The X-Files: I Want to Believe

The X-Files: I Want to Believe is an American science fiction/horror feature film based on the popular FOX Network television series The X-Files. It is the second installment in the franchise's film series and follows the 1998 film The X-Files: Fight the Future. The movie was directed by series creator Chris Carter and written by Carter and longtime X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz. It was produced by Carter's Ten Thirteen Productions and released theatrically by 20th Century Fox on July 24th, 2008. The film stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprising their iconic roles as FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Whereas Fight the Future was intended as the penultimate chapter in the show's alien conspiracy metaplot, I Want to Believe harkens back to the program's "monster of the week" motif, which played largely into the show's subsequent cult status following. The title of the film is taken from a slogan shown on a UFO-related poster seen in Mulder's office throughout the series.

The story follows Mulder and Scully who have been out of the FBI for several years; with Mulder living in isolation as a fugitive from the organization and Scully having become a doctor at a Catholic-run hospital, where she has formed a friendly relationship with a seriously ill patient. But when an FBI agent is mysteriously kidnapped, and a former priest who has been convicted of being a child molester claims to be experiencing psychic visions of the endangered agent, Mulder and Scully reluctantly accept the FBI's request for their particular paranormal expertise on the case.