The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a 2008 American supernatural thriller film directed by Chris Carter, and written by Carter and Frank Spotnitz. It is the second feature film installment of The X-Files franchise created by Carter, following the 1998 film. Three main actors from the television series, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, and Mitch Pileggi, reappear in the film to reprise their respective roles as Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, and Walter Skinner.
Unlike the first film, the plot does not focus on the series' ongoing extraterrestrial-based mytharc themes, but instead works as a standalone thriller horror story, like many of the monster-of-the-week episodes frequently seen in the TV series, as well as focusing on the personal relationship between Mulder and Scully. The story follows Mulder and Scully who have been out of the FBI for several years, with Mulder living in isolation and Scully having become a doctor at a Catholic hospital, where she has formed a bond with a critically ill child patient. When an FBI agent is mysteriously kidnapped and a former Catholic priest who has been convicted of pedophilia claims to be experiencing psychic visions of the endangered agent, Scully is asked to bring Mulder back to the bureau to consult on the case because of his work with psychics. The narrative goes through the push and pull of his at-first reluctant involvement and Scully's attempts to stay out of it.
The film was first anticipated in November 2001 to follow the conclusion of the ninth season of the television series, but it remained in development hell for six years before entering production in December 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The film premiered on July 23, 2008, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood before opening theatrically two days later on July 25. The worldwide gross was $68.4 million from a $30 million budget. It received mixed reviews; critics praised the chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson while criticizing the plot.
A director's cut of the film, titled The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn, which restores horror elements that were removed from the original release, was released on Hulu and Disney+ on August 14, 2026.
Plot Dana Scully, a former FBI Special Agent, is now a staff physician at a Catholic hospital; she is treating Christian, a young boy with symptoms similar to Sandhoff disease. FBI Special Agent Mosely Drummy approaches Scully for help in locating her former partner, Fox Mulder, who has been in hiding as a fugitive for several years. Drummy states that the FBI will call off its manhunt for Mulder if he helps investigate the disappearances of several women in West Virginia, the latest of whom is a young FBI Special Agent named Monica Bannan. Scully agrees and convinces a reluctant Mulder to help.
The duo is taken to Washington, D.C., where Special Agent Dakota Whitney requests Mulder's expertise with the paranormal as they have been led to a severed human arm, by Father Joe, a priest defrocked for the molestation of thirty-seven altar boys, who claims God is sending him visions of the crimes. A second woman is run off the road by a truck driven by Janke Dacyshyn, who then abducts her. After a grueling nighttime search in a snow-covered field, Father Joe leads the FBI to a frozen burial ground of people and body parts. Analysis of the remains, along with tracking down the recent movements from the second abducted woman's car crash, eventually leads them to Dacyshyn, an organ transporter in Richmond, Virginia, and his husband, Franz Tomczeszyn, who was among the youths Father Joe sexually abused.
Father Joe tells Scully not to give up, which she interprets as a sign to pursue experimental stem cell research to treat Christian. Mulder suspects that she is associating Christian with their son, William, who was given up for adoption. Her decision places her at odds with the hospital's Catholic board, but she pushes on even when Christian's parents ask to stop his treatment. She argues that Mulder is becoming too invested in the paranormal again, and she cannot live that life any more.
During an FBI raid on the organ donor facility where Dacyshyn works, he escapes, leaving Bannan's severed head at the scene. Mulder, who accompanied Whitney on the raid, chases Dacyshyn to a building construction site. Whitney follows and is killed when Dacyshyn pushes her down an elevator shaft. Scully, seeking a resolution, asks Joe, who has not yet heard of the discovery of Bannan's head, if he senses that she is still alive, and he replies that she is. Discouraged but still determined, Mulder follows Dacyshyn, who runs his car off the road. Mulder survives and tails Dacyshyn, who exits his truck after the engine fails, to a small compound in a former barn. Mulder enters, and the commotion caused by a two-headed guard dog brings Dacyshyn out from one of the buildings. The compound is being used by an Eastern European medical team that has been murdering people and stealing their organs for years. The field where Father Joe discovered the bodies was their dumping ground. Mulder enters the building to find that the team has used the organs and body parts to keep Tomczeszyn alive. At that moment, they attempt to place Tomczeszyn's head on the body of the second abducted woman. Mulder tries to save her from the gruesome fate, but a doctor injects him with a tranquilizer. Helpless, Mulder is taken outside to be murdered by Dacyshyn.
Scully, unable to reach Mulder on his cell phone, contacts her old FBI superior, Assistant Director Walter Skinner, for help. They triangulate the phone's location and find Mulder’s wrecked car, eventually making their way through the snow to find the compound as Mulder is about to be axed by Dacyshyn. Scully incapacitates him while Skinner stops the medical procedure before the young woman is beheaded.
Later, Mulder is at home when Scully tells him Father Joe has died. It happened at the same moment, Mulder notes, that Scully disconnected the life support to Tomczeszyn's severed head. Somehow, he surmises, the two men's fates were linked by more than just visions. He encourages Scully to listen to her instincts in relation to Christian's treatment, and she goes ahead with his surgery.
Cast
David Duchovny as Fox Mulder Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully Amanda Peet as Special Agent in Charge Dakota Whitney Billy Connolly as Joseph "Father Joe" Crissman Alvin 'Xzibit' Joiner as Special Agent Mosley Drummy Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner Callum Keith Rennie as Janke Dacyshyn Adam Godley as Father Ybarra Xantha Radley as Special Agent Monica Bannan Fagin Woodcock as Franz Tomczeszyn Nicki Aycox as Cheryl Cunningham Alex Diakun as Gaunt Man
Production Development In November 2001, the creators of the TV series The X-Files decided to pursue a second feature film adaptation of the series, following the 1998 film. Carter was expected to collaborate with Spotnitz, who had co-written the first film, on a script for the follow-up. Production of the film was slated to begin after the completion of the ninth season of the TV series, with a projected release in December 2003. In April 2002, Carter reiterated his desire and the studio's desire to do a sequel film. He planned to write the script over that summer and begin production in the spring or summer of 2003 for a 2004 release. Carter described the film saying, "We're looking at the movies as stand-alones. They're not necessarily going to have to deal with the mythology." Director Rob Bowman, who had directed episodes of The X-Files in the past as well as the 1998 film, expressed an interest in filming the sequel in July 2002.
In April 2004, Duchovny said he was waiting for the film's production to begin, explaining that Carter had signed off on the premise. Duchovny said of the delay, "So now it's just a matter of making sure everybody can get together at the same time and do it." The following November, Carter revealed that the project was in the negotiation stage, explaining, "Because it's a sequel, there are peculiar and specific kinds of negotiations that are holding us up." Duchovny spoke of the premise for the yet-produced film in 2005, "Mulder and Scully investigate one particular case that has nothing to do with alien life. It has to do with supernatural stuff." He also explained, "I think we're going back to the 'monster of the week' type feel, where if you're not an avid fan and don't understand the mythology, you can still come to it and get the movie." Duchovny and Carter planned to begin production in the winter of 2005 to be released in the summer of 2006. The following April, Duchovny admitted to a lack of a script, adding that Carter would have it ready by early next year.
In May 2006, Spotnitz blamed the continued delay on legal matters between Carter and 20th Century Fox. The screenwriter anticipated, "Once the legal issues are over with, we will go on with it. I'm hoping it will get resolved soon." By April 2007, Spotnitz confirmed that a script was finally in development. The following October, the studio officially announced the production of the sequel film, whose premise would be kept under wraps.
Filming Principal photography took place in Vancouver and Pemberton, in British Columbia, Canada. According to Spotnitz, the script was written specifically for these locations. Filming began in December 2007 in Vancouver under the direction of Carter, and shooting finished on March 11, 2008. In a teaser trailer shown at Wondercon on February 23, 2008, the date "July 25, 2008" appeared at the end, and was the only text in the trailer. On March 27, 2008, the horror film site Bloody Disgusting reported a bootleg video of the official trailer uploaded by a user on YouTube. The first public trailer was released after midnight on May 12, 2008, after a period of downtime on the official website.
The decision to shoot in Vancouver, where the first five years of The X-Files had been filmed and produced before the series had moved to Los Angeles, was an early idea—one that seemed right to both Chris Carter and David Duchovny. According to Duchovny, "It all makes sense. You know, when Chris and I first talked about doing this movie, we kind of unconsciously both said, 'You know, I guess it should be in Vancouver, it really should be,' and it just felt like you know, almost superstitiously like the right thing to do." Filming in Vancouver also facilitated the return of many former crew members who had previously worked on The X-Files, as well as individuals who had worked on the other series that Ten Thirteen Productions had created. Frank Spotnitz said that "In terms of making of the movie, we've brought together as many people as we can, not just from The X-Files but from all the shows that we did here in Vancouver – Harsh Realm, Millennium and The Lone Gunmen – and our crew is populated with all these faces that we'd worked with, over the past fifteen years. And there's even some people from the L.A. crew."
The exterior of Monica Bannan's house was filmed in Pemberton, a location that Spotnitz found to be beautiful but extremely cold. Although the location is shown in exterior shots incorporated into the scene in which Fox Mulder (Duchovny), Whitney (Amanda Peet), Drummy (Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner), and Father Joe (Billy Connolly) drove to the missing agent's home, the same scene also includes footage of the actors that was filmed on a stage, using a rear projection to show the exterior from inside the car. The latter method was used for all the shots in which any of the travelers appear.