The film opens with two cavemen running into a cave in North Texas waay back in 35,000 B.C. They get attacked by this huge, scary alien-type creature, and the infamous black oil makes its return, swallowing up a caveman as he shrieks out inhumanly cries.

Cut to present day, where a little kid in North Texas falls through a hole and discovers a hidden underground cave, only to be attacked by the black oil! The boy looks up at his friends, terrified, as he's covered in slimy black goo. Then, some mysterious men show up and one makes a call on his mobile phone, saying: "The impossible scenario we never planned for, well, we better come up with a plan." Eek!

Jump over to Dallas, where FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) have been sent to find a bomb hidden in the building they're in. When Mulder runs to grab he and Scully some cold drinks, he discoveres that the soda machine is where our terrorist has implanted the bomb. Scully starts yelling at people for the building to be evacuated, and gets Special Agent in Charge Michaud (Terry O'Quinn) on the scene to try and diffuse the bomb.

Mulder and Scully run out of the building, which has been cleared, and race off in a patrol car. Meanwhile, Michaud sits in front of the bomb and lets it explode in his face. Back in DC a few days later, Mulder and Scully are being blamed for the fie deaths in the explosion and for not following protocol. Mulder remembers he was told the building was cleared and tries to speak up, but since he was late for the meeting, grouchy FBI Assistant Director Jada Cassidy (Blythe Danner) won't have any of it, and she asks him to step outside.

The agents are then off on a journey to discover the five dead bodies (infected with a nasty virus), eventually finidng themselves in North Texas being chased through corn fields by helicopters, exploring spaceships in Antarctica, and whatnot.

The film also features regualr cast members on the show, such as our "bad guy", the CSM (William B. Davis), A.D. Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), The Lone Gunmen (Dean Haglund, Tom Braidwood, & Bruce Harwood), and the Well-Manicured Man (John Neville). We got to see Martin Landau as paranoid Dr. Kurtzwiel, who feeds Fox some seriously out-there theories.

I had to watch this movie several times before I got the whole big concept. The plot was at time confusing, but that's what the X-Files does best. Of course, both Anderson & Duchovny gave outstanding performances. The chemistry between them is certianly a quality which has made the show so successful.

On the other hand, it took me a while to really grasp what the film was about and the story it told. Many questions were left unanswered in the end, and it was kind of confusing having Mulder & Scully jump from place to place; they spend so much time running from Texas to DC to the middle of Antarctica that we can't really explore the characters.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. The acting & plot were both wonderfully superb. I can't wait for the sequel!