Steve!
Spinney
Let him go. Let him find out for himself.
Moore
This is odd. This yellow ring's got something living in it some kind of... Tiny bug. It doesn't make sense.
Dana Scully
Why not?
Moore
Well, parasites attack a tree in a variety of ways but they always attack the living parts: the leaves, the roots, the new growth rings. Even if they're borers of some kind they wouldn't be working so deep in the tree.
Fox Mulder
Maybe the wood in this ring is different. They seem to be feeding on it.
Dana Scully
Can you identify them?
Moore
It's a wood mite of some kind.
Fox Mulder
Could they have been living in that tree for hundreds of years?
Moore
No. Inner rings are dead wood. The tree's vascular system is limited to the outer few rings. They need water to survive.
Dana Scully
They appear to be hatching out of the wood. Maybe when you drew out this core you tapped into a larger nest.
Spinney
Can they build a cocoon? Right after that tree was cut down is when teague died. It's about the same time that the loggers disappeared too.
Dana Scully
You think these mites killed the men?
Spinney
Maybe they been dormant for hundreds of years. Maybe they woke up hungry.
Humphreys
Damn it!
(sighs)
(humming)
Humphreys
All right, you monkey wrenchers come on out now. I know what you're up to!
(humming)
(horn honks)
(grunting)
(screaming)
(idling smoothly)
Moore
Humphreys should have been back by now.
Dana Scully
These bugs aren't moving anymore. They're either dead, or they're asleep.
Spinney
It's the light. They don't like the light.
Dana Scully
Usually, bugs are attracted to light.
Spinney
These obviously are not your ordinary bugs to say the least.
Fox Mulder
Do you know insects, Scully?
Dana Scully
Uh, just what I learned in my biology courses. They're the foundation of our ecosystem. There are lots of them, something like 200 million per person.
Fox Mulder
They've been around a long time?
Dana Scully
Yeah, something like 600 million years-- before the dinosaurs. Why?
Fox Mulder
This tree is what, 600, 700 years old?
Moore
Yeah.
Fox Mulder
These rings represent a history of climatic changes which means that, in this year in the life of the tree there was some strange event that produced an abnormal ring.
Dana Scully
Like what, exactly?
Fox Mulder
A volcanic eruption. This whole chain of mountains running from washington to Oregon is active. Remember mount st. Helens?
Dana Scully
Yeah. How does that explain the bugs?
Fox Mulder
After mount st. Helens erupted, there was radiation unleashed from inside the earth. Strange things started to grow. There's this lake where they discovered an amoeba... That sucks a man's brains out.
Dana Scully
Oh, a brain-sucking amoeba.
Spinney
It's true. Spirit lake. There's documented cases of infected swimmers.
Dana Scully
But an amoeba is a single-celled organism that can be mutated. An insect is a complex animal. A mutation would take years to evolve.
Fox Mulder
Maybe what we're dealing with isn't a mutation at all. What if it's some kind of extinct insect larvae in that ring-- deposited during volcanic activity brought up through the tree's root system-- ancient insect eggs thousands, maybe millions of years old lying dormant...
Spinney
Until those loggers cut down that tree. That would be rather poetic justice, don't you think unleashing the very thing that would end up killing them and your friend humphreys? And who knows? Maybe us. Sweet dreams.
Moore
Humphreys might have just hiked out of here. We don't know that he didn't. Maybe we're letting ourselves get carried away with this bug story.
Fox Mulder
Yeah, maybe.
(idling smoothly)
Fox Mulder
Going somewhere?
Spinney
No, I was...
Fox Mulder
Doing auto repair? You're planning on cutting out.
Spinney
My friends only had enough gas to keep their generator running 20 hours. They'll die if I don't get back.
Fox Mulder
Why sneak around?
Spinney
The forest service guy wouldn't go for it. He'd never trust me.
Fox Mulder
He's got no reason to. Neither do I.
Spinney
I can save us all. We've got a jeep. It's just two valleys over. It needs a battery. I can be back in the morning. We can all drive out tomorrow. You got to trust me, man.
Fox Mulder
Radio's back up.
Dana Scully
It's working?
Fox Mulder
I'm not getting any reception so the receiver could be trashed.
Dana Scully
What about transmissions? Can you send a message?
Fox Mulder
I could try. This is a call for help. Is there anyone at this frequency? This is special agent Mulder of the FBI we have an emergency and a possible quarantine. Our position is...
(generator dies)
Fox Mulder
What happened to the generator?
Moore
I turned it off.
Fox Mulder
Turn it back on. The radio's working.
Moore
Where's the gas can?
Fox Mulder
Spinney took it.
Moore
He took it? You mean he's gone?
Fox Mulder
He left earlier. He took a battery and gas. He's coming back.
Moore
He gave his personal guarantee?
Fox Mulder
He gave me his word, yeah.
Moore
The man who gave you his word has made an art out of sabotage and defying authority, and is probably the man who put that bullet through my windshield.
Fox Mulder
What would you have done? We've got one chance, which is one more than we had.
Moore
Or one less.
Dana Scully
What do you mean?
Moore
He let spinney take the last of the gas. This generator's got about a quarter tank left.
Dana Scully
What about the trucks?
Fox Mulder
The tanks have been ruptured or filled with sugar.
Moore
By the man we are trusting to come back for us.
Dana Scully
We got to get on the radio and send a mayday.
Moore
Every drop of fuel is going to keep this gennie powered tonight. I don't want to wait hoping somebody heard that transmission when this thing quits running about 2:00 in the morning. Do you?
(sighs)
(groans)
Dana Scully
Mulder...
Fox Mulder
It's done. I shouldn't have let him go. Let's just move past it, okay?
Dana Scully
Fine. What do you suggest?
Fox Mulder
I don't know. We'll think of something.
Dana Scully
I think we both have a good idea of what happened to those loggers and what happened to the group in 1934.
Fox Mulder
They only found one cocoon.
Dana Scully
It's a big forest.
Fox Mulder
What would you have done?
Dana Scully
Would I have made a decision myself that affected us all?
Fox Mulder
Cut the sanctimonious crap.
Dana Scully
What do you want me to say? We might die up here. If we're lucky, they'll find our bodies spun up in a tree or they may not find us at all!
Fox Mulder
You're right, and we're wasting time arguing about it.
Dana Scully
What are you going to do?
Fox Mulder
Button this place up. If we got to spend the night in here we got to do everything we can to make sure the bugs stay out there.
Moore
I'd be careful with that. It's the only bulb that works.
(idling roughly)
Dana Scully
I can see them. You guys, look at this. Look. They're coming through the wall down where it's dark. You see them?
(gasps softly)
Dana Scully
They're on me!
Fox Mulder
It's all right. Scully, Scully...
Dana Scully
Get them off me!
Moore
Whoa! Watch it!
Fox Mulder
Stand still!
Moore
Stop it!
Dana Scully
Can you see them?! Get them off!
Fox Mulder
They're not just on you. They're everywhere. That's what that residue is over everything.
Dana Scully
I thought we were safe in the light!
Fox Mulder
We are! I think the light keeps them from swarming. We'll be safe as long as we stay in the light.
(idling smoothly)
Fox Mulder
How you feeling?
Dana Scully
I'm okay. They're oxidizing enzymes just like fireflies. Maybe that's why they cocoon their prey-- so that they can oxidize the proteins taken from the fluids in the body. What if the generator goes? Will they swarm in here and drain the life out of us?
Fox Mulder
We got an hour and a half till sunrise.
Dana Scully
Then what? It's over a day's hike out of here. We won't make it on foot by nightfall.
Fox Mulder
Maybe somebody heard our transmission. Help could be on the way.
Dana Scully
You sent that call hours ago. I mean, help would have been here by now.
Fox Mulder
Well, I'm not going to give up on spinney. He gave me his word he'd come back to get us.
Dana Scully
And if he doesn't?
Fox Mulder
We'll think of something.
(idling roughly)
(generator sputtering)
(sputtering increases)
(generator dies)
Fox Mulder
You got a patch kit in your truck?
Moore
Yeah.
Fox Mulder
Maybe we can patch this or get it to hold air. With the truck's spare, maybe we can limp down the mountain. If not, we can get on the radio and warn them what's out here.
(thunder rumbling)
Moore
See it?
Fox Mulder
Yeah.
(low humming)
Moore
Listen. You hear that? It's a car.
Fox Mulder
No. It's a jeep.
Spinney
We got to move. Let's go! Let's go!
Moore
Wait! What about the body-- humphreys' body?
Spinney
Leave it. I've radioed for help.
Fox Mulder
Where are your friends?
Spinney
They didn't make it. We won't either unless we haul ass. Let's go. Come on. Oh! Damn it! I don't believe it.
Moore
You talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
(yelling)
Fox Mulder
Get out of there! Get in the car!
(yelling)
(groaning)
(screaming)
Man
We have an emergency evacuation situation. Requesting quarantine facility for two possibly three victims with undiagnosed infection or exposure to unknown biological vectors. Repeat, that's an emergency evacuation situation. Two, possibly three victims...
HIGH CONTAINMENT FACILITY · WINTHROP, WASHINGTON
Dana Scully
What is it?
Man
How are you feeling?
Fox Mulder
Better. How did the tests come back?
Man
Your respiratory charts were good. We were concerned about the damage due to inhalation. There were large concentrations of the chemical we determined was luciferin.
Fox Mulder
Which is what?
Man
The same enzyme we find in fireflies and other bioluminescent insects. Our entomologists are still trying to determine the specific epithet of the insects you encountered.
Fox Mulder
Scully? How's she doing?
Man
She's still not out of the woods, so to speak. She lost a lot of fluids. Two or three more hours of exposure... She might not have made it.
Fox Mulder
I told her it was going to be a nice trip to the forest. How you going to contain it to the forest? What if the swarm migrates?
Man
The government has initiated eradication procedures. They're quite certain that, by using a combination of controlled burns and pesticides they will be successful.
Fox Mulder
And if they're not?
Man
That is not an option, mr. Mulder.
No matching dialogue
Try another character, phrase, or keyword.
About this transcript
The dialogue comes from the official DVD subtitle track supplied by Boggsfiles. Speaker and scene attribution was cross-checked against character-labelled reference material. Subtitle wording is preserved while capitalization and spacing are standardized for easier reading.